The Postal Service Pictures

Breaking Artist: Cloud Cult

Cloud Cult leader Craig Minowa has held thirty-six jobs (including kids’ party entertainer), but his most fruitful has been songwriter for Cloud Cult, a band that blends the Arcade Fire’s instrumental arsenal with the gentle throb of the Postal Service. Find out more about the Minnesota collective, and view the exclusive premiere their video for the explosive “Everybody Here Is a Cloud” at the Breaking blog.

Published: 2008-04-16 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Rewind: The Week in Rock Daily

Photograph by Nadav Kander We unveiled our Top 50 Albums and 100 Best Singles of 2008, then asked our readers to tell us their favorites. Plus, with Benjamin Button himself gracing the cover of our year-end issue, we posted an excerpt from Brad Pitt’s RS interview. Coldplay and Joe Satriani continued arguing about who wrote “Viva La Vida.” Satriani said the band “figured this little guitar player will leave them alone” while Chris Martin insisted that “Viva” was the band’s own creation and any similarities were coincidence and not plagiarism. We know how to settle this: Take it to court! We started a war of epic proportions when we set lovers of Twilight actor Robert Pattinson and the worldwide collective of Jonas Brothers fan clubs against each other in an effort to discover which fanbase was crazier. Names were called and fangs were revealed. We talked to Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard about a Postal Service reunion, Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes about his MGMT collaboration, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody about his influences and Panic at the Disco’s Ryan Ross about being mistaken for Mick Jagger. Plus, we went backstage at the Brian Wilson concert, hung with Slash at the Les Paul benefit and reminisced with Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump about his first bong hit.

Published: 2008-12-12 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard Talks “Something About Airplanes,” Obama, The Postal Service

Photo: Metcalfe/Getty To celebrate the 10 year reissue of Death Cab for Cutie’s debut record, Something About Airplanes, the group’s frontman Ben Gibbard opens up about revisiting the ten track set (and the bonus live album from Seattle in 1998), Barack Obama’s Presidential victory and why the next record from his much-adored electro-pop side-project the Postal Service might be the next Chinese Democracy. How was the experience of revisiting this album for you and the band? Well, from time to time, I’d put on these songs to reference something, a lyric or how I delivered a line. Because the further you travel away from the recording of the song, it will change drastically live. They become their own entity over the years and stray away from the original recording. For me, though, the thing that was the most pleasantly surprising was just hearing the live show [from Seattle’s Crocodile Café in 1998]. When Chris [Walla, Death Cab’s guitarist and producer] unearthed that, he was talking it up, saying, ‘Oh man, it sounds really good. We sounded really good back then.’ At first, I thought he was just being the cheerleader here. I couldn’t imagine us sounding as good as we did ten years ago. Not to toot our own horn, but if you put that thing on, we actually sound pretty good. Which tracks from the record have held up particularly well over the years? I still really like “Your Bruise.” It’s the archetypal kind of Death Cab song, with arpeggiated guitars and the kind of boxy, broken-up drums. And “Pictures In An Exhibition” is kind of a pop song. It’s the most accessible on the record. I’m not saying it’s “There She Goes” by the La’s or anything, but it’s just a pop song in its very, most basic structural sense. Do any of the tracks from the album make you cringe? My singing voice has changed a bit over the last ten years. When I first started singing in high-school bands, my voice was kind of nasal-y and twangy. There’s some remnants of that on the record. I’m not so muc

Published: 2008-12-11 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

This is How Your Major Label Pop Records are Made: By Stealing [Pop Culture Aneurysm]

So, there's this band, Owl City, and they have songs, and teenagers like them. The song is basically a complete ripoff of the Postal Service, a great act. Given the chance to speak? More music dumbquotes to the Times, GO: When asked about the similarity, Mr. Young said the Postal Service was never a model yet he considered the comparisons an honor. But he also wasn't too shy to note that he has profited from the other band's recent absence. "They released a record in 2003, and that was it," he

Published: 2009-11-22 Provider: Gawker Keywords: Pop Culture Aneurysm

Drew Barrymore Transparently Trying to Meet Conor Oberst

Drew's playing a songwriter in her new movie, so she's feeling qualified to Diane Warren that shit. For Jenny Lews of Rilo Kiley, The Postal Service and Troop Beverly Hills. Ok, Troop Beverly Hills was a movie and not a hot band. But Jenny Lewis was in it as Shelley Long's daughter and she gave a star-making performance. Oh yeah, Drew's songwriting delusion: DREW BARRYMORE became so inspired while portraying a songwriter in new romantic comedy MUSIC + LYRICS, she penned a tune for her fav

Published: 2007-01-26 Provider: A Socialite's Life

Zooey Deschanel Gets Married To Rocker

Zooey Deschanel has gotten married. The actress and Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard, who is also in the indie band the Postal Service, tied the knot in Washington state, a source tells PEOPLE.

Published: 2009-09-21 Provider: Huffington Post