The Postal Service has made Sub Pop very happy

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/221860_tf228.html

The Postal Service, the ethereal indie-pop/electronic-music side band formed by Ben Gibbard of Seattle's Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel, will receive an RIAA-certified Gold Record award for the runaway hit album "Give Up."

To date, "Give Up" has sold 566,548 copies (as of the end of March), according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the second-biggest seller in Sub Pop's 17-year history and the Seattle indie label's first Gold Record since Nirvana's "Bleach." Gold Records are certified and awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of more than 500,000 copies.

The Postal Service made news last fall when the U.S. Postal Service accused the band of copyright infringement, then reversed course and agreed to use the band to help promote the government agency. The group rarely performs because Gibbard and Tamborello live at opposite ends of the West Coast and are usually busy with their principal bands.

― BeeOK (boo radley), Saturday, 14 May 2005 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

hooray for them. i guess

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Saturday, 14 May 2005 22:42 (twenty-one years ago)

BAND SELLS RECORDS

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 14 May 2005 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

*scratches chin* Nutty. I mean, I'm glad really that a style that that caught such shit merely for existing in Them Eighties etc. is now all the more entrenched as an actual approach/tradition/continuum -- and why not? -- I'm just indifferent over the fact that it's the Postal Service that's the new poster child for it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 14 May 2005 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

TS: changing band name vs letting U.S. gov't agency "use you" to promote themselves

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Gear you cynic.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:07 (twenty-one years ago)

this is news? this was pretty much the case a year ago, too.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Laughing all the way to the bank

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe I should start a garage band called U.S. Department of Labor

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:11 (twenty-one years ago)

this is news? this was pretty much the case a year ago, too.

Well, the gold record and all. But yeah I remember hearing about their allegedly overwhelming (for Sub Pop) sales some time back. I'm fine with that, it means more Mark Lanegan albums (er, if he's still on the label).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i would like to change "The Postal Service" to "Jennifer Gentle"

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

A fine idea!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I just thought it was interesting that this was the second biggest selling record for Sub Pop. I wonder how many copies Bleach ended up selling overall?

Will Death Cab For Cutie ever sell as many records as this one has? I doubt it but Atlantic Records is betting otherwise.

Just fun facts is all.

― BeeOK (boo radley), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Got any idea about The Shins' sales figures?

"Give Up" is a great record anyway though. Much better than "Bleach" indeed :-)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder how many copies Bleach ended up selling overall?

You mean, if "Bleach" had stopped selling by now?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

HaHa

Just wondering because I wonder if Give Up has a chance of catching it.

I too like the Postal Service, as I would rather listen to that than most other chart music.

― BeeOK (boo radley), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Unless their next album sees The Postal Service becoming really huge, selling millions, I don't see how "Give Up" will beat "Bleach" back catalog sales in the long run.

Even though it is a better record :-)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 14 May 2005 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

subpop please use all monies to fund new jennifer gentle and kelley stoltz albums now

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 15 May 2005 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the Shins are right behind them.

I talked to someone at Sub Pop the other day, and he told me the SP site accounted for something like 5 million Postal Service downloads. That's in addition, of course, to whatever is sold via iTunes or downloaded illegally.

Incidentally, when I saw U2's crap ass show last week, they used Arcade Fire as lead-in music, and I could see many fans on the big video screens singing along. For a brief moment I could imagine the AF filling a place like the Enormodome.

2004: The Year Wimpy Indie Rock Broke!

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Sunday, 15 May 2005 01:02 (twenty-one years ago)

TS: changing band name vs letting U.S. gov't agency "use you" to promote themselves

Sounds a bit like The Comsat Angels, except they dealt with a company affiliated with the military and I don't know if Communications Satellite ever proposed to have the band promote them (although if you're making secret technology for the military, promotion would only aid your enemies) instead of the band opting to tour and release records in America as The C.S. Angels -- which they surely would have done even if such a proposition actually was made.

― That's not cocaine! It's Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Was In Utero not on Sub Pop?

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Geffen

― A homunculus of Darby Crash, .... created for the purposes of *EVIL* (ex machina, Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Geir is right for once: "Give Up" is scads better than "Bleach". I have a copy which I've never been tempted to sell back.

― o. nate (onate), Sunday, 15 May 2005 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

No way, Bleach rocks. "Negative Creep" and "School" slay the Postal Service.

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 15 May 2005 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

We listened to the new Verve disc at work, and I lol'ed at the postal service track. Then I threw up. It was a bad shift.

― Will M. (Will M.), Sunday, 15 May 2005 06:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Bleach rocks.

I only like the Postal Service in small amounts. Those Jimmy Tamborello bleep, bleep, bleeps are annoying as hell ten songs in a row.

― Roz, Sunday, 15 May 2005 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm sure Burned Mind will eventually be the best-selling Sub Pop alb

― Andrew J L, Sunday, 15 May 2005 07:31 (twenty-one years ago)

RE: naming your band after a gov't agency/institution

i wonder how Whitehouse figure into this.

― latebloomer: the rebel sound of grits and bacon (latebloomer), Sunday, 15 May 2005 07:47 (twenty-one years ago)

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