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, written by Vivian Stanshall and performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on their 1967 album Gorilla and in the Beatles' experimental movie, Magical Mystery Tour.

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 as a 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 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 f--- you and take all your money." After signing to Atlantic, the band was still nervous about corporate economics, and encouraged fans to download its songs from the Internet.

The Album Plans was released on Atlantic in August 2005, and their forthcoming new album, titled Narrow Stairs, will be released on May 13th, 2008.

You can go see DCFC outside in the beautiful summer Indiana weather at The Lawn at White River State Park on June 14th. Get your tickets at www.ticketmaster.com