Death Cab brings creativity to The Republik

Death Cab for Cutie's Nicholas Harmer, left, Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla and Jason McGerr end their major tour with two shows in Honolulu, Wednesday and Thursday at The Republik. --Courtesy Ryan Russell

“Death Cab for Cutie.” A smarmy Elvis boogie spoof from 1960s British jokesters the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

Death Cab for Cutie. A smart indie band originally from Bellingham, Wash., that’s become one of the more acclaimed rock bands of the aughts.

Featuring the plaintive voice of Ben Gibbard, the band has certainly outlasted the novelty of its name while the music continues to mature in experimental texture and sound.

The relationship between band members Gibbard, guitarist-multi-instrumentalist-producer Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr can be just as involving as the music the foursome makes. “We left college and spent years in a van together, and we’ve spent all of this time learning from one another and growing emotionally and otherwise over the years,” Harmer said when the band’s latest (and Grammy-nominated) album, “Codes and Keys,” came out in mid-2011. “The fabric of our relationships is very complex and certainly something that is very important to me, and probably to everyone in the band. We are a support network for each other; we are so much more than four guys who get together and play music.”

The band recently wrapped up a major tour promoting the album and is, according to Harmer, wrapping “the last little bit” of it in Japan, where the band will be do three shows before flying east to Hawaii for two anticipated concerts in Honolulu next week.

Calling last week from his Seattle home, Harmer said, “It’s the perfect way to end this tour cycle, and it’s a celebration and gift to us and our crew.”

DEATH CAB for Cutie first came to national attention with its 2003 “Transatlanticism” album, made in the aftermath of the grunge explosions that put Seattle on the national rock music map.

“It’s a really small musical scene now,” Harmer said, “and very helpful, since we all know each other. Our band definitely came out of the success of the ’90s in Seattle. I feel really great to be a part of that. We got the leftovers from the grunge explosion with all the clubs and recording studios that came out after that. It was definitely a springboard for us, and it’s provided a lot of good support and an infrastructure that all bands and singer-songwriters use to help out.”

He’s now enthusiastic about newer acts from his hometown, including folk sensations The Head and the Heart, Bryan John Appleby and The Lonely Forest, who Walla is working with on his own imprint record label.

These Seattle artists are part of the ongoing Seattle legacy that Death Cab for Cutie is part of, and ongoing creativity is paramount.

The band’s own sound began to shift with 2008′s “Narrow Stairs” album.

“With every album we’ve done, it’s always done with the desire to keep out of a creative cul de sac,” Harmer said. “We don’t want to make a predictable record and give a version of the band the fans like. We’d end up pigeonholed, stuck only making the same choices.

“We do subtle things with arrangements, sound choices and lyrical content. It not only adds to the album’s strengths, but also the energy of our shows. It’s exciting to see what our audience like from the new album. We also do a good job playing songs from our catalog across the board. We try to do a fair representation of what our band is and the span of what we’ve written over the years.”

The set list might include the band’s most overtly commercial song, “Meet Me on the Equinox,” featured on “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” soundtrack.

Over the two nights the band will play in Honolulu, they’re also sure to add the “Codes and Keys” singles, “You Are a Tourist” and “Underneath the Sycamore.”

After Honolulu, Gibbard, the most visible member of the band (considering the unintended celebrity attention due to his recent if brief marriage to actress Zooey Deschanel), will be busy in the fall promoting his solo album “Former Lives.”

As for the rest of the band, Harmer said “everyone has their own projects as well. Mine is not as musical-based and more in line with film and video.”

Harmer worked with famed guerrilla street artist Shepard Fairey on a video for the album track “Home Is a Fire” that featured Fairey depicting some of the song lyrics in poster form, which were then pasted up around Los Angeles. “It was very much free-form and experimental in style,” Harmer said. “It has a real documentary feel to it, and it didn’t need a strong narrative to make it work.

“The guys and I never really have any downtime, twiddling our thumbs and staring at walls,” Harmer said. “We explore other endeavors. We’ve grounded our lives a little bit, and it’s worked out so far. It’s become part of the DNA of the band.”

–Gary Chun / gchun@staradvertiser.com

The TGIF cover of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser for Friday, August 17, 2012.