The Postal Service to Reunite, Perform Live

The Postal Service, the synth-pop duo of Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, is reuniting for the 10th anniversary of its only album, 2003’s Give Up.

After years of inactivity, the group’s website now features a graphic that reads, “The Postal Service 2013.” As part of the reunion, Sub Pop is prepping a deluxe edition of Give Up next month to commemorate the album’s 10-year anniversary, Billboard has learned. Since being released on Feb. 19, 2003, the set became Sub Pop’s second highest-selling album, trailing only Nirvana’s Bleach.

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Touring plans also are in the works. As Brooklyn Vegan first teased this month with a cryptic post titled “Postal Service reunion in the works” with three related links all tied to Coachella, the band is indeed booked to play this year’s festival, according to three sources who confirmed to Billboard. Additional dates and festivals also are being planned. The band is booked by indie agency Billions and has an active page on the company’s site.

Whether the reunion means new music, however, remains a question. In October, while promoting solo album Former Lives, Gibbard told Spinner, “There are no plans to make a second [Postal Service] record … I can’t say that enough.”

The Postal Service formed after Gibbard, the frontman of Death Cab for Cutie, contributed vocals to the song “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan,” a 2002 song by producer Tamborello’s Dntel project. Gibbard and Tamborello decided to create a full album together, with Tamborello sending Gibbard instrumentals and the Death Cab frontman sending them back with vocals (hence the band’s name).

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“Give Up” was released in February 2003 on Sub Pop and quickly became a critical darling and cult classic. The song “Such Great Heights” was used in a UPS television ad and covered by Iron & Wine, with his version being used for the Garden State soundtrack. While “Give Up” has sold 1.07 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a follow-up was never released; Gibbard and Tamborello have hinted at further collaborations since 2007 but never confirmed that a new album would materialize.

In 2012, Gibbard released his debut solo album, Former Lives, while Dntel released a new full-length, Aimlessness.