Perhaps it was inevitable. When Death Cab for Cutie started as a wide-eyed indie rock outfit on the West Coast, few would have guessed that this group of nerdy, Built to Spill-loving college kids would go on to not only sign to a major label, but soon thereafter score a chart-topping album, a gaggle of Grammy nominations, and be that rare kind of act that could still make platinum albums despite having very little in the way of radio support.
Yet when listening to the Death Cab for Cutie, who made 1998’s Something About Airplanes and the band who made 2003’s breakthrough effort Transatlanticism, it’s obvious that they did a lot of growing up in that short time frame, learning how to open up their sound to a larger variety of textures, all while frontman Ben Gibbard’s character studies and wordplay grew sharper with each album. They were neither too indie nor too mainstream, and could have their songs prominently featured on The O.C. without the “sell-out” accusation really sticking to them, even after they signed with Atlantic Records.