The Postal Service are poking gentle fun at their past even as they’re extending their future.
The Best Show on WFMU radio host Tom Scharpling has directed a Funny or Die video that imagines what auditions would have been like for Ben Gibbard’s job in the laptop-pop duo with Jimmy Tamborello. Scharpling was SPIN’s 2012 video director of the year, so we’re fans of his work as well as the Postal Service’s platinum-selling 2003 debut Give Up, but this clip’s nearly nine-minute length leaves its humor unfortunately sagging. Still, cameos by Duff McKagan, Moby, Aimee Mann, Tom DeLonge, “Weird” Al Yankovic, and Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, among others, help make the video worth sticking with until its unsurprising, low-key conclusion.
Separately, the Postal Service have added new dates to their 2013 touring schedule. They include second dates in cities like Berkeley, California, where a first show has already sold out, plus stops in Pomona, California; Kansas City, Missouri; St. Paul, Minnesota; and in Texas, both Austin and Houston. “A Tattered of Line of String” is the title of the pair’s Give Up bonus track; tattered or not, that string just got a little longer.
Postal Service tour dates:
April 9 – Reno, NV @ Grand Sierra Theatre
April 10 – Davis, CA @ Mondavi Center
April 12 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Madonna Expo Center
April 13 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
April 15 – Pomona, CA # Fox Theater
April 18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Comerica Theatre
April 19 – Las Vegas, NV @ Chelsea Ballroom at the Cosmopolitan
April 20 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
May 18 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
May 19 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
May 20 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
May 21 – Paris, FR @ Trianon
May 23 – Barcelona, SP @ Primavera Sound
May 27 – George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival
May 28 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
May 29 – Magna, UT @ Saltair
May 30 – Morrisson, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheater
June 1 – Houston, TX @ Free Press Summer Fest
June 2 – Cedar Park, TX @ Cedar Park
June 3 – Grand Prairie, TX @ Verizon Theater
June 5 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
June 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theater
June 7 – Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater
June 8 – Columbus, OH @ LC Pavilion
June 10 – Detroit, MI @ Fillmore Detroit
June 11 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
June 12 – Boston, MA @ Bank of America Pavilion
June 14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
June 15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
June 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Mann Center for the Performing Arts
June 18 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
July 16 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
July 17 – Portland, OR @ Rose Garden Arena
July 26 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theater
June 27 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theater
June 31 – Kansas City, MO @ Midland Theater
August 2 – St. Paul, MN @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium
