If there was any band on the Sub Pop catalog deserving of a "best of" style compilation, it was Mudhoney. The band helped embody the spirit of the label's early years, so it's only appropriate that they'd ring in the new millenium celebrating one of their most loyal acts. The two disc set (three, if you copped the LP version) amalgamated songs from throughout the bands career as well as a wealth of b-sides and rarities, including a cover of Fang's "The Money Will Roll Right On In." A digital booklet with the album features an essay by Bruce Pavitt as well as the band weighing in on each of the 52 songs on the compilation. - DH
Date Played: May 9 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
If there was any band on the Sub Pop catalog deserving of a "best of" style compilation, it was Mudhoney. The band helped embody the spirit of the label's early years, so it's only appropriate that they'd ring in the new millenium celebrating one of their most loyal acts. The two disc set (three, if you copped the LP version) amalgamated songs from throughout the bands career as well as a wealth of b-sides and rarities, including a cover of Fang's "The Money Will Roll Right On In." A digital booklet with the album features an essay by Bruce Pavitt as well as the band weighing in on each of the 52 songs on the compilation. - DH
Date Played: May 9 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
When Looper released their first full-length — 1999’s Up a Tree (SP0453) — Stuart David was still dividing his time between this project and his other band, Belle & Sebastian. But, by 2000, he had left B&S, pouring his musical energy into the second Looper LP, The Geometrid. Thanks to some lucrative licensing deals, these songs have taken on a new life. The album’s opening track "Mondo ’77” has been licensed to commercials for Xerox and Partnership for a Drug-Free America, used in the film Vanilla Sky, the TV show American Dad, and alongside another album track (“My Robot”), used in the Xbox video game Project Gotham Racing. In 2015, Mute Records released the entire Looper back catalog (including the two Sub Pop albums) as a 5-CD boxset titled These Things. In addition to Looper, David is also an acclaimed author. His fifth novel, Peacock's Alibi, will be out June 1st. — JH
Date Played: May 9 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
As their name might imply, this project was a crossover between Aberdeen legends The Melvins and Mike Kunka of godheadSilo.Though Mike and The Melvins gets the honorary catalog number of SP498, their collaborative album Three Men and a Baby wouldn't actually be released until 2016 as SP1147. The majority of the record, however, was recorded in 1999 but we delayed for over a decade before engineer Toshi Kasai stepped in to help finish the record in 2015. The record melds the loudness of The Melvins with the even louder aesthetics of Kunka's previous project. So, yeah, it's loud. All parties involved seem to be fueled off of the aggression of one another, stirring the pot until it feels like it can combust. It was well worth the 17 year wait. - DH
Date Played: May 9 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
Out of the darkness of the grey clouds of Seattle, Murder City Devils come through with... even more darkness. On their sophomore LP, In Name and Blood, the Emerald City punks emerge with one of thee goriest and most invigorating records of their discography. The same organ that was present on their previous releases sounds especially devilish against vocalist Spencer Moody's macabre lyrics. A line from "Demon Brother" might encapsulate the record best as "Too many drinks and too much John Wayne." In the packaging of the record, the band posed themselves as murder victims, living up to their deadly name and backing it up with songs filled with death and bad intentions. - DH
Date Played: May 9 on The Morning Show with John Richards
It’s weird to think of a time when Death Cab For Cutie was a young band starting to build buzz. In 2000, the Bellingham-based indie rock act was two years removed from their debut album Something About Airplanes on the then nascent Barsuk Records. Led by songwriter Ben Gibbard, the group was (and sometimes still is) tied in with “third wave emo,” though you’d be hard pressed to find a direct sonic lineage between DCFC and Sunny Day Real Estate. Gibbard’s songwriting, while highly introspective and confessional, often veered to more tender ballads with guitarist and producer Chris Walla helping create the glistening, down-trodden sound that would define the band. But 2000 is really where the band started to come into focus.
On the same day they released their landmark sophomore album We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes, Sub Pop dropped a 7-inch from the band for their ongoing Singles Club series. Despite the very metal logo on the front cover, the single aptly showcases the spectrum the band was operating in at the time. A-side “Underwater” wistfully wobbles with Gibbard’s airy vocals bouncing off of Nathan Good’s drums and Nick Harmer’s buoyant bass – not to mention the effortless glide of Walla’s guitars. B-side “Army Corps of Architects” originally appeared on their demo tape You Can Play These Songs With Chords. It’s the band at their most stripped back, with sparse, twirling guitar notes echoing under Gibbard’s brokenhearted poetry, singing, “I knew the years would move quickly/But never quite as fast as this/So bring the discrepancies, I'll pour the drinks.” - DH
Date Played: May 9 on The Morning Show with John Richards
The Hellacopters weren't the only Scandinavian rockers making their way into the American scene. Norway's Gluecifer were all about extremes. Extreme riffs, extreme names (i.e. vocalist Biff Malibu and guitarist Captain Poon), and extreme volumes. While the band was proclaiming themselves to be the new "kings of rock" in their homeland, Sub Pop sought to help expand their empire by distributing their Tender Is The Savage LP in the United States. The Sub Pop editions of the record include a 7-inch with the LP and a bonus disc with the CD, both including three bonus tracks not included on the record. The album itself is one of the hardest and most – well – extreme in the Seattle label's catalog. - DH
Date Played: May 9 by DJ Abbie
UK metal act The Wildhearts were constantly battling lineup changes and internal issues, changing members faster than album cycles throughout the 90s. In 1997, it came to a head and the band went on a brief hiatus. It was during this time that bassist Danny McCormack sought out a new outlet for his own music – thus forming The Yo-Yos. The music was a turn away from metal and toward punk for McCormack, but it only took two singles on Rebound Records before The Yo-Yos caught the attention of Sub Pop and the label offered them to release a 7-inch for the Sub Pop Singles Club. On "Time Of Your Life," you can feel the furious spirit that attracted the label to McCormack and co. The "woos" and "oos" of the course harken back to the power pop proclivities of acts like Cheap Trick with the sneer of Sid Vicious. It was the band's first release on Sub Pop, but certainly not the last as we'll see as the count-up continues. (Fun Fact: the cover art sees the return of artist Charles Burns, who also did the cover for SP005.) - DH
Date Played: May 9 by DJ Abbie
Formed from the ashes of the Southern California stoner rock group Fu Manchu, Nebula features 3/4 of their original line-up and 100% of their heavy rock riffs, combined with a newfound west coast trippy-ness. For their debut full-length, Sub Pop fave Jack Endino produced the LP, helping shape the layers of feedback into a psych-rock daze. Mudhoney’s Mark Arm makes a guest appearance, taking lead vocals on their cover of “I Need Somebody” by The Stooges. — JH
Date Played: May 8 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
New Zealand art-punk trio The Dead C make their one and only appearance on the Sub Pop Count-Up as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club, V2 #23. 1,300 copies, all on black vinyl, though a clear vinyl pressing was found in the possession of a former Sub Pop employee, devastating any Dead C collector completists. Formed in Dunedin in 1986, The Dead C defy what had come to be known as the "Flying Nun” sound. No jangle pop here — just walls of experimental, mostly improvisational, noise rock, thick with heavy layers of drone, swimming in sonic blasts of sound. In a 2008 interview with the SF Weekly, founding member and mostly guitarist (they switch instruments often) Bruce Russell said, "If people are interested in sound as opposed to 'music,' and if they have a critical perspective on art and culture and its place in society, then they may find something of worth in our work. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.” — JH
Date Played: May 8 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The Sub Pop catalog number to be associated with a VHS comes with Sunny Day Real Estate's Live. While supporting their latest album at the time, How It Feels To Be Something On, Sub Pop tapped the band to record a live a record on tour. This would result in two different live documents of the act – a live CD/LP recorded in Eugene as well as the VHS recording filmed at The Breakroom in Seattle. Both recordings are heavy on songs from How It Feels with a couple of cuts from Diary and LP2 also finding their way into the set. This would be the band's final release on the label before parting ways with the label and releasing their final ("final" as it stands at the time of publication of this blurb) album The Rising Tide on Time Bomb Recordings. - DH
