Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band, formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band comprises Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass) and Jason McGerr (drums). In 2014, founding guitarist and producer Chris Walla announced that he would be departing from the band after recording their eighth studio album, Kintsugi.
The band was originally a solo project by Ben Gibbard, when he released the demo album, You Can Play These Songs with Chords, to positive reception. This led to a record deal with Barsuk Records. Gibbard decided to expand the project into a complete band, releasing their debut album Something About Airplanes in 1998, and their second album, We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes, in 2000; both records were positively received in the indie community. Their third album, 2001's The Photo Album, gave the band their first charting single, and the release of the group's fourth album Transatlanticism, in 2003, gained the band mainstream critical and commercial success. After signing with Atlantic Records, Death Cab For Cutie released their fifth album and major-label debut Plans in 2005, which received platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. The band released their sixth album Narrow Stairs in 2008, which served as a stylistic departure for the group. Their seventh album, 2011's Codes and Keys, featured the band's first number one single, "You Are a Tourist". Their eighth studio album Kintsugi, the last to feature Walla, was released on March 31, 2015.
Death Cab for Cutie (song)
"Death Cab for Cutie" is a song composed by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was included on their 1967 album Gorilla.
Content
Innes' initial inspiration for the song was the title of an old American pulp fiction crime magazine he had encountered. Stanshall's primary contribution was to shape "Death Cab For Cutie" as a parody of Elvis Presley (notably his 1957 hit "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear"), and he sang it as such, with undertones of 1950's Doo-wop. In the style of several early teenage tragedy songs, such as "Teen Angel", it tells a story of youthful angst: "Cutie" who goes out on the town against her lover's wishes. "Last night Cutie caught a cab, uhuh-huh..." She is killed when the taxicab she is in runs a red light and crashes. Stanshall, as lead singer, details Cutie's doomed journey to the sound of a honky-tonk piano and surging saxophones, while the Bonzo chorus warns: "Baby, don't do it..." Stanshall repeats the refrain in true Presley hip-wriggling style: "Someone's going to MAKE... you pay your fare."
Podcasts:
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by Death Cab For Cutie
Photobooth
by: Death Cab For CutieI remember when the days were long,
And the nights when the living room was on the lawn.
Constant quarreling, the childish fits, and our clothes in a pile on the ottoman.
All the slander and double-speak
Were only foolish attempts to show you did not mean
Anything but the blatant proof was your lips touching mine in the photobooth.
And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will put your hard heart away.
You were so condescending..
And this is all that's left:
Scraping paper to document.
I've packed a change of clothes and it's time to move on.
Cup your mouth to compress the sound,
Skinny dipping with the kids from a nearby town.
And everything that I said was true,
As the flashes blinded us in the photobooth.
Well, I lost track, and then those words were said.
You took the wheel and you steered us into my bed.
Soon we woke and I walked you home,
And it was pretty clear that it was hardly love.
And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will rush your hard heart away.
You were so condescending.
And this is all that's left:
Scraping paper to document.
I've packed a change of clothes and it's time to move on.
And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will rush your hard heart away.
You were so condescending,
As the alcohol drained the days.
And as the summer's ending,
The cool air will rush your hard heart away.
You were so condescending.
And this is all that's left:
The empty bottles, spent cigarettes.