Death Cab for Cutie

▪ American rock group

      American indie-rock group that helped define the emo genre of music in the early 2000s. Original members were lead singer Ben Gibbard (b. Aug. 11, 1976, Bremerton, Wash., U.S.), guitarist Chris Walla (b. Nov. 2, 1975, Bothell, Wash.), bassist Nicholas Harmer (b. Jan. 23, 1975, Bothell, Wash.), and drummer Nathan Good. Later members included Michael Schorr and Jason McGerr.

      Death Cab for Cutie founders Gibbard and Walla met in the mid-1990s at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Wash., where they began to help each other write and record music in their dormitories. With Walla's help, Gibbard produced a cassette, You Can Play These Songs with Chords, which earned him a local following. Soon after, additional members were brought in and the band began performing as Death Cab for Cutie, a name taken from a song by 1960s psychedelic rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

      In 1998 the band's debut album, Something About Airplanes, was released on Seattle's Barsuk Records, and it created buzz on the indie-rock scene. The group followed with We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (2000) and The Photo Album (2001); the latter was highly praised for its exploration of relationships. After touring, band members dispersed and devoted time to solo efforts. During this time Gibbard's new wave-influenced side project, the Postal Service, produced Give Up (2003). The title of Death Cab for Cutie's next album, Transatlanticism (2003), refers to the distances that had separated the band members during the album's preparation. The success of Transatlaticism led the band to sign with Atlantic Records in 2005. Plans, the group's major label debut, was released that year. In 2008 Death Cab for Cutie released Narrow Stairs, a darker album that hit number one on the Billboard charts in its first week of release.

* * *