A Sub Pop Employee Played by Jon Daly Pushes The Postal Service to Audition New Members in Hilarious New Zoom Video Featuring Slash, Duff McKagan, “Weird” Al, Kim Thayil and More

Indie rock outfit Postal Service teased an announcement yesterday on social media, which has now been released to the public. This new project is a PSA for HeadCount’s “Make Your Vote Count” campaign, which shows the band’s core three members, Benjamin Gibbard (also of Death Cab for Cutie), Jimmy Tamborello (also of Headset) and Jenny Lewis (also of Rilo Kiley), hilariously auditioning for new members, who are played by numerous celebrity cameos. This satirical audition is hosted via a Zoom call with Jon Daly, who plays a Sub Pop employee.

This video is filled with a ton of star-studded guests including comedian Patton Oswald, Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and Duff McKagan, The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs, Kenny G, TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Dinosaur Jr. ‘s J Mascis, Flight of The Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, Rick Springfield, Jon Wuster of The Mountain Goats, Huey Lewis, music comedian Weird Al, Caroline Polachek, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner, Shabazz Palaces’ Ishmael Butler and Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil.

Some of the more memorable moments of this skit see Wurster play a character called Denny Rock, who makes a joke about the band being a supergroup, with an unknown called “Ben Gilbert.” Patton Oswald is shown having technical difficulties, while McKagan and Slash briefly show up to teach the Sub Pop employee a bit about Guns N’ Roses history. Kenny G also shows up during a memorable moment to play his signature smooth jazz, while Weird Al closes out the “auditions” by banging a pen on a cup, while telling people to get out and vote. This last point is also reiterated by Daly at the end, right before Hathaway chimes in once everybody left the pre-recorded call to sing an Iron and Wine song.

HeadCount is a non-profit organization that works with musicians to promote voter participation. Their previous campaign, Use My Voice,  was made alongside the rock outfit Evanescence, who provided their track of the same name. According to a press release, the organization has registered 400,000 voters for the 2020 election and is one of the most active grassroots civic participation organizations in the country.

Gibbard has been extremely active in promoting voter participation and dedicated a quarantine performance of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights,” to the United States Postal Service earlier this year. The artist has also been busy with solo material, putting out “Proxima B” in May and “Life In Quarantine” in March.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat