Originally intended to be self-released by Eric's Trip themselves, Notes From Stereo Mountain was included in mail ordered copies 's of the band's Forever Again LP. Instead of a traditional lyric sheet, the band opted for a black and white comic detailing each track, drawn by frontman Rick White himself. The short EP derives its name from the band's home studio, which they dubbed Stereo Mountain. - DH
Date Played: April 15 by Mike Ramos
It's funny to think about choosing a "single" from Six Finger Satellite's Severe Exposure. The whole record is so brilliantly bleak, obtuse, and tangled within its own noise that the concept of picking a song to appeal to the public feels like a non-starter. But what "Rabies (Baby's Got The)" does is give a clear view of what you're going to get with the record. Mechanical-like drums steadily pound away as watery guitar riffs plunge underneath shrill synthesizers. It encapsulates the mashing of styles that defined the record, and maybe still scared a few people too. - DH
Date Played: April 14 on Sonic Reducer
Six Finger Satellite continued their descent into darkness with their second LP, Severe Exposure. This album features more synthesizers, more noise, and more mayhem than anything else they'd released on Sub Pop at this point. Songs like "Cock Fight" fuse their post-punk and electronic tendencies together seamlessly, helping create a turning point for the band as they began to actualize their experimental tendencies. - DH
Date Played: April 14 on Sonic Reducer
Rick White wasn't the only Eric's Trip alum to take their solo work to Sub Pop. Chris Thompson's Moonsocket made their debut in the catalog with the six song 7-inch Accept Fear. Much like White, Thompson also continued to embrace lo-fi aesthetics with all of the songs recorded on a four-track. As the picture on the cover might imply, all songs were written and performed on acoustic guitar with Thompson singing. - DH
Date Played: April 14 on Audioasis
English chamber pop outfit Tindersticks have always known how to keep things classy and they do just that on The Smooth Sounds of the Tindersticks. The double a-side single features a stripped-back, loungey cover of Pavement's classic "Here" – sounding like a proto version of The National with Stuart Staples bellow melting together with the organs, pianos, and xylophone chimes. On their original song, "Harry's Dilemma," bassist Mark Colwill delivers a spoken word piece about a dog's final days before being put down. - DH
Date Played: April 14 on Audioasis
With each new Supersuckers release, you can feel the band embracing their country inklings more and more. "Born WIth A Tail," from The Sacrilicious Sounds of The Supersuckers, exemplifies just how rowdy and devious they can get. Look no further than the chorus, in which Eddie Spaghetti jubilantly yells, "You know, I'm in league with Satan." - DH
Date Played: April 14 on Audioasis
Another promotional single to promote Hardship Post's debut, Somebody Spoke, the release further demonstrates the range the Newfoundland indie rockers were operating in. A-side "Watching You" is a short, pumped up anthem filled with jangling riffs panning from ear to ear – sounding at the band's most accessible without losing their art rock influences. They slow things down on "Your Sunshine," letting Sebastian Lippa vocals coo underneath the despondent instrumentation. - DH
Date Played: April 14 by DJ Morgan
Brit-pop wasn't always about upbeat, pop-rock jams. On Gene's double a-side single for the Helter Shelter boxset, the UK group features their stellar ballads "I Can't Help Myself" and "Be My Light, Be My Guide." Both songs would later appear on the band's 1996 b-sides and rarities compilation, To See The Light, and were originally released by as a joint single between UK labels Costermonger and Deceptive. "Be My Light" was also partly responsible for the band's burgeoning success back home, being named Melody Maker's single of week upon its release. - DH
Date Played: April 14 by DJ Morgan
Swiss lo-fi experimentalists Sportsguitar self-released their debut album, Fade / Cliché, in 1994 and it didn't take long before the tape found its way into Sub Pop HQ. The label would opt to release a 7-inch of two songs from the album, opener "Gong Gong" and closer "Tits." The band would keep building buzz from there and would eventually release their second album on Matador Records. Little is known about the band or there whereabouts and they've never officially announced a breakup. - DH
Date Played: April 14 by DJ Morgan
Earth's second full-length LP, Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions, saw a somewhat departure from the band's previous work to this point. For starters, there are songs that clock in at less than 15-minutes (two songs are even under three minutes!). Where Earth 2 saw that band seeing how far they could push the constraints of tape and the conventional notion of an "album," Phase 3 maintains the drone aesthetics while breaking up the momentum into eight separate songs of varying lengths. Drums are sparse on the LP, with guitarist Dylan Carlson often playing solo, instrumental riffs throughout. In an interviw with fan site Thrones and Dominion, Carson says the LP "came out at a particularly difficult period of my life so Earth was just me at that point. Now I’m older, I survived, hopefully learned from my mistakes. I just think I’m at a better place, I’m playing better, I’m married, I’m happy. Rather than near death or on my way to jail, things have improved!" - DH
Date Played: April 14 by Gabriel Teodros
Not only do the bands Giant Sand, Calexico, and Naked Prey share a few band members, but they also share a sort-of alt-country sound, influenced surely by their Tucson, Arizona home. So, it was a strange day when members of all three bands combined forces to form Friends of Dean Martin (later known as Friends of Dean Martinez). With this side project, the band planned to “cash in “ on the “lounge music” scene (see SP0236). Of course, the guys can’t keep away from their roots, and touches of pedal steel and surf guitar get shaken (not stirred) with the sophisticated space age soundtrack. This debut 7” single was their first and last release under this name, as the rat pack king himself chose to be not very friendly at all. - JH
Date Played: April 13 by DJ Michele Myers
Another unlikely side project (see SP291): the Denison-Kimball Trio was formed by two former Jesus Lizard members: guitarist Duane Denison and percussionist Jim Kimball. Those expecting the volatile noise of their other project were probably pretty bummed to hear the avant garde instrumentals they were creating. Jazz composer Ken Vandermark makes an appearance on Side A, and Jim O’Rourke (formerly of Gastr Del Sol. Sonic Youth, and too many other bands to list) guests on Side B. - JH
Date Played: April 13 by DJ Michele Myers
Formed in Newfoundland, Hardship Post made a quick relocation to Halifax to become part of that whole scene (see SP0198). Their first EPs came out on Sloan’s indie imprint Murderecords, and their sound was a good complement: upbeat, retro-influenced guitar rock. But for their debut full-length, they went with Sub Pop. Somebody Spoke was a nominee for Best Alternative Album at the 1996 Juno Awards (their version of the Grammys). - JH
Date Played: April 13 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Ever prolific, Eric's Trip songwriter Rick White formed the side-project Elevator to Hell (later known as simply Elevator) in 1994 as another outlet for his material. However, there were still plenty of ties to his main group within Elevator's ranks. Eric's Trip drummer also drummed with the new group and Tara Landry (the namesake for Eric's Trip's Love Tara) played bass and sang backing vocals. The project's self-titled debut was the first in a three part series that Sub Pop would later package together onto a single CD. Though White famously kept control over most of the songwriting in Eric's Trip, Elevator's first LP saw White embraces his experimental tendencies in even more far out ways. The trademark lo-fi production and stirring fuzz of guitars is still there from his ET work, but here he is more prone to embrace dissonance and bury the melodies further in the mix. His songs, however, do still maintain the confessional tone of records like Love Tara. On "Why I Didn't Like August 93," he opens up with the line, "I've got a girl problem" and later adds "I've got a drug problem." It parallels the real life issues White found himself dealing with in ET's Forever Again. - DH
Date Played: April 13 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
What's more punk than putting out a few singles and then disappearing (almost) for good? Austin, Texas punk act American Psycho Band did just that. In one of the few documents of the band's existence, the trio released their final 7-inch in 95 with "Falls Church" and a cover of Black Flag's "My War." The latter gets some added credibility as the recording's engineer, Spot, played in an early incarnation of Black Flag when they were still going by the name Panic. Spot would also become the in-house producer for SST Records, ran by Black Flag's Greg Ginn. American Psycho Band disappeared in the mid-90s but returned for a one-off reunion performance in 2010. - DH
Date Played: April 13 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Power-pop diehards Zumpano pay homage to another pop-rock cult act The 5th Dimension with the b-side to their "Wraparound Shades" single (released in conjunction with their album Look What The Rookie Did. Zumpano embraces the theatrics of the original song with twinkling piano runs and operatic highs. The jukebox style center hole in the vinyl is appropriate. Both songs on the single feel like they were made to be blaring out of a jukebox on a Friday night. - DH
Date Played: April 13 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
The re-release of Hazel's debut, Toreador of Love, is more or less the same as catalog number SP221. However, the original artwork of the band topless is replaced with a stark painting of a man jumping in the air with a black background. The new artwork was only used on new CD copies of the record. - DH
Date Played: April 13 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Released as a promotional single to promote "Rebound" from Sebadoh's Bakesale, what makes this CD especially significant is the inclusion of the rarity "Social Medicine" and acoustic renditions of other songs in the band's discography. While songs like "On Fire" wouldn't be released until 1996's Harmacy, fans were treated to stripped down versions of the tracks to tide them over until their eventual full-band renditions would be revealed. - DH
Date Played: April 13 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Post-hardcore, emo, indie rock – whatever you want to label them as, Washington D.C.'s Shudder To Think were making massive waves in the mid-90s. Though they'd just released Pony Express Record on the major label Epic, Sub Pop was able press their "X-French T-Shirt" on vinyl. While they may haven't quite achieved mainstream success, the album found a diehard fanbase including some famous devotees like Jeff Buckley, Pearl Jam, and Deftones (not to mention the fact that they'd previously been touring with D.C. icons Fugazi). The band initially broke up in 1998, but would reform multiple times over for live performances, the most recent being in 2013. Their last album was 1997's 50,000 B.C. - DH
Date Played: April 13 by Atticus
Chicago funk group 5ive Style squeezed in one more single in 1995 just before releasing their self-titled debut album later that year. The songs were exclusive to this 7-inch vinyl release. Both track names do a great job of tantalizing the listeners for what they'll hear once they drop the needle – two steamy, sweltering funk instrumentals that would pair nicely for a summer barbeque. - DH
Date Played: April 12 by DJ Shannon
The singles in Sub Pop's Helter Shelter Brit-pop boxset featured an array of UK up-and-comers, but Supergrass may be the most iconic name in the bunch – and also the band that lasted the longest. The band's debut album, I Should Coco, was Parlophones best selling record since The Beatles' Please Please Me – so yeah, they were a pretty big deal. Their Sub Pop single features two cuts from I Should Coco with the rowdy anthem "Lose It" leading on the a-side. The b-side features an acoustic version of the band's first ever song, "Caught In The Fuzz," which is considerably less fuzzy in this interation. The band would continue on their sprint of global domination until breaking up in 2010. - DH
Date Played: April 12 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
A promotional single to promote the band's recent release at the time, La Mano Cornuda, Supersuckers are at their most high-octane punk with their slacker anthem "On The Couch." The b-side pays homage to another Sub Pop single alum with a cover of The Gories' "Nitroglycerine." In the liner notes, you can see that The Gories' published the song through their own "Dog Butt Music" moniker. Alas, they never collaborated with Sub Pop's Cat Butt which, in this writer's opinion, is a major missed opportunity. - DH
Date Played: April 12 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Seattle has never been just one "sound." Just take a look at space rockers Jessamine. The quartet utilized the untapped power of effects pedals and synthesizers in a way totally different than many of their peers. The two songs on their first Sub Pop single reach out toward the cosmos with brilliantly expansive experimentations, bursting out of traditional pop structure and creating adventruous sonic explorations. A-side "Your Head Is So Small, It's Like A Little Light" embraces some of the group's psych tendencies while the lengthy (both in time and title) "Soon The World Of Fashion Will Take An Interest In These Proceedings" goes even further out of orbit with swooning flutters of keyboards and alien-like guitars weaving in and out of one another. The band would continue this path all throughout the 90s before calling it quits after releasing their post-rock opus Don't Stay Too Long in 1999 on Kranky Records. - DH
Date Played: April 12 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
As Sub Pop continued to embrace poppier elements with the bands they were signing, they weren't about to lose their grit either. Memphis act The Grifters knew how to write hooks and knew how to infuse them with the riotous, lo-fi squall that blanketed so many of Sub Pop's releases. Vocalist Scott Taylor channels the disenchanted croon of Paul Westerberg on "Queen of the Table Waters," drawling his words over an explosion of muddy riffs that are deceptively melodic. The b-side, "Return To Cinder," would later appear on the band's fourth LP, Ain't My Lookout. - DH
Date Played: April 12 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Sub Pop's early years are so categorized by the swampy, gritty sounds of PNW grunge that it's easy to overlook another growing narrative in their catalog – a total love for power-pop. We've seen it so far with Fastbacks and Beat Happening, but Zumpano's debut Look What The Rookie Did feels like it embodies the genre in its purest distillation. The Canadian group's songs were brighter, catchier, and true to the "pop" end of the genre more than maybe any other Sub Pop artist. It's no surprise that lead vocalist Carl Newman would go on to front the legendary Canadian pop-rock act The New Pornographers just a few years later. - DH
Date Played: April 12 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
British punk S*M*A*S*H brought some of the tenacious spirit from across the pond to the Sub Pop catalog with their Barrabas / Turn on the Water single. While the trio gets grouped in with the Brit-pop explosion, their sound was more reminiscent of acts from the previous generation like The Damned or The Clash, sneering over heavy riffs and turning their laser-eyed focus on government and religion. It makes their cover of The Afghan Whigs' "Turn On The Water" make even more sense, sharing a kindred spirit with their American counterparts. This single was also featured on the Helter Shelter Brit-pop boxset. - DH
Date Played: April 12 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Grunge wasn't the only major musical movement of the early-to-mid 90s. Brit-pop was exploding with acts like Oasis and Blur beginning to dominate airwaves and Sub Pop was keen to get in on the action. This single from Elastica would be part of a series of singles from Brit-pop artists that would later be collected in the Helter Shelter box set. The set was given the catalog number SP1776 – a nod to the United States' year of independence while also making a sly joke at an American label putting out British singles. "Stutter" was Elastica's first single, originally released in 1993 by the label Deceptive (run by BBC Radio 1's DJ Steve Lamacq). The band also featured former members of the band Suede. The song's catchy riffs caught on quick, helping propel their debut self-titled album to the top of the British charts. - DH
Date Played: April 12 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Poison 13 sure did love their covers! On one of the band's final releases, the quintet recorded covers of songs by rockabilly songwriter Marty Lott, The Sonics, The Pleasure Seekers, and Joy Division (with a particularly grimey rendition of "Warsaw"). The band would end their run in 1995 with a self-titled 7-inch on Estrus Records. Vocalist Mike Carroll passed away in earlier this year in January after a week-long battle with bacterial meningitis. - DH
Date Played: April 12 by Sean
No, not Bret Michael's Poison. Poison 13 was a blues rock group based out of Austin, Texas that formed over a pretty basic premise: vocalist Mike Carroll really wanted to be in a band so he convinced his friend Tim Kerr to start one with them. They'd expand the project out into a five-piece and began writing dirty, blues riffs and recorded two LPs under the Poison 13 moniker. Wine Is Red, Poison Is Blue compiles an array of the band's non-album tracks and b-sides, including covers of Joy Division and Richard Hell. - DH
Date Played: April 12 by Sean
Ahead of the release of their third album, Bunny Gets Paid, the Chicago blues-country act gave a hint of what was to come with this single featuring two of the record's tracks. "idiot Son" embraces the buzz of the slide on the guitar strings, feeling jangly without losing its outlaw aesthetic. Meanwhile, "Gauze" sees the band tastefully pulling back. Loud bursts of guitar chords come and go, fading out to let the sparse decorations of a minimal drum beat and stray notes bleed through the powerful country ballad. - DH
Date Played: April 10 by DJ Hans
Sub Pop may not be synonymous with funk, but itwas channeled through more than a few of the early artists like Big Chief and Afghan Whigs – albeit in indirect ways. With this single from Chicago's 5ive Style, we get to hear a funk band interpreting alternative rock sounds instead of the other way around. Wah-heavy guitars bounce over the spacey instrumental cut "Waiting On The Eclipse" and then again with a bit more twang on the breezy "Summer Salt." The former would later appear on their self-titled debut, which we'll get too later in the count-up. (Fun fact: artwork by acclaimed comics artist Chris Ware!) - DH
Date Played: April 10 by DJ Hans
Portland's Hazel delivered their second and final album with Are You Going To Eat That. While they'd go on to release several singles and EPs following, their sophomore effort aptly encapsulates the raucous energy of the group with Jody Bleyle amd Pete Krebs' vocals piling on top of each other and vying for lead from track to track. While the band's dancer Fred Nemo can't neccessarily be heard, he also perfomed in the studio with the band. Hazel was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and would later reunite in 2016 in suppport of Hazel: Live In Portland. - DH
Date Played: April 10 by DJ Hans
As we've already seen, not every catalog number is an album or single. In the case of SP0269, it comes in the form of a wedding invitation. Sub Pop's art director Jeff Kleinsmith was given the number when he and his wife Katie were wed on August 20, 1994. Kleinsmith has been a part of the label since it's inception and has done artwork for everyone from Nirvana and Mudhoney to Sleater-Kinney and The Postal Service. Alongside art and design, he also played in a number of bands in the '90s, including The Funeral Party, Fire Clown, and Stymie. - DH
Date Played: April 11 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The proper follow-up to Eric's Trip's debut Love Tara comes with their sophomore album, Forever Again. As their first record dealt so much with the impact of band members Erik White and Julie Doiron's break-up, Forever Again was impacted by the repercussions of their changing relationships. White and bassist Chris Thompson began exploring drugs while Doiron got married and became pregnant with her first child. Forever Again would also be the last record they'd record in their Gordon Street apartment, making it an end of an era in multiple regards. White and Thompson would tour the record by themselves. Much like Love Tara, White's writing on the band's sophomore LP reflects the real life circumstances the musicians found themselves in – still coping with the break-up and accepting their relationship was officiallly over for good. Mail ordered copies of the vinyl version of the album also came with the Notes from Stereo Mountain EP which was originally intended to be a self-release by the band. The EP also came with a comic book detaling the songs' lyrics. - DH
Date Played: April 11 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
A promotional single to go alongside with Sebadoh's Bakesale LP, the 7-inch features a remix of the band's fan favorite ballad as well as two new songs – "Punching Myself In The Face Repeatedly, Publically" and "Sing Something / Plate 'O' Hatred." As their names might imply, the songs delve into some of the band's darker elements, harnessing brooding through swells of guitars. - DH
Date Played: April 11 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
It only makes sense that Sub Pop's first Canadian band would do a Canadian-only release. Eric's Trip released "The Gordon Street Haunting" on both 7-inch vinyl and CD exclusively north of the border. The band packed in five fuzzed out, lo-fi ballads akin to the louder parts of their debut album, Love Tara. The songs were recorded between just a few days at Stereo Mountain, a recording space operated by the band's own Rick White. - DH
Date Played: April 11 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
After showing their power-pop muscles with their self-titled debut, Portland's Pond shocked fans and critics by following it up with a decidedly less accessible work. That said, time has proved it to be one of the band's most adventruous and compelling works of their career. From the opening surge of wobbly chords that almost sound out of tune on "Side Road," the band made their new direction pronounced right out the gate. The band had begun the embrace the obtuse, straying from pop and leaning into art rock. Lyrically, the band began to follow their more existential whims. Songs ranged from eulogizing a snake crossing the road to tales of befriending an eccentric elderly woman. It's the weirdest – and arguably the best – the band ever sounded. - DH
Date Played: April 11 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Billed as Summer Songs, San Francisco's Swell's only contribution to the Sub Pop catalog is some of their dreamiest work. Although the band would release their Too Many Days Without Thinking LP in 97, the title first appeared on this 7-inch single as a swooning instrumental (although it wouldn't be included on its namesake album). Both "Too Many Days" and b-side "This Is How It Starts" later appeaed on the band's Bastards and Rareities compilation, in which they also revealed that the songs were recorded in the band's practice space on Bush St. - DH
Date Played: April 11 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
It's hard to get more Portland than this Pond single. Outside of Pond themselves hailing from the City of Roses, the personnel behind the scenes are something of PDX heroes. Veteran Portland sound engineer Mick Learn – who has long ran sound at the Doug Fir and tours with Portland acts – worked with the band on the "Moth" a-side. Meanwhile, the cheekily named "You Don't Quite Get It Do You But You're Thinking Hard" b-side credits Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss' band Quasi as helping with the recording. - DH
Date Played: April 11 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Newfoundland's Hardship Post were the second Canadian band after Eric's Trip to be signed to Sub Pop and made their debut on the label with the "Slick Talkin' Jack/If I..." single. Both tracks would later appear on their first and last album, Somebody Spoke. Prior to their signing, Jale's Alyson MacLeod replaced the band's previous drummer Matt Clarke. The two tracks do a great job at capturing the scope of the band's work, from the rowdy undertones of "Slick Talkin' Jack" to the pining balladry of "If I..." - DH
Date Played: April 11 by DJ Abbie
With each new release, Six Finger Satellite got closer and closer to their electronic, industrial roots. On their 1994 EP, Machine Cuisine, the group opens up with bleak arpeggios and distorted vocoder singing that feels more alien and machinelike than anything in their previous Sub Pop releases. On the back cover, the band encouraged fans to send $5 to a specified address so they could receive a self-released, companion piece cassette with 17 additional tracks. - DH
Date Played: April 10 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
Sebadoh found themselves with arguably their first classic on their hands with 1994's Bakesale. The album was heralded as their most accessible work yet and helped expose the band to new audiences with praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, SPIN, NME, and other tastemaker publications. The album was recorded following the departure of co-founder Eric Gaffney, although he would drum on several tracks. Portions of the album were recorded in Steve Albini's Chicago home, although Albini wouldn't work on the record. With bassist Loewenstein now contributing songs along side Lou Barlow, the group embraced their lineup changes and let it dictate the changing shape of the record. In a 2014 interview with Under The Radar for Bakesale's 20th anniversary, Barlow sheds light on why he thought the album resonated with more people than their previous works: " In comparison to what I tend towards, I do like to challenge people, not necessarily in a really musical way, but emotionally I like the songs to be a challenge. I like uncomfortable things divulged. That doesn't always make for easy listening for people. For some reason on Bakesale the tone of the songs was a lot easier for people to take. It wasn't as heartbroken, and there was some real joy behind it, too, which is rare for what I do." - DH
Date Played: April 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Coming off of 1993's Zucker, Fastbacks sound even more invigorated and vibrant on their fifth LP Answer The Phone, Dummy. The band long had issues locking down a drummer and on this record they brought in six different friends to help tackle the percussion. Mudhoney's Dan Peters, The Presidents of the United States of America's Jason Finn, The Posies' Mike Musburger, and John Moen (who's played with Elliott Smith, The Decemberists, Eyelids, etc.) all pick up the sticks throughout the record. The variety in players helps keep the records spastic, excitable feeling throughout with some of the band's catchiest tunes thus far. - DH
Date Played: April 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Von Ryan's Express is one of the more obscure projects by Six Finger Satellite's Dan St. Jaques and J. Ryan. Named after a Frank Sinatra World War III film, the band would also go by the name Thee Hydrogen Terrors. Just like the contained frenzy of Six Finger Satellite, the "Ghetto Pose/Lucky Secvens" 7-inch captures a band that's willing to embrace the manic energy of the study and translate it into fast-paced, hard hitting punk rock. The band would put out three singles as Von Ryan's Express and two albums as Thee Hydrogen Terrors before bowing out. - DH
Date Played: April 10 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
“Sorry Again” became the breakout single off the band’s sophomore LP ¡Simpatico!, getting used in a 1996 Volkswagen Jetta commercial, which, back then, was quite de rigueur in the music scene. (Younger folks may not remember, but the German car company had gained a reputation as a musical tastemaker, and even had their own comp, Music From Volkswagen Commercials on Universal.) - JH
Date Played: April 10 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
With the first Big Muff’ed, fuzzed-out, grunge-y guitar licks on opening track “Not Happy, “ it’s clear Halifax quartet Jale are gonna fit in just fine on Sub Pop Records. Their debut full-length Dreamcake was produced by the omnipresent Brad Wood, who had also worked on LPs from Liz Phair and Veruca Salt, so there’s a little of “that" in there, but Jale’s unique harmonies and range of styles (from the twangy “3 Days” to the moody “To Be Your Friend”) show a stand-out sweetness (heh) to Dreamcake. Fun fact: The track “Promise” was co-written by Patrick Pentland of Sloan; Jennifer Piece provides harmony vocals on his track “I Can Feel It” from Sloan’s 1994 LP Twice Removed. - JH
Date Played: April 10 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Shoegaze act Ripe – not to be confused with shoegaze act Ride – brought fuzzed out, melodic ballads from down under. The Australia-based group only released two albums before breaking up, including their final album The Plastic Hassle. The lead track from that record, "Something Fierece," appeared as a Sub Pop single the same year as the album's release (with an acoustic version of the b-side). Though the band broke-up shortly after the completion of The Plastic Hassle, they would reunite briefly in 2006 to tour and release the Galaxies and Stars EP before calling it quits again in 2007. - DH
Date Played: April 10 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Performing a Peel Session was a right of passage for indie rock bands on the ascent during DJ John Peel's tenure at BBC 1. Throughout his 37 years at the helm, he brought in over 2,000 artists – some of which happened to be Sub Pop artists. In this compilation, Sub Pop compiled sessions from Mudhoney, Velocity Girl, Tad, Seaweed, and Codeine with a short intro from Peel at the beginning and packaged it in bright artwork by famed cartoonist Daniel Clowes. - DH
Date Played: April 10 on The Morning Show with John Richards
One morning, Suckdog's Lisa Crystal Carver woke up from a dream she had of her mother being the world Monopoly championship. As the story goes, she called up her mom (Mary Ellen Carver) and asked her to write a song about the board game – to which she agreed! After getting Bruce Pavitt's sign-off to release the track as a single, Lisa brought in Rhode Island lounge group Combustible Edition to write instrumentals for the track. Controversial songwriter Boyd Rice also appears on the b-side, singing a duet with Mary called "Let's Keep It Friendly" (which Lisa calls "a romantic, kind of sexy song"). - DH
Date Played: April 10 by Reeves
Fleetwood Mac's music must have tapped into the magic formula for universal appeal. Just earlier this month, the band's song "Dreams" reentered the Billboard charts after a viral tweet of a dance troupe performing a routine to the track. But don't call the Fleetwood Mac a new revival. Other bands have been heralding the group's work for years. Take Seaweed's cover of "Go Your Own Way" for example. The Seattle grunge act reframes the song as a sweltering anthem, punching up the volume and turning up the overdrive but keeping those undeniable hooks. Seaweed didn't just stop at one classic either, covering The Modern Lovers' "She's Cracked" on the b-side. - DH
Date Played: April 10 by Reeves