Date Played: May 8 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Inching toward the new millenium, Love As Laughter tapped into the Y2K hysteria with the title of their first album on Sub Pop, Destination 2000. Despite the digital grids and general Kraftwerk aesthetics of the album cover, the actual music contained on the disc is far away from the electronic bleeps and bloops that were long associated with "music of the future." Instead, fans were treated to a collection of grim, crunchy guitar-heavy tracks (which, in retrospect, was way more prophetic of the rock music that would emerge post-2000). A 1999 review in Pitchfork says, "Love as Laughter fits right in with the rash of rawk-band signings over at Sub Pop (the Hellacopters, Zen Guerrilla, Murder City Devils, Gluecifer, Nebula, etc.), but Destination 2000 is more than just a series of three-chord head-bashers; it's a vibrant re-creation of lo-fi rock 'n' roll that feels genuine, unforced, and thankfully free of nostalgic excesses and pouty posing." - DH
Date Played: May 8 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Throughout the Sub Pop Count-Up, we’ve seen plenty of side projects from their star signings, and here’s another. Sebadoh co-founder Eric Gaffney left the band after their fourth LP Bubble & Scrape (#SP192), which was also their first album recorded in an actual studio. Gaffney grabbed his four-track and went home, promptly returning to his lo-fi roots, recording music first under his own name, and then after recruiting a few friends, as Fields of Gaffney. Released as part of the Sub Pop Singles Club, #22 of Volume 2, limited edition 1300 copies on marbled blue vinyl. It’s also worth noting that Gaffney still has an Angelfire website, with a counter on the homepage and everything. (Sadly, no guestbook though.) — JH
Date Played: May 8 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
Formerly the Amazing Royal Crowns, the east coast rockabilly band changed their name after a west coast swing band called the Royal Crown Revue hit ‘em with a lawsuit. (At least they got to stay “amazing.”) A Sub Pop Singles Club release (V2 #21), limited to 1300 copies on clear light blue vinyl. In an interview with Ink 19, frontman Jason “King” Kendall explains how it all came to be: "That was a pretty cool thing, actually. A friend of mine, Meg, works for Sub Pop. She used to live in Providence, and she’s been working for them for like 7-8 years. We’ve always stayed in touch, and I guess through that, just talking about it. Every time we came through town in the past five years, through Seattle, she would always come out to the shows, very supportive, very cool, bring us up to the Sub Pop headquarters. I got to see where the Dwarves carved into the floor, “fuck you,” and all this other shit [laughs] – the stories of the Sub Pop thing. So it just comes from staying in touch. Actually, we were kinda talking to them about them putting the album out for a while, but the Time Bomb thing came along, and, you know, Sub Pop’s got a lot of bands, and they’re a great, great label, so they said “Well, how about we do this single?” and we said “Oh, we’d love to.” There ya go.” — JH
Date Played: May 8 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
You don’t name an album Rock Star God unless you’re ready to prove it, and Spokane band The Makers are up to the task. After five full-lengths on Estrus Records, they brought the party to Sub Pop, kicking it off with a 2-CD/LP concept album in the vein of The Who’s 1969 rock opera Tommy or, of course, the glam-rock bible The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. In an interview with Yahoo! Music, frontman Michael Maker (renamed “Michael Machine” on this release) explains, "The subject matter, of course, is rock 'n' roll, and a rock 'n' roll star. It kind of chronicles this person's mediocre rise in the rock 'n' roll world. Like the beginning of somebody's rock 'n' roll career, and then it kind of peaks out with the suicide of his girlfriend, then it goes into his disenchantment with life and music, and struggling with God and blah blah blah. It's not incredibly complicated.” — JH
Date Played: May 8 on The Midday Show with Troy Nelson
The full length-debut by the Seattle-via-Portland electro-chanteuse — her only Sub Pop release — featured layered, moody vocal textures (think Cocteau Twins meets Loreena McKennitt). While studying at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Duby met renowned PNW producer Steve Fisk, who worked with her on the project. Duby went on to release two studio albums on Sonic Boom Recordings, as well as a self-released effort in 2011. Sadly, she was involved in a serious bike accident in 2011 that injured both her hands and left her unable to play music for a time (a new tune of hers did surface in early 2017!) — KF
Date Played: May 8 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Sunny Day Real Estate disbanded for the first time in 1995, reforming three years later when they released How It Feels to Be Something On on Sub Pop in 1998. While touring in support of that album, the label approached the band about filming them for a live release. This album, along with a VHS tape (SP 491) documented two different shows in the PNW; this particular release was recorded live in Eugene, OR on May 26, 1999, while the video was filmed live at The Breakroom in Seattle on May 30, 1999. The band had a falling out with Sub Pop over creative differences with production of both releases. The band left Sub Pop shortly thereafter, eventually signing with Time Bomb Recordings. — KF
Date Played: May 8 on The Morning Show with John Richards
A Sub Pop Singles Club release (V.2 of the club, which ran from April 1998 to March 2002), this 7” was released November 16, 1999 as an edition of 1,300. Produced by the late, great Memphis producer Jim Dickinson (who also produced the band’s 1998 full length, Tomorrow Hit Today), the release features Mudhoney’s “Butterfly Stroke” as the A-Side, and a cover of Bryan Ferry’s “Editions Of You” as the B-Side. — KF
Date Played: May 8 by DJ Reeves
A collaboration between Motor City vocalist and guitarist Scott Morgan and Stockholm rockers The Hellacopters, the single and its accompanying B-Side “16 With A Bullet” were recorded in Douglaston, New York at Avalon Recording Studios by Jack Endino (who also played guitar on “Slow Down Take A Look”). Both songs were written by Scott Morgan, with the A-Side originally performed by Sonic’s Rendezvous Band. — KF
Date Played: May 8 by DJ Reeves
Seattle garage punks Murder City Devils teamed up with Oslo, Norway rockers Gluecifer for this split 7” on clear vinyl. Just a year earlier in 1998, Murder City Devils had released their Sub Pop debut, Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts. The then-sextet contributed the self-penned “In This Town” to the effort, as well as a cover of The Seeds’ “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine,” written in 1965 by the freakbeat band’s leader and vocalist, Sky Saxon. Gluecifer, the self-proclaimed “Kings of Rock,” contributed their own track “Rock & Roll” to the B-side, as well as a cover of Ted Nugent’s 1975 track “Just What The Doctor Ordered,” a befitting tune for a rock and roll-obsessed band about being driven to a nervous breakdown by an obsession with rock music. — KF
Date Played: May 8 by DJ Reeves
It’s a little tricky, but stay with me: 1999’s Grande Rock was the first album by The Hellacopters on Sub Pop, but their follow-up Payin’ the Dues, was actually recorded in 1997, making it their second album overall, and second for Sub Pop, while their third album was released by the label first. (Got all that?) So, this album still features founding guitarist Dregen who left shortly after its release to focus full-time on his other band, Backyard Babies. On his departure, he said: "it was too much hassle playing in two bands at the same time. Fame is not everything y´know... Our time will come. Backyard Babies has been around since 1989. I love bands doing it for life. I sure miss the Hellacopters guys a lot sometimes though.” (Spoiler alert: he reunited with the guys in 2016 for the 20th anniversary of their first first album 1996’s Supershitty to the Max! [exclamation point theirs].) — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
How the heck did the Supersuckers make it to 1999 without a Greatest Hits collection? That’s pretty surprising for the self-proclaimed “Greatest Band in the World,” and for a record label catalog that is loaded with releases from the whiskey-fueled, satan-supporting, cow-punk band. Well, they make up for it with the 27-track collection How the Supersuckers Became the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World, which chronicles their early years on the label. The second half of the set is all rarities, B-sides, and previously unreleased work, including a couple of Willie Nelson covers featuring none other than the Red Headed Stranger himself. This was the band’s last release with Sub Pop; in the early 2000s, they started their own label Mid-Fi Recordings. — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Chicago funk/fusion instrumental band 5ive Style on the Sub Pop discography, but it’s easy to understand why. Following the release of their 1995 self-titled debut (see #SP309), members scattered back to their full-time gigs in projects like Tortoise, Isotope 217, and the Lonesome Organist. But the guys got together for one last hurrah, making their final Sub Pop release, and final album ever, a funky farewell party. — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
