Flight of the Conchords were arguably at their peak in popularity with the release of their sophomore album I Told You I Was Freaky. The album was released in conjunction with the second season of their eponymous HBO show and you can feel, both in the show and the album, their increased budget and ambition. Yeah, these songs are hilarious, but some of these beats are… really good. The band tries on different styles like clothes (but remember, “Fashion Is Danger”). There’s their dance floor banger (no pun intended) “Too Many Dicks (On The Dance Floor),” the sentimental rap of “Hurt Feelings,” and the heretical sex escapades of celestial beings on “Angels.” The album features a number of features from fellow comedians and guest stars from their show, including Kristen School, Jim Gaffigan, Rhys Darby, and more. - DH
Date Played: June 14 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
Vancouver’s Black Mountain have been a longtime part of the Jagjaguwar roster, but the psych rockers made a brief foray into Sub Pop territory with this 7-inch for the third volume of the Sub Pop Singles Club. “Lucy Brown” has the feeling of cutting loose on vacation from the world you’re most familiar with, reveling in the snapping garage rock rhythms. Meanwhile, “Shelter” embraces the bands more ominous edge – letting themselves space out with Amber Webber delivering a stunning vibrato. - DH
Date Played: June 14 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
After the release of the band’s Sub Pop debut Nouns, Los Angeles art-punk duo No Age kept the momentum of the record going with this album single “Teen Creeps” backed with the b-side “Intimate Descriptions.” If you’re really trying to encapsulate the band in two songs, you really couldn’t pick two better examples. “Teen Creeps” comes in with a swell of brash guitars and sneering punk vocals, embracing noise as a foundation for their electrifying performance. In contrast, “Intimate Descriptions” showcases their experimental inclinations, toning things down with the drone of a keyboard and the entrancing pulse of a tom drum. If you want to talk about a band having “range,” No Age makes a strong case for themselves here. - DH
Date Played: June 14 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
CSS’ jubilant summer anthem “Move” from their sophomore LP Donkey gets the remix treatment with this 12-inch release. Cut Copy infuses the track with their modern interpretation of disco and house, harnessing the song’s energy into a vital and relentless groove. Meanwhile Metronomy turns the lead back song into a jagged, manic, and stressful sound collage. Frankmusik finds somewhat of a middle ground between the two, heightening the fun of the original while also bolstering the energy to its maximum. - DH
Date Played: June 14 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Fleet Foxes give us a stop-motion twofer with their music videos for “Mykonos” and “White Winter Hymnal.” The former features an abstract portrayal of a mountain and the angular spirits that reside within it, dashing around in their origami forms. “White Winter Hymnal,” in contrast, is less abstract but not without it’s own weirdness. Opting for claymation instead of paper, bearded figurines of the band steadily churn a wheel to forward through time and change the seasons around them. As time goes on, their beards get whiter and longer. Both videos epitomize the band at their best – wandering through the wilderness and looking for meaning with some seriously stunning harmonies. - DH
Date Played: June 14 on The Morning Show with John Richards
With his musical project Vetiver, San Francisco-based songwriter Andy Cabic got by with a little help from his friends: Colm O'Ciosoig of My Bloody Valentine, Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, Devendra Banhart, and Joanna Newsom are just a few of the artists Cabic collaborated with for his 2004 self-titled debut. Tight Knit is their first album with Sub Pop, but their fourth album overall, and continues the gentle, folky sounds he tapped into for his other three LPs.
"Sub Pop has a lot more notoriety for breaking bands than they do for working with bands who are in the middle of their career,” Cabic noted in a 2011 interview with the Chicagoist, "All my work with Vetiver has been a gradual expansion — an expansion of the music and the audience over the course of time.” — JH
Date Played: June 14 by DJ Sean
Okay, so doing exclusive EPs and sessions on digital platforms was clearly the big trend in 2008. We have our third in a row on the count-up with The Gutter Twins’ Adorata. However, fans really are getting a lot new “exclusive” material with this release. The eight track EP (really cutting it close on the definition of “EP” here), features Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan mostly covering other artists – ranging from Jose Gonzalez to Scott Walker and Primal Scream, with a few traditional numbers worked in as well. - DH
Date Played: June 13 by DJ Hans
This iTunes exclusive release from Foals features three remixes from their 2008 album Antidotes, plus three b-sides that were previously only available as b-sides on 7-inch singles, including “Dearth,” “Gold Gold Gold,” and “Titan Arum.” One thing has become clear in the digital age – those super rare vinyl b-sides you’ve been coveting in your collection are now just few clicks of a mouse away. - DH
Date Played: June 13 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Much like Loney, Dear and Oxford Collapse before them, No Age stopped through the Napster/Rhapsody offices to play a set tracks from their Nouns and Weirdo Rippers. According to the Napster site, they dedicated a song to Hannah Montana but, uh, I don’t have a Napster streaming account so I guess just use your imagination! - DH
Date Played: June 13 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry returned with their second LP under the Handsome Furs moniker, titled Face Control, in 2009. Inspired by traveling through Eastern Europe, Face Control seems a marked improvement on the band's debut in terms of clarity and intention. Mr. Boeckner provided a number of tracks that stand up with the best of his work, be it with Wolf Parade or Operators. "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything" remains an absolute highlight, both a New Order and Bauhaus reference. As are "Legal Tender" and "Evangeline," which make an excellent one-two punch. -MH
Date Played: June 13 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli and Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan feels like the grunge equivalent of Watch The Throne – two titans of the genre, for entirely different reasons, coming together to make something bigger than themselves. This single, released in conjunction with the project’s debut album Saturnalia, gives just a glimpse at what these two can do together. Aside from the brooding epic that is “God’s Children,” the b-side “Spanish Doors” shows that Dulli and Lanegan can still show their teeth when stripping things back. Not that that should be a surprise to anyone. - DH
Date Played: June 13 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Sub Pop didn’t have to go far out to find Unnatural Helpers. In fact, they didn’t even have to leave the office – the band is comprised of Sub Pop employees (at least in its earliest iterations). But beyond just being already a part of the SP family, this 7-inch rips. As the title track implies, these four tracks are dirty and sometimes comical – maybe not dumb, though. The single was a precursor to the band’s eventual signing to Sub Pop subsidiary Hardly Art, where the band would go on to release two full length albums. - DH
Date Played: June 13 by DJ Sean
Out of the most beloved bands to come out of Los Angeles' DIY punk scene buoyed by The Smell, Mika Miko represented the arty abstraction which guided most of their peers, but did so as the rowdiest punks in the bunch. Case in point: The extended version of "Sex Jazz," which bleats and barks its way through the A-side of the quintet's Sub Pop Singles Club entry, the shronking guitar riff melding perfectly with the bluster and fracas of saxophone. On the b-side is a (somewhat) faithful cover of Black Flag's "Bastard in Love," further solidifying Mika Miko's penchant for gleeful cacophony. — MD
Date Played: June 12 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
Artists giving away things for free on the Internet was the hot ticket back in 2008 and The Go! Team were all about it. The band kicked off a “free stuff” section of their website with “Milk Crisis,” a digital single from their Proof Of Youth album. Completely embracing the digital ethos, the bright keyboard heavy single also had an accompanying music video with pixelated plants and animals dancing around the group. Gotta love the new millennium! - DH
Date Played: June 12 on Larry's Lounge with Larry Rose
“Anything that’s going to be original is going to happen without your control,” Obits lead singer and guitarist Rick Froberg once said, describing his own band. A scoff at originality is a curious action for any band, but for Froberg – who also plays in Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes – it’s an earned badge of honor. The Obits make some nasty and swift and dirty garage rock. It’s what they set out to do on I Blame You and it’s what they accomplish. I Blame You is an exercise in doing what you do well and making no apologies. - DH
Date Played: June 12 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
After releasing their 2001 sophomore album, Once We Were Trees, Beachwood Sparks went on an ambiguous hiatus before eventually reuniting for Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary celebrations at Marymoor Park. It was only a few years later in 2012 that the band finally fully reemerged with their third album, The Tarnished Gold. The album has a certain classicism than the band’s previous work, right down to the artwork that invokes The Band’s The Last Waltz. It’s some of the breeziest, most comforting country music that band has put out thus far. Beachwood Sparks has not released any material since. In 2017, co-founded Josh Schwartz passed away from complications with ALS. - DH
Date Played: June 12 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
If you can pinpoint any sort of trend in Chad VanGaalen’s freewheeling discography, it’s his mentality to push beautiful art through atypical means. His third album Soft Airplane was recorded through a vintage JVC Boombox, embracing the lo-fi aesthetics that come with it. It adds a cryptic timbre to the myriad sounds, once again ranging from punk to electronic and all of the genres he can fit in-between. - DH
Date Played: June 12 on The Morning Show with John Richards
Om came from the ruins of doom metal icons Sleep, reuniting bass player Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Haikus. The group put out their first LP in 2005, Variations on a Theme. Om's sole Sub Pop release is this 7" single that led off Volume 3 of the label's singles club, "Gebel Barkal/ (Version)." Sub Pop is the largest label Om have worked with, usually preferring Drag City or Southern Lord, both of which also contain a deep-seated mythology and history. - MH
Date Played: June 12 by DJ Reeves
Craftsmanship is a woefully undervalued skill in the realm of rock music, the genre being the realm where the "smash and dash" approach is more often than not the most effective. Fleet Foxes are a band whose sound was built and structured painstakingly with steady hands, smoothed out like handmade dinner table, and preserved in amber immediately after the mixing process. The Phil Ek-produced EP was recorded after their slightly more rustic self-titled full-length, but released before, not necessarily setting the tone for the considerable success of Fleet Foxes but serving as a template for the balance between sparsity and lushness, the contemporary and the enduring, which the band would continue their mastery of in future releases. Sun Giant begins with the choral, hymnlike title track and ends with an acoustic guitar and Robin Pecknold's clarion voice (the forlorn and beautiful "Innocent Son"), and is rounded out by three songs replete with goosebump-inducing, skyward harmonies, instrumentation almost orchestral in its composition, and a majesty normally reserved for magical forests. — MD
Date Played: June 12 by DJ Reeves
We’ve covered a lot of releases during this count-up (please pray for the KEXP content team and our inevitable carpal tunnel), but none are quite as stylish as SP780. If you thought the guy from Death Cab teaming up with DNTEL was a wild idea, just wait till you see what Sub Pop cooked up with Nike. The Sub Pop Nike Blazer SB Elite is the first official show of the indie label, even sporting the catalog number on the back heel. Everything about the shoe is quintessential Sub Pop, right down to the logo on the insole. As a skateboarding shoe, Sub Pop couldn’t really dunk on the competition with these, but it does muster a slight “Eat my shorts!” feel to it. - DH
Date Mentioned: June 11 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
As a part of Sub Pop's 20th anniversary celebrations, the label released this promo compilation featuring their beefy roster circa 2008. The crying baby on the cover could maybe stand to take a spin to this disc and clear their head. With songs from Fleet Foxes, Flight of the Conchords, Sera Cahoone, The Helio Sequence, and more, the label's standing two decades is worthy of tears of joy. Or maybe the label just needs to be burped? - DH
Date Played: June 11 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
14 years after the original release of Bunny Gets Paid, Sub Pop reissued Red Red Meat’s seminal, sweltering country opus with a twangy second disc of b-sides, alternative takes, covers, and previously unreleased material. Upon the re-release, Sub Pop lauded the album as one of the high points in their catalog – a big claim considering some of the massive releases we’ve already seen on this count-up. The second disc helps flesh out a vision of Red Red Meat, showcasing the band’s inclination to embrace their obtuse indie rock leanings with the summer sweat of a perfect country tune. - DH
Date Played: June 11 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
Some albums come in like a sledgehammer through a paper wall, pronouncing their influence immediately and marking a clear shift in the status quo. Think Nirvana’s Nevermind, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, all the other “big ones” you’ve heard music dorks rant about for decades (ed. note: hello, that is me also). Others are more subtle with their infection into the public conscious.
Seattle’s Fleet Foxes are certainly not the first band to pen nomadic folk tunes with lush harmonies. Certainly Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young had that covered when the Fleet Foxes were still fleet pups. And even still, folk acts had been emerging in independent music circuits throughout the early aughts. But the band’s self-titled debut bottled this swell of inspiration around the folk genre with (just one writer’s opinion) the most realized take on the style of the decade, and then some. It took the band some time before they could really hone it in themselves, first performing around town as The Fleet Foxes with a more “amped up” sound more akin to the jangly tones of The Shins rather than Simon & Garfunkel. Stripping things back and working with producer Phil Ek, the band penned an opus of make-you-melt vocal harmonies, stirring finger-picking, and choruses – my god, the choruses. Fleet Foxes found that sweet spot between writing music that felt delicate but also primed for singing and shouting along to between the timelessness of “White Winter Hymnal” and the swelling energy of “Ragged Wood.”
Fleet Foxes set the bar for their peers and created a sound that would be continually imitated by burgeoning acts still to this day. The sound quickly rippled out from the underground and into the mainstream, sparking a new affection for “earnest songwriting” with acoustic guitars and – yes – lots of beards and flannel. - DH
Date Played: June 11 on The Afternoon Show with Troy Nelson
It leads off with a chirpy, ebullient guitar line by Randy Randall, followed by light taps of the tambourine by drummer Dean Spunt, underscored by woozy drone. It ends with Spunt punching away at his drums and shouting lyrics far too dark for a sound so euphoric and Randall brightly thrashing away at his guitar, and the drone — grinding at eye-watering volume levels — threatening to drown out the song. As hard as I'm trying, words can't quite slice into the gist of what makes "Eraser" No Age's most profoundly exciting single; it's a sound as alternately bright and monolithic as their signature t-shirt design. The B-Side includes a punky-but-sorta-faithful cover of Nate Denver's Neck's "Don't Stand Still," a gleefully bratty cover of The Urinals' "Male Masturbation," and an atmospheric cover of The Nerves' "When You Find Out." In a perfect world twenty, thirty, forty years from now, a boundary-pushing punk band will cover "Eraser" and put it on the b-side of their watershed single. — MD
Date Played: June 11 on The Midday Show
“The first bands I got into were Seattle grunge bands.To think we’re at the same level is pretty sweet,” said frontman Yannis Philippakis to Spin Magazine in 2010. ”We might not be an obvious choice as a Sub Pop band, but we share similar values about things.”
Oxford five-piece Foals recorded their debut album in Brooklyn with TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, with a guest horn section by Antibalas and guest vocals from Katrina Ford of Celebration. Sitek took an unconventional approach to tracking, recording the drums in alleyways onto cassette tapes, and vocals being sung while moving around the room. — JH
Date Played: June 11 on The Midday Show
This is an extra special single as the B-Side was recorded right here at KEXP! (Well, not this building actually, but y’know.) "No One’s Gonna Love You” became a breakthrough hit, with Cee-Lo Green recording a soulful cover for his 2010 album The Lady Killer. Side B is a cover of Them Two’s 1967 single "Am I a Good Man.” — JH
Date Played: June 11 on The Morning Show
Sub Pop Records isn’t the only thing celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The band Mudhoney were there from the get-go, a topic we’ll delve deeper into on Thursday, August 9th as we look back at the band’s history in our Turntable Sessions in the Gathering Space. Anyway, back in 2008, it was their 20th anniversary, and in their honor, Sub Pop released a deluxe edition version of their debut EP Superfuzz Bigmuff (named after two of the band’s favorite guitar pedals (the Super Fuzz and the Big Muff).
As Sub Pop convey in their press release: "Here you will find: the original Superfuzz… EP in its correct running order, singles, demos, and two blistering live recordings from 1988, all remastered, or in some cases, mastered for the very first time.” All of it is worth the price for this moment at the Berlin shows, as reported by Mudhoney’s official website. Mark Arm asks the crowd, "Drop your pants if you like us!" A few seconds pass, and he sarcastically bemuses, "Ah, no one likes us.” — JH
Date Played: June 11 on The Morning Show
From the snack bar of Downtown Los Angeles all-ages venue The Smell to the pages of The New Yorker, the art-punk heroes translated the unvaunted promise and subsequent praise of 2007's Weirdo Rippers (their well-received compilation culled from the best moments of their early, way, way, way out-of-print singles and EPs, all released on the same day) into a singular debut full-length. Varnishing ambient texture, pop melody, and rapturous obsession with SST — the band is named after an instrumental compilation the uber-influential Long Beach label released in 1987 — Nouns remains arguably one of the very best, most assured punk records of the 21st Century so far: "Brain Burner," and "Here Should Be My Home" are at equal turns enormously catchy and blisteringly loud, "Keechie" floats as much as "Teen Creeps" pummels, and "Sleeper Hold" extracts the phrase "with passion it's true" while simultaneously feeling like being repeatedly punched in the stomach. The sometimes-abrasive, sometimes-ethereal, always-ecstatic noise of this milestone record drew a 9.2 rating from Pitchfork, among the highest scores the site has ever awarded a first-run Sub Pop release. — MD
Date Played: June 11 on The Morning Show
For a band with such a reputation for their live performances, it’s hard to believe this was the first live Mudhoney album. Recorded live in Mexico City in 2005 by Brett Eliason at at Palacio De Los Deportes. Only 500 vinyl copies were pressed. — JH
Date Played: June 10 by DJ Evie
Brazilian band CSS return with their second album, simply titled Donkey, but there’s a lot of emotion behind that single word. They told NME, the title refers to how hard they were forced to tour by their old management. Multi-insturmentalist Adriano Cintra explained: “It’s a Brazilian expression… like ‘you idiot’. Like, ‘we got new management; we’re not donkeys anymore’.” Cintra addressed it again for Rolling Stone: “...Donkey was darker because we felt darker. We'd been on the road two years, non-stop. We knew we wanted to do a different album than the debut; we wanted to make a harder guitar record because it felt right for then.” — JH
Date Played: June 10 by DJ Evie
Brookyn band Oxford Collapse returned with their third, and most successful, Sub Pop release, Bits, a full-length of just that. Bits. In an interview with the Agit Reader, guitarist/vocalist Michael Pace explains the album title: “...we wound up with all these little parts of songs, and the average length is somewhere about two-and-a-half minutes. There’s nothing over four minutes on the record. I was really psyched about that because I prefer shorter songs. It’s funny, you look at our very first record, Some Wilderness, and all those songs are like four-and-a-half, five minutes. When we did our second record, we learned how to edit ourselves, just in the songwriting process, and that was hands-down the most valuable thing that we’ve learned: know when to say when, when a part does not need to go on.” Sadly, the band decided not to go on; Oxford Collapse, well, collapsed, breaking up in June 2009. — JH
Date Played: June 10 by DJ Evie
More catalog number nuttiness: Wild Mountain Nation (#SP0768) was originally self-released in 2007, but following the success of Furr (#SP0755), it was re-released by Sub Pop for the Europeans. A little confusing, but basically, it’s their third album overall. Like Furr, the album was recorded in an old telegraph building, where frontman Eric Earley had taken up residence. In a press release, he remembers "At times I still miss sleeping by the river, cooking my meals on a hot plate, hiding knives around the old telegraph building so if I came in too late I’d have options if I got jumped. Old crack whores and dealers nodded off in the alcoves and alleys around the street. Cops would stop me at three in the morning to ask me what I was doing, 'Oh, nothing officer, just looking for a quarter so I can make a call.' 'Well if you break that payphone I’ll have to arrest you.'” — JH
Date Played: June 10 by Stevie Zoom
Ryan McPhun had moved from California to Auckland, New Zealand, playing in bands like The Brunettes, The Tokey Tones, and The Reduction Agents before starting his own project, The Ruby Suns. While Sea Lion is their first for Sub Pop, it was their second overall, recorded almost entirely in McPhun’s basement and inspired by the world outside it. The song "Tane Mahuta” is sung entirely in Māori, an ode to the Waipoua forest. The song “Adventure Tour” details a drive through New Zealand’s South Island. But for the album title, McPhun was inspired by his hometown. In an interview with Fader, he states "I guess it was inspired by a trip my girlfriend and i took down Highway 1 in California where we checked out this sea lion colony and were sitting really close to them and watching them do their thing. It was amazing. Also, I came across a lone sea lion on the beach when i was travelling in NZ before I moved here, and that picture just kind of stuck in my brain. And we love animals, all kinds!” — JH
Date Played: June 10 by Stevie Zoom
After a couple of years, Mudhoney were back with their eighth studio album, aptly-titled The Lucky Ones. The LP was recorded in a quick 3.5 days with acclaimed producer Tucker Martine (who previously helped out with 2006’s Under a Billion Suns. Guitarist Steve Turner explained to Glide Magazine, "The way we generally record is we do it on weekends, so you’ve got three days on the weekend. We just managed to get it done really fast. We thought we were going to write some more songs and record a couple more times and all that kind of stuff, and we just got it all done. We just kept blasting through all the songs, and things were coming really fast. We went out for lunch, left Mark there to do the singing, and when we came back from lunch, he was almost done with the singing.” — JH
Date Played: June 9 on Audioasis with DJ Sharlese
A sneak peek at Stoltz’s album Circular Sounds, although that one’s catalog number SP0748 and this one’s SP0764, which would indicate it came out after the album, but if anything, this just illustrates how bonkers the Sub Pop catalog system is. “Your Reverie” appears on the full-length, while "Owl Service” is exclusive to this single. — JH
Date Played: June 9 by Troy Nelson
Whenever I'm coerced into describing Wooden Shjips in five words or less, the description I've used for years has been: "Crazy Horse on the Autobahn." The West Coast psych-rock innovators have a peerless knack for making krautrock-style classics out of classic-rock parts, and "Loose Lips" is no exception, taking a simple chord progression and stretching it far, far past its logical endpoint, a ghostly organ accompanying guitar cloaked in flange and distortion in a jam as epic and scorching as a march to the Red Sea. Its B-Side, "Start to Dreaming," showcases Ripley Johnson's masterfully bent, woozy, digressive guitar playing while the band takes its time going from zero to sixty. — MD
Date Played: June 9 by Troy Nelson
Yes, another single version of "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above” — see #SP0726, SP0726, and SP0747. What makes this one different? It’s apparently a digital edition, released for the Japanese market. Okey doke. — JH
Date Played: June 9 by Troy Nelson
Christmas Day, 2003. While you were fa-la-la-ing, the dirge-y duo of Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli were growling lyrics about death over eerie, atmospheric tones, writing songs together as “The Gutter Twins.” (Dulli apparently dubbed the twosome as “the Satanic Everly Brothers.”) Over the next five years, the pair would circle back to the songs, ’til finally, their debut LP Saturnalia was finally released. (Saturn returns, indeed.) While the album artwork has a doomsday feel, the band pic in the CD booklet shows the guys laughing. In a pretty classic Pitchfork interview, Dulli snaps, "Yeah, I mean, we're friends. We don't sit around and count the days until the apocalypse, it's not like we're Satan's elves.” Lanegan later adds, "We're too old to be scary.” — JH
Date Played: June 9 by DJ Morgan
Daniel Martin Moore is one of those strange anomalies: an artist who got a record deal by sending an unsolicited demo. But that’s exactly what the Cold Spring, Kentucky-based singer-songwriter did. Moore’s timing couldn’t have been better as the label had been focusing on gentle, folky artists at the time, like Sera Cahoone and Iron & Wine. Moore’s work travels those same dusty Americana roads, and features guest appearances from artists like Jesca Hoop and Petra Haden, all co-produced by Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, U2, The White Stripes). In a 2011 interview with Irish music blog The G-Man, Moore remembers, "When I heard back from Stuart [Meyer at Sub Pop], I had forgotten all about sending out the recordings to them so it couldn't have been more of a bolt out of the blue. Stuart's email was something to the effect of 'Hey, we got your package in the mail and enjoyed it.' At that point we started talking and I sent them some more recordings. It was a friendly process. The people of Sub Pop are, to the last one of them, charming & interesting folks. I've found getting to know them and working with them to be a joy.” — JH
Date Played: June 9 by DJ Morgan
With her sophomore full-length Only As the Day Is Long, local singer/songwriter Sera Cahoone took an entirely different track in the studio. In a 2008 interview with KEXP, she remembers, "The whole process was a lot different. I have a band now, and we were going in to record all at once, which I didn’t do before. At times I did have some freakouts, thinking that people will hate this. But I finally just said 'fuck it, if people like it, they like it, and if they hate it — well, ok.’ After that, the songs started becoming much more clear, the way they should.” (It’s safe to say, people liked it.) — JH
Date Played: June 9 by DJ Morgan
A single from their full-length Proof of Youth (see #SP0750), “Grip Like A Vice” features female rap pioneers Lisa Lee of Cosmic Force & Sha-Rock of Funky 4 + 1. Founding member Ian Parton told Rolling Stone, "Most Go! Team songs are about four or five different ideas stapled together, normally from widely divergent sources. On this song, I was really interested in how super-cheeky kind of electro early-Eighties kind of rock-party song could be welded onto something with a more kind of dark, garage-y, Sonic Youth-y kind of feel, as well.” And, speaking of Sonic Youth, on the vinyl version of this single, the band offer a cover of “Bull in the Heather.” (Not sure if it’s part of this digital single, though.) — JH
Date Played: June 8 by Michele Myers
The Green Tour EP was originally only available at the merch table during The Album Leaf’s 2007 tour. In addition to its six tracks, it also contains a video for "We Need Help" shot on tour. — JH
Date Played: June 8 by DJ Atticus
Remember those "Rhapsody Original” digital EPs we were talking about back at #SP0752? Here’s one for recent signing, Brooklyn band Oxford Collapse. Four tracks from their live set at Rhapsody's 2007 SXSW day party, including a cover of John Prine's 1971 single "Quiet Man.” — JH
Date Played: June 8 by DJ Atticus
With their fourth LP Furr, Portland band Blitzen Trapper joined the Sub Pop fold. The album was recorded in an old telegraph building by the Willamette River, in the group's studio at Sally Mack’s School of Dance. In the press release, founder/frontman Eric Earley remembers: "We were touring so much that being homeless was really quite relaxing compared to the road. But Furr was a record that spoke from new perspectives we’d gained on the road. It was me becoming aware of the past I’d been trying to forget, and of the greater world around me. It’s no surprise that the opening track is a dream-like treatise on the state of the western world. With this record we played TV for the first time, on the old Conan late night show and we started touring with heroes from my younger days: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Iron and Wine, a small tour with Wilco. Numerous Blitzen Trapper songs appeared in television shows and commercials and movies, we played more of the big festivals, Coachella, Monolith, Pitchfork. All of this stuff can, should and in this case did go along with making a timely, honest record. And, on top of that, I was no longer homeless. It was at this time that I began to see that people were inspired by my songs, obsessive in many cases. The record kept selling and selling, and is still selling even today. And so we took a break from touring, from everything.” (They’d eventually re-emerge in 2010 with the album Destroyer of the Void, aka #SP0825.) — JH
Date Played: June 8 by DJ Atticus
Flashback to #SP0745, where we noted former Carissa's Wierd member Mat Brooke had left Band of Horses. Here’s what he did afterwards.
After Pitchfork spotlighted all four songs on the band’s MySpace page (there’s a dated sentence, eh?), Grand Archives headed out on a seven-date west coast tour with Modest Mouse. Upon their return, they signed with Sub Pop and released this. At the time, Brooke talked about the backlash with The Washingtonian: "On paper, being signed on after one show and then opening for Modest Mouse does seem kind of weird. But in reality, like I said earlier, Seattle is a small town; I already knew a lot of the folks in Sub Pop through my work with Band of Horses and Carissa’s Weird, and I’ve known Isaac [Brock of Modest Mouse] for about ten years. He was just kicking around in my bar drinking and kind of on the spot threw me onto the tour. I’m sure some people think we’re some kind of overnight success, but that’s not the case at all.” — JH
Date Played: June 7 by DJ Shannon
SP0753
Back in the day, Rhapsody was one of those online streaming music services, said to be the "first streaming on-demand music subscription service to offer unlimited access to a large library of digital music for a flat monthly fee.” And not to be outdone by iTunes, they began their own series of live exclusive EPs called "Rhapsody Original.” Not totally sure what’s on Loney, Dear’s session, but it was surely tracks from his recently released LP Loney, Noir (#SP0731). — JH
Date Played: June 7 by DJ Shannon
Recorded earlier that year at the Record Plant in Hollywood, CA, this EP features the debut of then-Shins member Eric Johnson, also of The Fruit Bats. The set list covers faves from Wincing The Night Away and Chutes Too Narrow, so no fun surprises. — JH
Date Played: June 7 by DJ Sean
For their sophomore release Proof of Youth, The Go! Team paired up with our beloved local label. Did Sub Pop confuse them with ‘80s duo The Go Team (no exclamation point), the Olympia, WA-based project of Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening) and Tobi Vail (Bikini Kill)? If they did, it was a happy accident, as both projects are great.
While their 2005 debut Thunder, Lightning, Strike relied more on samples, the Brighton UK sextet went in a more studio-oriented direction for this sophomore release. And it’s a star-studded affair, featuring guest appearances from "hip-hop luminary Chuck D of Public Enemy, the original Double Dutch Divas, Maryland’s pint-sized Rapper’s Delight Club, Marina from Bonde Do Role, Amsterdam’s Solex, and Washington, DC’s Frederick Douglas All Star Cheer Team.” Sadly, it was a short-lived relationship: by their next album, the band had reunited with Memphis Industries, where they began. — JH
Date Played: June 7 by DJ Sean
Back on #SP0732, Sub Pop released a CD single for “A Pillar of Salt,” a stand-out track off The Body, The Blood, The Machine. With #SP0749, we get the single on vinyl. On this format, we get demo versions of the title track and "St. Rosa And The Swallows” on the B-Side, and the A-Side gives us the previously (and still?) otherwise unreleased "Product Placement.” — JH
Date Played: June 6 by DJ Hans
While his 2004 debut was “lo-fi” and his 2006 Sub Pop LP (#SP674) was “mid-fi”, the 2008 album Circular Sounds takes Bay Area-based singer/songwriter Kelley Stoltz to… well, still not quite “hi-fi.” In his press release, he declares, "I work in a second-hand record store and that’s made me more of a hi-fi advocate. It’s hard for me to listen to stuff that was recorded on a cassette player nowadays. By the last record I was mid-fi. I think I’m mid-hi now!”
Fun fact about Stoltz: in 2001, he did a track-by-track cover of Echo & the Bunnymen's 1980 debut Crocodiles. Shortly after the release of this album, he opened for his heroes on a 2010 North American tour, and even more recently, was a touring rhythm guitarist for the Bunnymen on their Fall UK, Europe and USA shows. — JH
Date Played: June 6 by DJ Hans
Spotlighting a break-thru hit off their debut self-titled LP (see #SP717), the "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above” 12” single offers remixes from Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, and Calvin Harris. Note: it is not to be confused with #SP723 which includes remixes from Spank Rock and Diplo, as well as an instrumental take. — JH
Date Played: June 6 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
With the EP The Distant Future, Sub Pop introduced "New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy duo” to their roster. The twosome of Jemaine Clement & Bret McKenzie formed in their homeland back in 1998, slowly gaining momentum with performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, SXSW (as captured in the documentary Flight of the Conchords: A Texan Odyssey, and even Seattle’s own Bumbershoot fest.
Earlier that year, the band launched the first season of their Emmy Award-winning self-titled HBO series, featuring the six songs on the track list here. The EP was certified Gold in their homeland, and went on to win “Best Comedy Album” at the 2008 Grammy Awards. — JH
Date Played: June 6 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
A relocation from Seattle to Ben Bridwell’s hometown in North Carolina resulted in Band Of Horses’ most successful album yet. Hey, wait.
To be fair, location wasn’t the only change for the band: co-founder and fellow former Carissa's Wierd’er Mat Brooke had stepped down, going on to form Grand Archives. In a 2008 interview with the Tucson Weekly, he diplomatically explained: "I'd never really given the commitment to be a formal member. It was just a spur of the moment...and Everything All the Time took off really fast...I still didn't feel quite committed. It was still 100 percent Ben's project and I kinda wanted to see what else I could do.”
Cease to Begin became the final Sub Pop release from the band. In an interview with the AV Club, Bridwell reflects, "All I know is that when we came to this record, we knew… Because the Sub Pop contract was up and we were free agents, and the music business had changed so much since signing that Sub Pop contract five years ago, we knew that we would be in the driving seat at this point. Especially self-funding it, we knew that we had the option of owning our art — which is a crazy concept in this business, I guess — and having the chance to get the best deal we could. Unfortunately, it meant that we were going away from Sub Pop, but luckily we still remain friends, and I think all parties are happy.” — JH
Date Played: June 6 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Don’t you just love downloading music on your MTV Urge app? Wait, you don’t have MTV Urge? You don’t know what it is? Hold up, hold my Zune real quick.
MTV Urge was an app designed by its namesake network to compete with the Apple iTunes Store, leveraging exclusive content from MTV and properties like VH1 and CMT. Jokes aside, the apps commitment to curated playlists was a little bit ahead of its time now that we’re in the streaming age, albeit clumsy in execution. Anyway, The Shins put out an EP exclusive to MTV Urge featuring tracks from Wincing The Night Away, including “Sleeping Lessons”, “Girl Sailor,” and “A Comet Appears.” You can read all about it on my Ello page. - DH
Date Played: June 6 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Sub Pop released this single a few months before Iron and Wine’s third Sub Pop LP The Shepherd’s Dog came out and received critical acclaim. The single includes “Boy With a Coin” — a track featured on The Shepherd’s Dog — alongside two previously unreleased tracks. — SW
Date Played: June 6 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Featuring two tracks from their 2007 LP Drums and Guns (see #SP0736), this 7-inch release from Low demonstrates the band’s further fragmentation of sound and songwriting after longtime bassist Zak Sally’s departure and Alan Sparhawk’s tenure fronting Retribution Gospel Choir. Loops and drum machines are adopted into Low’s sonic compendium - the two tracks featured on this release wonderfully demonstrate the band’s revamping of sound. — SW
Date Played: June 6 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Produced and recorded by Randall Dunn of experimental metal band Sunn O))) at his Aleph Studio in Seattle, Down Below It’s Chaos is Kinski’s 3rd full-length on Sub Pop and shows the band shedding their space rock origins in favor of something closer to proto-metal. The album catapults itself into existence with the opening track “Crybaby Blowout”, awash with a wailing highwire guitar line that becomes a sonic feature of many tracks on the album. Down Below It’s Chaos was Kinski’s most recent Sub Pop release – their follow up albums Cosy Moments and 7 (or 8) were released on Kill Rock Stars in 2013 and 2015, respectively. — SW
Date Played: June 6 on The Morning Show with John Richards
SP740 comes with The Postal Service’s second album, aptly titled… wait. The Postal Service never released a second album! What gives?
While the album never manifested, it appears that Sub Pop had the album slated in the catalog. The prospect of a second album from the collaborative project between Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and DNTEL’s Jimmy Tamborello has kept fans anxious for years. The duo referenced working on a new album in 2007, calling the process “a crawl.” Updates were sporadic and cryptic, at one point Gibbard saying it wasn’t likely to come out within the decade and he definitely kept that promise. Comparisons to Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy were unavoidable. Gibbard told Rolling Stone in 2008, “I don't know about it being the indie-rock Chinese Democracy, but now that Chinese Democracy has come out, I guess it just becomes the second Postal Service record that will never come out. There never really was a plan to do a second album. We work from time to time together but we have other things that take up all of our time."
So, should we still hold out hope? Nah. After The Postal Service reunited in 2013 to tour around the 10 year anniversary of Give Up, the band announced that their performance at Lollapalooza would be their final show before ending the project permanently. So it seems fated for this catalog number to remain empty. But, like Gibbard said, Chinese Democracy did come out. Dr. Dre finally followed up 2001. Crazier things have happened. Okay, maybe we shouldn’t…ahem…give up. - DH
Date Played: June 6 on The Morning Show with John Richards
There’s something about Tiny Vipers that strikes a certain emotional core. Maybe it’s the space between the notes of her carefully plucked guitar or her lovely alien vocals wavering from cooing oohs and aah to a rickety drawl. Whatever it is, the moniker of Jesy Fortino has captured the hearts of lonely souls looking for meaning out in the cosmos. After self-releasing her first Tiny Vipers EP in 2004, Fortino was picked up by Sub Pop after a friend passed along her music to the label. Her first full-length offering comes with Hands Across The Void, a haunting collection of acoustic ballads with Fortino’s transcendent vocals on full display. As we’ll see with her later material, this was just the foundation of the expansive territory she would eventually cover. But what a start it is. - DH
Date Played: June 6 on The Morning Show with John Richards
The first Italian band to be added to the Sub Pop roster, Jennifer Gentle released The Midnight Room as a follow up to their acclaimed 2005 Sup Pop debut Valende (see SP #0658). Their arrival to the label corresponded with a shake up in the band’s line up, with The Midnight Room becoming the sole project of the band’s founder and songwriter Marco Fasolo. Fasolo wrote, performed, and produced the album alone in his Ectoplasmic Studio in northern Italy between touring. The album is a sonic shift away from their saturated psych avant-pop roots to something more akin to classic rock n’ roll. — SW
Date Played: June 6 by DJ Abbie
Coming off of a career defining moment voicing the mouse Remy in Pixar’s Ratatouille, Patton Oswalt was on the top of the world when he released his sophomore comedy album Werewolves and Lollipops. In what you could only consider a victory lap, the album was heaped with praise for Oswalt’s performance that only gets better with each listen. He tackles everything from KFC Famous Bowls to Star Wars throughout the act and even includes references to This Mortal Coil early on. - DH
Date Played: June 5 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Drums and Guns came with a sticker stating "I'm sick to death of LOW," a statement that foretells the record's act of deconstruction. Following the departure of longtime bassist Zak Sally, and Alan Sparhawk's tenure fronting Retribution Gospel Choir, Drums and Guns finds Low further fragmenting their sound and songwriting. Spare drum loops and percussion act as a backbone to the record, Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's voices joined in mourning harmony for ongoing wars abroad. Though Dave Fridmann previously worked with Low on The Great Destroyer, Drums and Guns is his finest statement with the band, which stands as a development of their sound, even as it picks away at the fabric that constituted their best songwriting. - MH
Date Played: June 5 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
With the name of a metal band and the heart of a flower child, songwriter Joel Thibodeau makes his Sub Pop debut under the Death Vessel moniker. Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us packs 11 songs of softly sung, delicately played folk music using a range of eccentric instruments. We're not just talking mandolins and banjos (though those are here too), but everything from railroad spikes and wine glasses to fill out the project's dynamics and inherently charming sound. - DH
Date Played: June 5 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
The Shins ushered in their mega successful Wincing The Night Away with the dreamy haze of lead single “Phantom Limb.” In an interview with Billboard in 2006, songwriter James Mercer describes the song as “a hypothetical, fictional account of a young, lesbian couple in high school dealing with the small town they live in.” A limited edition version of the 7-inch featured a double grooved b-side with both tracks running concentric to one another, so depending on where you dropped the needle you’d hear a different song – either the song “Nothing At All” or an alternate version of Wincing track “Split Needles.” - DH
Date Played: June 5 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Dan Boeckner is no stranger to the Sub Pop catalog, having already released Wolf Parade’s debut Apologies to the Queen Mary on the label in 2005. Ever prolific, he and his then fiancee Alexei Perry formed the Handsome Furs after moving from Vancouver, B.C. to Montreal. Their 2007 debut, Plague Park, finds them both reveling in a mix of jagged indie rock and sweeping electronic production. Perry’s keyboards are central to the band’s sound, adding a modern edge to the tried and true rock band formula. - DH
Date Played: June 5 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Sub Pop catalog number 732 was a promo CD released on May 10th, 2007 featuring The Thermals song "A Pillar of Salt," which came out the previous August on their album The Body, The Blood, The Machine. It is also The Thermals song most played by KEXP DJs. Once I hit play, this will be the 133rd time it's been played. - OM
Date Played: June 5 on The Morning Show with John Richards
In many ways, Sub Pop signing Pissed Jeans affirmed that the precedent for the label, now two decades in the making, was still to support the voices of great grunge bands. In a press release, the label described this Allentown, Pennsylvania group’s sound as a mix of “classic, thick-as-glue punk bombast and Aussie sludge” – which is to say: they rock. Their Sub Pop debut keeps you on your toes in delicious anticipation of what might come next. The group’s spitting, volatile instrumentation compliments Matt Korvette’s moaning, acerbic vocals as they tackle such subjects as scrapbooking and ice cream with saturated and ironic insight into the highs and lows of everyday life. - SW
Date Played: June 5 by DJ Reeves
Brazilian electro-punk band are at their most brash and aggressive with "Alala," a single from their debut album Cansei De Ser Sexy. The mangled, visceral beat of drum loops and keyboard spikes underscores the band's take on disaffected punk vocals. The b-side to the 7-inch version of the single includes an even more straight-ahead punk rock iteration of the band with "Ódio, Ódio, Ódio, Sorry C.", which sees them howling over a barrrage of distorted guitars. - DH
Date Played: June 4 on The Afternoon Show with DJ Evie
Brazilian electro-punk band are at their most brash and aggressive with "Alala," a single from their debut album Cansei De Ser Sexy. The mangled, visceral beat of drum loops and keyboard spikes underscores the band's take on disaffected punk vocals. The b-side to the 7-inch version of the single includes an even more straight-ahead punk rock iteration of the band with "Ódio, Ódio, Ódio, Sorry C.", which sees them howling over a barrrage of distorted guitars. - DH
Date Played: June 4 on The Afternoon Show with DJ Evie
