Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie (commonly abbreviated to DCFC or Death Cab) is an American rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997.[1] Death Cab for Cutie's music has been classified as indie rock, indie pop, and alternative rock. The band is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (keyboards, guitar), and Jason McGerr (drums).
For the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song, see Death Cab for Cutie (song).
Death Cab for Cutie
Bellingham, Washington, U.S.
- Indie rock
- alternative rock
- indie pop
- emo (early)
1997–present
- Ben Gibbard
- Nick Harmer
- Jason McGerr
- Dave Depper
- Zac Rae
- Nathan Good
- Jayson Tolzdorf-Larson
- Michael Schorr
- Chris Walla
The band was originally a solo project by Gibbard, who expanded the project into a complete group upon getting a record deal.[2] They released their debut album, Something About Airplanes, in 1998. The band's fourth album, 2003's Transatlanticism, broke into the mainstream both critically and commercially; its songs were featured in various TV series and films. The band's major label debut for Atlantic Records, 2005's Plans, went platinum. Founding guitarist Chris Walla left the band in 2014 after 17 years. The band's tenth and latest studio album, Asphalt Meadows, was released on September 16, 2022. Alongside their ten full-length studio albums, the band has released four EPs, two live EPs, one live album, and one demo album.
History[edit]
Early years (1997–2002)[edit]
Death Cab for Cutie, the name deriving from the Vivian Stanshall/Neil Innes song "Death Cab For Cutie", began in 1997 as a solo project by Ben Gibbard when he was a guitarist for the band Pinwheel. He recorded under the name All-Time Quarterback. As Death Cab for Cutie, he released a cassette, You Can Play These Songs with Chords, during the same year. The release was surprisingly successful, and he decided to expand the project into a band, hiring Chris Walla (who worked on the cassette) on guitar, Nick Harmer on bass guitar, and Nathan Good on drums.[3] Death Cab for Cutie was formed at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Lyrics from early songs include local references that were important to the band's development.[4] Many of the early songs were recorded in the basement of a house on Ellis Street in which Gibbard lived with several roommates.[5]
The four released their debut album, Something About Airplanes, on August 18, 1998. In 1998, the band met their manager, Jordan Kurland. Kurland had heard the band praised, and after a failed attempt to see them perform at South by Southwest he met them while touring with a client.[6]
The band released We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes in March 2000. Nathan Good left the band during the making of the album and was replaced briefly by Jayson Tolzdorf-Larson. Gibbard played drums on the majority of the album, with Good's playing on "The Employment Pages" and "Company Calls Epilogue" kept on the final release.[3] Although Tolzdorf-Larson did not contribute to the album, he did appear on the song "Spring Break Broke" from the "Death Cab for Fiver" 7-inch record. He also joined the band on two tours, including their first full tour of the United States. Tolzdorf-Larson was later replaced by Michael Schorr, who would first appear on The Forbidden Love EP, released on October 24, 2000.
In 2001, Death Cab for Cutie released their third album, The Photo Album. Limited editions of this album contained three bonus tracks, which were later released separately as The Stability EP.[7] The album produced the band's first charting single, "A Movie Script Ending", which reached number 123 on the UK Singles Chart, and was the first of three songs by the band to be used on the television show The O.C. "I Was a Kaleidoscope" and "We Laugh Indoors" reached numbers 115 and 122 on the UK Singles Chart, respectively.
Musical style[edit]
Death Cab for Cutie's music has been labeled indie rock, indie pop, emo, and alternative rock.[a] Death Cab for Cutie's early work on You Can Play These Songs with Chords was described by Rolling Stone as "emotion through its lack of emotion".[76] Pitchfork also remarked that the work on the cassette was "ultra-lo-fi".[77] On Something About Airplanes the band's style remained similar, with some new instrumental work introduced; "flute, synth, or cello" were noted by AllMusic's Nitsuh Abebe.[78] On We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes the band again expanded their use of unorthodox instruments, including organ and glockenspiel. Pitchfork called them a "gentle niche" in the current rock climate, compared with bands such as Modest Mouse and Built to Spill.[79]
Rolling Stone reviewed Transatlanticism and commented that it contained "melodic, melancholy songs about feeling both smart and confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love."[80] Gibbard's voice was described as "plaintive boy-next-door"[80] Entertainment Weekly commented on the music on Plans, saying "The lush arrangements are long on hothouse organs and pianos, but short on the squirmy guitars and squirrelly beats that, on Gibbard's best work, offset his sweet voice and borderline-maudlin poetics with a sense of emotional danger."[13] The band's music on Plans was described by the Dallas Morning News as "a literate, whispery style, the kind of stuff that normally sounds better in headphones than in large venues".[81]
In an interview with Shave Magazine, Ben Gibbard commented on his song writing saying that he "never sit[s] down to write an album number one. I just kind of sit down and write songs and the theme kind of makes itself apparent. But I would never say I was writing about searching for something as much as just trying to document with every song where I am in that moment when I'm writing that song. If a theme kind of makes itself apparent in a record, it has more to do with the fact that just what's been on my mind recently. So I guess clearly I have been and was and am, but it was never a conscious decision."[82]
Band name[edit]
Gibbard took the band name from the song "Death Cab for Cutie", which was written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and recorded by their group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. The song is a track on the Bonzo's 1967 debut album, Gorilla, and was performed by them in the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour. The title was originally that of a story in an old pulp fiction crime magazine that Innes came across in a street market. In a 2011 interview, Gibbard stated, "The name was never supposed to be something that someone was going to reference 15 years on. So yeah, I would absolutely go back and give it a more obvious name."[83]
Studio albums
