SP700 and the 7th Mudhoney LP release? Naturally, it had to come out on… you guessed it: March 7th. Pitchfork called the album “the political awakening of Mudhoney” with tracks like “Where Is The Future”, “It Is Us”, and “Hard-On For War” capturing a certain disdain for an American political climate of the Bush era (“Hard-On For War” was written around the time of the 2003 U.S invasion of Iraq). It had been four years since their last LP release (see #SP0555) and in those four years, the group had departed increasingly from their aggressive grunge roots. Even so, there is a joy in sonically encountering an older, perhaps wiser Mudhoney on Under A Billion Suns. If the most eponymous Sub Pop acts evolve and adapt with time, maybe it’s okay if we do too. - SW
Date Played: June 1 on The Morning Show with John Richards
This European single released by indie folk sweetheart Rosie Thomas came on the heels of the release of her third Sub Pop LP If Songs Could Be Held (see SP0675). The first track of the release “Pretty Dress” is the second track featured on If Songs Could Be Held and is accompanied by two non-album tracks. One can hear the influence of her frequent collaborator Sufjan Stevens on both “Nicole’s Sunglasses” and “Songs”, the former a melodically sweeping and introspective reflection on family, and the latter a gentle, personal ballad of love and loss. - SW
Date Played: June 1 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Riding the high of Olympia heroes Sleater-Kinney’s widely acclaimed Sub Pop 2005 debut The Woods (see #SP0670), Sub Pop released this single, which features two tracks from The Woods: “Jumpers”, the fourth track off of the LP, and a live version of “Wilderness”, the second track. The featured version of “Wilderness” was mixed for CBC Radio 3 at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC in February 2005. - SW
Date Played: May 31 by DJ Shannon
Sandwiched between their debut 2004 album Out of the Shadow (see #SP0650) and their 2005 sophomore release Descended Like Vultures (see #SP0677), Rogue Wave released this EP, featuring “10:1”, a track that appears on the 2005 LP, in addition to three other tracks exclusive to the release. While the last three tracks harken back to the breezy, bedroom pop sound of the group’s 2004 debut, “10:1” shows what would soon come from their sophomore release: bigger, visceral sounds embraced by more sophisticated production. - SW
Date Played: May 31 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Before the release of Iron & Wine's 2009 LP Around The Well, Sub Pop released this digital iTunes single for the band's acoustic epic "Trapeze Swinger." Sam Beam's whispery voice sways back and forth against a meditative rhythm, reflecting the subject matter of the song's title. At over 9 minutes long, it's one of the longest songs in Beam's catalog and has become a fan favorite over the years. - DH
Date Played: May 31 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
This two-disc version of The Postal Services' seminal album Give Up actually combines two releases we've seen so far on the Sub Pop count-up: the original Give Up recordings plus the We Will Become Silhouettes single, featuring the b-side "Be Still My Heart" and remixes from Matthew Dear and Styrofoam. - DH
Date Played: May 31 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
As we've seen throughout the Sub Pop count-up, not all catalog numbers are chronological. That's why this 2005 EP from Kelley Stoltz shows up later than his 2007 LP Below The Branches. The Sun Through The Trees was released as an introduction to Stoltz and his psychedelic brand of pop rock, playing all the instruments himself. The title track would also appear on Below The Branches. - DH
Date Played: May 31 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
This is not an official Sub Pop release. This Kinski record was only given a catalog number for manufacturing.
Date Played: N/A
This is not an official Sub Pop release. This Kinski record was only given a catalog number for manufacturing.
Date Played: N/A
As Sub Pop continued to embrace the digital age, both the digital single and video for The Shins' "Pink Bullets" received a catalog number. The heartening video for the Chutes Too Narrow track features paper cows who've fallen in and out of love, with one of the cows lip syncing vocalist James Mercer's acoustic laments. - DH
Date Played: May 31 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Following the break-up of Seattle favorites Carissa’s Wierd, bandmates Mat Brooke and Ben Bridwell opted to start up a new project called Horses – eventually evolving into Band of Horses. The band hit the ground running, opening for a stint of shows with Iron & Wine and attracting the notice of Sub Pop who would put out their debut album, Everything All Of The Time. The album also features former Carissa’s Wierd member Sera Cahoone on drums. The band’s blend of jangling guitars and heavy-hearted indie rock lyricism became a runaway hit, particularly with songs like “The Funeral” quickly becoming part of the public conscious. - DH
Date Played: May 30 on Larry's Lounge
SP0689
The second Sub Pop release for vaunted noise outfit Wolf Eyes was 2006's Human Animal, which was their first with touring member Mike Connelly, of Hair Police. Where Burned Mind succeeded as an album-long threat, Human Animal feels arguably more nuanced, albeit still generally terrifying. Highlights include "Rationed Rot," a re-recorded collaboration with noted musician Anthony Braxton, and uncompromising lead single "The Driller." Though Human Animal hardly shattered commercial records for Sub Pop, one has to appreciate that Wolf Eyes was unleashed upon a wider, unsuspecting audience. - MH
Date Played: May 30
Released as a promotional single in support of The Woods, Sleater-Kinney flex their noise muscle with this 7-inch. Fronted by the Woods favorite "Entertain," the single is notable for including the b-side "Everything" as well as a live version of "The Fox" (the latter exclusive to the CD version). All three tracks showcase the band at their most vicious, churning out mangled riffs with remarkable ease. - DH
Date Played:May 30 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
SP0686
This is not an official Sub Pop release. The sampler was only given catalog numbers for manufacturing.
Date Played: N/A
This is not an official Sub Pop release. It and the other Brunettes records were only given catalog numbers for manufacturing.
Date Played: N/A
This is not an official Sub Pop release. It and the other Brunettes records were only given catalog numbers for manufacturing.
Date Played: N/A
This is not an official Sub Pop release. It and the other Brunettes records were only given catalog numbers for manufacturing.
