Eugene Mirman has been in St. Paul, MN this past week covering the Republican National Convention. We’ve really enjoyed Eugene’s work and perhaps you will too!

RNC 08: Who Is Sarah Palin?

RNC 08: What’s a Republican?

Eugene’s pants catch on fire.

One of the ways our friends at KEXP raise money to keep on keepin’ on is through the sale of their series of Live at KEXP compilations. These CDs feature KEXP’s exclusive, live in-studio recordings and recordings from live remote broadcasts across the country. And, Volume 4 is coming out on September 16th! This new installment includes several artists whose recordings are generally available on the Sub Pop label. Specifically, these artists…

The Helio Sequence, who perform the song “Can’t Say No” from their album Keep Your Eyes Ahead
and
Fleet Foxes with the song “Oliver James” from their self-titled album.

Plus! This volume also includes the song “Lion’s Mouth” from Hardly Artists Arthur & Yu.

Live at KEXP - Volume 4 is evidently available exclusively through Insound and you can (and should) pre-order it now!

Today the folks at Q Magazine announced the nominees for their 2008 Q Awards and Fleet Foxes got TWO! So far as we know, Fleet Foxes are the first band on the label to be nominated since the Q Awards began in 1990! They were nominated in the “Best New Act” and “Best Album” categories and we are confident that they are deserving of both. If you are similarly bullish on Fleet Foxes and their super-fantastic self-titled debut full-length why not vote for them?!

Congratulations, fellas! You are already winners in our book (though such an “honor” should come as no surprise and comes with considerably less statuary/prizes…).

In the meantime, Fleet Foxes continue touring, and touring, and touring. Read all about that here.

Vote for Fleet Foxes in the 2008 Q Awards!

Following their full-length, debut record, Saturnalia, The Gutter Twins have a new 8-song EP available called Adorata. The EP is available exclusively through the iTunes Music Store here. Adorata features two previously unreleased originals and also contains cover songs by José González, Primal Scream, Scott Walker, Vetiver, and Eleven

A portion of Adorata’s proceeds will go to the Natasha Shneider Memorial Fund. Natasha Shneider was a friend of the band and the late lead singer of Eleven.

While it’s likely that we have already tipped our hand with their appearance at our 20th anniversary festival (and also with bits of press coverage like this Seattle Weekly piece), we are exceedingly thrilled to announce that we are now working with the band Obits!

Let’s meet the men of Obits!

Rick Froberg—-guitar, vocals
Sohrab Habibion—-guitar, vocals
Greg Simpson—-bass
Scott Gursky—-drums

Rick was in Pitchfork , Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes. Sohrab was in Edsel. Scott was (and is, for about another week, apparently) in Shortstack. And, according to that Seattle Weekly article linked above Greg Simpson is easily the best musician in the band—no small feat in the company he’s keeping here.

They are an amazing band, an excellent group of people and we are very excited to be working with them.

The plan is to release the first Obits full-length record album sometime in the first few months of 2009.