'Death Cab for Cutie' among a slew of new coffee-table books on music

Thank you, books, for not being the Internet.

This season a slew of large-scale coffee-table books about music offer a sensory experience the Web can't: feeling solid and substantial in the hands, coddling the corneas with gorgeous design and copious photos, smelling like history and authority and expensive paper.

From an intimate, slice-of-life portrait of a Northwest favorite — Death Cab for Cutie — to blockbuster panoramas of two of the world's biggest bands and a glimpse into Manhattan's art-damaged '80s underground, here's a look at some seriously rocking music books.

"Death Cab for Cutie" by Autumn de Wilde (Chronicle Books, $29.95): This one's strictly for the fans. Photographer Autumn de Wilde offers a warmhearted, impressionist portrait of Bellingham's favorite sons that spans the years between Death Cab's "Transatlanticism" (2003) and "Narrow Stairs" (2008). That period saw the band rise from local indie label Barsuk and all-ages shows around Seattle to international acclaim and a No. 1 album on Atlantic Records.

Despite their upward trajectory, the band members — as de Wilde portrays them — remained humble and demure, registering no departure from tweedy dress or gentle expression. De Wilde's interviews detail a few sessions captured on film; the story behind photos of some of the band members dressed up as knights is hilarious. ("We wanted to show up to the studio and surprise Walla and Jason," Ben Gibbard says. "Walla was in full work-mode and couldn't be bothered by the idiots.")

But de Wilde's unadorned imagery offers the most insight. From casually candid to sheepishly posed, these photos of the band at work and at rest are a pictorial love letter, and the subdued palette — meditative black and white, evocatively saturated color — contributes to the sense of Death Cab as a thinking-and-feeling person's band.

"The Eagles: An American Band" by Andrew Vaughan (Sterling, $29.95): The Eagles are "quite simply the most popular rock band in American pop music history," claims author Andrew Vaughan in the introduction to this exhaustive biography. They also represent aging America in profound ways — their inarguable achievements, their self-congratulatory bloat, their divisive acrimony, their indefatigable appeal. But Vaughan argues for a currency to their influence: It's hard to imagine modern country music — or even less mainstream favorites like Wilco and Fleet Foxes — without the Eagles' peaceful, easy commingling of country and rock. Even their mid-'70s Western-casual dress code, depicted here in plentiful photos, is alive and well in hipster fashion circles.

Through almost 300 oversized, full-color pages, Vaughn traces the band's arc from communal Laurel Canyon post-hippies to meticulous recording artists to drug-numbed celebrities to sober veterans of America's culture industry. He provides astounding detail via new and archival interviews with members of the band and various friends, collaborators and business partners. The context of such a sprawling analysis is fascinating: from Altamont and Charles Manson to "Miami Vice" and "Beverly Hills Cop," the book offers a populist history of the last 40 years through the lens of one of America's most enduring bands.

"Max's Kansas City: Art Glamour and Rock and Roll" edited by Steven Kasher (Abrams Image, $24.95): When owner Mickey Ruskin began hosting shows at Max's Kansas City in 1970, the Manhattan nightclub was already a notoriously hip hangout for Andy Warhol and his Factory hangers-on as well as the more serious artists and critics of the day. Though CBGB has the name recognition, Max's was its equal in cachet and clientele during downtown New York's rock 'n' roll heyday. This book, edited by New York gallery owner Steven Kasher, is a vivid retrospective of the venue, which closed in 1981, told mostly through photographs — gritty, glitzy, sometimes sleazy, often dazzling.

They include Janis Joplin and Tim Buckley drinking with Warhol after opening the Fillmore East in 1968; Lou Reed at a table with Iggy Pop after one of the Velvet Underground's last-ever shows; Bruce Springsteen performing in 1972 (Bob Marley and the Wailers opened). Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Debbie Harry, Bo Diddley, the Ramones, the New York Dolls — they were all at Max's, lustrous with sweat and booze and attitude. The place was a beautiful, messy incubator of art and music, and these photos — along with informative captions — almost bring it back to life.

"The Red Hot Chili Peppers" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Brendan Mullen (It Books, $39.99): Makes sense they authored their biography: The Chili Peppers have always done things their own way. With assistance from now-deceased nightlife impresario Brendan Mullen, the punk-funk innovators strut through their quintessentially L.A. back story, from weirdo outsiders to self-described dope fiends to adopted children of George Clinton to alt-rock superstars, all while consuming vast quantities of narcotics and/or wearing socks on their privates.

Despite early tragedy (original guitarist and founder Hillel Slovak OD'ed in 1988), the Chili Peppers have always appeared to be the band having the most fun. Like their recording career, the book's a bit jumbled and rambling and not always what you might like it to be. On-again, off-again guitarist John Frusciante's travails are illuminated well, but rendered somewhat moot by his current disinclusion from the band; captions or a discrete timeline would have helped readers keep track of rotating band members. Still, in their own words, accompanied by tons of fantastic photos, the Chili Peppers present a compelling case for their role in the alt-rock revolution of the '90s, and the book ends up as fun to read as their music is to listen to.

"Music" by Andrew Zuckerman (Abrams, $50): In his fourth major book release, photographer Andrew Zuckerman goes for the big picture, figuratively and literally. He gives 50 musicians the blank canvas of his starkly white pages — straightforward portraits accompanied by their own words about the nature and purpose of music. There's a lot to sink into here, visually and intellectually, as luminaries like Yoko Ono, Ozzy Osbourne, Ornette Coleman, Lenny Kravitz, Karen O, Ian MacKaye, Herbie Hancock, Ben Gibbard and a lot more all weigh in. At 12" x 12" and over 5 pounds, the package is heavy with elegant gravitas that can't be downloaded.

Jonathan Zwickel: zwickelicious@gmail.com