After releasing two albums on Kanine Records, Oxford Collapse signed to Sub Pop to release Remember The Night Parties. From the opening chords and shouts of "Please Visit Your National Parks" through the floating tones of "For The Khakis and Sweatshits," the album is one of their most immediate and mature records in their catalog. "National Parks" in particular quickly became a calling card for the band, helping cement their standing as underground heroes. - DH
Date Played: June 4 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
CSS pays homage to another dance punk act making waves in the late 2000s with their jubilant "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above." While the label Death From Above was also taking prominence in this era, the song actually refers to Toronto act Death From Above 1979 – as you can see in the music video where CSS wears elephant masks resembling DFA 1979's album cover for You're A Woman, I'm A Machine. However, the song sounds nothing like the from which they drew inspiration. Instead, we're treated with a sensational disco-inspired groove with a chirpy beat and CSS' iconic sing-talking vocals. - DH
Date Played: June 4 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
After the massive success of The Postal Service, producer and beatmaker DNTEL returned to his solo work with 2007's Dumb Luck. The record is much more sprawling and varied than Give Up, partially because of the lack of a singular voice like Ben Gibbard previously provided. However, DNTEL does bring along more than a few notable friends to lend vocals, including Jenny Lewis (who also appeared on Give Up), Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, Conor Oberst, Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott of Arthur & Yu, and more. - DH
Date Played: June 4 on The Morning Show with John Richards
The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" was an instant classic for Sub Pop and Iron & Wine somehow manages to create yet anothr iconic version of the song with this stunning cover. Stripping the song of its fluttering electronic prodution and replacing it with the elegiac tones of Sam Beam's acoustic guitar and voice proved to find another emotional core to the song. The Postal Service included the song as a b-side on the original "Such Great Heights" single, but the song found an even more widespread audience with its inclusion on the soundtrack to Zach Braff's surprise indie film hit Garden State. — DH
Date Played: June 4 on The Morning Show with John Richards
“Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above” must sound like a pretty great deal for fans of sex and the band Death From Above 1979 (I’m sure there’s gotta be a demographic that applies to somewhere). CSS’ homage to the dance punk titans is also one of the most thrilling songs from the band’s debut Cansei De Ser Sexy with its disco grooves and punk vocals. The song gets flipped for maximum hype capabilities with remixes on this 12-inch from Diplo and Spank Rock. - DH
Date Played: June 3 by DJ Evie
Mmm! Doesn’t that cover art just make you want to dig in to this compilation? Well, okay, if not then maybe take a look at the track list. Another roundup of the current Sub Pop roster, this mix features everything from Band Of Horses and The Thermals to PNW consistently underrated legends Dead Moon and Tall Birds. - DH
Date Played: June 3 by DJ Evie
Though this 12" was released several months before Wolf Eyes's sophomore effort on Sub Pop Human Animal, it contains a later catalog number, disturbing chronology. Of the two tracks, a-side "The Driller" was the lead single off Human Animal. It is menacing and upsetting, as one would expect from Wolf Eyes, and an invigorating preview for the LP. The vinyl states to play the 12" at 33 R.P.M., which is a lie unless one wishes to elongate their experience in the Wolf Eyes den. - MH
Date Played: June 3 by DJ Stevie Zoom
After their widely acclaimed debut album, Apologies to the Queen Mary, there was no feasible way Wolf Parade could repeat this success on their sophomore full-length. Luckily, At Mount Zoomer is as good of a sophomore slump as one could ask for, and it has aged just as well as their watershed debut. At Mount Zoomer was partially recorded at Arcade Fire's Petite Église, at which they crafted their sophomore effort Neon Bible. Largely alternating between tracks from Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner, At Mount Zoomer contains its fair share of Wolf Parade live staples, including "Soldier's Grin," "Language City," and "California Dreamer," all of which remain among the group's best cuts. The album memorably closes with the broadsword of Wolf Parade songs, "Kissing the Beehive," which stretches to an dense, varied eleven minutes. -MH
Date Played: June 3 by DJ Stevie Zoom
Chad VanGaalen is something of a musical chameleon. He proved it on his Sub Pop debut Infiniheart and reconfirms for the doubters with Skelliconnection. Completely self-produced, VanGaalen traverses knotty punk and breezy electronic ballads as nonchalantly as Mr. Roger’s swapped his jacket and shoes whenever he walked in the door. The album was a finalist for the Polaris Music Prize – the “Canadian Grammys” if you will. And you can see why. VanGaalen is a master of his craft, but he has a ton of different crafts. Maybe we should just call him a master? - DH
Date Played: June 3 by DJ Stevie Zoom
Getting people to listen to their music in spite of having a kinda gross name isn’t the only magic trick Pissed Jeans have, apparently. As Matt Korvette says on this single, he “Don’t Need Smoke To Make Myself Disappear.” The slow dirge of the song showcases just how menacing the band can, reveling in the mystery of bending guitar notes and the marching pulse of drums. Oh, and there’s that bass line that just feels like the baddies coming to get you. Pissed Jeans know how to get a visual in your mind one way or another, and this is just another fine example of that. - DH
Date Played: June 3 by DJ Mike Ramos
Brazilian electropunk act CSS opens their debut album Cansei De Ser Sexy with a strong declarative statement: “CSS Suxxx.” I don’t work in PR, but my instinct says it’s a bad idea to tell people you suck as an introduction. And at first, it might seem like I was right. When it was initially released in Brazil in 2005, the album was a flop. But thankfully Sub Pop caught wind of the record and re-released it a year later and eventually ended up on numerous Album of the Year lists from outlets like NME and Uncut. Oh yeah, and there is the hit song “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” that double dipped in iPod and Zune (R.I.P.) commercials. And honestly, how could you not be entranced by their vivid and vital mix of punk, electronic, and disco sounds? CSS definitely doesn’t suck, regardless of what they’ll tell you. - DH
Date Played: June 3 by Mike Ramos
A decade before you’d be texting your parents about the latest episode of This Is Us and which parts made you cry (damn you Sterling K. Brown and your emotional monologues), Mudhoney were stirring up different kinds of emotions with this single from their seventh album Under A Billion Suns – “It Is Us.” The song lives up to its name, giving a firm handshake to any newcomers what the band is all about (if they somehow missed their nearly 20 years of defining a whole sub-genre of music). Mark Arms howls and Steve Turners guitars sound just as vital as they did when the band started. It really shouldn’t be a surprise, after all the band is still throwing out mangled riffs to this very day and likely will until the end of eternity. - DH
Date Played: June 2 on Audioasis by DJ Sharlese
It's finally business time. The New Zealand comedy duo finally made their full-length debut with their 2008 self-titled album on the heels of their massively successful show on HBO. The LP is stacked with some of their biggest classics, including their rap battle "Hiphopoptamus Vs. Rhymenoceros," "The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)", and "Bowie." Now if only this mutha uckas would stop ucking with their shiiii. - DH
Date Played: June 2 by DJ Evie
Sub Pop highlighted a bevy of their artist's music videos with this DVD compilation cheekily named Acquired Taste. The disc includes videos from some of the label's flagship artists, including The Postal Service, The Thermals, The Shins, Iron & Wine, Wolf Parade, and more. - DH
Date Played: N/A (you can't play a DVD on the radio!)
