The Postal Service: Encyclopedia II - The Postal Service - Overview

The Postal Service - Overview

The way in which the group combines mechanical backing tracks with poppy hooks is somewhat reminiscent of 1980s new wave music. The group formed after Gibbard contributed vocals for a song on Dntel's album Life is Full of Possibilities called "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan". This song sparked an EP of remixes by other artists, such as Lali Puna, the Flaming Lips, Safety Scissors, Barbara Morgenstern and Superpitcher, and was so well received that the two artists decided that further collaboration was in order.

Their name comes from the manner in which their songs were written, due to the fact that the two of them lived too far away to be able to work together in person. Tamborello would create beats and mail them to singer and lyricist Gibbard, who would then edit them and put his melodies over the tracks and mail them back. Gibbard didn't write any of the lyrics until the tracks were completely finished.

Despite the fact that their main bands are still active, The Postal Service has supported their full-length album Give Up with a successful concert tour and has stated intentions to tour more in the future. The album's most notable single was "Such Great Heights" that has been featured in various television commercials and movie trailers. The album also recently became the most successful album for the Sub Pop label since Nirvana's debut album Bleach. [1]

In 2004, the United States Postal Service sent the band a cease and desist letter citing their trademark on the phrase "postal service". After negotiations, the USPS relented, allowing the band use of the trademark in exchange for promotional efforts on behalf of the USPS and a performance at their annual National Executive Conference. [2] Additionally, the USPS website sells the band's CDs. [3]

In 2004, the track "Such Great Heights," as performed by Iron & Wine, was used on the Garden State film soundtrack. In 2005, this version of the song was also licensed for use in a television commercial for the Mars Corporation's M&M's candies. "Such Great Heights" has also been featured on Grey's Anatomy and Veronica Mars as well as commercials for insurance provider Kaiser Permanente.

In late 2005, the instrumental intro of the song "We Will Become Silhouettes" was featured in a commercial introducing the 2006 model year Honda Civic.

A copyright disagreement ensued in January 2006, when directors Josh Melnick and Xander Charity, producers of the "Such Great Heights" music video, created a TV spot for Apple Computer and Intel using almost identical footage. On January 19th, Ben Gibbard stated on the band's website: "It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers' new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot recreation of our video for 'Such Great Heights' made by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent." The band has not taken any legal action against the filmmakers or the computer giant.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Overview", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki