In 1997, an engineering student from Bellingham, WA, named Ben Gibbard recorded a cassette tape of nine songs, entitling the work You Can Play These Songs With Chords. The cassette was a large underground hit, so Gibbard decided to form a band with guitarist/organist Christopher Walla, drummer Nathan Good (later replaced by Michael Schorr) and bassist Nick Harmer. The group named themselves Death Cab for Cutie (in reference to a song performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film) and, in 1998, they released their first indie debut LP, Something About Airplanes. Within the next five years, they went on to release three full length independent albums a...

In 1997, an engineering student from Bellingham, WA, named Ben Gibbard recorded a cassette tape of nine songs, entitling the work You Can Play These Songs With Chords. The cassette was a large underground hit, so Gibbard decided to form a band with guitarist/organist Christopher Walla, drummer Nathan Good (later replaced by Michael Schorr) and bassist Nick Harmer. The group named themselves Death Cab for Cutie (in reference to a song performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film) and, in 1998, they released their first indie debut LP, Something About Airplanes. Within the next five years, they went on to release three full length independent albums and an EP, the most highly acclaimed being 2003's Transatlanticism (at which time they were also joined by percussionist Jason McGerr). After the huge success of Transatlanticism (which contained the acclaimed songs "The New Year" and "The Sound of Settling") Death Cab's popularity spread like wildfire. They toured Japan and Australia, found themselves on numerous magazine covers and were featured on the hit TV show The OC. In 2004, they signed with Atlantic records and released their major label debut album, Plans, which entered the US charts at number 4 and features the single "Soul Meets Body." DCFC have clearly established themselves as one of the most successful indie pop-rock bands of the late '90s and ‘00s, helping to bring to the fore the once underground indie sound.

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