Date Played: N/A
This is not an official Sub Pop release. It and the other Brunettes records were only given catalog numbers for manufacturing.
Date Played: N/A
Originally released on Canadian label Flemmish Eye in 2004, Chad VanGaalen’s first proper release was picked up by Sub Pop and re-released in 2005. Prior to becoming a recording artist, VanGaalen cut his teeth busking around Calgary with just a guitar and drums. That same spirit can be felt on Infiniheart. The album functions as a sonic collage of VanGaalen’s home recordings, ranging from fits of furious punk rock to swooning, folk tunes and glitched-out electronic production. The album was just the start of what continues to be a prolific career for VanGaalen and a long-standing relationship with Sub Pop. - DH
Date Played: May 30 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
We've already seen Sleater-Kinney's excellent The Woods on our Sub Pop count-up, but this version of the album comes with a bonus DVD featuring live performances of four of the album's tracks. The footage was recorded during the band's short tour of smaller clubs around Portland (including Slabtown, Nocturnal, and the Doug Fir Lounge) prior to recording The Woods. For a band already selling out larger theaters, these videos give a rare glimpse of S-K tearing it up in an intimate setting. - DH
Date Played: May 30 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
The Wolf Parade EP was released on July 12, 2005, Sub Pop, catalog # 678 (573 to go!), and features songs like "Shine a Light" and an extended version of "You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" which also appeared on Wolf Parade's first full-length release, Apologies to the Queen Mary later that same year. After a long hiatus, the band released Cry Cry Cry last year featuring the amazing ode to Leonard Cohen "Valley Boy" (SP 1212). - Owen Murphy
Date Played: May 30 on The Morning Show with John Richards
On their sophomore release, frontman/founder/sole proprietor Zach Rogue optimistically christened it Descended Like Vultures. "That’s the whole thing with the title," he admits, via a press release. "It’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop… this perception that everyone around you is going to turn their back."
If anything, the album was an ascension, with FOX TV Show The O.C. using several tracks on the show, and even including “Publish My Love” on the comp Music from the OC: Mix 5. (There were 4 others?) In a complete contrast of culture, the album is dedicated to the memory of author/novelist/political activist Tristan Egolf who died from suicide earlier that year. — JH
Date Played: May 30 on The Morning Show with John Richards
With the lengthily-titled Terminal Sales Vol. 1: The 2005 Sub Pop Records Songbook Of Songs, our label friends present exactly that. No bonus tracks or previously-unreleased fun to be found. At the time, they paired up with John Fluevog Shoes (pun NOT intended) and gave away a copy of the comp with every tenth online order at fluevog.com. — JH
Date Played: May 30 by DJ Abbie
If Songs Could Be Held came to be the third and final Sub Pop release for Seattle songstress Rosie Thomas. (She went on to form her own label — Sing-A-Long Records — for future full-lengths.) Thomas had moved to L.A. for the recording of this, enabling guest appearances from Ed Harcourt (who duets on "Let It Be Me”), Liz Phair, and composers Dino Meneghin and Josh Myers.
In an interview with UK outlet Penny Black Music, she warmly says (as she says all things): " I think it is the closest I’ve come to finding my niche, or maybe my own sound. I’m very proud of it. It is very different and much more progressive. I like that when I’m performing the songs I can actually move to them. It is refreshing. I was getting into a certain rhythm of what I was writing, and it was nice to push myself a bit with what I was writing. It was challenging, but worth it.” — JH
Date Played: May 30 by DJ Abbie
After self-pressing his album Antique Glow on vinyl, with covers he hand painted himself, Kelley Stoltz went "viral" before going viral was really a thing (we were still inching away from Y2K at this point). The buzz around the record caught the attention of Sub Pop, who signed Stoltz and quickly released his third LP, Below The Branches. The pop and psych wizardy of the record was undeniable, maintaining a power pop glow while venturing out into Stoltz's more eccentric and eclectic tendencies. - DH
Date Played: May 29 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
L.A. producer DJ Nobody puts his own spin on the rare Postal Service b-side "Be Still My Heart," which originally appeared on the We Will Become Silhouettes 12-inch. Nobody's remix is so fluid with the vision of the band, that he almost feels like a third member on this variation of the track. It's a seamless exploration of the band's whimiscal production with just the slightest hint of hip-hop and ambient settled between the grooves. - DH
Date Played: May 29 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
Just before releasing their sophomore LP Descended Like Vultures, Rogue Wave "exhumed and groomed" their past with this iTunes exclusive EP. The tracks on this release are comprised primarily of reworked versions of songs from their debut album, Out of the Shadow. It's a great retread for Rogue Wave diehards but also offered a great teaser for fans just getting into the band before they'd start to breakthrough into the public conscious. - DH
Date Played: May 29 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
SP0671
Sleater-Kinney's The Woods was the Olympia trio's first LP on Sub Pop, and was the band's farewell before an unexpected reunion and subsequent record. The Woods has aged exceedingly well, capturing the ferocity and precision of Sleater-Kinney's live performance, and bringing it to a level of sonic extremity. Every track, like a number of records in the S-K back catalog, is excellent, filled with moments of startling power.
