Line #35 Music/DeathCabForCutie


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bb3795bfd7532e10a7bd9fa99e450b23.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Left to right: Jason [=McGerr=], Ben Gibbard, and Nick Harmer.]]
3
4	->''If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied\
5	Illuminate the "No"s on their "Vacancy" signs\
6	If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks\
7	Then I will follow you into the dark''
8	-->-- "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
9
10	Death Cab for Cutie are an indie rock band from Bellingham, Washington, formed in 1997 as a solo project of frontman Ben Gibbard.
11
12	At the time of formation, Gibbard was a twenty-something science graduate who had previously been in other local bands such as Pinwheel and ¡All-Time Quarterback!. By 1998, Gibbard had recruited several band mates from his previous bands, most notably Music/TheRevolutionaryHydra, into a full fledged band. The name was taken from the Music/TheBonzoDogBand song of the same name, performed in Music/TheBeatles film ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour.''
13
14	Already well known in the Seattle area, Death Cab's breakout hit was their 2003 album ''Transatlanticism,'' which saw exposure in television shows such as ''Series/TheOC'' (in which it forms part of Seth Cohen's indie starter pack) and ''Series/SixFeetUnder.'' The attention prompted them to move from Barsuk Records, which had accommodated Gibbard and company for the past decade, to Creator/AtlanticRecords. They continued to grow in popularity after their move to Atlantic, with ''Plans'' and ''Narrow Stairs'' becoming their most successful records to date, though reception towards the band has cooled somewhat since the release of the SynthPop-inflected ''Codes and Keys'' and the general decline in interest in [[IndiePop Indie Rock]] acts in the latter half of TheNewTens.
15
16	Founding member Chris Walla left the band in 2014 to pursue other interests, though he stayed on long enough to finish recording 2015's ''Kintsugi''. Death Cab’s tenth studio album, ''Asphalt Meadows'', was released in September 2022.
17	----
18
19	!! Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold''', current members in ''italic''):
20	* '''''Ben Gibbard''''': vocals, guitar, and piano (1997–)
21	* '''''Nick Harmer''''': bass guitar (1997–)
22	* ''Jason [=McGerr=]'': drums (2003–)
23	* ''Dave Depper'': guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2016-)
24	* ''Zac Rae'': keyboards, guitar (2016-)
25	* '''Chris Walla''': guitar, piano, and production work (1997–2014)
26	* '''Nathan Good''': drums and percussion (1997–99)
27	* Michael Schorr: drums and percussion (2000–03)
28	----
29
30	!! Discography:
31
32	* ''You Can Play These Songs with Chords'' (demo 1997, re-release 2002)
33	* ''Something About Airplanes'' (1998)
34	* ''We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes'' (2000)
35	** ''The Forbidden Love EP'' (2000)
36	* ''The Photo Album'' (2001)
37	** ''The Stability EP'' (2002)
38	* ''Transatlanticism'' (2003)
39	* ''Plans'' (2005)
40	* ''Narrow Stairs'' (2008)
41	** ''The Open Door EP'' (2009)
42	* ''Codes and Keys'' (2011)
43	* ''Kintsugi'' (2015)
44	* ''Thank You For Today'' (2018)
45	** ''The Blue EP'' (2019)
46	* ''Asphalt Meadows'' (2022)
47	----
48
49	The other members continue to freelance elsewhere in their spare time, launching side projects wherever they see fit: Most notably, Gibbard teamed up with electronica musician Jimmy Tamborello (a.k.a. Dntel) to form Music/ThePostalService, and former member Chris Walla is a well known record producer for other bands such as Music/TeganAndSara, Music/TheDecemberists, and The Thermals. [[BornLucky Gibbard was also]] [[http://pitchfork.com/news/36543-death-cab-for-cuties-ben-gibbard-and-zooey-deschanel-get-married/ married]] to actress and musician Creator/ZooeyDeschanel, though they [[http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673591/zooey-deschanel-death-cab-for-cutie-ben-gibbard-split.jhtml/ later separated]].
50	----
51
52	!! Death Cab for Cutie contains examples of:
53
54	* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: Usually averted, which makes its appearances in "Title and Registration" that much more noticeable:
55	-->...when I stumbled '''up'''on pictures I'd tried to forget, and that's how this '''i'''-dea was drilled into my head.
56	** In the lines: "But while you debate half empty or half full..." in Marching Bands of Manhattan, there is a subtle bit of this involved.
57	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Codes and Keys'' and ''Asphalt Meadows'' are probably the only ones with an obvious one (in each's TitleTrack).
58	** Also on ''Plans'' in "What Sarah Said":
59	-->And it came to me then
60	-->That every '''plan'''
61	-->Is a tiny prayer to Father Time
62	* AshesToCrashes: ''Styrofoam Plates:''
63	-->There's a saltwater film on the jar of your ashes; I threw them to sea,
64	-->but a gust blew them backwards and the sting in my eyes
65	-->that you then inflicted was par for the course just as when you were living.
