The Postal Service was a short-lived, much-loved electro-pop collaboration between Ben Gibbard of the indie-rock band Death Cab For Cutie and electronic music producer Jimmy Tamborello, aka Dntel.
• Prior to The Postal Service, Gibbard guested on Dntel’s 2001 track “(This) Is the Dream of Evan and Chan.”
• After deciding to make music together, the pair established a creative process that involved sending CDs back and forth through the mail—hence the band name.
• The duo’s first and only album, Give Up, arrived on the famed Seattle indie label Sub Pop in 2003. By 2004, it had become the second-highest seller in Sub Pop history, after Nirvana’s Bleach.
• Iron & Wine’s acoustic cover of the single “Such Great Heights” appears on the soundtrack of the 2004 film Garden State.
• In 2005, the original Postal Service version of “Such Great Heights” was certified gold. Give Up went gold in 2005 and platinum in 2012.
• As The Postal Service gained popularity, they received a cease-and-desist from the US Postal Service. The parties eventually struck an agreement wherein the band would promote the USPS and perform at the postmaster general’s annual conference.
• After some initial touring around the album’s release, The Postal Service went on a hiatus for the remainder of the 2000s. All the while, Give Up gained new fans and grew in stature.
• In 2013, The Postal Service released a 10th anniversary edition of Give Up featuring rarities and unreleased songs. Gibbard, Tamborello, and indie singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis, who sings on Give Up, toured that year and announced the group’s disbandment at the end of the run.