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.

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 EP.

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. It received critical praise and also became the band's top-selling album, with 225,000 copies sold during its first year out.

In spring of 2004, the band recorded a live E.P. titled The John Byrd E.P., named for their sound engineer. The E.P. was released on Barsuk Records in March 2004.

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 www.deathcabforcutie.com 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 fuck 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 first and second singles off the band's Atlantic Record release Plans were ?Soul Meets Body? and ?Crooked Teeth?, respectively. The full album was released in August of 2005. Plans was somewhat well-acclaimed by critics and fans, and received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album of 2005. It achieved Gold Status in 2006 after charting on Billboard for 47 consecutive weeks.

The band released a touring DVD titled Drive Well, Sleep Carefully in 2005. Known for their contributions to animal rights, the band is supporting the activist group PETA in giving away copies of the DVD to promote animal rights.

In early 2006, the band announced the upcoming release of Directions, eleven short films inspired by songs from the Plans album, each directed by a different person. The videos were posted one at a time at the band's website and the DVD went on sale April 11, 2006.

On May 12, 2008 their album, Narrow Stairs, was released and was well received by both critics and fans. It was their first album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200. The album contains the singles "I Will Possess You Heart", "Cath..." and "Grapevine Fires".

The band's latest release is The Open Door EP, which was released on March 31, 2009. Their main styles consist of slow progressive rock with dark lyrics.

Death Cab for Cutie is an American indie rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar), Chris Walla (guitar, production), Nick Harmer (bass) and Jason McGerr (drums). Gibbard took the band name from the title of the song written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and performed by their group, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, in The Beatles' 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour.

Gibbard's first album, You Can Play These Songs with Chords, was released as a demo, leading to a record deal with Barsuk Records. It was at this time that Gibbard decided to expand the project into a complete band, and recruited band members to join. The band has released six studio albums, five EPs, and one demo to date. Their most recent album, Narrow Stairs, was released in May 2008.