66	* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Discussed in the song "I Will Follow You Into the Dark": "When heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied, illuminate the nos on their vacancy signs".
67	* BookEnds: ''Transatlanticism'' begins and ends with the same mid range undulating synth tone, which is a major third above the tonic of both songs ("The New Year" and "A Lack of Color").
68	* BreakupSong: ''Kintsugi'' is composed almost entirely of songs written in the wake of both Walla's departure from the band and Gibbard's divorce with Zooey Deschanel, making it a breakup ''album'' of sorts.
69	* BrokenPedestal: "60 & Punk" is about a fan's disgust at a rock star's drunken antics:
70	-->''[[DudeNotFunny There's nothing funny]] 'bout you slipping away\
71	It's nothing funny how you're spending your days\
72	But you're laughing like a kid at a carnival\
73	Watched you stumbling 'round this dusty town\
74	I heard your bottle talking way too loud\
75	As the Federales tried to hunt you down\
76	[[WhatDidIDoLastNight For something you can't remember what was about]]''
77	* CessationOfExistence: {{Discussed}} in "Saint Peter's Cathedral":
78	-->"...when our hearts stop ticking, this is the end, there's nothing past this."
79	** One interpretation of ''I Will Follow You Into the Dark'' could be about this trope, though it could also be about simply not knowing what happens after death.
80	* ConceptAlbum: ''We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes'' is considered by most fans to be a disguised example, at least for the first eight songs, which chronicle a relationship starting with a one night stand, and ending with the guy crashing the girl's wedding to another guy. It's disputed whether the last two songs fit into the narrative or not.
81	** ''The Open Door'' EP is about commitment issues.
82	** "Transatlanticism" is themed around a long distance relationship.
83	* ContinuityNod: In "Why You'd Want to Live Here" (a huge TakeThat at the city of Los Angeles), Ben refers to L.A. as "the belly of the beast". He must have had a change of heart at some point, because "Stay Young, Go Dancing" starts with the line "Life is sweet in the belly of the beast". (It's worth noting that when the latter song was released, he was married to Hollywood actress Creator/ZooeyDeschanel. Although the song is also about happiness in grim circumstances -- "though winter's advancing / we'll stay young, go dancing" -- so it may not be much of a compliment to the city after all.)
84	* CoverVersion: Ben Gibbard's solo project [[HeavyMetalUmlaut ¡All-Time Quarterback!]] covered [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnetic_Fields The Magnetic Fields']] "Why I Cry".
85	** The band recorded a cover of "Earth Angel" by The Penguins for the ''VideoGame/StubbsTheZombie'' soundtrack.
86	** As well as The Cure's "Lovesong".
87	* EmoKid: Subverted, much to the surprise to some new listeners of the band. With a name like that and Ben Gibbard's look, you'd expect him to be screaming about how life is unfair. In fact, quite a lot of Death Cab's songs are melancholy ballads.
88	* EpicRocking: "I Will Possess Your Heart" (about 8 1/2 minutes, also qualifies as an EpicInstrumentalOpener) and "Transatlanticism" (nearly 8 minutes).
89	** The B-side "Stability" -- actually an alternate version of the album track "Stable Song" -- crosses the twelve minute mark.
90	** "We Looked Like Giants" can stretch to as long as ten minutes live, while versions of "Scientist Studies" and "Blacking Out the Friction" can reach nine. [[note]]The last case is only a partial example, though, as it generally segues into a cover of Music/{{Bjork}}'s "All is Full of Love" in the second half.[[/note]]
91	** The ''Something About Airplanes'' recording of "Line of Best Fit" is just over seven minutes, the last three of which (approximately) consist of a full blown guitar and drum jam, though it starts slowing down towards the end.
92	** "Unobstructed Views" is over six minutes long. Another example of an EpicInstrumentalOpener.
93	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: The trio of "Tiny Vessels", "Transatlanticism", and "Passenger Seat" on ''Transatlanticism.''
94	** Almost every song on the album Transatlanticism, if you turn up the volume and listen closely. The only exceptions are "Expo '86", "The Sound of Settling", and "Death of an Interior Decorator".
95	* {{Flatline}}: Heavily implied in "What Sarah Said":
96	-->Each descending peak on the LCD
97	-->took you a little farther away from me
98	* FourMoreMeasures: "I Will Possess Your Heart", which takes ''four minutes'' of gradual instrumental build up to get to the first line. That said, it is an ''[[EpicRiff epic]]'' four minutes.
99	* GlorifiedSpermDonor: ''Styrofoam Plates:''
100	-->It's no stretch to say that you were not quite a father
101	-->But a donor of seeds to a poor single mother
102	* LastNoteNightmare:
103	** "Marching Bands of Manhattan" ends with a solitary piano key. Also, "Pity and Fear" could be considered an example; the guitar seems to be building toward a crescendo and then suddenly stops dead. WordOfGod says that this happened when the recorder they were using to record the song broke, and they liked the effect it created better than the original end.
104	** "Scientist Studies". Dear God.
