The Stamp of Approval

By Emily Sogn, AlterNet. Posted November 29, 2004.

At the unlikely junction of jangly indie rock music and Priority Mail packages, it appears that a partnership has been forged.

In today's socioeconomic landscape, where behemoth corporations seem to control everything from political candidates to the use of indigenous flora and fauna in far-flung regions of the world, it is rare to hear of an instance where a conflict between a large corporation and an independent business did not result in the little guy getting completely squashed. But when an indie band called the Postal Service went head to head with mammoth mail carriers United States Postal Service, the old paradigms about big guy and little guy didn't seem to quite fit. In fact, in this battle, the leverage held by that vague sense of cultural cache against the leverage of corporate power could just be a wash. And the least likely outcome – that the Postal Service and, well, the Postal Service, would find a way to coexist – appears to have come to fruition.

It is likely that no one is more surprised about the outcome then the members of the Postal Service, a northwest lo-fi electronic duo made up of Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, who cut their musical teeth playing in bands of different genres, Gibbard in the beloved indie outfit Deathcab for Cutie and Tamborello in the innovative electronic band Dntel. Because their backgrounds were so different, their collaboration was a unique moment of musical synthesis, a coming-together of two vastly different approaches to songwriting and performance.

The dynamic chemistry of this mixture was successful enough to garner praise from critics, fans and contemporaries, and with the release of their 2003 full-length album "Give Up," the two boys seemed poised to follow a new path in their musical careers. That is, until a knock on the door in August of 2003 threatened to spoil the party. The bad news came in the form of a cease and desist letter to Sub Pop records, the small Seattle-based label that put out their record, from the United States Postal Service. It turns out that the phrase "the postal service" is a registered trademark of USPS, and though they were "very, very flattered" about the use of the name, they would have to enforce their ownership of the phrase and ask that the boys stop using the name immediately.

Though a larger band on a larger label could have conceivably conceded that name without breaking the bank, the Postal Service and Sup Pop records would have been hurt badly by the loss. For a smaller band with small promotional budgets, word of mouth is essential to generating energy around a new band or a record. This fragile momentum is intimately connected to name recognition, and to change a band's name just as they are acquiring a critical momentum would be devastating for the band and the label. Not to mention the fact that there is also a possibility that the label would have to destroy their back stock of the records that have not been sold yet.

Rather than give in to the very real threat of a giant lawsuit, the band decided to meet with representatives from the US Postal Service, to discuss a possible agreement. Part of their strategy in meeting the USPS half way was to explain the way that their name came about. Indeed, if it weren't for the work of the men and women in blue who deliver the mail, any collaboration between the Seattle-based Gibbard and Los Angeles resident Tamborello would not have been possible.

The two musicians first worked together in 2001 to produce a track for Tamborello's Dntel album entitled "Life is Full of Possibilities." The unique synthesis of Tamborello's choppy, electronic layering and Gibbard's melodic vocals made the song a standout on the record and caused the boys to consider a more serious partnership. But their geographic separation made them dependent on the mail to exchange their musical ideas.

Tamborello would send CD-R's to Seattle filled with skeletal electronic music, which Gibbard would reshape into tuneful melodies, adding vocals, guitar, drums and keyboards. All of this was then put to tape by Gibbard's Death Cab for Cutie band mate Chris Walla and dropped back in the mail to Los Angeles for Tamborello's appraisal. If he felt that no additional changes were needed, the song was finished. When they had compiled enough material to make a record, they took the material to Sub Pop, who agreed to release the record on their label.

Emily Sogn is a freelance writer and music critic living in Brooklyn. She recently completed a BA in cultural and gender studies from Eugene Lang College in at New School University in New York and plans to pursue graduate study in Cultural Anthropology.

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