One highlight is album opener "The Fox," which immediately demonstrates the heightened intensity and slightly tweaked songwriting approach that is a hallmark of The Woods, Corin Tucker offering a breathtaking vocal performance. The massive, winding "Let's Call It Love" is among the best Sleater-Kinney tracks, as it gives the band space to spread out, firmly placing themselves as modern heirs to the best rock groups of previous eras. The Woods is a fully immersive experience that is a culmination of Sleater-Kinney's reign as rock's finest. - MH
Date Played: May 29 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Constantines pull things back just a smidge and find power in their finely tuned arrangements with their third LP, Tournament of Hearts. It’s one of their densest and mature records in their catalog, embracing the low-end of their instrumentation and finding power in the dynamics of sparse guitars and swells of vocals. They bring on some of the fellow Canadian musician friends as well, including The Real Priscillas, Reg Vermue of Gentleman Reg, and Lullabye Arkestra’s Katia Taylor and Justin Small. - DH
Date Played: May 29 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
The Seattle scene kept evolving and changing after the hey day of grunge. While it'd be factually inaccurate to say that the 90s were “homogenous” and exclusive to grunge, the 2000s saw an array of new sounds coming to the foreground in the Emerald City. Post-punk act A-Frames was chief among these acts that started to take center stage. Black Forest may be the band’s final album (though they wouldn’t break-up officials until 2010), but it gives a clear mission statement for what they were about: apocalyptic nightmares and feverish guitars and bass drones to match. - DH
Date Played: May 29 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Kinski's Alpine Static is a continuation of the Seattle band's previous work, although more focused than 2003's Airs Above Your Station. Kinski continues to offer churning guitar rock mixed with elements of drone and ambient. A number of tracks from Alpine Static showcase the variance in the group's sound, including "The Wives of Artie Shaw," and "Hiding Drugs in the Temple (Part Two). Both of these highlights have directness of intention and brevity that still maintains the intensity of their past LPs. - MH
Date Played: May 29 on The Morning Show with John Richards
The band formerly known as SLAVES and VSS returns with possibly their most self-assured record between any of their incarnations, Alter. Pleasure Forever sounds just like their name on this LP, embracing excess and "whatever feels right" as they tear through 12 tracks that veer between glam and garage rock. It's a high note for the band to end their run, breaking up shortly after the album's release. - DH
Date Played: May 29 by DJ Sean
Though classified as an EP, Woman King features six very solid songs, making this release a fan essential. Each track is inspired by a different spiritual female figure, but it was apparently, unintentional. In a 2006 interview with Delusions of Adequacy, he explains, "I just happened to have all these songs about women characters. And since ‘Woman King’ was one of the later songs I wrote at the time, it just seemed to make sense. There wasn’t really a theme; it’s not a concept record. I guess it’s more of a concept in hindsight.
He continued, “But I definitely think there are great women characters, and they deserve a strong place. Women are stronger than men in a lot of ways. That’s what ‘Woman King’ was about. At the time there was a whole lot of male posturing in the news, and this grew out of that.” Words that are just as relevant over a decade later. — JH
Date Played: May 29 by Sean
The track “Passing Afternoon” closes the album Our Endless Numbered Days (#SP0630), and features the lyric singer/songwriter Sam Beam chose for the title: "There are things that drift away / like our endless, numbered days.” The extra tracks here include "Communion Cups And Someone's Coat” (which was later re-released on the singles and rarities comp, Around The Well) and "Dearest Forsaken” recorded from a 89.9 KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic session.
Much like the cover of the full-length, Beam painted a self-portrait for this release, too. In a 2011 interview with Design Sponge, he reveals, "I always liked to draw as a kid. I was always drawing. And then I went to art school — I thought that’s what I wanted to do. And then [I] studied photography and film there, in art school. But yeah, I always loved to draw and paint and shit.” — JH
Date Played: May 28 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
New music from The Postal Service post Give Up has been scant, but the band gave one last offering before disappearing for a decade with their cover of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds." Just as Collins had penned the song for titular film, The Postal Services' version appears on the Wicker Park soundtrack. The band's take on the track finds the underlying darkness within the song, reinterpreting the classic song with sparse beats and Gibbard's hushed vocals. - DH
Date Played: May 28 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
A re-release of one of the earliest Shins singles, "When I Goosestep" plants the seeds for James Mercer's dexterious vocals that would become definitive on later records. He's accompanied only by an acoustic guitar and the warble of a keyboard. The song also appeared on the Wicker Park soundtrack. - DH
Date Played: May 28 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
SP0661
This collection gathers prime Saint Etienne material from 1990-2005. Though the compilation's quality may not be surprising for a band that has a quite consistent track record, Travel Edition is an excellent introduction to Saint Etienne's work and a rich back catalog. Two new songs, both good, are also included. - MH
Date Played: May 28 on The Midday Show by DJ Stevie Zoom
Four years had passed since Love As Laughter’s last album (2001’s Sea to Shining Sea #SP0531), but it only took five months to record this follow-up, in a friend’s basement in Newark, Delaware. Founding member and main songwriter Sam Jayne describes the experience: "It was all done so hobby-style, like we were weekend warriors. You can’t do much about basement reverb, which is great.” — JH
Date Played: May 28 on The Midday Show with DJ Stevie Zoom
Jennifer Gentle is not a person, but an Italian psych-rock band who take their name from Syd Barrett’s "Lucifer Sam”, a track off the 1967 Pink Floyd debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. While this is their first album for Sub Pop, it’s their third LP overall. In an interview with Rock Town Hall, co-founder Marco Fasolo explains the signing came together because, “one of their A&R’s bought a CD collecting our first two albums and got in touch. Frankly, it was a great moment for us, because all of sudden we understood there was someone out there listening to our music. This also gave us bigger opportunities in terms of touring and promotion: we never thought about having a ‘career' when we started. We just wanted to record some songs.” — JH
Date Played: May 28 on The Midday Show with DJ Stevie Zoom
It’s been a while since our last digital-only release from Sub Pop, but the Live Session (iTunes Exclusive) revives the approach. This EP is extra-special because it features Sam Beam performing with his sister, Sarah. (She provides back-up vocals on several of his studio albums.) Together, the siblings cover New Order’s "Love Vigilantes” to kick off a small set that spanned his entire discography at that time. — JH
Date Played: May 28 by DJ Evie
“We Will Become Silhouettes” was the fourth single off their debut (and, well, sole release) Give Up. Like previous singles, there are some fun bonus tracks here, including the at-the-time previously-unreleased "Be Still My Heart” (which later appeared on the 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition version). Two remixes close it out: “Nothing Better” (remixed by Belgian one-man-project Styrofoam, and "Matthew Dear's Not Scared Mix” of the title track. — JH
