The indie-electronic outfit the Postal Service took its name from the mail-delivery network that enabled long-distance exchanges of musical ideas between distant homes. Core members include Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello. Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and Jen Wood, once of Tattle Tale, supplied backing vocals for the project's widely praised, platinum-certified 2003 debut Give Up.
Gibbard and Tamborello initiated their partnership in 2001 when the former contributed vocals to the title cut of Dntel's This Is the Dream of Evan and Chan EP. They sustained the effort through mailed recordings, with Tamborello forwarding instrumentals and Gibbard layering guitars, vocals, and words. Those sessions yielded the sole studio album Give Up, issued on Sub Pop in 2003. By 2005 the record had moved more than 500,000 units, leading the principals to sketch a follow-up. Progress halted once both artists prioritized their primary bands, leaving the Postal Service on extended hiatus through the remainder of the decade. Tamborello focused on subsequent Dntel releases, including 2007's Dumb Luck and 2012's Aimlessness, while Gibbard returned to Death Cab for Cutie for the 2003 breakthrough Transatlanticism and, in 2012, issued his debut solo set Former Lives.
In 2013 the pair reconvened to mark Give Up's tenth anniversary, issuing a deluxe reissue and performing at that year's Coachella Festival. The project formally disbanded later the same year following a closing set at Lollapalooza. In 2020 the band surfaced again with the live album Everything Will Change, captured at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, during the 2013 reunion dates.