Between his roles in Sebadoh and the earliest incarnations of Dinosaur Jr., Lou Barlow already had a full-fledged legacy on his hands. Ever prolific, his work was never going to be limited to just those projects as he'd continue to start new side-projects over the years as well as a sprawling solo career. With "I Am Not Mocking You," his contribution to the Sub Pop Singles Club, he stripped things back with a set of lo-fi ballads that range from fuzzed-out guitar ambiance to wobbling piano heartbreakers. The back cover of the single features a portrait of Barlow taken by Eric's Trip's Julie Doiron. - DH
Date Played: April 9 by DJ Riz
On their third LP, the punkabilly giants teamed up with Al Jourgensen of Ministry as their producer, giving the release a slightly more menacing sound. While the subject matter doesn’t veer too much off course from previous releases (girls, cars, drinkin’), Jourgensen gives the Reverend’s guitar sound the rip-roarin’ (Jesus-built?) hot rod sound they were always meant to have. - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
Not to be outdone by SP248, the Supersuckers and the Reverend Horton Heat teamed up on their own single, with each artist contributing one of their own songs, and a cover of the other’s song. It makes for a pretty cool back-to-back contrast to hear what each unique artist makes of the other. - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
In one of those “so crazy it just might work” moments, grunge goofballs Mudhoney teamed up with country music legend Jimmie Dale Gilmore in 1994. The result is this EP, featuring each artist covering the other, and a cover of a Townes Van Zandt song for good measure. The combination works with Mark Arm’s guitar work going head-to-head with the outlaw country legend, and Gilmore transforming their garage rock slop into a Spaghetti Western soundtrack. - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
¡Simpatico! was the divisive sophomore release from D.C. popsters Velocity Girl. Gone was the noisy, fuzzy, shoegaze-y guitars of their debut Copacetic. Instead, they brought in producer John Porter, famed for his work with The Smiths, to polish things up. In the book Capitol Contingency: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, and Noise Pop in Washington, D.C., 1991-99, guitarist Brian Nelson remembers, "We definitely drilled [Porter] on some of the Smiths recording tricks he used. More interesting to me was the degree he took on the classic role of producer in talking about our songs themselves. Guitar parts that he suggested, some of which he played, really helped add some sparkle to the songs; in no way comparing it to the level of the Smiths, but from where we were coming from it did add some similar intricacy to the guitar work.” From December 1993 and January 1994, the band worked hard from Cue Studios in Falls Church, setting out to make what drummer Jim Spellman called “the best record possible.” The attention to detail shows, and ¡Simpatico! is indeed a finely-crafted collection of bright melodic pop songs, and an album the band consider their personal high point. Yet some fans missed the ramshackle rebellion of their earlier work. Spellman concurs, “I think in retrospect it could have used a dose of the reckless abandon on our earlier singles, but that wasn’t where we were at that moment. People seemed to like it…. Always in Velocity Girl we wanted to make records that we would be proud of in 20 years and I am certainly proud of ¡Simpatico!.” - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Whether or not the band knew it or intended it to be so, Sunny Day Real Estate's debut album Diary would become one of the few records heralded as the foundation of an entire sub-genre – emo. The Seattle quartet lead by the thrilling voice and made-up languages of Jeremy Enigk, the guitar-wizardry of Dan Hoerner, the beaming force of William Goldsmith's drums, and the melodic low roll of future Foo Fighters' bassist Nate Mendel would also quickly become one of the most successful acts in Sub Pop's early era. Diary's confessional tone, both in its vague lyricism and open-hearted musical arrangements, struck an emotional chord with listeners while also setting the band stylistically apart from their Seattle peers. In 2016, Rolling Stone named the record the number one best emo album of all time. While the music doesn't always sound akin to the artists it'd impact later down the road when "emo" would rise to mainstream popularity with acts like Taking Back Sunday or My Chemical Romance, you can trace the genealogy back into the climactic highs and lows of Diary's 13 tracks. At the time of Sub Pop's 20 year anniversary, Diary was the seventh best selling record in their catalog. - DH
Date Played: April 9 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
La Mano Cornuda is the Spanish phrase for “the horned hand” -- y’know the “rock n’ roll” hand symbol that many have held up themselves at a Supersuckers show, making it a perfect title for the sophomore full-length. The album is said to be their most raucous yet, which is saying a lot for the cowpunk band. Fun fact: track 3 kicks off with an answering machine message from Matt Lukin of Mudhoney to Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti, and the final listed track (“The Schmooze”) is an answering machine message from Sub Pop producer Jack Endino asking to be put on the guest list for an upcoming show. - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Not long after the band burst onto the Sub Pop catalog with their debut 7” (see #SP0236), they followed up with their first full-length, I, Swinger, another time travel to the bossa nova-tinged days of the late-'50s/early-‘60s. The release was so chic, it even came with a recipe for the “Combustible Edison” cocktail: "2 oz. Brandy • 1 oz. Campari • 1 oz. Fresh lemon juice // In a shaker full of cracked ice, combine Campari and lemon juice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Heat brandy in a chafing dish. When warm, ignite the brandy and pour in a flaming stream into the cocktail glass. Vive le Cocktail Revolution! *If the brandy is chilled and shaken rather than ignited, the drink is known as 'The Edisonian'” - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Morning Show with John Richards
The band’s first full-length for Sub Pop (but second LP overall), Jimmywine Majestic continued to build on the grungy blues sound we heard on SP232. An opening slot on Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream tour brought the guys even more attention. In a press release, drummer Brian Deck reminisced, "I remember [the album] mattering more to me than anything else in the world when we were doing it. It’s a sensation that you have as a young artist. You tend to not have that the older you get. But it was the most important thing that had ever happened to me in my life when we were working on it. That was an awesome thing.” - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Released towards the end of 1993, this single featured a glimpse of the band’s final full-length The White Birch, released in 1994, even though its catalog number is SP166. Drummer Chris Brokaw had left the band to focus on playing guitar in Come (SP115). Their friend Mike McMackin stepped up in Brokaw’s absence, but vocalist Stephen Immerwahr noted "Mike could barely function because of stress.” A recording session at Chicago’s Idful Music resulted in the two tracks here, with David Grubbs (of Squirrel Bait, Bastro, and Gastr del Sol, to name a few) on guitar. - JH
Date Played: April 9 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Chicago punk Didjits share two live tracks for the 61st entry in the first volume of the Sub Pop Singles Club. And live is really the best way to experience the band. Lead vocalist Rick Sims was known for his antagonistic approach to showmanship. Between songs he would bait and insult the crowd, and oftentimes the crowd would retaliate. This single was one of the band's last releases before they'd bow out with their "Pigs! We Have Your Son" single in 1995. The band would later reunite for a performance at Touch and Go Records' 25th anniversary in 2006. - DH
Date Played: April 8 by Evie
