The Postal Service Announces Indefinite Hiatus Following Death Cab for Cutie Joint Tour

Ben Gibbard has announced the indefinite hiatus of The Postal Service following the conclusion of the band’s joint tour with Gibbard’s other project, Death Cab for Cutie. The two Gibbard-led bands have been on the road performing the albums Transatlanticism and Give Up in full as they celebrate the albums’ 20th anniversaries.

Gibbard wrote on Twitter, “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.”

The final show will be at HFStival on September 21 in Washington, D.C. Gibbard concluded the statement with the hopeful if ambiguous message, “We will see you all again somewhere down the road.”

[RELATED: The Meaning Behind The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” Conveys Both Analog Tenderness and Digital Fragility]

The Postal Service to Go On Indefinite Hiatus After Joint Death Cab for Cutie Tour

The Postal Service has only released one studio album—Give Up from 2003. It featured hits like “Such Great Heights,” which has inspired several covers from bands like Iron & Wine and Streetlight Manifesto. It also included the tracks “We Will Become Silhouettes” and “Brand New Colony.”

The group has only toured a handful of times for the album. They reformed in 2013 for the 10th anniversary of Give Up, and again in 2023 for the 20th. In 2020, they also released a live album, Everything Will Change. Despite the meager offerings from the band, fans have remained loyal, although there is much overlap between The Postal Service fans and Death Cab for Cutie fans.

This hiatus shouldn’t come as a surprise for fans of either band, however. Ben Gibbard has been vocal in the past about the time constraints that prevent The Postal Service from releasing new music.

“I think the main reason that a second Postal Service record has never come to fruition – and will never come to fruition – the time commitments that Death Cab ended up taking, which really started with ‘Transatlanticism’, haven’t really ever let up,” Gibbard told NME in August. “There’s just not enough time, let alone creative juices flowing, to make a suitable follow-up [to ‘Give Up’]. I think anything that we would attempt to make at this point would be thoroughly disappointing.”

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