Give Up - Release and Tour

Release and Tour

Give Up was released February 19, 2003 on Sub Pop in the U.S. It was awarded a platinum certification on October 4, 2012, the second Sub Pop record to do so. It was later released in the UK on April 23, 2003. As of December 2007, it has sold over 900,000 copies.

The album led to three singles; "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight", "Such Great Heights" and "We Will Become Silhouettes", of which only "We Will Become Silhouettes" charted, reaching 82 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In January 2006, Apple released an advertisement for the iMac that was said to be very similar to The Postal Service's video for "Such Great Heights". Some created videos that played the advertisement and the music video side by side to make the resemblance clear. It was later revealed that the advertisement had been created by the filmmakers who had made the music video. Ben Gibbard said on the band's website:

It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers' new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot recreation of our video for 'Such Great Heights' made by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent.

The band did not take legal action, but Tamborello later stated in an interview that they "got a little bit of compensation from them for it" in the form of "attention from iTunes and stuff like that".

The United States Postal Service served the band with a cease and desist letter citing tarnishing and dilution of their trademark. The band initially considered renaming themselves, but eventually came to a settlement that involved the band playing at a conference and the sale of the album in the USPS online store. Tamborello later said of their conference performance:

It was really weird. When we found out we had to do it, it was really depressing, and it kind of freaked me out. I already don't like flying, and flying to play a show for people who probably aren't going to care – we only played two songs – it just seemed like a crazy trip. But then when we did it, and it ended up being kind of fun.

The band toured the U.S. from April to August 2003, including Jenny Lewis in the line-up for all but one of the performances. Lewis provided vocals as well as guitar and keyboards. In the sole performance that Lewis missed, a festival in Spain, friend Joan Hiller sang and Chris Walla played her guitar and keyboard parts. Death Cab for Cutie bassist Nick Harmer was in charge of the tour's visuals. Tamborello later said in an interview that Gibbard had been nervous about touring, as the audience may have been bored by what they saw as "a guy with a computer onstage". This was partly the motivation for using visual effects such as videos and lights, which included small films for each song.