105	* LiveEpisode: In what's possibly the first MusicVideo example, the band's video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkk5wViJo-I You Are a Tourist]]" aired live in a single take, over the internet on April 5, 2011.
106	* LyricalDissonance: Ben is the ''master'' of this trope:
107	** How about "No Sunlight", a beach pop tune about the loss of innocence?
108	** Or "Death of an Interior Decorator", whose subject is cheated on by her husband, witnesses DCFC's most tumultuous wedding ceremony, and is slowly withering away through life?
109	** Or "The Sound of Settling", which is a indie pop CrowdSong about crippling shyness?
110	** Or "We Will Become Silhouettes" (from the Postal Service album ''Give Up''), a cheery ditty about nuclear holocaust?
111	*** The dissonance is heightened in this ''even more upbeat'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HECF_RHAYo cover by The Shins]].
112	** "You Can Do Better Than Me" sounds fairly upbeat and cheery, until you realize that the lyrics are about about someone who feels as though their relationship is falling apart, but their lack of self esteem means that they're willing to cling to the relationship.
113	** And now from Codes and Keys, we have "Underneath the Sycamore", an upbeat tune that begins with the character in the song dying in a terrible car crash! The song goes on to say that that the character finds their peace "underneath the sycamore" aka six feet under in a graveyard. Cheery!
114	** "Your New Twin Sized Bed" is a catchy song about insecurity and failing relationships:
115	-->You look so defeated lying there in your new twin-sized bed,
116	-->with a single pillow underneath your single head...
117	* MeaningfulName: ''Kintsugi'' is a Japanese art form involving the repair of broken pottery; the album is made up of songs reflecting upon Gibbard's divorce and the band coming to terms with Walla's exit.
118	* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Subverted to hell and back in "Styrofoam Plates", a rant by a young man, raised by a poor single mother, who refuses to talk nice about his dead father just because he's dead.
119	-->''And just ‘cause he’s gone, it doesn’t change the fact:\
120	He was a bastard in life, thus a bastard in death!''
121	* NewSoundAlbum: While the band's sound has been evolving gradually since the beginning, ''Codes and Keys'' makes the most drastic stylistic jump. The lyrics are more optimistic than usual (probably because Gibbard was happily married at the time of its release) and there is a heavier emphasis on electronic instrumentation.
122	** The LP before, ''Narrow Stairs'', is cited by the band's fans as their turn to DarkerAndEdgier, with songs like "Grapevine Fires" and "The Ice is Getting Thinner" taking the superficial emo categorization of Death Cab to a whole new level of half truth.
123	* NonAppearingTitle: Many songs, such as "Transatlanticism", "Title Track", "Lightness", "President of What?", "No Joy in Mudville", "Expo 86", "Grapevine Fires", etc.
124	* NonIndicativeName: According to them:
125	-->The glove compartment
126	-->is inaccurately named,
127	-->and everybody knows it;
128	-->so I'm proposing
129	-->a swift, orderly change.
130	-->Because behind its door
131	-->there's nothing to keep my fingers warm...
132	* TheNothingAfterDeath: The "Dark" in "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" refers to both to the nothing after death and not knowing what happens after death.
133	* NotStayingForBreakfast: "Someday You Will Be Loved":
134	-->In the morning, I fled
135	-->left a note and it read
136	-->[[TitleDrop "Someday, you will be loved"]]
137	** Also, in "Pity and Fear".
138	* ObsessionSong: "I Will Possess Your Heart", which has lyrics as creepy as it sounds.
139	* OneWomanSong: "Cath..."
140	* PostRock: Borders onto this territory with the title track from ''Transatlanticism''.
141	* ProgressiveInstrumentation: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq-yP7mb8UE "I Will Possess Your Heart"]] starts with a pair of piano bars, then the bass joins, then the guitar appears subtly, then the drums join, then after a very long intro, the voice joins at the end.
142	* ShrinkingViolet: Chris, sort of, as a male example. Anyone who's been to a live show will attest to the fact he's very shy and quiet in comparison to the others.
143	* StalkerWithACrush: "I Will Possess Your Heart".
144	* StopAndGo: "Why You'd Want to Live Here".
145	* StudioChatter: Found in the beginning of "Title Track", in which Ben is presumably talking to Chris, who gets cut off as the music begins.
146	-->Chris: "Rolling."
147	-->Ben: "This is the count out?"
148	-->Chris: "Yep."
149	-->Ben: "The cue?"
150	-->Chris: "Oh, no, that's--"
151	* SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace: Played for tragedy in "Company Call Epilogue".
152	-->Crashing through the parlour doors,
153	-->What was your first reaction?
154	-->Screaming, drunk, disorderly, I'll tell you mine.
155	** Also played with in the music video for "Cath..."
156	* TitledAfterTheSong: The band's name is a reference to a Music/TheBonzoDogBand song in ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour.''
157	* UndyingLoyalty: "I Will Follow You Into the Dark".
158	%%* Literature/WutheringHeights: "Cath..." is based on the book's plot.

Context Music / DeathCabForCutie