Date Played: May 28 on The Morning Show with DJ Evie
Wolf Parade's prinicpal songwriters Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug are often compared to Paul McCartney and John Lennon for the very utilitarian reason that when contrasting components compliment each other, they can do amazing things as a unit. On their much-anticipated and near-atomically well-received debut full-length — produced mostly by Issac Brock and named in reaction to an incident that got them kicked off an ocean liner — Boeckner and Krug offer a good number of the most well-known songs of either of their extensive and fruitful careers, an imaginative round of chaotic sprints, cracked waltzes, bouncy, off-kilter pop-rock diamonds, and the endlessly quoted lyric, "God doesn't always have the best goddamn plans." With the (arguable) highlights of Boeckner "born to run" on "Shine a Light" and Krug yelping his way through the borderline anthemic "I'll Believe in Anything," Apologies to the Queen Mary is, from pillar to post, an astoundingly eccentric, evocative, and exciting coming out party for two of the 00s' most talented songwriters. — MD
Date Played: May 28 on The Morning Show with DJ Evie
Fruit Bats (aka Eric D. Johnson) continue their Sub Pop career with Spelled in Bones. If you think he sounds like a combination of Califone and The Shins, you’d be right, as Johnson played guitar for both those bands. (In fact, it was Mercer who introduced him to Sub Pop.) This album was intended to be a lot sadder. In his press release, he writes "I was going to write this dark bummer record with shades of optimism, but my life started getting better.” And who can fault him that? — JH
Date Played: May 27 on The Morning Show with DJ Evie
Sub Pop continued to mine The Shins’ second LP Chutes Too Narrow with the “Fighting in a Sack” single. A couple of non-album tracks make it fun, including a cover of the 1972 T. Rex track "Baby Boomerang” and a live version of their mega-hit “New Slang” with special guest Sam Beam of Iron & Wine. And, in early 2000s multimedia fashion, you can also watch the video for “So Says I.” — JH
Date Played: May 27 by DJ Evie
Following the successful release of their 2001 full-length Shine a Light (see #SP0569), Sub Pop made the choice to reissue the band’s self-titled debut, originally released via Canadian label Three Gut Records, an album that garnered the guys a Juno Award nomination for "Best Alternative Album.” (Juno being the Canadian-version of The Grammys.) — JH
Date Played: May 27 by DJ Evie
With Sub Pop: Patient Zero, the label continues their long-running tradition of compilations spotlighting their artists. Like most of their 2000s-era comps, it’s pretty much all previously released tracks, from The Shins, The Thermals, The Helio Sequence, and other current-at-the-time roster heroes. — JH
Date Played: May 27 by DJ Stevie Zoom
Following the dot-com bomb in 2002, Zach Schwartz rebranded as "Zach Rogue” — taking his name from the Neal Stephenson's techno-historical book Cryptonomicon. He explained to the SF Station, "there is a part where Stephenson's talks about cataclysmic events, you know, natural disasters, and he mentions rogue waves. Sounded interesting, so I learned what they were and was fascinated by them; how they seemingly come from nowhere, have very little scientific understanding, etc. It seemed like a metaphor for art/music and the mysterious forces of inspiration, the unknowable, the wide-eyed expectation, youth, getting close but never completely getting your arms around the source...."
Rogue embraced all those qualities, turning out a batch of easy-breezy retro-tinged pop, that seemed almost custom-made for Sub Pop and complementary to The Shins. A listing in Craigslist connected him to Bay Area musicians Patrick Spurgeon, Gram LeBron, and Sonya Westcott — who went on to Hardly Art band Arthur & Yu. — JH
Date Played: May 27 by DJ Stevie Zoom
Michigan noise band Wolf Eyes chose some good artwork for the “Stabbed in the Face” 12” single, a highlight off their first Sub Pop LP (and fourth full-length in all). The stark, abstract artwork is a solid match for their erratic, jagged, experimental sound. The handwritten-style font on the back reminds one of the high school stoner dude in detention who would carve heavy metal band names into the desk using the pointy end of the protractor. The B-Side features a song titled "Stabbed in the Face II”, which is an instrumental take on the title track, not a sequel. — JH
Date Played: May 27 by Stevie Zoom
An entire decade passed between the band’s 2003 debut No Silver/ No Gold (see #SP0615) and this sophomore release. Over that time, band members came and went. Founding frontman/guitarist Chris Flemmons wrote, recorded, and scrapped an album in 2005. And then fellow founding member/drummer Steve Hill left the band in 2007. Flemmons began the 35 Denton festival, spotlighting other local bands in the North Texas area, before finally, focusing back on himself to finish this release. — JH
Date Played: May 27 by Mike Ramos
After early days on Jello Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles, and then adding Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance to the line-up, Comets on Fire went on to sign with Sub Pop, releasing their most critically acclaimed LP yet. Frontman Ethan Miller described it to Magnet as their “Let’s hook our trailers up in the trailer park, create a hurricane, and see what our little town looks like after that” album. For the album artwork, percussionist Noel von Harmonson says they used "a photograph of an elephant that suffered from a disease causing a lack of pigment in some areas of its skin.” — JH
Date Played: May 27 by Mike Ramos
This CD EP spotlights "Shine a Light”, a track off 2003’s Shine A Light, but the two bonus tracks make the CD: their take on 19th-century seaport song "Sea Line Woman”, popularized by Nina Simone in 1964, and a cover of "I Am a Raw Youth” by Ontario band Royal City. Additionally, the music video for "Nightime Anytime” could be played off the CD, because it was the early 2000s, and that kinda multi-media experience was in vogue. — JH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Tim
The sophomore Thermals LP, titled Fuckin A finds the band in similar form to their excellent debut, More Parts Per Million, although with higher fidelity. Recorded by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla, Fuckin A retains much of The Thermals's spontaneous energy while it also strengthens their political agenda, directly tackling the ongoing Iraq War and the combustible political climate. The hooks also remain intact, especially on album highlights "How We Know," and "God and Country," both among the greatest Thermals cuts. Overall, Fuckin A is among the upper echelon of Thermals records. — MH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Tim
The B-Side is titled "When I Goose-Step” but the artwork on this super-limited-edition picture disc is a march of the penguins. The song originally appeared on a 7” single released on Omnibus, and there’s apparently a studio-slick, overproduced version of the song recorded for the Wicker Park soundtrack (a "2004 American psychological drama/romantic mystery film" — thank you, Wikipedia), but the song has yet to appear on any album. — JH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Tim
Since forming in 1993, Low’s sound has evolved so slowly — as slow as their early work on Vernon Yard, you might say — you didn’t even realize it was happening. But by their seventh full-length, they had left Kranky for Sub Pop, a move that seemed surprising at the time, but in retrospect, was the perfect fit for the Duluth, MN band. For The Great Destroyer, they teamed up with producer Dave Fridmann, who employed his trademark expansive touch to their increasingly-more “rock” sound.