Sub Pop were on a Motor City garage-rock roll, as #SP478 is the debut album from Detroit band The Go, featuring a pre-White Stripes Jack White. Legend has it an opening slot for fellow Detroiters ? & the Mysterians is what led to the signing. Though White left the band and the band left Sub Pop after this LP, the group is still active today. Following a bunch more albums — including some on respected garage rock label Burger Records — the band were reunited with Jack in 2016, in a way, as they released the Live at the Gold Dollar album via Third Man Records. — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Research shows that the first modern picture disc was released in 1969. Titled Off II: Hallucinations (Psychedelic Underground), it was a sampler of current Elektra Records bands like MC5. MC5 were a huge influence for Swedish band The Hellacopters, so it only seemed appropriate for them to release a picture disc, too. Spotlighting the track "The Devil Stole The Beat From The Lord” off their just-released full-length Grande Rock, the B-Side included the tracks “Holiday Cramps” and “Be Not Content.” — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Midday Show with Stevie Zoom
A quick glance at the track list for Grande Rock lists songs like “Paul Stanley,” "The Devil Stole the Beat from the Lord”, and "Welcome to Hell,” which gives you a good indication as to what Swedish rockers The Hellacopters are all about. While they had previously released a 7” single on the label (see #SP464), this was the band’s first full-length for Sub Pop, and the boys went, well, grande — they get labeled garage rock, but even a two-car sized would be too small. Their big, bombastic style is more appropriate for stadium rock. This was also the first release for new band member, pianist Anders Lindström, who is listed in the liner notes under the pseudonym Boba Lee Fett. — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Midday Show with Stevie Zoom
The story of Zen Guerrilla starts in Delaware in the late ‘80s, with an instrumental combo who specialized in R&B, soul, and jazz. One day they asked vocalist Marcus Durant to help out on a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child,” and that was that. The band relocated to San Francisco in the early ‘90s, catching the attention of Dead Kennedys’ frontman Jello Biafra, who signed them to his Alternative Tentacles label. Sub Pop swiftly snatched them away for their third full-length, Trance Slates in Tongues. In an interview with Scaruffi.com, Durant reflects, "It sounds different because we worked for the first time with professional and famous producers, and we were a little intimidated by the process. I guess the album does not reflect our live sound, it is more of a studio affair. But I think the songwriting was vastly improved. And, of course, working with experienced producers always helps you learn a lot of new tricks. The playing is not as loose as it should have been, but we still tried to pack as aggressive a sound as it was possible. Overall, it is a more controlled album.” — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Morning Show with Evie
Formed by a group of bratty Bellevue teens, The Catheters took Seattle by storm with their unique blend of ‘70s glam rock and early-‘80s hardcore punk. As Sub Pop succinctly describes them in a press release: "This is the band you listen to when your girlfriend leaves you cold, when you get tired of your boss using your spine as his sidewalk, when you want to put a fist through a wall.” This single was the first of many Sub Pop releases to come. Sub Pop Singles Club V2 #19. Limited to 1300 copies. — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Morning Show with Evie
Though originally from Staten Island, singer/songwriter Rusty Willoughby is deeply woven into Seattle rock history: he’s played guitar in the bands Flop, Pure Joy, Llama (with Pure Joy drummer Jim Hunnicut), and Cobirds Unite. He briefly played drums for the Fastbacks, alongside Kurt Bloch who later became his band mate for Sick Man of Europe, a Cheap Trick cover band also featuring Scott Sutherland (his bandmate in Llama) and Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman. But on this Sub Pop Singles Club release (#17 of Volume 2), it’s just Rusty, front and center. Limited edition 1,300 copies on opaque white vinyl. Willoughby is still active around town, both solo and with a reunited Llama. — JH
Date Played: May 7 on The Morning Show with Evie
Following the 1998 break up of the the band Archers of Loaf, frontman Eric Bachmann started up his solo project Crooked Fingers, introduced to the world by this Sub Pop Singles Club release V2 #18. 1300 copies pressed on marbled or solid green vinyl. The B-Side “Juliette” reappeared on his 2000 self-titled debut LP, released on WARM Records, but the A-Side didn’t reemerge until Merge Records reissued the album in 2016, including 8 other bonus tracks like 4-track cassette demos and a self-released 7”. — JH
Date Played: May 7 by DJ Miss Ashley
It’s a little surprising that Pedro The Lion only shows up once in the Sub Pop catalog, but they make their one release count. The cryptically named “Song A” and “Song B” has become a sought after rarity among fans. The single comes at the early ascent of the band, having just released their first LP It’s Hard To Find A Friend. Take the term “band” with a grain of salt – the project has always been the outlet for Seattle songwriter David Bazan, bringing along a “who’s who” of Seattle to fill out his live band when needed. Everyone from Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard to Fleet Foxes’ Nick Peterson enjoyed a stint in the group at one point.
Bazan would later re-record “Song A” a cappella and rename it “Breadwinner You” for the Secretly Canadian compilation The Unaccompanied Voice. The angel imagery of this track in particular plays in the early narrative prescribed to the act as a “Christian band,” a title that Bazan’s continued to reckon with to this day. Pedro The Lion would eventually dissolve in 2006, mirroring Bazan’s own de-conversion from his faith and kicking off Bazan’s solo career under his own name. The band recently reunited in December 2017, playing three shows at Portland’s Mississippi Studios and another three performances at The Tractor Tavern in Seattle. Soon after, the band announced that they had signed to Polyvinyl with the promise of a new on the way. - DH
Date Played: May 6 by DJ Evie
Following the 1997 disbanding of the Scud Mountain Boys, singer/songwriter Joe Pernice regrouped as The Pernice Brothers (see #SP427), and then rebranded again in 1999 as "Chappaquiddick Skyline.” (He jokingly said these songs were not worthy of the Pernice Brothers name, but it could also be because Bob Pernice wasn’t part of the recording, making it, not technically, the “Pernice Brothers.") Chappaquiddick doesn’t stray far from the lush, retro-pop of TPB, with Pernice’s usual "upbeat" lyrics — from the very first track and the very first line, with Pernice sighing, “I haaaate myyy life.” Presumably, his brother Bob returned from whatever he was doing and the probably-misspelled-a-lot-on-the-marquee moniker of Chappaquiddick Skyline was retired. (BTW: don’t miss his cover of New Order’s “Leave Me Alone” — Pernice’s plaintive vocals are a perfect match for the song’s melancholy tone.) — JH
Date Played: May 6 by DJ Evie
A release from Seattle duo The Evil Tambourines that you can find! Tobias Flowers and Andy Poehlman had been messing around in the studio for nearly a decade before the debut full-length took shape. And the result is a real Northwest snapshot: Al Larsen (of Some Velvet Sidewalk) produces, Lois (Maffeo, K Records superstar) provides vocals, and Scott Plouf (formerly of another Sub Pop duo The Spinanes and at this time a member of Built to Spill) contributes some percussion. The result is something akin to the cut+paste crate-digging of The Avalanches, the soulful groove of Thievery Corporation, the talk-rap of Soul Coughing, and the rough-around-the-edges appeal of Royal Trux. Which is all to say, it was a shame there was never a follow-up, but at least we’ve still got this album. — JH
Date Played: May 6 by DJ Evie
We’ve seen Sub Pop take on other genres besides grunge, whether bluegrass, thrash metal, or emo, but local duo Evil Tambourines are said to be their first hip-hop signing. Formed by Andy Poehlman and Tobias Flowers (formerly of Def 2 the Flesh), the guys cite influences like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. Catalog number SP468 is credited to a 12” single of their track “Manic Party Lights,” however there is not a trace of this thing anywhere on the internet. Does it even exist? Perhaps it was just one of those ubiquitous white sleeve 12” records you see DJs carting around? If anyone has a copy, we wanna hear from you. — JH
Date Played: May 6 by Atticus
While Sebadoh's album The Sebadoh didn't garner the enthusiasm the band had hoped, this promotional CD single for "Flame" showcases just one of the hidden gems on the record audiences were missing out on. Lou Barlow's low vocals mirror the bass heavy tone of the track as a rising and falling guitar riff loops endlessly in the background. It's Sebadoh at their most experimental, but without losing the fiery edge that won over fans in the first place. - DH
Date Played: May 6 by Atticus
Saint Etienne indulge their more experimental side with the Places to Visit EP. The song "52 Pilot" alone features marimba, a wurlitzer, and myriad samples and synthesizer noodling. The EP is a precursor of sorts to their next album, Sound of Water (no relation to Guillermo Del Toro's Oscar sweeping hit film, The Shape of Water), highlighting the avant garde direction the band would continue to take in the next leg of their career. - DH
Date Played: May 6 by Atticus
