DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, at first centred on singer / songwriter and then engineering student Ben Gibbard, is an Indie-Progressive Rock band formed at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington during 1997. The band, whose sound straddles lush, complex Progressive Rock, Indie sensibilities and "Emo" or "shoegaze" approachs, engenders strong and frequent debate as to their genre.

Gibbard, erstwhile of REVOLUTIONARY HYDRA, a member of PINWHEEL and also going under the artist name ALL-TIME QUARTERBACK, initiated the act initially as a solo concern, taking the unusual title from a BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND track, written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall, performed in THE BEATLES 1967 movie 'Magical Mystery Tour'.

Gibbard's debut cassette demo recordings, entitled 'You Can Play These Songs With Chords' on the Elsinor label and featuring Chris Walla of REVOLUTIONARY HYDRA and THE LONG WINTERS on session guitar, prompted a record deal with Barsuk Records, upon which the decision was taken to expand into a full band unit. Walla was invited to join, as was room-mate bassist Nick Harmer and REVOLUTIONARY HYDRA drummer Nathan Good. At this same juncture, Walla was also recording material under a solo banner of MARTIN YOUTH AUXILIARY.

This quartet recorded the album 'Something About Airplanes' for release on August 18th 1998. Favourable reviews and sales led to a second effort, 2000's 'We Have the Facts And We're Voting Yes'. However, Nathan Good exited during the period but his playing was kept intact on the tracks 'The Employment Pages' and 'Company Calls Epilogue', with Gibbard performing all other drum tracks. In the UK the album was issued through Fierce Panda Records and hosted an additional three tracks.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE drafted Michael Schorr as replacement for 'The Forbidden Love' EP, issued on October 24th 2000. The following year another album set was delivered, 'The Photo Album'. Sean Nelson of HARVEY DANGER and John Vanderslice of MK ULTRA donated guest vocals to the song 'I Was A Kaliedoscope'. Limited editions variants and Japanese releases contained a slew of bonus tracks, subsequently released separately as 'The Stability' EP. This included a rendition of BJÖRK's 'All Is For Love'. In DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE downtime, Ben Gibbard took time out in 2001 to tour with PEDRO THE LION as stand in bassist.

Gibbard indulged himself outside of his main act again in 2002, sessioning drums on on the song 'Carparts' for THE LONG WINTERS album, 'The Worst You Can Do Is Harm' and also on label-mate's KIND OF LIKE SPITTING's 'Bridges Worth Burning' album. Also significant would be nother Gibbard diversion billed as THE POSTAL SERVICE. This side project convened with Jimmy Tamborello first made its presence felt with the song 'The District Sleeps Alone Tonight' hosted on the Sub Pop compilation 'Infecting The Galaxy One Planet At A Time' but would go on, through a series of releases commencing with January 2003's EP 'Such Great Heights', to enjoy a brief parallel career arc to DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE.

With their profile sharply on the rise, the original 1998 DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE demos 'You Can Play These Songs With Chords' was re-issued by Barsuk complete with ten extra bonus tracks, amongst which was a cover version of THE SMITHS 'This Charming Man'.

The band membership shifted shape again in 2003 with the addition of EUREKA FARM, NEO, TEENAGE ROCKIN' COMBO and KRUSTERS KROMONID drummer Jason McGerr substituting for Schorr for October's 'Transatlanticism' EP, which charted at no. 97 in the USA. With this release the group began to find a wider commercial appeal as tracks were used on soundtracks for populat television series soundtracks such as 'Californication', 'The O.C.', 'Six Feet Under' and 'CSI: Miami' and 'Californication'. In early 2004, the band recorded a live EP at shows in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco billed as 'The John Byrd' EP, named after their sound engineer. DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE further scored their music onto box office movies 'Wedding Crashers' and 'Mean Creek' in 2005.

The group contracted with major label Atlantic Records in November 2004. This union was to result in the August 2005 'Plans' album and spin off singles 'Soul Meets Body' and 'Crooked Teeth', the latter being performed on 'Saturday Night Live' broadcast on January 14th 2006. Vinyl variants of 'Plans' included an exclusive extra song 'Talking Like Turnstiles'. In addition, iTunes purchasers scored two extra tracks in 'Bad Reputation' and 'Start Again'. Sustained momentum was generated by the acoustic ballad 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark', the song becoming a firm radio staple. 'Plans', peaking at no. 4 on the national US charts, garnered a Grammy nomination for 'Best Alternative Album' of 2005. It achieved Billboard Gold sales status in 2006 after charting on for 47 consecutive weeks. 'Plans' eventually attained platinum RIAA certification in May 2008.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE released a concert DVD titled 'Drive Well, Sleep Carefully' in 2005. Copies of the DVD were donated to animal rights activist group PETA. In early 2006, the band announced the release of eleven short films inspired by songs from the 'Plans' album, with each directed by a different person, under the title 'Directions'. These videos, directed by the likes of P.R. Brown, Ace Norton, Jeffrey Brown, Lightborne, Autumn de Wilde, Lance Bangs, Monkmus, Rob Schrab, Laurent Briet and Aaron Stewart-Ahn, were posted one at a time on the band's official website with iTunes selling them from March 2006 and the DVD being made commercially available in stores on April 11th. Further exposure was given to the DVD collection with an episode of MTV2's 'Subterranean' playing the videos with commentary from the band.

Live work in 2006 included a debut at NEIL YOUNG's Bridge School benefit show and a lengthy US headline tour, closing in their home state at the Key Arena in Seattle on 10th December. Gibbard also gained plaudits for his film score work featured on the documentary movie 'Kurt Cobain About A Son'.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE released the first sprawling seven minute plus from the 'Narrow Stairs' album,'I Will Possess Your Heart', over half of which ambitiously constituted an escalating intro, on March 18th 2008. The album, selling over 144,000 copies in it's first week of sale, spectacularly attained the no. 1 position on the Billboard US charts. It hit the Australian charts at no.6, the Swedish charts at no. 16 and scored no. 24 in the UK.

The band headlined across North America throughout the summer of 2008 prior to European and UK shows. DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE played the Japanese 'Summer Sonic' festivals in Tokyo and Osaka before performing a run of sold out Australian shows in August.