Founding member/frontman Alan Sparhawk explained the logic behind the signing to Slug Mag: “No matter how much you think it’s just about writing songs and doing your art, you still gotta figure out what the best way to do it is. It’s like making toast. If you’re going to make toast, why not use a knife and a toaster instead of an iron and your finger, or whatever. If you have the chance to use a knife, let’s do it if it makes things easier, because really, what it’s about is making toast.” — JH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Morgan
Aside from All Night Radio (see #SP0623), Sub Pop continued to mine the talent in L.A. band Beachwood Sparks with Frausdots, a project of Brent Rademaker and his girlfriend/bandmate Michelle Loiselle. “We decided to do this when we were just friends, but we fell in love in Spain when The Cure was playing a festival,” he clarified. And who did they land for a special guest on the album? Roger O’Donnell, former keyboardist for The Cure and Psychedelic Furs. (As well as Mia Doi Todd, Rob Campanella and Hunter Crowley of Brian Jonestown Massacre, and quite a few others.) — JH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Morgan
This version of the "Talk To Me, Dance With Me" single is basically the same as the release for SP637, except that this version doesn't have the live version of "Le Le Low." So if you really hate live versions of songs but still want to complete your Hot Hot Heat collection, maybe this is the one to reach for on Discogs. - DH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Morgan
The Album Leaf’s first album on Sub Pop has some thanks to give to Icelandic kindred spirits Sigur Ros. After putting out three self-recorded albums under the Album Leaf moniker, songwriter Jimmy Lavelle was tapped by Sigur Ros to open for both their European and U.S. tours. It was an apt fit, given Lavelle’s penchant for fusing elements of post-rock and ambient music. After the tours, Sigur Ros invited Lavelle to use their studio in Iceland to record what would become his Sub Pop debut In A Safe Place. Members of Sigur Ros even played on the record as well as the Icelandic quarter Amiina. With all those people in the room, the results are about as amorphous and gorgeous as you’d expect. It set the stage for Lavelle to continue expanding outward, as he would do on future Sub Pop releases. - DH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Sean
On Holopaw’s sophomore album, Quit +/Or Fight, the band began to expand beyond the delicate folk of their debut and incorporated slight elements of synthesizers and electronic production. The gentle, poignant songwriting struck a chord with Pitchfork, who called the album “a breakup record, heavy with heartache and dark, belly-punching bits.” - DH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Sean
Michigan-based band Wolf Eyes named their fourth full-length Burned Mind after one of the members of the ‘70s experimental noise rock band Smegma, which gives you a hint of what’s to come: a ferocious onslaught of sound that almost stalks, surrounds, and then devours its listener. Since forming in 1996, the fiercely DIY group have released over 300 recordings during their career. Possibly 500. Does anyone really know?
In a 2015 interview for Noisey, co-founder John Olson remembers how they ended up with the Seattle label: "It goes back to Clint (Simonson, owner of De Stijl Records). He was working with them for the Michael Yonkers reissue and he had a made a joke. They were like 'What do you guys wanna put out next?' and he just made a joke like 'How about Wolf Eyes?' And they were like 'No way, it’d be like selling microwaves to a circus.' Then they were like 'Oh, that’s a good deal, let’s check out a gig.' Then they flew to Minneapolis to check out a gig and it just played out from there." — JH
Date Played: May 26 by DJ Sean
Sub Pop continued to promote Hot Hot Heat's thriving Make Up The Breakdown with this promotional single for "Talk To Me, Dance With Me." This version of the single also includes the feisty “Oh, Goddamnit” as well as a live version of “Le Le Low” from their debut Knock Knock Knock EP. - DH
Date Played: May 25 on Friday Night with Michele Myers
Blake Sennett is one of those artistic wunderkinds that always leaves you wondering, “How do you have the time to do all of this?” Sennet started his career as a child actor, appearing in seminal family sitcoms like Salute Your Shorts and Boy Meets World before co-founding Rilo Kiley with Jenny Lewis in 1998. After Rilo Kiley started to build some steam, he started up a project of his own with The Elected. The band’s first album, Me First, leans heavier into country than the sparkly indie pop of Rilo Kiley, but highlights Sennett’s tasteful, alluring songwriting (as well as an uncanny knack for naming songs, like “My Baby’s A Dick”). - DH
Date Played: May 25 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Following his debut stand-up album, Shut Up, You Fucking Baby!, David Cross returns with the pretty funny It’s Not Funny. The performance was recorded at The Improv in Washington, D.C. and includes skits with verbose titles like “I’ve Taken A Popular Contemporary Pop Song And Changed The Lyrics To Comment On The Proliferation Of Starbucks In My Neighborhood!” and “When All Is Said And Done, I Am Lonely And Miserable And Barely Able To Mask My Contempt For The Audience As I Trot Out The Same Sorry Act I've Been Doing Since The Mid-Eighties!” The final track on the CD also includes a hidden skit about playing poker with Creed’s Scott Stapp. - DH
Date Played: May 25 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Before The Catheters could fully depart from Sub Pop, the Bellevue band gave one final offering with the No Natural Law. Featuring two tracks from their final album, Howling… It Grows and Grows!!!, the release teases their devilish, hard rocking ways. The EP also contains two previously unreleased tracks, “Hot Tar” and “Past The Present.” - DH
Date Played: May 25 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Before Helio Sequence signed to Sub Pop in 2004, the Portland duo built up a reputation for their home recorded blend of indie rock and electronic music with records like Com Plex and Young Effectuals. After signing to the label, they opted to continue the home recording method for their third LP Love and Distance. The album was recording between members Benjamin Weikel and Brandon Summers’ apartments, Weikel’s parents’ spare room, and Modest Mouse lead vocalist Isaac Brock’s garage. But even with these DIY approach, Love and Distance is remarkably pristine. It’s a testament to both their ingenuity as musicians and engineers, creating a record that feels like it could’ve been recorded in a top of the line studio. It would also mark the start of a long standing relationship with the label that’s still continuing today. - DH