While the rest of the world wondered if Y2K would mean a hard reset on all of humanity, Sub Pop was busy plotting their first release of the millennium with Vue’s 2000 self-titled debut. While chrome and the vague concept of “digital” dominated aesthetics in the mainstream, San Francisco’s Vue (formerly called The Audience) opted for a much more classic approach to their music, harkening back to bands from the previous millennium like the mania of The 13th Floor Elevators and the pop-punk fervor of the Buzzcocks. The band may not have fit the archetype of “the future,” but they did know how to churn out some heady riffs and that’s a pretty great way to start off the 21st century. - DH
Date Played: May 5 on Sonic Reducer
Swedish garage rockers The Helllacopters show just how hard they rip with both “Down Right Blue” and “Thanks For Nothing.” Like the devious, drunken cartoon caricatures of the band on the single’s cover (by legendary Seattle cartoonist Peter Bagge), the band appears to be up to no good on the tracks. Guitar solos galore whiz by while vocalist Nick Royale growls and howls overtop. I’m not sure what The Hellacopters eat for breakfast, but if I had to venture to guess I’d say it’s probably nails doused in jet fuel. - DH
Date Played: May 5 on Sonic Reducer
Christmas has always been a big holiday for the retro-chic UK trio Saint Etienne as founding member Bob Stanley was indeed born on Christmas Day. (Yes, their 1993 track "I Was Born On Christmas Day” is biographically accurate!) So, while this was hardly the first seasonal single from the band, it was their first for Sub Pop Records, and the beginning of many releases on this label to come. Side A is a cover of "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You” by Parisian ingenue/convicted murderer (long story) Claudine Longet, while Side B is an original composition, an instrumental named for Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations and later in 2001, a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. — JH
Date Played: May 5 by Troy Nelson
Though mainly associated with Drag City Records, Bonnie 'Prince’ Billy (aka Will Oldham) made this singular Sub Pop Records appearance for, well, the Sub Pop Singles Club V2 #15. Only 1300 copies pressed on a pretty, clear sky blue vinyl. In Oldham’s autobiography Will Oldham on Bonnie "Prince” Billy, he states the single’s B-Side (“A Whorehouse is Any House”) was originally written for The Mekons’ Sally Timms to release on her 1999 solo album Cowboy Sally’s Twilight Laments for Lost Buckaroos. The liner notes indicate that not only did artist Glynnis McDaris paint the cover artwork, she also contributed a “pretty warble.” — JH
Date Played: May 5 by Troy Nelson
Elevator to Hell change their name to Elevator Through for their fourth album (that is, if you count Parts 1-3 as three separate records), Vague Premonition. The album is a marked departure from the band's lo-fi roots, partially in part to being recorded at Chemical Sound in Toronto instead of songwriter Rick White's home studio. Amongst the original tracks is a cover of Syd Barrett's "No Good Trying," an apt fit for the freaky psych tones the band was embracing on this release. - DH
Date Played: May 5 by Troy Nelson
Even if Pigeonhed was taking a hiatus, Steve Fisk wasn't about to stop making beats. On his first solo full-length release since 1988, Fisk indulges his avant garde dance music influences with 999 Levels of Undo. Fisk plays the majority of the instruments himself on the album, with additional contributions from Soundgarden's Kim Thayil and George Freeman of Thinking Fellers Union Local #282. The record is Fisk at his most experimental, flirting with sound design and effects that wouldn't get fully adopted into mainstream electronic music for another decade. As of today, it's also his last solo recording apart from his score he composed with Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard for the Kurt Cobain documentary About A Son. - DH
Date Played: May 5 by DJ Abbie
After fronting the Scottish trip-hop act One Dove in the early 90s, Dot Allison ending the decade by kicking off her own solo career with the album Afterglow in 1999. Sub Pop served as her ambassador to the United States with a 7-inch featuring the first two songs on the LP, “Colour Me” and “Tomorrow Never Comes…” Trip-hop is still a major factor in her music, particularly with the dark rhythms of “Colour Me.” Her solo career would be a fruitful one, as she’s continued to release albums over the years. Along the way she’s worked with numerous notable collaborators including Massive Attack, My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, Scott Walker, and The Libertines’ Pete Doherty – just to name a few. - DH
Date Played: May 5 by DJ Abbie
Blending elements of alternative country and psych-rock, Los Angeles-based group Beachwood Sparks found an ideal home in Sub Pop. The label had been flirting with country acts throughout the mid-to-late 90s and Beachwood Sparks’ twangy take on pop-rock seems to be a natural fit for Sub Pop. The band’s 7-inch for the Singles Club would be the start of a lengthy relationship between the two parties as Sub Pop would go on to release the group’s first three albums. “Midsummer Daydream” maintains the classic drawl of county but with expansive, mind-bending effects that take it from the country side to the far reaches of the milky way. The blending of styles would become a calling card for Beachwood Sparks and would be further built upon with their self-titled debut a year later. - DH
Date Played: May 5 by DJ Gabriel Teodros
Much like how Big Star's first two albums were re-issued by their label on a single disc, Sub Pop gave Dwarves a similar treatment with this dual re-release of 1991's Thank Heaven For Little Girls and 1993's Sugarfix. Given that both albums clocked in around 20 minutes each, it made logistical sense to put these two releases on one CD together. Along with the original tracklistings, the combo-pack also features two new bonus tracks, "Jonney Glue" and "Gash Wagon." - DH
Date Played: May 4 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
As mentioned back in SP0407, there was actually a bluegrass/ragtime fusion band on the label named the Blue Rags. (Wonder how they came up with that name?) The North Carolina-based band didn’t stray too far from the formula they concocted on their 1997 debut Rag-N-Roll, delivering more ramshackle roots on this sophomore release. Sadly, it was their last LP for Sub Pop. In a vitriolic interview with Asheville publication Mountain Xpress, pianist Jake Hollifield expressed his frustrations with the label experience, declaring, "I’ll never sign another recording contract as long as I live.” A third album was apparently recorded around this time, but has not yet seemed to surface. The band still plays occasional shows around their hometown, but for the most part, members have moved on to other projects, like bassist Bill Reynolds who is currently with a later Sub Pop signing, Band of Horses. — JH
Date Played: May 4 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
What do you get when you combine Seaweed with the Screaming Trees? The answer is Gardener, a side project from vocalist Aaron Stauffer (Seaweed) and bassist Van Conner (Screaming Trees), and you can’t help but wonder if the moniker is a jab at their “leafy" other bands. With a pedigree like that, you might be expecting something kinda grunge, but instead, it’s kinda groovy. You can hear flutes and sitars as a mellotron drones in the background, making it much more of a magical mystery tour than you would’ve imagined. Unfortunately, the duo didn’t produce much more, aside from a limited edition 7” single (1200 copies) featuring a cover of Don Henley’s 1984 single “The Boys of Summer.” Based on this full-length, Gardener is one side project we wish would’ve taken root. (Sorry.) — JH
Date Played: May 4 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Belle and Sebastian Stuart David first teased his Looper side-project with the "Impossible Things" 7-inch and on his first full-length under the moniker, 1999's Up A Tree, he provides us with his grand vision of the project. The album opens with the sound of a needle drop and quickly falls into found audio of kids playing over a boom-bap groove. It's a great introduction to the collage-like aesthetic of the album which includes spoken word pieces, drum and bass detours, acoustic ballads, and beat poetry. A 1999 review in Pitchfork by says of the album, "the honesty with which David presents his stories along with the stripped down and earnest 'electronica' backing them is far fresher than pretty much anything you can hear on the radio today." - DH
Date Played: May 4 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Throughout the early 90s, Bellingham's The Kent 3 indulged the Pacific Northwest with their rowdy brand of punk. Their first spring as a band lasted from 1993 to 1994, initially dissolving after bassist Adam Grendon became afflicted with health issues and Tyler Long moved to Montana. But two years later, Grendon's health took a turn for the better and Long returned from Montana to reconvene the group for an even more raucous second act. After releasing two albums on Seattle label Super Electro Sound Recordings, The Kent 3 was tapped by Sub Pop to record a 7-inch for their Singles Club. On a-side "The Sleeper," the band's surf rock influences are especially prominent while "Hatsov Turod" embraces a dirge-like pace, with vocalist Mike Pitts growling, "We'll drive my car to Jupiter, get in, get in." - DH
