The Postal Service - Topic

You can spend all the time and money in the world trying to craft the perfect pop-music scenario, but sometimes the stars have to align all by themselves. Even though early on the members of The Postal Service jokingly referred to "Such Great Heights" as "the hit" on their debut album, Give Up, there's no way anyone could have predicted the eventual impact made by a mail-order album designed in a pair of West Coast bedrooms.

It's been 10 years since the little project that could from Seattelite Ben Gibbard (also known as Death Cab For Cutie's frontman) and Angeleno Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Figurine) emerged from seemingly nowhere and began to burrow its way into the ears of anyone who came into contact with the band's infectious electro-pop. To celebrate, Sub Pop is reissuing The Postal Service's one and only album, including in the multidisc set B-sides, rarities, and two brand new songs, "A Tattered Line Of String" and "Turn Around." Equally noteworthy is the announcement that the band is back together, at least in 2013: The Postal Service will hit the road for a long-overdue victory lap, one that will give most fans their first (and last-seriously, don't ask) chance to see the group in person.

Of course, the music that The Postal Service created was more than just electro-pop, and the force with which Jimmy and Ben captured the indie-rock zeitgeist of the early aughts made them more of a phenomenon than just a regular old band. The guys exquisitely matched synthetic sounds with organic ones, a marriage that also brought together a fanbase spread out across the musical spectrum. The fact that such artists as Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Streetlight Manifesto, and Confide (who knew Cookie Monster liked The Postal Service?) have covered "Such Great Heights" is a testament to both the song's magical spark and its melodic inclusivity.

The Postal Service's story started innocently enough, with a mutual friend bringing Ben and Jimmy together to collaborate on "(This Is) The Dream Of Evan And Chan," a track on the 2001 Dntel record Life Is Full Of Possibilities (whose 10-year anniversary was also commemorated with a Sub Pop reissue). Things went so swimmingly that by the next night Ben asked Jimmy if he was interested in working together again.

"We got along well right away, but I don't think I would have asked him to do it that fast," says Jimmy. "I'm glad that he asked."

And once they started sending CD-Rs to each other through the mail (hence the band's mo