Date Played: May 25 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The L.A. duo offer up a 12” version of the track that shares their band name. The B-Side is subtitled "All Night Radio (Flying Radio Bat Factory)”, which I think just refers to the addition of a horn section. The sleeve is said to be hand-painted; hopefully it wasn’t a large pressing. — JH
Date Played: May 25 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Sam Beam’s second album as "Iron & Wine" found him recording in a professional studio for the very first time, and it’s his first solo release with a band. (His debut The Creek Drank The Cradle [#SP600] was mostly culled from his early demos, which were recorded at home on four-track.) In an interview with In Music We Trust, he says, "I recorded all the songs at home prior to going into the studio, so the writing process wasn't different. Recording, however, was different. I got to use better mics and equipment, which was nice. It was all pretty new and I didn't really know what I was going to do. The time clock was a real pain. It was an element I wasn't used to."
Beam was also building momentum: he had just appeared on The Postal Service EP for Such Great Heights (#SP0608) with a tender, acoustic cover of the title track that some even preferred to the original. (Sorry, Ben & Jimmy.) And talk about heights: his cover was used in a commercial for M&Ms, as well as other less-tasty uses (the soundtrack for Garden State, an Ask.com commercial). — JH
Date Played: May 25 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Back in the ancient times of 1991, Sub Pop released the VHS compilation Sub Pop Video Network Program 1, a collection of music videos from their top tier artists at the time: Nirvana, Mudhoney, Tad, Dwarves, to name a few. Fast forward to 2003, and they reissued the video tape onto state-of-the-art DVD. There are very few changes from the original release: this one has a catalog number, while the VHS did not; the track listing is mixed around (Nirvana’s “In Bloom” jumps from track 6 to track 1 — way to kick off the comp!); and a promotional clip titled "At Home With Sub Pop” is tacked on to the end. — JH
Date Played: May 25
Sub Pop mainstays Kinski collaborated with noted Japanese psychedelic collective on a four track split EP that manages to stretch over an hour in length, a fact less surprising when one regards the lengthy tendencies of both groups. Kinski's rather gorgeous, escalating "Fell Asleep On Your Lawn" equals the strength of 2003's Airs Above Your Station rapidly descending into a massive wall of noise. Two collaborative tracks from the bands follow, which find common ground between their disparate sensibilities, including the use of chanting, flutes, and sitar. Lastly comes the massive "Virginal Plane 5:23" from Acid Mothers Temple, a 26 minute journey that jumps between passages of wild improvisation and endlessly repeating riffs. - MH
Date Played: May 25 on The Morning Show with John Richards
After the surprising success (and requisite backlash) of The Shins' basement-pop almost-masterpiece Oh, Inverted World, James Mercer — on the heels of signing with Sub Pop, quitting his job, withstanding the emotional strife of a breakup with his girlfriend of five years, and moving from Alberqueque to Portland — wrote a stunning collection of songs which would wind up being his band's sophomore album.
From being regarded as a budget version of Brian Wilson to having his band favorably compared to The Kinks, the Zombies, and Burt Bacharach, Chutes Too Narrow is somehow a vast improvement and refinement of Mercer's songwriting gifts, touring through the sounds of cavity-inducing guitar-pop, British Invasion-esque rock, folk music alternating between rollicking and quasi-experimental, and a gorgeously sad country ballad for good measure. With a few exceptions (including but not limited to the indictment of oppressive government regimes coursing through "So Says I"), the album is rife with frankly — sometimes brutally — poetic breakup songs, their raw pain shrouded in irresistible melody. — MD
Date Played: May 25 on The Morning Show with John Richards
This release is essentially identical to SP607, except this version was released on in Europe. It would seem to infect the galaxy one planet at a time, you have to start with the individual continents first. Smart thinking, Sub Pop! Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, would be proud. - DH
Date Played: May 23 by DJ Hans
It was a long road that led Dave Scher and Jimi Hey to forming All Night Radio. The two first became acquainted when Hey would call into Scher’s radio show constantly requesting Sub Pop act Six Finger Satellite and eventually joining a band together Bee Venom, which would in turn bring them into Beachwood Sparks. Hey would leave the band shortly after it started in 1997, but would return in 2002. It was at this point that he and Scher decided to start up All Night Radio. Their only full-length LP, Spirit Stereo Frequency, carries over the languid psychedelia of Beachwood Sparks but leans further in the 70s pop pastiche of acts like Big Star. The project didn’t last long, disbanding in 2004. — DH
Date Played: May 23 by DJ Hans
"Memory wise, memory flies, memory rarely satisfies,” sings Hutch Harris on “A Passing Feeling,” a highlight from the Thermals’ excellent debut album, More Parts Per Million. It’s an impression any person who has experienced anything can relate to. Remembrance is a fading photograph, an unreliable chronicle tied as loosely to the thrill of experience as a frayed shoelace. That’s part of why recorded music is such a powerful document; while memory goes dull with the passage of time, a recording captures a moment in time preserved for as long as a copy exists. — MD (read the full review here)
Date Played: May 23 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Ahead of the release of The Shins' sophomore album, Chutes Too Narrow, the band teased what was to come with "So Says I." The song is one of the most damning social critiques in the band's catalog, looking at both capitalist and communist societies through a critical lens (and later visualized with penguins in the song's music video). Somewhat ironically to the messaging of the music, the song also appeared as a sample song for the Media Center Edition of the Windows XP operating system and the band also performed the song on an episode of The Gilmore Girls. - DH