Date Played: May 4 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Sunny Day Real Estate can lay claim to building the foundation of the first wave of emo, but you can't talk about the second wave of the genre without getting into the Get Up Kids. On their 7-inch for the second volume of the Singles Club, the Kansas City, Missouri act gives a veritable blueprint for the emo bands that would emerge in the next decade. "10 Minutes" has the chugging chords and arpeggiated guitar lines that would become a staple for the genre as it would hit mainstream audiences. B-side “Anne Arbour” gives a glimpse at emo’s softer side, slowing down the tempo while vocalist Matt Pryor wails for a lost love. When the band initially broke up in 2005, “10 Minutes” was the last song they played at what was to be their final show. Three years the group would reunite and continue to release music and tour to this today. - DH
Date Played: May 4 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Sub Pop's resident rockabilly evangelist Reverend Horton Heat gets the compilation treatment with Holly Roller. The tracklist on this CD compiles 24 songs throughout the good Reverend's tenure on Sub Pop, including two new songs – "Bath Water Blues" and a cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." - DH
Date Played: May 4 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Sunny Day Real Estate aren't just the godfathers of emo because of 'Diary.' It's also because they can write a beautiful, tortured, sad song and get away with calling it "Bucket of Chicken." Okay, some context. Before it was a b-side to the title track for this single from How It Feels To Be Something On, the band had submitted the song to be on the soundtrack from the Brandon Lee-helmed, goth-action classic film The Crow. For whatever reason, the studio rejected the song and the band gave the track this tongue-in-cheek title as a reference to the movie's titular bird (giving the bird to another bird, so to speak). But don't worry, SDRE weren't without their Hollywood successes. In 1995, their song "8" appeared on the Batman Forever soundtrack – a surprisingly great compilation that included songs from U2, The Flaming Lips, PJ Harvey, Mazzy Star, and a little Seal song you might have heard of called "Kiss From A Rose." - DH
Date Played: May 4 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Completing a trio of Sub Pop singles of artists going solo, Screaming Trees lead guitarist Gary Lee Conner emerges with his first release under his given name for the Singles Club. He's not alone on the recordings, however. Conner is joined by his younger brother Patrick (Valis, Kittitas) as well as former Screaming Trees bandmate Mark Pickerel and Josh Homme of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. Conner takes lead vocals and plays acoustic guitar on the track, sounding likea cross between his former band as well as Pickerel's own solo work (especially on the bluesy b-side "Behind The Smile"). After the single, Conner would go on to put out two solo albums – 1999's Illuminaut and 2016's Ether Trippers. - DH
Date Played: May 3 by DJ Shannon
After the break-up of the criminally underrated Olympia post-hardcore outfit Lync, vocalist and guitarist Sam Jayne split out on his own and took on the moniker Love As Laughter. Eventually Love As Laughter would evolve from solo project to full on band with the additions of drummer Dave Schneider and former Lync bandmate bassist James Bertman. The band released several albums and singles on Olympia's K Records before jumping over to Sub Pop. Their first release for the label came with their fiery Singles Club 7-inch featuring "Nude ‘Hos" and "Watching Yer Fingers." Both tracks aptly capture the band's proclivity for classic rock riffs with new school punk attitude. It's a great introduction for the records that the band would do next, which we'll see soon on the Sub Pop catalog count-up. - DH
Date Played: May 3 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Belle and Sebastian bassist Stuart David breaks out from the band with his first solo release under the moniker Looper. Not only is he physically apart from the band here, but he's also musically treading into some decidedly non-Belle and Sebastian territory. He forgoes chamber pop for synthesizers and drums loops. The a-side on this single, "Impossible Things," features David reading a spoken word piece over – who would've guessed – loops! Loops of drums, loops of guitars, loops of flute synth-patches, and even some turntable scratches. The single is a start to a fruitful side gig for David who has continued to release records over the last two decades, including 2015's Offgrid:Offline on Mute Records. - DH
Date Played: May 3 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
In what is ostensibly Mark Lanegan's "covers album," the grunge veteran continues to showcase how well suited he is for the singer-songwriter format with I'll Take Care of You. The songs were all originally intended to be b-sides for singles from his previous record, Scraps at Midnight, but Lanegan was so happy with the recordings that he decided to package them all together. The covers range mostly from classic blues, country, and folk songwriters, including Booker T, Buck Owens, and Tim Rose. - DH
Date Played: May 3 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Even indie label owners want to be indie musicians. San Francisco act The Peechees included the founders of Lookout! Records, including former Bratmobile member and was instrumental in the riot grrrl movement. The group released two albums on Olympia’s Kill Rock Stars and toured with groups like Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, and Unwound. Just before they’d break-up in 1998, the group would go out in a clash of punk noise with their Sub Pop Singles Club 7-inch. Shortly after their break-up, Kill Rock Stars would release a compilation of rarities called Life, which also included a knotty tribute to Portland’s own Elliott Smith. - DH
Date Played: May 3 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
A reader's poll in SPIN Magazine dubbed San Francisco's Creeper Lagoon the best new artist of 1998 – which is a little funny considering the band was making music as early as 1991, but I digress. The group's accessible blend of the burgeoning "alternative rock" tag and radio ready hooks made them a strong contender for mainstream infiltration from the indie realm. Riding a wave of buzz, Sub Pop nabbed the band for a 7-inch in their Singles Club series. A-side "The Fountain" shines with a romantic glow, reminiscing about love and the summertime, while b-side "Dear Deadly (Dogday Version)" showcases the band's more raucous side with blown out guitars and swoons and swells of flanger effects. - DH
Date Played: May 3 on The Morning Show with John Richards
In 1998, Ron Sexsmith was steadily departing from his previous status as "obscure" to "opening for and being praised by Elvis Costello." The Canadian songwriter signed to Interscope and was wooing over crowds with his meticulously crafted, earnest pop rock. His double a-side for Sub Pop's Singles Club makes it clear why he was receiving so much acclaim. The shimmering "You Alone" blissfully skirts between AM radio nostalgia and classic country instrumentation (sans the drawl). Meanwhile, "We'll Manage" puts him in the role of a mournful crooner, seeking out a silver lining when things in a relationship look dour. - DH
Date Played: May 3 by Sean
Dickless end their nearly decade long career with this limited edition single given out at Sub Pop's 10th anniversary party. A-side "Lumberjack" features Mudhoney's Mark Arm on vocals, underscored by Dickless' grinding rock instrumentation. We do get to hear Kelly Canary's sensational snarl one last time on the b-side "C-Word," shredding her vocal chords like a death metal devotee throughout nearly the entirety of the minute-and-a-half long track. Sub Pop had planned a Dickless Anthology compiling all of the band's singles, but the release never manifested. - DH
Date Played: May 3 by Sean
Damien Jurado continues to forge his early legacy for plainitive, murky ballads with Rehearsals for Departure. This time around, he brought along The Posies' Ken Stingfellow to produce the album – also lending backing vocals, guitars, and a multitude of other instruments to the record. Once again, Pedro The Lion's David Bazan plays drums to his friend's project, playing on the song "Tragedy." While the album isn't without its rowdier moments, the majority of Rehearsals for Departure focuses on Jurado performing alone. The starkness of his low, warbled voice against the quiet finger picking of his guitar would be a calling card of Jurado's early work. - DH
Date Played: May 2 by DJ Hans
Sub Pop offers up a double-helping of vital, urgent queercode with this split single from Olympia's Team Dresch and Los Angeles' Longstocking for the label's Singles Club. While the band's had an entire state between them, their messages of queer empowerment with fiery riffs found them to be kindred spirits. Both bands would break-up within a year of each other as well. Maybe fated to be Team Dresch's Jody Bleyle and Longstockings' Tamala Poljak in the early 2000s to briefly form the group Infinite X's. - DH
Date Played: May 2 by DJ Hans
After Galaxie 500 split, the rhythm section went on to form Damon & Naomi – as we’ve seen throughout this count-up of the Sub Pop catalog. But what happened to lead vocalist Dean Wareham? He wasn’t going into early retirement either, quickly forming the project Luna. Before Wareham even had a band, he inked a deal with Elektra Records and started a prolific sprint of records beginning with 1992’s Lunapark. The band embraced the dreamier and poppier aspects of Galaxie 500, as you can feel on their Sub Pop Singles Club 7-inch. The band’s cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’” showcases not just Wareham’s enigmatic vocals but also the timeless pop sensibilities the project exuded. - DH
