The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

Ben Gibbard first met Jimmy Tamborello at a show in Los Angeles in the spring of 2000. Gibbard was fronting Death Cab for Cutie. Tamborello was playing bass in a band called Arca on the same bill. A year later, Gibbard was visiting a mutual friend in LA and learned Tamborello was the roommate. The Dntel project needed a vocalist. Gibbard said yes without asking what he was agreeing to. He sent back a cassette. They called the new project The Postal Service because that was how they worked. Two people who barely knew each other, mailing music back and forth between Seattle and Los Angeles.

Tamborello built every instrumental in his home studio in Los Angeles on a single Kurzweil K-2000 synthesizer. He modeled the drum programming on Björk’s Homogenic. When a track was ready, he burned it to CD with no note and mailed it to Seattle. Gibbard would walk the Capitol Hill neighborhood in the rain and listen on a CD Walkman. A disc labeled “PS One” arrived with no letter. Just the music. He knew immediately what the song would be. Jenny Lewis had never met either of them. Gibbard called her because he liked Rilo Kiley’s debut. She picked him up at Burbank Airport in the Rilo Kiley tour van. They got Mexican food. Then they made Give Up.

“The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” is about a specific night in front of the Black Cat in Washington. Gibbard’s first serious girlfriend had moved to DC after their breakup. When Death Cab came through on tour, she came to see him. They sat on the stoop outside the club. She had written down things she wanted to say on her hand because she was nervous about forgetting them. Gibbard said it was almost a eulogy for the relationship. Give Up peaked at number 45 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum. In August 2003, the US Postal Service sent a cease and desist over the band’s name. Gibbard flew to Los Angeles to negotiate. They kept the name in exchange for agreeing to promote the actual agency. Released July 8, 2003. The Black Cat is still on 14th Street. The District still sleeps alone.