The upcoming itinerary coincides with the ongoing success of "PLANS," Death Cab for Cutie's first album for Atlantic Records. Released on August 30, 2005, the album has been certified gold by the RIAA for U.S. sales in excess of 500,000 units. This marks Death Cab's first-ever RIAA gold award. "PLANS," which debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, is now in its 22nd week on the chart. The band recently performed on NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live" and can next be seen on national television when their appearance on PBS-TV's "Austin City Limits" premieres on February 11th.

Death Cab for Cutie will take a short break from their current European tour to travel to Los Angeles for the February 8th telecast of the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, where they are nominated for "Best Alternative Music Album" alongside tourmates Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire, Beck, and The White Stripes. The band is also among the ten finalists for the inaugural New Pantheon music award (successor to the Shortlist Music Prize), honoring the most creative and artistic records of the year, as determined by a panel of respected musical figures.

In other Death Cab news, "DIRECTIONS," the innovative anthology of 12 short films inspired by each song on "PLANS," has begun rolling out on the band's website, www.deathcabforcutie.com. The series began with "Marching Bands Of Manhattan" on January 23rd and was followed on January 30th by "Soul Meets Body." A new film will be debuted each week - and can be seen for one week only - until the entire collection has been unveiled. On March 28th, the videos will be available on iTunes, followed by the wide release of the complete "DIRECTIONS" DVD on April 11th.