We keep waiting and waiting, the indie-geek version of hair-metal freaks wondering about Chinese Democracy, for the follow-up to the great first Postal Service album. Every once in a while a little tidbit of news will come from either singer Ben Gibbard or producer (and LA native) Jimmy Tamborello, usually a comment made in passing, about whether or not there will ever be a follow-up to their totally hummable synth-pop classic, Give Up. Alas, Gibbard told Pitchfork recently that there's been little (if any) progress.

  

Which is a bummer, yes, but that doesn't mean that music's not coming

out of its members. Death Cab's a prolific entity, and Tamborello's

been offering music on a regular basis from any one of his many

pseudonyms — in addition to DJing around LA (and in the studio) with

his Dublab friends. Tamborello's most known entity, Dntel, has been posting free cover songs at his site,

including versions of Depeche Mode's “Everything Counts” and the

Sundays' “Can't Be Sure.” (To find them, navigate to the Dntel page,

then click on “audio.”) His most recent track is under his James

Figurine guise: a Christmas song called “The Holidays Behind Us” for an Amnesty International benefit called I'll Stay Til After Christmas (which also features a great Radar Bros. track called “Baby Jesus”). We'll keep you, er, posted on any progress.

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