Date Played: May 23 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Airs Above Your Station was Kinski's first full-length for Sub Pop after two comparatively brief releases for the label (see: #SPO606, SPO541). The band largely delivers on the premise their past recordings, although Airs Above Your Station is a frequently overwhelming listen, its hour running length deliberately extreme. A fragmented approach to listening to the LP may be advised. However, a number of highlights do emerge, including lead single "Semaphore." "I Think I Blew It" finds Kinski further developing their ambient tendencies to good effect, whirring guitars building a soundscape worthy of Brian Eno's Apollo. The album centerpiece, the eleven-minute "Schedule for Using Pillows and Beanbags" is another mesmerizing performance, complete with jackhammer crescendo. - MH
Date Played: May 23 on The Midday Show by Cheryl Waters
After the surprise success Sam Beam found using his four-track demos for Iron & Wine's debut, The Creek Drank The Cradle, he followed it up with a similarly recorded set of songs with The Sea & The Rhythm. The five songs on this EP feel thematically similar to its predecessor as well, telling modern folk tales and aptly capturing Midwestern scenery with soft played acoustic guitars and banjos. - DH
Date Played: May 23 on The Midday Show by Cheryl Waters
The Catheters ended their rowdy run with one of their most explosive records in their catalog. Howling.. It Grows and Grows!!! is just a furious, exciting, and maximalist as the title and wicked artwork implies. Vocalist Brian Standeford sounds like he's shredding his voice on every song, motivated by the fits of mangled noise being conjured by his bandmates. The band would make their final bow out with a show at The Sunset Tavern in Seattle in 2004. - DH
Date Played: May 23 on The Midday Show by Cheryl Waters
Sub Pop continues to ride the wave of Hot Hot Heat's Make Up The Breakdown with this promotional single for "No Not Now." Fans were also treated to a throwback surprise with the b-side "5 Times Out Of 100." The track originally appeared on their debut Knock Knock Knock EP and gets a remix here by Victoria, BC producer HRDVISION – giving a techno spin on the jaunty, art rock track. - DH
Date Played: May 23 on The Morning Show by John Richards
The original tenure of the Murder City Devils officially ended with the R.I.P. record, which was recorded at the band's final show, October 31, 2001. While the Thelema EP (see: #SPO560), hinted as a melodic direction forward for the group, R.I.P. showcases the band at their most acerbic, drunkenly rolling through 19 tracks. Pretty Girls Make Graves's Andrea Zollo joins the group on "Boom Swagger," which remains a highlight. R.I.P. is an apt, antisocial exit for The Murder City Devils, before their 2006 reunion. - MH
Date Played: May 23 on The Morning Show by John Richards
The second Baptist Generals full-length, No Silver/ No Gold, is a deeply compelling document that constantly sounds on the edge of collapse. Recorded on an 8-track recorder in a garage, the Denton, Texas band blend elements of country, folk, and low-fi, all filtered through a lens of cheap alcohol and infrequent sleep patterns. Chris Flemmons's strained, evocative voice brings to mind the solo records of Roky Erickson, Vic Chessnut, or Silver Jews's David Berman at his most haggard. No Silver/ No Gold was Flemmons's last album for a decade, before the eventual return of the Generals with 2013's Jacklet Devotional to the Heart. Even if another record had never surfaced, the twelve songs on No Silver are more than enough to cement Flemmons with a devoted following. - MH
Date Played: May 23 by DJ Abbie
The opening track from The Postal Services' 'Give Up' gets expanded on with this 12-inch single, including remixes from DJ Downfall and John Tejada. The song itself draws inspiration from lead vocalist Ben Gibbard's long distance relationship with a woman living in Washington D.C. ("D.C. sleeps alone tonight"), setting the heavy-hearted tone for the record. The 12-inch single also includes a cover of Flaming Lips' "Suddenly Everything Has Changed." - DH
Date Played: May 22 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
Hot Hot Heat’s “Bandages” makes its way onto the Sub Pop count-up... yet again! This release is a regional variation on the previous versions we’ve seen thus far, this time including a second b-side called “Move On.” The bouncing bass line, jangling guitars, and the “na-na-na-na" chorus are so damn catchy that it’s a wonder it wasn’t a single in its own right. Good luck getting this one out of your head. - DH
Date Played: May 22 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
“So I play music that's what I do
When I sing I lose myself
There's nothing more I'd rather do
Lord knows I've tried everything else”
That chorus on “I Play Music” from Rosie Thomas’ Only With Laughter Can You Win feels like a mission statement for her career. Thomas has frequently been heard collaborating with songwriters from Sufjan Stevens to Damien Jurado and Rocky Votolato, but on her second album she continues to establish herself as a songwriting force unto herself. Only With Laughter feels like comfort food and a hug from a loved one when you’ve had a rough day. Thomas’ voice has never sound so effortless and distinguished as it does here, finding bliss in childhood memories and a curious look at the world around her. - DH
Date Played: May 22 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Few tracks perfectly summarize both the career arcs of Sub Pop Records and The Thermals quite like "No Culture Icons," a song that manages a perfect balance between self-referentiality, cynicism, and a buoyant punk spirit that is a hallmark of the band's best work. In addition, "No Culture Icons" gave Sub Pop a name for its sister label Hardly Art, taken from the track's first line. Also featured on the No Culture Icons EP is More Parts Per Million highlight "An Endless Supply," and two other tracks, including the still necessary "Everything Thermals." The music video also offers visuals of prime Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster antics, and Hutch awkwardly drinking a forty, which is thoroughly charming, especially in light of the band's recent and untimely break-up. In Hutch's words: "Eyes so deep// You'd never see through// I can't fucking stop// Thinking about you." - MH