This CD single was released to promote "Publish my Love" from Rogue Wave's Descended Like Vultures, but the real star ended up being the b-side "Eyes." The effervescent ballad highlights Zach Rogue's tender songwriting. The song also was boosted through placement on soundtracks for films and television shows like Just Friends, (500) Days of Summer and Heroes. - DH
Date Played: June 2 by DJ Evie
The New Zealand harmonizers in The Brunettes made their Sub Pop debut with their 2007 Structure & Cosmetics. Jonathan Bree (vocals, guitar) and Heather Mansfield’s (vocals, keys glock) melodic and mellow duets are their own alt-pop versions of Sonny and Cher or say Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra. Although Structures & Cosmetics would be Bree and Mansfield’s only Sub Pop release – they ended up returning to Bree’s label Lil’ Chief Records – the dreaminess and digital-based rhythms they produced on this record are unparalleled. - ZF
Date Played: June 2 by DJ Evie
Before releasing The Shepherd’s Dog – one of Iron & Wine’s integral innovations – the project’s conductor Sam Beam released Live Session (iTunes Exclusive),which showcased seven vulnerably stripped down songs with his sister Sarah Beam accompanying him, in which she was no stranger to. This release opens with an earnest and acoustic rendition of New Order’s “Love Vigilantes,” plus includes a clean and original version of the seven-minute “The Trapeze Swinger” as well as some gems from his previous successes. - ZF
Date Played: June 2 by DJ Morgan
Iron & Wine's The Shepherd’s Dog is up there with some of the most notable Sub Pop pièce de résistances in the intimate genre. As the solo project of singer-songwriter Sam Beam, his folk rock eventually evolved to an exciting full-band experiment in this 2007 culmination of airy-crooning ballads, velvet-smooth grooves, and Tom Waits’ Swordfishtrombone-inspired creative renaissance. Sometimes musicians need to creatively die before they grow and it obviously worked for Beam with this narrative-lush classic. - ZF
Date Played: June 2 by DJ Morgan
The Helio Sequence are machines of whimsical pop rock on their 2008 Keep Your Eyes Ahead, which was their second album out on Sub Pop. Ahead loosely marked the halfway point of their records having debuted in 1999 and their last album was released in 2015. From dance-y title tracks to euphoric numbers like “Can’t Say No” and “Hallelujah,” the Beaverton, Oregon duo brought a wave of late-oughts indie rock that was uniquely undulating with Brandon Summers’ aura-like voice, which he had to reinvent his singing after having damaged it prior to this album. Also, interesting enough, the act’s drummer Benjamin Weikel also played drums on Modest Mouse’s magnum opus Good News For People Who Love Bad News. - ZF
Date Played: June 2 by DJ Morgan
As their 2006 sophomore effort on Sub Pop, The Album Leaf’s Into the Blue Again delivers twinkling Rhodes piano layered in nostalgic, post-rock ballads. Steering the San Diego-crewed sip, Jimmy LaValle creates synthesized soundscapes to compliment any mood. There’s orchestral beats, bedroom rock, and Postal Service-worshiping instrumentals that stitch a comforting sonic quilt to curl up in. Very noteworthy, part of the The Album Leaf gang was producer and instrumentalist Ryan Hadlock from Woodinville, WA, who went on to produce music for giants like The Lumineers and Vance Joy, and who’s parents founded Bear Creek Studios in North Creek, WA. - ZF
Date Played: June 2 by DJ Gabriel Teodoros
Five years before he'd voice Gene Belcher on Bob's Burgers, Eugene Mirman was already an established stand-up comedian. After releasing his debut comedy album on Kill Rock Stars, Mirman jumped over to Sub Pop for En Garde Society, recorded at the Pianos club in New York. The album also came with a DVD featuring short films directed by Mirman, one of which features music from labelmates the Helio Sequence. - DH
Date Played: N/A
Echoes of the Past is the official Dead Moon best of compilation, as compiled by the late, great Fred Cole, who passed away in 2017. Chosen from a wealth of albums, of which there are 17 depending on how you count, Echoes of the Past captures the band at the center of their derelict heart. Impressively, this is the band's first album on Sub Pop, despite being longtime fixtures of the PNW scene. -MH
Date Played: June 1
The Shins made Sub Pop history with their third album Wincing The Night Away. Not only was the album a critical success, but it achieved mainstream acclaim and earned the number two spot on the Billboard 200 – the highest any release on the label had ever reached. It's easy to see why it was such as success, too. James Mercer's songwriting has never sounded sharper, from the immersive haze of opening "Sleeping Lessons" to the undeniable bounce of singles "Australia" and "Phantom Limb." The album also saw Mercer working alongside producer Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes, U2, Elton John – a bona fide "big deal"). Chiccarelli encountered Mercer while working with Portland's Pink Martini. Mercer was struggling to complete his record, bringing the all-star producer into the fold and helping him complete his started tracks. In a review for Rolling Stone, the dean of music journalism himself Robert Christgau says of the album, "Gracefully realized though it is, you can hear the three-plus years Mercer spent pondering how to satisfy the expectations his surprise classic had created — and also how to remain fresh and true to himself." - DH
Date Played: June 1 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Comets on Fire throw in a bit of everything into the stew with their 2006 album Avatar. The album veers between psychedelic rock, country, and jam band antics across the LP. Pitchfork's Jason Crook called the album "something for the plebes, the purists, the dabblers, and the old heads all at once-- a crossover in the best sense of the word."Avatar would be the band's last record before they went on hiatus in 2008. - DH
Date Played: June 1 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
If the image burned into your brain when you listen to the Thermals' third album is that of settlers from centuries ago walking around with "the good book" in one hand and a rifle in the other, there's a good chance you're pretty close to the message of the album. The Body, the Blood, the Machine is a full-length Christianity smell test; deeply suspicious of the religion's motives and eager to see if its values hold under the harsh light of scrutiny. It is a "concept album," a piece whose songs are connected by a string of 2000-year-old yarn -- rife with religious imagery ("A Pillar of Salt," "Here's Your Future"), the underlying parallels between the Army and Abraham with a dash of Moses ("I Might Need You to Kill"), and a song so ecstatic it could serve as a Christian-rock anthem if it weren't so sarcastic about the entire concept. -- MD
Date Played: June 1 on The Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole
Tonight The Monkeys Die compiles remixes of Low's "Monkey" by a bunch of guys you wouldn't normally think first to be a part of a remix. The song, which originally appeared on The Great Destroyer, gets reimagined by Husker Du's Bob Mould, The Magnetic Fields' Stephen Merrit, Minneapolis band Fog, Crew Jones, and The Count. The CD also came with the original song's music video when inserted into a computer (remember when that was a thing?). - DH
Date Played: June 1 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
Recorded in motel rooms while songwriter Blake Sennett was on tour with his other band Rilo Kelly, this L.A indie rock pop outfit creates a dreamy and shimmering country-tinged panacea on their sophomore LP. In a Sub Pop press release, the album is described as being “propelled by the kind of unsettled, exploratory impetus that is only native to the American open road”. With steel guitar, tambourine, and kid gloves abound, the album satisfyingly feels like a sonic map of the many sights and sounds one imagines Sennett encountered during his travels. - SW
Date Played: June 1 on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters
