A collaboration between Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborello (from Dntel), with Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, The Postal Service released Give Up, their one and only album, in 2003. That record went on to sell over a million copies and most of the band’s fans never had the chance to see them perform live. In 2013 and in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Give Up, Sub Pop released an expanded, deluxe version of that album, and the band reunited to tour the world. Recorded at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA during that reunion tour, live album Everything Will Change followed in 2020. Everything Will Change was also released in 2014 as a feature-length documentary concert film directed by Justin Mitchell and includes intimate interviews and backstage footage of the band.
You can spend all the time and money in the world trying to craft the perfect pop-music scenario, but sometimes the stars have to align all by themselves. Even though early on the members of The Postal Service jokingly referred to “Such Great Heights” as “the hit” on their debut album, Give Up, there’s no way anyone could have predicted the eventual impact made by a mail-order album designed in a pair of West Coast bedrooms. It’s been 10 years since the little project that could from Seattelite Ben Gibbard (also known as Death Cab For Cutie’s frontman) and Angeleno Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Figurine) emerged from seemingly nowhere and began to burrow its way into the ears of anyone who came into contact with the band’s infectious electro-pop.
To celebrate, Sub Pop is reissuing The Postal Service’s one and only album, including in the multidisc set B-sides, rarities, and two brand new songs, “A Tattered Line of String” and “Turn Around.” Equally noteworthy is the announcement that the band is back together, at least in 2013: The Postal Service will hit the road for a long-overdue victory lap, one that will give most fans their first (and last—seriously, don’t ask) chance to see the group in person. Of course, the music that The Postal Service created was more than just electro-pop, and the force with which Jimmy and Ben captured the indie-rock zeitgeist of the early aughts made them more of a phenomenon than just a regular old band. The guys exquisitely matched synthetic sounds with organic ones, a marriage that also brought together fans spread out across the musical spectrum. The fact that such artists as Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Streetlight Manifesto, and Confide (who knew Cookie Monster liked The Postal Service?) have covered “Such Great Heights” is a testament to both the song’s magical spark and its melodic inclusivity.
But over the years, it’s become obvious that Give Up captured a very unique moment in time for these talented musicians—“I felt like we just captured lightning in a bottle,” says Ben—and sometimes it’s best just to leave well enough alone. As for what everyone has planned after this year… They’ll inevitably remain busy, just not with each other. Jimmy continues to flourish musically as Dntel, and there’s no need to detail Ben’s success both with Death Cab and as a solo artist. And really, The Postal Service’s legacy is best left in the hands of the million-plus people it’s affected. (And that’s a literal number, as Give Up, Sub Pop’s second-best-selling album after Nirvana’s Bleach, recently went platinum. It’s also worth noting that The Postal Service has received more radio play than any other artist in Sub Pop’s illustrious history.) And that’s not just listeners: The band’s sound is such a touchstone for so many artists that “Postal Service-esque” has become a generally accepted musical adjective. And it goes way beyond Owl City. “I think it is continuing with the tradition of electronic pop that was popular when we were kids in the ’80s, and that people kind of walked away from for almost 20 years,” notes Ben. “If not the first, we were certainly the first visible act to revive this genre and kind of modernize it in a way that was a reflection of kids who grew up on Pavement but also grew up on New Order and Pet Shop Boys and whatever else. Nobody had checked off those boxes on the same record.”
[Marc Hawthorne, January 2013]