Date Played: May 2 by DJ Hans
Based out of Minneapolis, Sukpatch were at the forefront of an emerging trend of indie rock with lo-fi electronic and hip-hop beats. The duo recorded their tracks at home, embracing the aesthetics of their low budget studio equipment and the grainy, dusty tones of their loops and samples. Appropriately, their initial recordings were passed along on cassettes – eventually reaching the Pacific Northwest and finding a home on Seattle indie label Slabco. After releasing three records on Slabco, Sub Pop released the band's Stolen Chrome / Bubble Staff 7-inch in 1998 for the third installemnt of their newly revived Singles Club. The boom-bap beats against the group's clean guitar riffs is a dazzling combination, somewhat predicting the rock and electronic crossover that would boom in the next decade with acts like Grandaddy and RJD2. - DH
Date Played: May 2 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Modest Mouse returns to Sub Pop with a second 7-inch, this time for the newly revived Singles Club. The single finds the band at the ascent into indie rock prestige, having just released their landmark album The Lonesome Crowded West a year prior. Most fans likely know "Never Ending Math Equation" and b-side "Workin on Leavin' the Livin'" from the band's rarities compilation Build Nothing Out Of Something that was released in 2000. The songs capture the band in arguably their prime, showcasing Isaac Brock's trademark warbled vocals over bending, stuttering guitar notes that sound like warped vinyl – but like one of those "happy accidents" where the warps somehow make it sound even cooler, like playing "Jolene" at 33 rpm (look it up, you won't be disappointed). But the band was really just starting. In two more years they'd release another classic album, The Moon and Anarctica and six years away from breaking through to the mainstream ranting about backing into cop cars and running their mouths with "Float On" from Good People Who Love Bad News. - DH
Date Played: May 2 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Sub Pop and Creation Records has some pretty great synergy going on in the late 90s, first with the release of the Jesus and Mary Chain's Munki and then again with Saint Etienne's Good Humor. And much like with the JAMC, we see a beloved UK band grappling with their young legacy and finding new ways to adapting their sound. Much of Good Humor veers between the band's classic dance influences with acoustic instrumentation and aestehtics. But what stays consistent is the undeniable grooves and infectious vocal memories that wooed fans at the bands ascent. - DH
Date Played: May 2 by DJ Abbie
Sub Pop kicked off their second volume of their singles club with a bang, starting with this 7-inch single from one of their biggest new signees: the Jesus and Mary Chain. The disc includes the track "Birthday" from the band's (at the time) recently released LP Munki as well as a dreamy new b-side called "Hide Myself." The tracks were each written by William and Jim Reid respectively – underscoring the divisions in both the album and the crumbling relationships within the band based off the Reid brothers' conflicts. - DH
Date Played: May 2 by DJ Abbie
As Sub Pop's roster continued to evolve, compilations helped turn fans onto the new acts and direction the label was embracing. The 1998 SOUND:CHECK comp has plenty of highlights from their roster at the time, including songs from The Jesus and Mary Chain, the Spinanes, Damon & Naomi, Murder City Devils, and more. - DH
Date Played: May 1 by DJ Larry Rose
Heroic Doses was the one-and-done side-project of 5ive Style guitarist Bill Dolan after he left the group. Teaming up with members of Euphone and C-Clamp, Dolan's signature style of funk guitar playing shines through on the project's self-titled instrumental release while leaning harder into some of his rock influences. - DH
Date Played: May 1 by DJ Larry Rose
Combustible Edison round out their time as a band with a career highlight. The Impossible World blends their trademark lounge aesthetics with surrealist imagery and splashes of psychedelia sprinkled throughout. The album even includes a remix of opener "Utopia" by UK producer Scanner, leaving listeners to imagine what the band may have sounded like had they pivoted to trip-hop in a second wave of their career. In the end, however, the band would break-up during the tour for the album. - DH
Date Played: May 1 on The Afternoon Show with DJ Evie
The CD version of Hot Hot Heat's "Bandages" single features a second b-side that was left off of the 7-inch version. While "Bandages" saw the band at their most hyped and invigorated, "Move On" shows how the band can use that same energy and focus it into a ballad of sorts. While the jaunty rhythms keep it from being a real "stripped-back" affair, it's a far cry from the usual pumped up anthems the band is known for. - DH
Date Played: May 1 on The Afternoon Show with Evie
If you've lived in Seattle in the past two decades, chances are high you know the name Murder City Devils. If you were entrenched in the local music scene, there's an even higher chance that this band "means something" to you. As Seattle's music scene kept changing and reforming itself in the aftermath of grunge, Murder City Devils feverish screams and riffs became a rallying point for many music fans. MCD's career moved as fast as their music. Within a year of their formation, they signed to short-lived (no pun intended) Sub Pop subsidiary Die Young Stay Pretty Records and released their first self-titled album in 1997. A year later they made the jump to Sub Pop proper with their classic Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts. This record has all the Seattle pedigree you could ask for, right down to Jack Endino sitting behind the boards. The sounds of the electric organ ooze and seap into ever crevace of the record, finding space between the grit of Spencer Moody's voice and Dann Gallucci's out-for-blood guitars. The new Seattle scene was taking shape and MCD were about to find themselves as one of the cult favorites sitting at the epicenter. - DH
Date Played: May 1 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
For Six Finger Satellite's final album on Sub Pop, they hinted at not just what some of their members would do next, but also hints at musical trends and icons that would appear in the next decade. The band recorded Law of Ruins with James Murphy, himself just a few years away from founding his DFA Label and starting the landmark group LCD Soundsystem and who had been working as SFS' live sound engineer for thei band's previous tour before getting back into the studio.
The album is the closest we see to the group finally embracing their krautrock and experimental synthesizer work that they'd hinted at throughout their tenure as a band. You can feel the dance punk of the 00s gestating within the mangled riffs of the album, even foreshadowing John MacLean's eventual rebirth in dance music as well. MacLean quit the band not long after completing the album. The rest of the group tried to keep going, swapping out members and creating a new version of the band that would go on until 2001 when they'd ultimately dissolve. In 2009, they'd release a lost album called Half Control on Load Records comprised of material recorded before 2001. Since then, all has been quiet on the SFS front. - DH
Date Played: May 1 on The Midday Show with Stevie Zoom
Joe Pernice found himself at a crossroads. His band The Scud Mountain Boys had just released their lush and celebrated record Massachusetts, but he was feeling like he wanted to step outside the confines of the country genre. After recording the Jimmy Coma/Monkey Suit 7-inch for Sub Pop with his brother Bob Pernice, Joe’s musical vision began to open up. The single wasn’t exactly what he had imagined, but ideas of power-pop ballads with sweeping arrangements were creeping into his mind. “The Scud Mountain Boys, those guys were my closest friends.” Joe Pernice told Magnet Magazine in 2015.
“These guys are your closest friends, the music’s pretty good, and you just made a record that’s been really critically acclaimed, and you could probably build on that. I contemplated not doing it, because I thought, ‘Jesus I’m giving all that up, just for what?’ To take a crack at making this kind of record when I don’t even know if it’s going to work?”
But it did work. Sub Pop co-founded Jonathan Poneman helped the Pernice Brothers find players to build out their band. Armed with Joe’s demos, the newly formed group entered the studio and returned with Overcome By Happiness. Reviews were glowing, helping certify the album as a pop-rock cult classic. A review from Entertainment Weekly giving the album an A- grading says of the album: “[Joe Pernice]’s new band’s elegant piano foundation, irony-free songwriting, and musical debt to Nick Drake and Brian Wilson make them sound like a Ben Folds Five for adults.” - DH
Date Played: May 1 on The Midday Show with Stevie Zoom
The legendary Jesus and Mary Chain made a brief appearance on the Sub Pop roster with their sixth album, Munki – though it wasn't the best of times internally for the post-punk pioneers. Brothers Jim and William Reid have openly discussed their tumultuous relationship during this era of the JAMC. The two were barely talking to each other and would show up to the studio with the rest of the at separate times to avoid each other.
"It destroyed the band," Jim Reid told Under The Radar in 2017. "And it was almost like having a nervous breakdown in the recording studio. I was not keen to get back to that."
