Indie-Rock anomaly The Postal Service is scheduled to deliver a rare reunion performance at Credit One Stadium on April 26 ahead of the evening’s headliners, Death Cab For Cutie.
It’s worth noting that The Postal Service members — Death Cab for Cutie’s frontman Ben Gibbard, sound artist/producer Jimmy Tamborello and multifaceted musician Jenny Lewis only regroup every ten years or so to celebrate their one proper release, a platinum-selling 2003 LP entitled Give Up.
First class mail
After their first meeting in 2001, Tamborello would build instrumentals and mail the CD to Gibbard, who would send it back again with vocals and other sonic components added.
“I would send Ben the beginnings of songs on CD-Rs up to where he was living in Seattle,” Tamborello said. “He would meticulously layer vocals, guitars and additional instrumentation and then send them back to me in Los Angeles.”
That went on for about a year, and the patient long-distance song-building process is where the group’s distinctive moniker came from (even though technically they were mostly utilizing UPS rather than USPS for their creative correspondence).
Introducing Jenny Lewis
“Ben originally sang all the lead and backing vocals himself when we first put the songs together,” Tamborello said, “but it was his idea to eventually bring in some vocal assistance so that it didn’t end up being an intricate chorus of just him.”
Singer Lewis told the Charleston City Paper that in the early days she had been a “deep Death Cab fan,” which inspired her initial California-based band Rilo Kiley to successfully pursue a deal with the same Seattle underground label that handled DCFC, Barsuk Records.
Out of the blue, one of the label’s owners, Josh Rosenfeld, who Lewis coincidentally discovered was her long-lost cousin, called her up with the news that Gibbard was working on a side project and could use an assist on vocals, if she was interested.
“I got a follow up call from Ben to lock in the details and he asked if I could pick him up from the [Hollywood] Burbank Airport when he got to town,” Lewis said. “So, I arranged to take our Rilo Kiley 15 passenger van out there to get him. But since I had never met him and didn’t know what he looked like, I had to insist that he hold a sign that said ‘Ben Gibbard.’ And that’s how this all began.
“The basic tracks for Give Up were pretty much done at that point,” she added, “but we went over to Jimmy’s place — a house filled with an assortment of roommates and a studio in his bedroom — determined to lay down my vocals.”
By Lewis’ estimation, it only took an afternoon or two to complete the album’s finishing touches. Everyone involved immediately sensed that they had created something aesthetically innovative. They just weren’t able to gauge how well it would be received by the masses.
“I remember feeling unsure of who the record was meant for, and I wasn’t certain it would ever find a fan base,” Tamborello said. “It’s sort of in between a lot of worlds and I didn’t really have that high of hopes for it, commercially speaking.”
Lewis agreed. “I had no idea what the record would ultimately do. I just knew that these songs sounded so cool and that I had made some new friends along the way. In retrospect, I’m so grateful for that transformative experience.”
Over 20 years later, the appeal of Give Up goes on, and the act is once again honoring it with a run of concerts. Tamborello and Lewis said they couldn’t be happier about that.
“The record itself is so beautiful, and the production is pretty avant-garde within this kind of pop structure,” Lewis mused. “It was just like a perfect nugget of the time in which it was made. In the end, there is only one record, and that has kind of kept these songs encapsulated, frozen in amber. I think that is honestly what keeps people coming out to our shows.”
Tamborello added that the record’s production was a fun and impactful moment in his life.
The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie play Credit One Stadium on April 26. Tickets start at $33 at creditonestadium.com.
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