Death Cab, Full Speed Ahead

Death Cab itself moved on. After four buzz-generating Barsuk albums (along with several EPs) and relative stardom in indie-rock circles, the band signed with Atlantic Records. "Plans" was released in August, debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard album chart and selling 90,000 copies its first week. Naturally, the move created ripples in the indie-rock community, with inevitable sell-out accusations.

According to Gibbard, "the indie rock/indie label thing has been kind of lionized into being something a lot more pure than it can be at times. . . . I have far more friends who have been screwed out of money on indie labels than have been screwed out of money on majors. Bad business is bad business no matter where it is. That being said, Barsuk is the greatest indie label in the country -- they've always been honest, always paid on time, always been pro-artist." Death Cab insisted that the Barsuk logo and catalogue information be included on its Atlantic albums, and the Seattle label got vinyl rights to those albums as well.

Even as the band retained creative control -- Walla, who produces the Decemberists, Nada Surf and the Long Winters, was at the helm for "Plans" -- its move to Atlantic allowed for improvements in distribution and promotion. And, Gibbard says, "we actually had some money to go somewhere and try something different." The band spent a month rehearsing and recording "Plans" at the 48-track Long View Farm Recording Studio in North Brookfield, Mass., even though Walla has owned a funky triangle-shaped Seattle studio -- the Hall of Justice -- since 1999. In a previous incarnation, the Hall is where Nirvana recorded its debut album, "Bleach."

There are several notable differences between "Plans" and Death Cab's previous albums. One is the relative absence of guitars (though the acoustic guitar remains prominent) and the addition of a variety of keyboards and pianos. After years of cramped living, Gibbard could afford a house with enough space for a piano. "And I gravitated to it a lot when I was writing. There are some guitar songs on the record, but I didn't feel the urge to pick up a guitar most of the time. It wasn't a conscious choice, more of an aesthetic choice."

Another noticeable change is Gibbard's lyrical obsession, which is less with love than with death and separation, evidenced in such songs as "What Sarah Said" and "I Will Follow You Into the Dark." Both examine the way relationships are altered by death. The first is set in a hospital "amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines/In a place where we only say goodbye," the singer noting, "there's no comfort in the waiting room/Just nervous paces bracing for bad news." In the song, Gibbard somberly muses, "I'm thinking of what Sarah said/That love is watching someone die/So who's gonna watch you die?"

Death, says the 29-year-old Gibbard, is "something I've always been attracted to as far as writing about it but never found myself in a place where I felt comfortable addressing [it]. [Here] I do it for the first time, more presently and directly than I have before."

Part of that comes from being in a stable, long-term relationship (with music publicist Joan Hiller). According to Gibbard, "the idea of being with somebody when they die is more a statement of commitment than of loss. The natural progression when you talk about commitment is that someday one of you is going to die, so I felt the desire to address that." In "Soul Meets Body," Gibbard does so by vowing that "if the darkness takes you, I hope it takes me, too."

The album's most profound song, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," is a solo, acoustic-guitar supported meditation in which Gibbard plaintively notes, "Love of mine, someday you will die . . . if heaven and hell decide/That they're both satisfied/And illuminate the nos on their vacancy signs/If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks/Then I'll follow you into the dark." Some writers have suggested it could become a first dance favorite at wedding receptions.

"In a weird way, if you want to generalize my general outlook on life, it's a sense of romanticism filtered through this pessimistic realism, having a hard time enjoying something when you know there's an end to it," Gibbard says. "I can't imagine that would make a very good first dance by any stretch of the imagination!"

Another track, "Different Names for the Same Thing" is a bridge between Death Cab and the Postal Service, the electro-pop project Gibbard did with Los Angeles-based keyboardist-producer Jimmy Tamborello. The two swapped music through the mail (hence the name) and in 2003 released "Give Up" on the Sub Pop label.

"I was always convinced the record would do 20 or 30 thousand copies," Gibbard says. "It's certainly taken on a life of its own." In fact, the Postal Service album has done better than any Death Cab album: At 670,000 copies, it's Sub Pop's second-biggest seller behind Nirvana's "Bleach" and has sold more than Death cab's four studio albums combined.

There was one small blip -- soon after the album's release, Sub Pop received a cease and desist order from the U.S. Postal Service, which asserted its trademark rights. Happily, an arrangement was worked out by which the duo could keep using the name if it promoted traditional mail delivery service to a young fan base more attuned to e-mail and instant messaging. "Give Up" CDs were sold on the U.S. Postal Service Web site, and in November, the group performed here (briefly) at the annual postmaster general's National Executive Conference, which Gibbard calls "a very surreal experience."

The Postal Service's "We Will Become Silhouettes" (an upbeat song about living through the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust) is featured in television ads for the Honda Civic (the rebirth spot with the butterflies and caterpillars), and that band's "Such Great Heights" opens the new "Grey's Anatomy" soundtrack. Death Cab songs pop up on soundtracks for "The O.C.," "Wedding Crashers" and "Six Feet Under." They're also on a soundtrack to the new video game "Stubbs the Zombie," featuring contemporary bands covering '50s classics. Death Cab covers the Penguins' "Earth Angel."

"When you can't rely on proper radio or MTV, which doesn't even play videos anymore, you have to find an alternate way to promote yourself, to get your music out there," Gibbard says. "As long as that doesn't involve compromising yourself, there's really no wrong way to do it."

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE -- Appearing Sunday and Monday at the 9:30 club.