While grunge and hip-hop were hitting their stride in the early 90s, industrial music was also sinking its teeth into mainstream audience by wave of acts like Nine Inch Nails. Sub Pop got in on the fun (can you call industrial music "fun" though?) too with this single from Pigface. The project of Public Image Ltd drummer Martin Atkins, he has been the project's sole consistent member since the beginning. However, he's had everyone from Trent Reznor to Flea perform with the group. On "Empathy / Steamroller," he brings in Swans' Michael Gira to provide a devlish croon to the a-side. - DH
Date Played: April 8 by Evie
Billy Childish stops through the Sub Pop catalog once again with Thee Headcoats for the fuzzed out, bluesy "When You Stop Loving Me / Papa Doc" 7-inch single. Childish sings with sneer on the a-side, sounding like a greaser with an axe to grind. "Papa Doc," on the other hand, gives us a hint of what the band might have sounded like had they followed the path bands like The Ventures and embraced epic surf-rock instrumentals. - DH
Date Played: April 8 by Stevie Zoom
If there's one record in the Afghan Whigs' discography that would be considered the band's crowning achievement, you could make a great case for it to be Gentlemen. Released in collaboration with Sub Pop and major label Elektra, the Whigs sounded at their most self-assured and radio ready on their fourth LP. Rolling Stone's review of the record said it saw the band "opt for a clean, oddly detached hard-rock sound that shifts erratically between purgative and disarmingly pretty, adding tension to [Greg] Dulli's caterwauling." As the band began to sound more polished, Dulli continued his unsavory, off-the-cuff lyrical style with lines like, "I got a dick for a brain." But that push and pull is part of what makes the album work, wrestling with the band's growing musical ambitions while still toiling with their own demons. - DH
Date Played: April 8 by Stevie Zoom
Shortly after the release of the full-length As Happy As Possible (see SP0228), the French punk quartet released a 7” single spotlighting that LP’s title track, with another album track (“August”) on the B-Side. Well, at least there’s a nice Charles Peterson portrait on the cover. - JH
Date Played: April 7 on Sonic Reducer
Following the demise of the excellent east coast band Christmas, founding members Liz Cox and Michael Cudahy relocated to Las Vegas, where they discovered lounge culture. They reinvented themselves as "The Millionaire” and "Miss Lily Banquette”, and formed the group Combustible Edison. As Sub Pop continued to distance themselves from the damning “grunge” designation, the band’s swingin’ cocktail soundtrack sound seemed like an excellent signing. Their first release with the label was this Sub Pop Singles Club #59, limited to 2,000 copies. - JH
Date Played: April 7 by Troy Nelson
Coming out of the Halifax music scene, Jale made their first Sub Pop appearance on the double-7" single Never Mind The Molluscs (see SP0198), alongside their pals Eric's Trip and Sloan. A group of art school students, the band members borrowed instruments and played their first show within five weeks of becoming a band. With all the members contributing to songwriting and vocals, the band name is appropriately an acronym of all their first names: guitarist Jennifer Pierce, drummer Alyson MacLeod, bassist Laura Stein, and guitarist Eve Hartling. Both songs here would reappear on their forthcoming full-length. - JH
Date Played: April 7 by Troy Nelson
Check out our full retrospective review of Love Tara here.
Date Played: April 7 by DJ Morgan
A side project of bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron, Hater was originally just a way to kill the time following Soundgarden’s grueling Badmotorfinger tour. The guys had assembled a killer line-up — former-Monster Magnet guitarist John McBain, Brian Wood (brother of the late Andrew Wood), and Devilhead bassist John Waterman — but originally, the plan was to be anonymous. In a 2016 interview with The Stranger, Shepherd reveals, “No one was supposed to know who was in it and it was supposed to come out only on cassette, passed from crew to crew on tours. Like the kind road crews and bands used to pass around all the time, like the Jerky Boys before they were called the Jerky Boys—we called them “tough guy” tapes... We all had our own aliases and our own totally incongruous pictures of what each guy in the band looked like. One guy was a pack of smokes, the diagram for Tareyton cigarettes where they show the filter. Mine was going to be this float of a ferryboat stuck in sticker bushes that had been left in this town for 20 years and was totally overgrown. It was a really articulate water sculpture/bathtub race thing from Kingston. We all had our own icons… But then it became more legit and what it is now. It was this fun side project, do not compete with anything, just be your own thing. It was way more garage and a release to get away from the whole music industry and just do it ourselves.” - JH
Date Played: April 7 by DJ Morgan
Red Red Meat hold the distinction of being the first band from Chicago signed to Sub Pop, kicking things off with this 7” single. Sadly, the band endured some internal struggles to get here: the previous year in 1992, founding member Glynis Johnson died of AIDS at the age of 32, not just their bass player, but also the girlfriend of frontman Tim Rutili for eight years. (Friends and fellow Chicagoans Smashing Pumpkins wrote the song "Glynis" as a tribute, available on the No Alternative benefit compilation.) Rather than fold, they soldiered on through three more albums with Sub Pop before calling it quits in 1997. - JH
Date Played: April 7 by Gabriel Teodros
Los Angeles noise rock outfit Sandy Duncan's Eye may have not lasted long, but they went out with a blurt of sonic distortion with their final release – a Sub Pop 7-inch billed as "Don't Look Here, The Joke Is In Your Hand." From the questionably titled "Long Flat Pussy" to the manic "Brown," the songs detail a bit of the tenacious energy the band brought on their few releases and live performances. - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Afternoon Show with
Who is Curtis W. Pitts? If you're to believe the packaging (and, uh, the title), Pitts was an exceptional retail salesperson at Sub Pop in 1993. To commemorate his hard work, the label put out a compilation in his honor with tracks from Velocity Girl, Sebadoh, Eric's Trip, Les Thugs, and other label flagship artists. The bio detailed in the liner notes paints a picture of just how dedicated an employee Pitts was, himself even saying, "I don't tell people what to buy. The people want Sub Pop and I give it to them," and "If I found $15,000 today, I wouldn't be at work tomorrow." We could all strive to be hard workers like Pitts! - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Afternoon Show with Evie
Released in support of their album Mack Avenue Skullgame, Big Chief's 7-inch features the funky "One Born Every Minute" with vocals from Detroit soul singer Thornetta Davis. Sub Pop must have been taken with her performance as she'd release her debut solo album Sunday Morning Music with the label in 1996. - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Afternoon Show with Evie
Les Thugs found one of their most commercially successful moments with their adventrous concept record As Happy As Possible in 1993. The French punks recorded the album with the Fastbacks' Kurt Bloch in Seattle and would go on to sell 40,000 copies. It's easy to see why it was such a huge success. The band sounds invigorated on the record, maintaining their raucous edge while embracing the power-pop prowess of Bloch. The child on the album cover is the nephew of the band's three brothers. - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Afternoon Show with Evie
Besides being a beautiful work highlighting The Spinanes unique ability to use their two-piece roster to create a full and lush sound, Manos is also a landmark record the Sub Pop catalog for other reasons. The album was the first release by an independent label top reach number one on the College Music Journal's (CMJ) radio chart. "College radio" had been a buzz term since the 80s at this point, but Spinane's represented a shift in the industry toward embracing "alternative" sounds straight from the source. More than just that, the record helped establish vocalist and guitarist Rebecca Gates as a force within indie music. In a 1994 interview with the LA Times ahead of The Spinanes tour with Liz Phair, Gates talked about being a woman in the music industry, saying, "Being female is what initially gave me strength to feel like I had anything to say that other people would want to hear. . . . The reason why I thought we should bring it out of the basement is because I'm female, and because I think girls and women need to see other women doing that." - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Years before it would appear on the soundtrack to the John Cusack helmed High Fidelity, French-English pop act Stereolab released their jubilant "Lo Boob Oscilator" on a 7-inch through Sub Pop. The original pressing featured the mispelled "Oscilator" in the title and was later corrected to "Oscillator" on the High Fidelity tracklisting. The single came early in what would become a legendary career, released just a few weeks after their sophomore album Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements. - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Leave it to Supersuckers to have one of the most NSFW combination of titles in the Sub Pop list. The band began to lean even more into their outlaw image with the "She's My Bitch / Drinkin' 'N' Drivin'" 7-inch, not just with the lyrical content but with their twang-infused, riotous punk sound as well. You can hear hints of the country direction the band would take in releases to come. - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
On their self-titled debut, Pigeonhed continued to set themselves apart from the particular Seattle sound that had dominated much of Sub Pop's early releases. With guitar contributions from Soundgarden's Kim Thayil, plus Steve Fisk and Shawn Smith's own involvement in the local scene, the Northwest spirit still thrives in their electronic beats. Smith's stoic vocals against the blaring rhythms hints at some trip-hop influence, feeling more like English bands like Portishead than their peers. The band would continue to release records until 1997 before taking a hiatus. The band would return to performing live in 2010 and released their most recent work, "The Power Come Over Me" 12-inch single, in 2013. - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Morning Show with John Richards
If you don't count Six Finger Satellite, Pigeonhed is the first electronic act in the Sub Pop catalog. The project was a collaboration between audio engineer Steve Fisk (who at this point had already worked on numerous projects for Sub Pop) and Shawn Smith of the bands Brad and Satchel. Just ahead of releasing their debut LP, the duo shared the Theme from Pigeonhed 12-inch with three of the tracks from the record plus a remix of the title track. - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Morning Show with John Richards
In a review in the December 1993 issue of Spin, the tastemaker magazine said Four "shows Seaweed growing up and out of flashy anger and into the world of contemplative thought." It's a pretty spot-on proto-hot-take. The band sounds self assured on the LP, maintaning the brash sound that had defined them to this point while embracing the underlying tenderness of songs like "Kid Candy" and "Chalk The Cracks." - DH
Date Played: April 6 on The Morning Show with John Richards
In an retrospective interview with the Wilamette Weekly in 2013, Hazel's vocalist Pete Krebs and bassist Brady Smith explain they began writing the songs that would become the band's full-length debut Toreador of Love in Smith's attic. With sketches of songs, they were able to recruit drummer Jody Bleyle and dancer Fred Nemo. But even as the band grew, that attic feeling never left the band. The songs on Toreador... keep that rickety, musty feeling of going through your old belonging – scoffing with malaise the whole time. That's not to say the songs aren't without their fun. Songs like "She's Supersonic" and "Big Fatty" channel the spirit that made their live songs such a must see in the PNW. - DH
Date Played: April 6 by DJ Atticus
Following the signing of Japanese band Supersnazz earlier this year, Sub Pop aimed to tackle the overseas market, releasing this compilation solely to Sony Japan. It’s a wide-ranging collection of tracks from fun covers (Seaweed with Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way”), rarities (b-sides from Sebadoh and Pond), and straight up singles (like Velocity Girl’s “Crazy Town” or Dwarves’ "Saturday Night.” But the thing is, none of this is exclusive to this release, so there’s no need to track it down unless you are an absolute collector completist. - JH
Date Played: April 5 by DJ Shannon
Self-identifying stoners Snowbud & the Flower People carried the mantle for druggy, psych-garage in the early 90s. The band was known not just for their musical releases, but for their comic books as well which were often packaged together – as is the case with their Sub Pop Singles Club single "Killer Bud / 3rd Shelf." Prior to the release, band leader Chris Newman spent some time in a Portland jail and had to get bail money by relinquishing his music rights. Then after the 7-inch came out, Newman lived homeless in San Francisco for five years. Things turned out alright for him in the end as he returned to the Pacific Northwest to record more solo material and was one of the first artists inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2007. - DH
Date Played: April 5 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Wait, you haven't seen the Detroit blaxploitation film Mack Avenue Skullgame? That's okay, because it doesn't exist. Big Chief opted to pay homage to the blaxploitation genre with their fictional soundtrack, adopting funk and soul grooves with their heavy guitar rock sound. The band went as far as to create different themes for different characters, crafting a loose narrative listeners can follow along with. - DH
Date Played: April 5 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
We've featured a number of amazing releases so far with the Sub Pop 30 Count-Up, but there's no question that our favorite catalog number so far is SP0217, because that is Iris Parker-Pavitt, daughter of label founder Bruce Pavitt. Click here to read an interview with her and her Dad on her childhood, the inspiration behind giving her a catalog number, and most importantly, the amazing woman she has become. - OM
Date Played: April 5 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Named after an Elvis Presley television special, garage rockers '68 Comeback were always great at recontextualizing music of the past for the era they were living in. The jaunty "You Could Call Me Job" sways and shreds like a swinging rockabilly ballad, infused with the grit of the '90s. Speaking of rockabilly, the band also offers up a fuzzed out cover of Jimmy Logsdon's "Where the Rio de Rosa Flows" on the b-side. - DH
Date Played: April 5 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
With Six Finger Satellite's full-length debut, they finally started to reveal the electronic-punk aesthetics that were really at their core. The Pigeon Is The Most Popular Bird is a whiplash between the noise rock heard on their previous Sub Pop singles with untitled, experimental interludes that appear between each named track. It's a flurry of different dissonant sounds colliding together, creating a sweeping, distorted opus that would define the band's sound for records to come. - DH
Date Played: April 5 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Separate from the Skycruiser EP the band released in Australia, the "Skycruiser / Cruise Control" Singles Club 7-inch is Ween's sole entry in the Sub Pop catalog. Released on pink vinyl, it's become a collectible of sorts for diehard fans of Dean and Gene Ween. The b-side, "Cruise Control," is a remix of the title track done by the band themselves. - DH
Date Played: April 5 by Sean
The D.C.-based band Severin released most of their music via their hometown label Dischord, as well as their own Superbad Records imprint, but they strayed away for this one Sub Pop release, #56 in the Sub Pop Singles Club series. Their angular, anxiety-ridden indie rock was a perfect fit for both labels. Though the band only last just a few years, disbanding later this year in 1993, guitarist/vocalist Alec Bourgeois became the Digital Producer/Art Director at Dischord from 1993 to 2012. Limited to 2,000 copies on clear green vinyl. - JH
Date Played: April 4 by DJ Hans
Following their 1992 Sub Pop full-length More Boy Less Friend (see #SP165), Portland band Sprinkler (led by the Slusarenko siblings) shared a few final songs on this single before calling it a day. The brothers have been busy though: in addition to launching the lauded Jackpot Records with Nate Slusarenko, vocalist/guitarist Chris Slusarenko also opened Clinton Street Video, purveyors of cult films in Portland. Following several years with Robert Pollard — first as a bassist for Guided By Voices, later as a member of Boston Spaceships — he formed the band Eyelids who released their second full-length — the Peter Buck-produced LP Or — just last year. (Watch their KEXP Morning Show in-studio session here.) As for Sprinkler, they reformed for a one-time reunion as part of MusicFest NW, playing a standing-room-only show with fellow former Sub Pop’ers Crackerbash, Pond, and Hazel. - JH
Date Played: April 4 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
One of the strongest songs off Sebadoh’s 1993 LP Bubble & Scrape (if not the strongest), Sub Pop smartly released the track “Soul & Fire” as a stand-alone single. Frontman Lou Barlow wrote many songs about his on/off relationship with his then-girlfriend Kathleen Billus, including this one, which apparently moved her so much, the couple got back together. "It was just one of many songs I wrote to bully her into getting back with me,” laughs Lou now. (The couple ended up married for more than 20 years with two children, Hendrix and Hannelore.) The B-side is collected as one of the bonus tracks on the 15th anniversary deluxe edition of the album, released in 2008, as well as a demo version of “Soul & Fire” which originally had the lyrics "Call me if you ever want to love again.” - JH
Date Played: April 4 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Just like how Crackerbash covered the Spinanes on SP158, the Olympia act returned the favor with their 1993 7-inch. The a-side "Spitfire" would soon appear on their debut LP, Manos, but the b-side cover of Crackerbash's "Bad Karma" is a remarkable fit for the band. The bands felt cut from the same cloth, embracing lo-fi fuzz with melodic poptimism. - DH
Date Played: April 4 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
The first Japanese band signed to Sub Pop (Shonen Knife had only released a single on the label), Supersnazz debuted with all the gusto of punks like The Ramones and Bikini Kill with Superstupid. Prior to the release, the band had been touring across the United States with an extended stay in Seattle where they would collaborate with The Fastbacks. The band played a show in the city in 1992 that was attended by members of the Fastbacks, Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Pearl Jam. The following day at a Thai restaurant, Sub Pop offered the band a contract to record Superstupid in Seattle. The release made a splash abroad with Sony Japan later buying the copyright to the LP. - DH
Date Played: April 4 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Love Battery's third LP, Far Gone, found the band in a complicated mess of contracts as they tried to jump to PolyGram Records. Because of stipulations in their Sub Pop contract, the label dumped Far Gone before it was even properly mixed. This unfinished version would be released on Sub Pop with plans to remix and remaster down the road, though this would never happen. - DH
Date Played: April 4 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Don't let the catalog number fool you – White Burch is the official last release from Codeine, even if it appears earlier in Sub Pop's numbering. The Barely Real EP was recorded during a first attempt at writing a follow-up to Frigid Stars. The sessions were tumultuous for the band. Bassist and vocalist Stephen Immerwahr was not happy with the band's initial recordings, citing his vocals and a high-pitched sound that no one else could hear in the mix being main issues – as well as his goal to push the band to write at even slower tempos. The band regrouped the next month at a studio in Boston to finish work on the album. Producer Mike McMacklin and Immerwahr did not get along while working on the record, so Immerwahr ended up finishing the mixing himself. The band didn't have enough material so they opted to turn the songs into an EP, recording a piano tribute to Slint with Squirrel Bait's David Grubbs. The band would support the release on tour opening for Mazzy Star. - DH
Date Played: April 4 by Sean
One compilation wasn't enough to fully tell the story of Billy Childish. Following up on 1991's double-disc I Am Billy Childish collection, The Billy Childish Native American Sampler once again delves deep into the English songwriter's prolific works across his solo projects and bands like Thee Headcoats, Thee Mighty Caesars, and The Milkshakes. Each song of the record pays homage to different Native Americans or the plight their people have faced sinced colonization. - DH
Date Played: April 4 by Sean
If you don't count their contribution to the Never Mind the Molluscs compilation, the Songs About Chris EP is the first official Eric's Trip release on Sub Pop. It's about as fuzzy and avant garde as you'd expect from a band named after a Sonic Youth song. The lo-fi aesthetics of the EP mask the delicate melodies that lay underneath. It's a technique the band would later embellish on further with records like Love Tara (which you'll hear a little later in this count-up). Hailing from Moncton, New Brunswick, Eric's Trip were the first Canadian band signed to Sub Pop. - DH
Date Played: April 3 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Not to be confused with the minor league baseball team of the same name that disbanded in 1957, San Francisco Seals was also a moniker used by one of the projects of songwriter Barbara Manning (World of Pooh, 28th Day). SF Seals (as the name was often abbreviated) put out three LPs on Matador Records before disbanding. Manning continues to write and record music under her own name. - DH
Date Played: April 3 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
A collaborative release between Sub Pop and Drag City, the Royal Trux "Steal Yr Face / Gett Off" single highlights the brash sounds the defined the band. It's almost hard to believe it's just two people making all that noise, embracing the lo-fi aesthetics of their (at the time) recently-released Untitled LP. The San Francisco-via-D.C. punks wouldn't return to Sub Pop, but would go on to work with Drag City off and on until their break-up in 2001. The band reunited for shows in 2015 and earlier this year announced that they have signed to Fat Possum Records. - DH
Date Played: April 3 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
On Reverend Horton Heat's second album, The Full Custom Gospel Of..., the Texan rockabilly favorites began to infuse themselves in pop culture. The song "Wiggle Stick" was not only featured on MTV's animated show Beavis and Butt-head, but that song along with "Beer:30" and "Nurture My Pig" were also featured in the video game Redneck Rampage. The album also features "Big Little Baby," which initially appeared on the group's debut 7-inch single in 1988. - DH
Date Played: April 3 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Before Truly would jump to a major label for their debut full-length Fast Stories... from Kid Coma (Sub Pop would still release the vinyl version of the LP), the band released the "Leslie's Coughing Up Blood / Virtually" 7-inch. Both songs would later appear on that record as well. The trio sounds at their most villanous on the a-side, chugging through arena-sized chords with a shout-along chorus as Robert Roth belts the title over Mark Pickerel's pounding drums and Hiro Yamamoto's low rumbling bass. - DH
Date Played: April 3 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
