Give Up

Give Up is the only studio album by electronic music band The Postal Service, released February 19, 2003 on Sub Pop Records.

The band began as a side project between electronic music artist Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab for Cutie's vocalist Ben Gibbard. The two had previously worked together for a track on Dntel's album Life Is Full of Possibilities.

The Postal Service's only full-length release, Give Up was the second Sub Pop Records release to receive platinum certification, their best selling album since Nirvana's Bleach. The album peaked at #114 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart in its initial release; the 2013 tenth-anniversary reissue of the album peaked at #45 in April 2013. As of January 2013, Give Up had sold 1.07 million copies. The album was generally well received, and critics commented on its throwbacks to the eighties new wave genre.

Production and composition

The Postal Service's two members – Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and electronic music artist Jimmy Tamborello – had previously collaborated on "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" before deciding to record a full-length album together. The two worked on the album separately; in December 2001, Tamborello sent a CD-R of electronic music to Gibbard, who added melodies and wrote lyrics. He then added drums, guitar and keyboards at Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla's recording studio and sent the CD back to Tamborello. This process of mailing each other their work on the album continued; after ten months and two trips by Gibbard to Los Angeles to record vocals, the album was completed. The group called themselves "The Postal Service" because of this method of trading ideas.Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis provided backup vocals after being cold called by Gibbard, who knew her when Rilo Kiley was on the same label as Death Cab for Cutie.

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz (/məˈræz/; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter who first came to prominence in the San Diego coffee shop scene in 2000. In 2002, he released his debut studio album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)". With the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, Mraz achieved major commercial success. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 100,000 copies in the US. In 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. It debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and was an international commercial success primarily due to the hit "I'm Yours". The song peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him his first top ten single, and spent a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100. His fourth album, Love Is a Four Letter Word, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, his highest-charting album to date.

Mraz has won two Grammy Awards and received two additional nominations, and has also won two Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. He has earned Platinum and multi-Platinum certifications in over 20 countries, and has toured in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. As of July 2014, Mraz has sold over seven million albums, and over 11.5 millions digital singles. His musical style, from rhythmic feeling to his use of nylon string guitars, has been heavily influenced by Brazilian music.

Christina Grimmie

Christina Victoria Grimmie, (born March 12, 1994), known on YouTube as zeldaxlove64, is an American singer-songwriter known for participating in The Voice and for her covers of hit songs by contemporary pop musicians. In June 2011, she released her debut EP, Find Me. In June 2012, she told a reporter that she wanted to stop doing covers and start writing only original music.

In 2014, Grimmie participated in Season 6 of NBC's singing competition, The Voice and finished in third place. Adam Levine, her coach on the show, announced in the finale that regardless of the results, he was signing Grimmie to his label, 222 Records. Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne also supported Grimmie on the show and Lil Wayne offered to sign Grimmie on his label, Young Money Entertainment. She signed to Island Records for a short time before being dropped by them.

Early life

Grimmie grew up in Marlton, New Jersey. She is of Italian and Romanian descent. Her father noticed her talent for singing when she was six years old and she started playing the piano at age ten Despite having received piano lessons, she says she plays by ear. In a number of her videos and interviews, Grimmie identifies herself as a Christian. Grimmie was homeschooled for her junior year in 2010.