Since 2023, it’s felt like the 2010s with Ben Gibbard, Jimmy Tamborello, and Jenny Lewis reuniting The Postal Service for a joint tour with Death Cab For Cutie. It’s been a great run, but it’s coming to an end soon.
Per a press release shared today (September 16), the band’s September 21 performance at HFStival in Washington DC, the final date of the Transatlanticism/Give Up Tour, “will mark the beginning of an indefinite hiatus for the band.” Gibbard also said in a statement:
“As we bring the Transatlanticism / Give Up Tour to a close, I want you all to know that getting the opportunity to perform these two albums live has been one of the greatest thrills and honors of my entire life. On behalf of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service; Thank you so much for coming out and singing along. We will see you all again somewhere down the road.”
That last sentence seemingly indicates that Gibbard isn’t closing the door on future activity from The Postal Service, perhaps some more reunion performances down the road.
Gibbard, however, has been pretty clear on how he feels about the group releasing new music, saying in a 2023 interview, “Anybody who’s been asking a second Postal Service record, like really ask yourself, after 20 years, do you really think that there’s gonna something we could make that could even satisfy half of the desire you have in your mind as to what this record would be like? Twenty years — a lot of technology has changed. A lot of how we make music has changed dramatically since then. It wouldn’t be the same. […] Whatever we would make now would sound dramatically different than what we made 20 years ago, and I think it would be a disappointment even if we tried.”