Date Played: May 22 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Sub Pop’s country phase in the late 90s still had a lingering impact on the bands the label would sign in the next decade, albeit manifest in different ways. Just take a look at Mouthfuls, the first album Chicago’s Fruit Bats released on the label. Songwriter Eric Johnson has always had a penchant for merging the classic sounds of western ballads with the glisten of pop rock radio. On Mouthfuls, he does and that and then some with 10 immaculately crafted tracks that cut to the core of a broken heart without wanting to close yourself away in your room. The album also produced one of the band’s all-time classic anthems with the heavenly sweetness of “When U Love Somebody.” - DH
Date Played: May 22 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Over a decade before the Baptist Generals would release a full length album on Sub Pop, the Denton, Texas group released their Void Touching Faster Victuals EP on the Seattle label. The band’s work over the years has garnered a reputation for mixing ramshackle folk and blues with indie rock sounds and structure. Those sounds come to a head with Void Touching Faster Victuals, a collection of four lo-fi slow burners that sound like 2000s freak folk being broadcast through a gramophone. - DH
Date Played: May 22 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The CD single for The Postal Service's mega-hit "Such Great Heights" not only comes with a rare b-side from the band, but also two covers from fellow Sub Pop up-and-comers Iron & Wine and The Shines. Iron & Wine vocalist Sam Beam's breathy rendition of "Such Great Heights" would later become iconic in its own right (and would have an enduring legacy of covers in dorm rooms for the following decades). The Shins' take on "We Will Become Silhouettes" turns the apocalyptic fever dream in to a jaunty, endearingly sadistic take on teh end of the world with chunky acoustic guitars. - DH
Date Played: May 22 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Sub Pop's CD promo samplers have always served well as a sort of "State of the Label," showcasing the acts defining any particular era of Sub Pop. With Infecting The Galaxy One Planet At A Time we get not just a glimpse of the era for the label, but trends emerging in 2003. The dance punk of The Rapture and Hot Hot Heat sits side-by-side with the fiery punk of The Thermals and The Murder City Devils. The Postal Service's "bleep-bloop" electronic sound sets itself in the tracklist as well alongside the elegant folk of Iron & Wine and Rosie Thomas. If you want to know what "indie music" sounded like in 2003, maybe it's time to bust out this compilation. - DH
Date Played: May 22 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Though just four tracks, Kinski's Semaphore EP feels like the true Sub Pop debut for the Seattle group. Released as a teaser for their 2003 full-length Airs Above Your Station, Semaphore is possessed by a clarity of intention and drive that can occasionally be obscured by Kinski's experimentalism. The titular "Semaphore" is a great introduction to the band's music, slowly building to a grinding crescendo that slams straight into a cover of the Clean song "Point That Thing Somewhere Else." David Kilgour's songwriting proves to be a great match for Kinski's overloaded drones. "The Bunnies Are Tough" showcases the band's minimal side, a lull that veers into the surprisingly lovely "I Wouldn't Hurt A Fly, which jumps between spans of bursting guitar and lingering melody. Overall, the arc of the EP demonstrates the vitality and power of Kinski's range, well setting the stage for future albums to come. - MH
Date Played: May 22 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Holopaw came to the attention of Sub Pop following the release of frontman John Orth's collaboration with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock, on Ugly Casanova's Sharpen Your Teeth. Soon after, Brock played Sub Pop the band's demo tape, and they were signed to the label. Holopaw's self-titled debut makes good on the promise of the Ugly Casanova project, while proceeding in a significantly different direction. Holopaw's sound mixes shades of Americana with gentle electronics, creating an ambience that proves quite difficult to pigeonhole into a genre. In the words of Sub Pop founder Jonathan Poneman, "There are bands that are making music and bands that are making art. Holopaw is making art." - MH
Date Played: May 22 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Propelled by the Static Delusions and Stone-Still Days cut "I Fall Easy," this double a-side single distills the Catheters into their loudest, brashest, and punk-est (is that a word?) selves. They get some help from a couple Northwest legends as well, with "Pale Horse" produced by John Goodmanson (Death Cab For Cutie, Sleater-Kinney) and the remaining two recorded by The Fastbacks' own Kurt Bloch. - DH
Date Played: May 22 by DJ Reeves
This Mudhoney 7" collects a track from the band's Since We've Become Translucent LP, as well as a cover of Alice Cooper's "Long Way to Go." "Sonic Infusion," the choice single from Since We've Become Translucent, also has a killer video that has shockingly high production value for the band. - MH
Date Played: May 22 by DJ Reeves
Released on the heels of Ugly Casanova’s debut Sharpen Your Teeth, Isaac Brock’s freaky folk-ish side-project closes out the second volume of the Sub Pop Singles club with this 7-inch single. Both tracks appeared on Sharpen Your Teeth but do a great job teasing listeners with what to expect from the album. Brock’s obtuse drawl sifts its way through the psychedelic collage of “Diggin’ Holes” and finds a surprising tenderness on b-side “Babies Clean Conscience.” This single is the last official release we’ve seen from Ugly Casanova to date, though the band would be credited with the soundtrack for the 2010 film 180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless. - DH
Date Played: May 21 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
Released in the UK in promotion of the band's second album, Stab The Unstoppable Hero, the “Runaround” single exemplifies the band’s keen sense for power-pop riffs with just a dab of Southern spice – no doubt a nod to co-vocalists’ Nate Greely and Sean Spillane’s Texan roots. Alongside another Stab cut, “Temperature,” the band generously offers up two b-sides – “Wait” and “Mrs. Anderson.” This would also be the band’s last official release. - DH
Date Played: May 21 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
