- Label: Atlantic
- Label Type: major
- About:
Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project of Ben Gibbard while he was the guitar player for the band Pinwheel and was recording under the name All-Time Quarterback. 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, Nick Harmer as bass guitarist, and Nathan Good to play drums. 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.
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. Good's replacement Michael Schorr would first appear on The Forbidden Love E.P., released on October 24, 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. Tracks from the album appeared in the soundtracks of television shows The O.C., Six Feet Under, CSI: Miami, and Californication, Lost in Transition, 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 2004.
- Members:
Benjamin Gibbard - Vocals, Guitar
Chris Walla - Guitar
Nick Harmer - Bass
Jason McGerr - Drums
- Member Since: 2008-02-23
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