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Death Cab for Cutie

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This article is about the band. For the song that inspired the band's name, see Death Cab for Cutie (song).
Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie is an American indie pop rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band takes its name from a satirical song of the same name, performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on their 1967 album Gorilla and in The Beatles experimental movie, Magical Mystery Tour.

History

Early years: Elsinor and Barsuk

Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project of Ben Gibbard while he was the guitar player for the band Pinwheel. As Death Cab for Cutie, Gibbard released a cassette titled You Can Play These Songs with Chords; the release was surprisingly successful, and Gibbard decided to expand the band into a complete project. He recruited Christopher Walla (who had also worked on the cassette) as an electric guitarist, Mike Shiels as bass guitarist, and Nathan Good to play drums.

The four released the LP Something About Airplanes on August 18th 1998. The album was favorably reviewed in the independent music scene, and in 2000 the band released We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes. Nathan Good left the band at some point during this album's production. His playing on “The Employment Pages” and “Company Calls Epilogue” were kept, but Gibbard played drums on all other songs.

New drummer Michael Schorr would first appear on The Forbidden Love E.P., released on October 24th 2000. In 2001 another LP was released, entitled The Photo Album. Limited editions of this album contained three bonus tracks, which were later released separately as The Stability E.P.

In 2003, there was another change of drummer, with Jason McGerr of Eureka Farm replacing Schorr. McGerr would play drums on the next release, Transatlanticism.

Transatlanticism was released in October of 2003. It received critical praise and also became the band's top-selling album, with 225,000 copies sold during its first year out.[citation needed] Tracks from the album appeared in the soundtracks of television shows The O.C., Six Feet Under, and CSI: Miami, the 2005 movies Wedding Crashers and Mean Creek.

In spring of 2004, the band recorded a live E.P. titled The John Byrd E.P., named for their sound engineer. The E.P. was released on Barsuk Records in March of 2004. The album includes tracks from The Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Fillmore in San Francisco, as well as other venues.[citation needed]

Atlantic

In November of 2004, Death Cab for Cutie signed a “long-term worldwide deal” with Atlantic Records, leaving their long-time label Barsuk Records. Gibbard stated on the official website that nothing would change except that “Next to the picture of Barsuk holding a 7", there will be the letter "A" on both the spine and back of our upcoming albums.” This was a marked change from Gibbard's earlier views on major-label relations, which he said “are set up to fuck you and take all your money.”[1]. After signing to Atlantic, the band was still nervous about corporate economics, and encouraged fans to download its songs from the Internet.[2].

The first and second singles off the band's Atlantic Record release Plans were “Soul Meets Body” and “Crooked Teeth”, respectively (which they performed on Saturday Night Live on January 14, 2006[3]). The full album was released in August of 2005. Plans was somewhat well-acclaimed by critics and fans, and received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album of 2005. It achieved Gold Status in 2006 after charting on Billboard for 47 consecutive weeks.

The band released a touring DVD titled Drive Well, Sleep Carefully in 2005. Known for their contributions to animal rights, the band is supporting the activist group PETA in giving away copies of the DVD to promote animal rights. [4]

A live version of “Photobooth” is featured in the soundtrack of the Xbox 360 racing game Project Gotham Racing 3.[citation needed]

In early 2006, the band announced the upcoming release of Directions, eleven short films inspired by songs from the Plans album, each directed by a different person. The videos were posted one at a time at the band's website and the DVD went on sale April 11, 2006. The iTunes Store began selling the videos (formatted for iPod) early on March 28, 2006. Lance Bangs, P.R. Brown, Ace Norton, Jeffrey Brown, Lightborne, Autumn de Wilde, Rob Schrab, Laurent Briet and Monkmus, as well as Aaron Stewart-Ahn are among directors that have contributed to the project. An episode of MTV2's Subterranean played these videos for the whole hour plus discussion with members of the band[5]. In 2006, the band made their first appearance at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit. The band completed their lengthy 2006 tour of the USA on December 9, 2006, finishing with a show at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington.

Side projects

Ben Gibbard

Main article: Ben Gibbard

Ben Gibbard formed the side project The Postal Service, with Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello after Gibbard provided lead vocals on Dntel's “(This is) the Dream of Evan and Chan”. They released the album Give Up in 2003, with the help of Chris Walla and guest vocals from Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley and Jen Wood. The Postal Service enjoyed immense underground popularity and Death Cab for Cutie's mainstream rise is often credited, to some extent, to Gibbard's involvement with Tamborello[citation needed]. Gibbard and Tamborello have confirmed that they are working on a new Postal Service album, albeit slowly, having recorded two songs as of June 2006. They have said they will begin more serious work once Death Cab returns from their summer 2006 tour. Recently, the band has also announced that Gibbard will go on a short solo tour starting in May of 2007. [6] [7]. Outside of Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Gibbard has released solo work under the name All-Time Quarterback. Ben Gibbard has also been involved in Ben Barnett's musical endeavor, Kind of Like Spitting. Gibbard plays drums and sings harmonies on KOLS's album, Bridges Worth Burning. In 2003 Gibbard also released an EP for the Home EP series, alongside Andrew Kenny of the American Analog Set.

Chris Walla

Chris Walla has released solo work under the moniker Martin Youth Auxiliary. He released a self-titled cassette on the Bellingham, Washington-based Elsinor Records in 1999; fewer than 100 copies were pressed, and as a result it is extremely rare. Following this release, he also played a number of live shows as a solo act[citation needed]. Chris also founded his own studio in Seattle, named the Hall of Justice. In 2005 Walla launched his own website, the Hall of Justice Recording, on which he has since made a number of blog posts; however, the main draw of the site is in a few dozen mp3 files of Walla's solo songs; the songs were recorded at various times and in various studios but have a distinctively finished sound, likely due to Walla's production skill.

Walla announced on his site that he will be releasing a new solo album in 2007. Barsuk Records has agreed to release the album, which was initially set for March 2007 but since has been delayed until January 2008[8]. It is not yet known whether or not the album will be released under the Martin Youth Auxiliary moniker. In late September, while a courier was shipping the finished Master tracks and mixed tapes across the Canadian border, the Department of Homeland Security confiscated the hard drive containing the masters. Chris Walla believed it was a random confiscation, while others believed it had more political reasons. And still others believe it may have been because it was a commercial product, which due to the nature of import/exporting to the US, must have strict import policies.[9]

Discography

Studio albums

EPs


Virtual albums

Singles

Year Song Title Chart Positions Single Release Album Release
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock UK Singles Chart
2002 “Stability” #15 Stability EP * Stability EP *
2002 “A Movie Script Ending” A Movie Script Ending The Photo Album
2002 “I Was a Kaleidoscope” I Was a Kaleidoscope The Photo Album
2002 “We Laugh Indoors” We Laugh Indoors The Photo Album
2003 “The New Year” The New Year Transatlanticism
2004 “The Sound of Settling” #37 The Sound of Settling Transatlanticism
2004 “Title and Registration” Title And Registration Transatlanticism
2005 “Soul Meets Body” #60 #5 Soul Meets Body Plans
2006 “Crooked Teeth” #10 #69 Crooked Teeth Plans
2006 “I Will Follow You into the Dark” #28 #66 I Will Follow You into the Dark Plans

* “Stability” was released only with the The Stability E.P., which is considered both an EP and single.

Compilation albums featuring Death Cab for Cutie tracks

Filmography

DVDs

Music videos

Trivia

  • Death Cab for Cutie was officially formed at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, and lyrics from many of the early songs include local references that were important to the band's development. Many of the early songs were recorded in the basement of an Ellis Street home Ben lived in with several roommates in Bellingham, and the title of the band's official fan club, DCFC Local Union #1138, references this building, along with the ¡All-Time Quarterback! song “Dinner at Eight in the Suburbs”.
  • A string quartet album was made in tribute to Death Cab for Cutie entitled Ghost: The String Quartet Tribute to Death Cab for Cutie. It features several Death Cab songs, mostly popular tracks and singles.
  • The band originally released the twelve-minute song “Stability” in 2002 with the Stability E.P. Three years later, a new, four-minute version of “Stability” entitled “Stable Song” was released on the full-length album Plans.
  • The indie film The Puffy Chair pays homage to a classic movie moment from Say Anything using a Death Cab for Cutie song: its lead character holds up a boombox outside his girlfriend's window blaring Death Cab for Cutie's “Transatlanticism” instead of Peter Gabriel's “In Your Eyes.”
  • Death Cab for Cutie performed the title song "Little Boxes" for the Showtime series Weeds in episode 202.
  • Death Cab for Cutie dressed up as the band DEVO for their encore songs on October 31st 2006, at Massey Hall in Toronto, Ontario[1].
  • Death Cab for Cutie was the favorite band of the character Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) on the television program, The O.C. A poster of the Transatlanticism cover art was featured prominently on the wall of Seth's bedroom in many episodes, and he gave the album as a gift to several characters during Season One. The band appeared live on an episode of the show during Season Two. Also, the songs "A Movie Script Ending", "A Lack of Color", and "Soul Meets Body" have been used during other episodes.
  • Death Cab for Cutie were namechecked by the character Nico in the episode of Ugly Betty entitled Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral.
  • The band are referenced in Daniel Gardner's 2007 novel A Public Transport User's Guide To Melbourne in the chapter "Deathcab For Danny."
  • Pop-indie duo Smoosh are connected to Death Cab for Cutie through Jason, who is Chloe's (Smoosh's drummer) drum teacher and general benefactor.[10]
  • In Veronica Mars episode "De-Basement Tapes" the band name appears at the local.
  • Death Cab for Cutie were name dropped in the song "Taxi Driver" by Gym Class Heroes.

References

  1. ^ Aversion.com: Get the Facts, by Matt Schild, accessed 14 October 2006
  2. ^ PopMatters.com: Movin' On Up (Without Selling Out), by Jennifer Benderty, accessed 14 October 2006
  3. ^ http://snlarc.jt.org/ep.php?i=200601148
  4. ^ "Death Cab Brakes for Animals".
  5. ^ http://www.altmusictv.com/sub/previous.html#041606
  6. ^ http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/
  7. ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/37130/Postal_Service_Begin_Work_on_New_Album
  8. ^ http://www.hallofjusticerecording.com/words.html
  9. ^ http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Walla_Seized_Drive.html
  10. ^ Almond, Steve: "Smoosh" (interview), The Believer June 2005. Accessed online 13 November 2006.

Audio/video

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