Not only can you feel that disconnect with the album’s polarizing sonic experimentations, with fuming rockers to near trip-hop ventures like “Perfume” with Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval. The album would also lead to the group breaking up before returning last year with Damage and Joy. - DH
Date Played: May 1 on The Morning Show on KEXP
"Compromising quality of reproduction for the sake of nostalgia," reads a note on the back of Damon & Naomi's third album, Playback Singers. Given that the duo opted to record the album in their home studio and parted ways with producer Mark Kramer, there's plenty to read into that comment. But the move to a DIY approach was a well-received moved for the project. The band is at their dreamiest, harkening back to the balladry of Galaxie 500. The song "Awake in a Muddle" was written by Masaki Batoh, lead vocalist of the Japanese experimental outfit Ghost – foreshadowing a long standing relationship between the two bands. - DH
Date Played: April 30 by DJ Riz
Angers, France punk outfit Les Thugs finished out their run on Sub Pop with Nineteen Something. The band teamed up again with producer Kurt Bloch of The Fastbacks – this time bringing him over to France instead of working in Seattle. While the album wasn't a commercial success, it saw the band experimenting with pop melodies overtop their hammering riffs. It also features the band's only song recorded in French, "Les Lendemains Qui Chantent." - DH
Date Played: April 30 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
10 Minute Warning is something of a Seattle folktale. There's an argument for the band's initial two year run from 1982 to 1984 as being the true foundation of what would become grunge. You don't need to look much past their rotating lineup and the band's they'd later play in to see why – Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses, The Fastbacks), Greg Gilmore (Mother Love Bone), Daniel House (Skin Yard, Helios Creed), Paul Solger (The Fartz), Jim Lightfoor (Memory) and on and on and on. Those two years saw the band performing what are now legenedary live performances, turning punk on its head by pulling back the tempo and letting the emotive lyrics grind against the jagged riffs. You can draw your own conclusions from listening that this would be a clear influence on bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, but the lineage is even closer than that. Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard even credits the band for making him want to learn guitar and paid homage to aspects of their sound in Green River. But what makes those years especially mythical is that the band never released any recorded material during this era. They tried and even had a go at recording an LP but it was never released. Personality conflicts in the band led to their dissolve.
15 years later after McKagan returned to Seattle after leaving Guns 'N Roses where he reconnected with Gossard, reflecting on 10 Minute Warning's glory days. It inspired McKagan to reach out to his former bandmates and finaly record their self-titled debut, which finally saw release in 1998 on Sub Pop. Original vocalist Steve Verwolf was serving a term in federal prison and was replaced by Christopher Blue. This reformation of the band was also short-lived with Solger leaving the band on the basis of creative differences. 10 years later, Verwolf died from a heroin overdose. Just a month prior he'd made a deal to release a limited split 7-inch with the band Potbelly featuring one of the lost 1983 10 Minute Warning recordings, "Then and Now." This final release from the band was released on teh day of Verwolf's funeral. - DH
Date Played: April 30 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
As we've seen throughout the Sub Pop count-up, Sub Pop's singles can often contain some of the label's most obscure and cryptic releases. This 7-inch from HRDR is just further evidence of how off the grid Sub Pop could really get. The single is the only release from the band and relatively no information is available about the group other than they were on the short-lived Spork! Records founded right here in Seattle. On the back cover of the disc they shout out some of their labelmates like hardcore acts like Bloodhag and Pointy Birds. - DH
Date Played: April 30 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
This release is essentially the same as the white label 12-inch on catalog number SP412. it is notable, however, for being Pigeonhed's final (or at least, most recent) release on Sub Pop. The duo began performing live again in 2010 and released the single "The Power Come Over Me" on Fin Records in 2013. The group tweeted in 2015 that a collection of rarities called Des Colores was "coming soon," but has yet to manifest. - DH
Date Played: April 30 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Released in conjunction with major label Sire Records, Sebadoh found themselves in a bit of purgatory with their seventh album The Sebadoh. The band's sound feels ready for the alt rock airwaves, churning out 15 polished tracks that gleam with their big budget aspirations. However, the album didn't produce the results the band hoped for.
"It was another intense, kind of transitional time," Low Barlow told Spin in 2013 about the album. "And even though it was the kind of record that I wanted to make for a while, it was really poorly received. We were dropped from Sire within a week of the record getting released."
Sub Pop wasn’t as keen on the new record either and it’d be the last project the group would release on the label. It wasn’t, however, the end of Sebadoh. The group is still active today, with their most recent release Defend Yourself arriving in 2013 on Domino Records. — DH
Date Played: April 29 by Evie
The preceding years to Mark Lanegan's third solo album, Scraps At Midnight, were eventful to say the least. He'd released his final album with Screaming Trees, 1996's Dust, and embarked on a tour with the band (which included Josh Homme of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age on rhythm guitar). During that tour he was arrested for drug possession and returned to rehab in Joshua Tree, Calif. He emerged through all of this with songs in hand, calling up long time collaborator Mike Johnson to work with him on the tracks that would become the bluesy, sprawling Scraps.
“A lot of friends and family members came out to Joshua Tree and stayed with me while I was making it,” he told Mojo Magazine in 2004. “A really, really special record. That started beating me to actually make records again."
Home, a local of Joshua Tree, spent time with Lanegan in the studio – the same space where Homme would hose his breakthrough Desert Sessions. In just a few years, Lanegan would return the favor by playing on several QOTSA albums. - DH
Date Played: April 29 by Evie
The former member of The Starkweathers breaks out on his own with Learning How to Live. The album was supposedly written about his split with his wife after she had an affair with one of his Starkweather bandmates, and you can feel that heartbreak eminating from each of these country tracks. Despite the sorrow, Ireland finds a way to work in some jaunty country tunes to help ease the pain. - DH
Date Played: April 29 by Stevie Zoom
In 1997, Built to Spill got signed to Warner Bros. Records, and drummer Scott Plouf had to decide between the two bands. Well, BTS won, and kept Plouf busy ’til he amicably retired in 2013. As for the other half of the Portland duo, Rebecca Gates relocated to Chicago, and after recruiting bassist Joanna Bolme and drummer Jerry Busher, they began work on this third Spinanes full-length at Easley McCain Recording in Memphis, Tennessee. The Chicago influence did creep in: additional songs were recorded with John McEntire (of Tortoise and The Sea and Cake) at his Soma Electronic Music Studios, and TSAC frontman Sam Prekop even appears on guest vocals. — JH
Date Played: April 29 by Stevie Zoom
Olympia's godheadSilo somehow find a way to be noisier and freakier on their third and final LP, Share The Fantasy. The fuzz and looming energy of the record's predecessor Skyward in Triumph is retained here, with the volume controls sounding like they found a new way to get even louder than before. Somehow amidst all of the chaos the band even managed to squeeze in a particularly ominous cover of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight." Though it's their final release, the band maintains that they've never broken up and even began playing shows again in 2015. Their hiatus was due largely in part to drummer Dan Haugh having an accident that nearly cut off his hand and required years of intense physical therapy before he could manage to play again. Fingers crossed the duo will find their way to the studio again for even more tinitus inducing sounds. - DH
Date Played: April 29 by Mike Ramos
Sunny Day Real Estate may have been the godfathers of emo, but they weren't the last emo act to get the Sub Pop cosign. In 1997, the label put out the first single from Salt Lake City's Magstatic who were part of an emerging new wave of emo. In contrast to the genre's originators, the new movement was less afraid to embrace its poppier tendencies with a sound closer to pop-punk and Magstatic's debut tracks are about as ideal of example as you'll find of that. The band had their punk cred too – lead vocalist Terrance Halterman was in cult favorite Utah punk acts like The Stench and Bad Yoddlers before forming Magstatic. The trio of songs on their first single are throttle between arena-sized guitar riffs and the pining vocal styling that is equal parts Jeremy Enigk and Pete Shelley. The band has remained active over the last two decades, releasing a rarities collection last year called Lost Songs which featured the three songs from their Sub Pop single. - DH
Date Played: April 29 by Mike Ramos
White label singles are some of the best tools of the trade for dance and electronic DJs. This white label 12-inch of "Battle Flag" contains the mega popular Lo Fidelity All Stars remix as well as a new mix from obscure producer Biopod. If you're planning a throwback dance party with wax, this is an essential cut to have in your collection. - DH
Date Played: April 28 on Audioasis with DJ Sharlese
As any great electronic artist entrenched in the dance scene would do, Pigeonhed continued to release remix singles of tracks from their second LP, The Full Sentence. The "Glory Bound" remixes by Red Snapper completely transforms the original track from soulful power anthem to a warped, warehouse mind melter. While the gospel choir choruses are gone, we're treated to the low growl of bass tones and breakbeats. It's what all good remixes seek out to do – take the essence of the original and mold it into a new, fresh experience. - DH
Date Played: April 28 on Audioasis with DJ Sharlese
Pigeonhed found a breakthrough hit with "Battle Flag." The original version of the song was funky enough with its sample of Prince's "Sexuality," but it became an international hit once British group Lo-Fidelity All Stars remixed the track. The song would peak at number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks and number 36 on the UK charts. It found its way into an array of avenues in pop culture, appearing in episodes of ER, Smallville, and The Sopranos as well as movies like Coyote Ugly. The track even managed to sneak into a WWF videotape called Eve of Destruction – talk about a stone cold stunner! - DH
Date Played: April 28 by Troy Nelson
Les Savy Fav made art punk with art school pedigree. The band met while all attending the Rhode Island School of Design in 1995 and quickly defined themselves for their wild, sweaty, and boisterous live performances. In 1997, they were approached by Sub Pop to put out the band’s first single, Rodeo/Blackouts on Thursday.
“in general, we were only doing songs that were special and had legitimate value as a seven-inch, not leftover throwaway junk,” lead vocalist Tim Harrington told Pitchfork in 2008. And they live up to that promise here. There’s no moment in either song. “Rodeo” bursts through right away with invigorating chimes of electric guitar before Harrington’s feral-like vocals punch through, becoming even more manic before he’s finally shouting at the end, “Cheerio's like red blood cells.” (Fun fact: this song was recorded by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murohy and Big it’s Nicholas Vernhes). “Blackouts on Thursday” only ups the ante with even more mangled guitars bursting against Harrington’s vicious screams. Later that year the band would release their debut album 3/5 and continue to record and perform today. " — DH
Date Played: April 28 by Troy Nelson
Catalog numbers and chronology don't always overlap, so for this release we time travel to the distant future of 2002 for this 12-inch release from Victoria B.C.s Hot Hot Heat. Longtime friends and bandmates Steve Bays and Dustin Hawthorne grew up in Victoria’s tight-knit, mostly punk D.I.Y scene. In 1999, they’d form Hot Hot Heat after Bays brought over a Roland Juno-60 keyboard, first embracing their punk roots but quickly adopting elements of new wave and pop. Their two couple singles released by Ache and Monotonstudio Records resonated with Sub Pop, who signed the act for their first album, Make Up The Breakdown.
Though it would still be a few years until the band found themselves in heavy rotation on MTV with “Goodnight Goodnight,” their single “Bandages” would hit 25 on the charts in the UK. The b-sides for the single release, “Apt. 101” and “Move On” were recorded by Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla.
To be on Sub Pop [the band’s first label signing] was a bit of a badge of honour in an underground sense,” Bays told The Independent in 2016. “You could be an indie band but as soon as that logo was on your posters more people were turning up. — DH
Date Played: April 28 by Troy Nelson
Two years after Sunny Day Real Estate broke-up and released their second LP, Sub Pop approached the band about the potential of putting out a collection of rarities. Unsure there would be enough material to warrant a full release, the band got together to record a couple more songs to fill out the tracklist. At the time, the bandmates were already invested in their own projects. Lead vocalist Jeremy Enigk had just released his critically acclaimed solo debut, Return of the Frog Queen, bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith were working on Foo Fighters second album The Colour and the Shape, and guitarist Dan Hoerner had moved to a farm in Eastern Washington (yeah, for real). As they worked on music, they realized their issues holding them back from working together weren't as debilitating as they once were and the band opted to record a new record that would manifest with How It Feels To Be Something On.
Call it a result of giving each other space or newfound perspective having worked on other projects, but the band sounded reinvigorated on How It Feels compared to the palpable tension on LP2. The band is tighter, the arrangements are more lush, and there's a newfound maturity that makes it a full on evolution from their Diary days. Things were going so well that Mendel toyed with leaving Foo Fighters to rejoin SDREfull-time, but in the end opted not to. This may have been a wise choice, career-wise, as the group would disband again in 2001 after releasing their final album The Rising Tide. However, they would reunite as SDRE for live performances in 2009 and would release the song "Lipton Witch" on a split 7-inch with Circa Survive for Record Store Day 2014. The group would also unite together, sans Hoerner, in 2003 to record and perform under the moniker The Fire Theft. - DH
Date Played: April 28 by DJ Morgan
As the title implies, this record features remixes of tracks from Pigeonhed's two full-length records. Many of the remixes actually appeared on some of the band's 12-inch singles. The 10th unlisted track on the record is an instrumental version of the Fisk-Goodmanson Prenuptial Trash Heap Remix of "Marry Me" that appears earlier on the record. - DH
Date Played: April 28 by DJ Morgan
We've seen Sub Pop embrace country throughout the latter half of the 90s, but The Blue Rags give us the labels first go out bluegrass and ragtime fusion – which, yes, is actually a thing. The band had been making a name for themselves throughout the south with the unrelenting touring, eventually catching the eye of Sub Pop. The label put out the group's first record, Rag-N-Roll in 1997. It's definitely a far cry from grunge, there aren't even any electric instruments on the album at all. But there's a familiar spirit between their mandolin chops and boogie-woogie piano that feels like the anarchic spirit of punk rock. After all, what's more punk than a label of punks putting out a bluegrass record? - DH
Date Played: April 28 by Abbie
Seattle's West Section Line came and went with just enough time to make themselves a myth. The country-meets-shoegaze outfit only released one album, 1996's The Man Downstairs, before lead singer Ben Savior moved to New York and pursued work on Wall Street. But the band did manage to squeeze in this 7-inch release on Sub Pop highlighting their reverb heavy, tinitus-in-the-wild-west sound. - DH
Date Played: April 27 by DJ Michele Myers
Throughout 1997, local soul-tronica duo Pigeonhed continued to mine their second studio album The Full Sentence with remixes. This 12” features remixes by London-based instrumental group Red Snapper and Dave Ruffy, drummer for the band The Ruts DC. Ruffy’s been highly in-demand since The Ruts DC broke up, playing with Aztec Camera, Eyeless in Gaza, The Waterboys, Edwyn Collins, Sinéad O’Connor, and many more. — JH
Date Played: April 27 by DJ Michele Myers
Talk about “heavy.” Following the critical and commercial success of his 1995 debut It’s Heavy In Here (see SP312), expectations were high for Eric Matthews’ sophomore album, The Lateness of the Hour. Unfortunately, the album didn’t perform as well, and by 1999, Matthews and Sub Pop parted ways. In an interview with Popdose, he points out, "If you look at those years, what you find is an almost complete collapse of the music industry. Studios started closing, labels started shutting down, radio stations began disappearing, record stores (Tower) going out of business. Me, and most of the artist I know either lost their deals or had a hard/impossible battle in trying to find a new home for their records. I wasn’t spared that indignity.” — JH
Date Played: April 27 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Missouri-based band Shiner was formed from the ashes of Season to Risk, who themselves were formed from the ashes of Kansas City punk bands Nine Lives and Curious George. Their debut LP was recorded at Steve Albini’s studio and produced by Bob Weston, and the album was released on DeSoto Records, the label launched by members of Jawbox. That’s all it took to catch Sub Pop’s eye. In an interview with Held Like Sound (a fanzine edited by John Davis, later of the bands Q And Not U and Title Tracks), guitarist/vocalist Allen Epley shared the story behind the single: "We have a friend there named CeCe who works in publicity. She had worked at Southern Records a few years before which distributes Touch and Go and DeSoto and things like that. She worked there and passed it on to Jonathan Poneman, who is the CEO there. I'm sure you've heard the name. And he fuckin' loved it, said he freaked actually. He called us up and we had a meeting with him there.” — JH
Date Played: April 27 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
They may be from Memphis, but by the mid-‘90s, The Grifters had fully ingratiated themselves with the label, with frontman Dave Shouse producing many of their recent releases. (His name is all over this Count-Up.) By this fifth full-length, the guys had their formula of bluesy, Stax-infused, psych-rock down. Maybe a little too down, because Shouse began spending more time on his side project Those Bastard Souls, and the band broke up. Or rather, just stopped. In an 2006 interview with The Agit Reader, bassist Tripp Lamkins explains, "We didn’t really break up. No one quit. Dave started another band and was ready to work with more professional musicians. Dave’s 10 years older than the rest of us. The Grifters are good at what we do, we’re good at being the Grifters.” (Fun fact: the album cover artwork was done by Lamkins, and the liner notes feature a painting of a chair by long-time Guided By Voices member Tobin Sprout.) — JH
Date Played: April 27 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
While in Memphis working on their next album, The Spinanes threw together this single of Rolling Stones covers, taking on two different tracks from their 1967 album Between the Buttons. They even did an homage to the album artwork, with front woman Rebecca Gates in a patterned necktie and band member Joanna Bolme ducking behind a camel-colored coat collar like Brian Jones. — JH
Date Played: April 27 on The Morning Show with John Richards
