Please join us in welcoming Heron Oblivion to the Sub Pop family. The San Francisco based group, featuring Meg Baird (Espers), Noel Von Harmonson (Comets on Fire, Six Organs of Admittance, Sic Alps, The Lowdown), Ethan Miller (Comets on Fire, Howlin’ Rain, Feral Ohms), and Charlie Saufley (Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound), will release their label debut worldwide in the spring of 2016.
Preceding the release of their debut LP, Heron Oblivion will perform as support for Matador Records act Kurt Vile on his upcoming west coast tour. The trek begins October 14th in Los Angeles, CA at The Fonda Theatre and ends on October 18th in Seattle, WA at Showbox at the Market. (tour dates below)
[photo credit: Raeni Miller]
About Heron Oblivion:
Meg Baird: Drums, lead vocals Ethan Miller: Bass, backing vocals Noel Von Harmonson: Guitar Charlie Saufley: Guitar
Heron Oblivion’s origins date to 2013 in SF’s Bayview district, where its four members– fueled by a love of 60s/70s scuzz and commune jams, folk rock, noise, and P.S.F. Japanese underground—would get together for what Miller describes as “blistering, extended free jam sessions.” The four musicians realized that their initial chemistry (which was strong from the outset) was undeniable and it’s vision unified. Heron Oblivion was born.
Ultimately, Heron Oblivion fused song craft to its improvisational leanings. What materialized is a mesmeric compilation of English folk rock and earthy West Coast psychedelia spiked with feedback and explosive dissonant elements. The sum of these elements will make up their Sub Pop debut.
Tour Dates : Supporting Kurt Vile Oct. 14 - Los Angeles, CA - Fonda Theatre Oct. 15 - San Francisco, CA - Slims Oct. 16 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore Oct. 17 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom Oct. 18 - Seattle, WA - Showbox
Now that I live and breathe Sub Pop at the airport, it’s easy for me to lose sight of the fact that, for many travelers, their first introduction to the record label is wandering accidentally into our store.
While we are quite accustomed to hearing statements like, “This is the best store ever!” sometimes we overhear observations, or are asked questions, that very much help keep us grounded. I recently asked my fellow employees for any funny quotes that they have overheard lately. Here’s a small sampling of some of the stranger things that are spoken at the store:
“These SUB POP shirts all look like the Sublime logo.”
“So, is this like, Seattle’s Abercrombie?”
“Sub Pop must be some kind of local soda company.”
“This is a store for teenyboppers.”
“I don’t know what Sub Pop is, but I like it.”
“Why does this say LOSER?”
“A record store in the airport. Oh my god, this is so Seattle.”
“Man, Sub Pop used to be anti-culture.”
“Oh yeah, Sub Pop is Dave Grohl’s recording studio.”
“This is weirdly awesome.”
“I’m about to spend all my money and I haven’t even left the airport yet.”
“This is a little ridiculous. They should have a store in the worst alley of Seattle, not the airport.”
“Who are all these people?”
“Can you take my photo for your wall?
“Why don’t you have the Chili Peppers on here?”
“Whoa! Check out these tiny records.”
“Are these really vinyls back here? New ones?”
“What do you play records on nowadays?”
“Why are you buying records here? You don’t even have a record player…”
“I respect what’s going on in here, but they need some better stuff, like O.A.R. or Janis Joplin.”
“Wait. Is Nirvana from Seattle?”
“Is this a mouse pad?”
“Let’s go. This store is just filled with crap that says ‘Sub Pop.’”
“Whether he’s signing up for Christian Mingle or forced into using an unfortunate password at a bar, it’s the latest entry in Mirman’s absurd discography.” - AV Club
“His third comedy album, I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome), is an absurd nine-volume, seven-LP opus ranging from “A Guided Meditation to a Thoughtful Body” to an “Introduction to Spoken Russian” to “Over 45 Minutes of Crying,” which features him—you guessed it—crying for over 45 minutes.” - Newsweek
“…Mirman’s subversive, brilliant comedy justifies the sumptuous settings.” [B+] - Consequence of Sound
Eugene Mirman’s I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) is a hilarious 9-volume, 7-LP comedy album that’s now available worldwide as a lavish, 7-LP box set or digitally via Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, and Amazon. Additionally, limited-edition embroidered robes are also available to purchase from megamart.subpop.com (while supplies last). As for the chair with built in audio player, the option is currently sold out.
I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) is the culmination of a long-time dream of Eugene’s. It includes a vast array of sounds that can be described as varyingly poignant, erotic, practical, romantic, mind-altering, educational, and humorous. Need to learn Russian? Eugene provides. Meditation sounds? Eugene provides. The sound of a grown man crying? Eugene provides. Oh, also, this release contains a full set of live standup recorded at Columbia City Theater in Seattle, WA June 6, 7, & 8, 2014.
Eugene Mirman begins the I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) tour tonight, October 30th at Brooklyn’s Bell House and ends November 19th in Boston at the Paradise. Support will come from Derrick Brown and Josie Long (details + dates below).
I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) has earned praise from the likes of The AV Club, Noisey, Mashable, Newsweek, GQ, Consequence of Sound, The Observer, PASTE, Exclaim, Village Voice, New York Magazine, and more.
I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) contains the following collection of tracks on 7 LPs:
LP1 - Live In Seattle At The Columbia City Theater
Good-humored noticings from America’s “Master of the Noticing!”
LP 2A - A Guided Meditation For The Thoughtful Body
A calming meditation to cheer and sooth the cluttered mind, the injured heart and the anxious body
LP 2B - Fuckscape
An erotic soundscape for lovebirds and adventurous friends
Father John Misty’s 2015 tour schedule in support of I Love You, Honeybear continues with two sold out shows at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA on October 16th and 17th and currently ends December 11th-13th in Perth, AU at Disconnect Festival. (complete tour dates below)
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In other news, Father John Misty recently premiered a hilariously meta video for “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment,” a standout from I Love You, Honeybear, his acclaimed album. The new visual was helmed by writer-director-producer Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation). You can watch it right over here: u.subpop.com/1UYW649
“This warped, lovely album suggests that a true longtime partnership isn’t two people who love each other even for their flaws, but of two people accepting decay–their own and each other’s–and choosing to ride it out nonetheless.” - New York Times
“The artist born Josh Tillman aims for grandiosity in his Father John Misty disguise, and his second album for Sub Pop repeatedly reaches such heights. A musical genie bottle with the spirits of Phil Spector, Lee Hazlewood and Brian Wilson corked within, Tillman and co-producer Jonathan Wilson seem to revel in letting these sounds seep out and intermingle.” - Los Angeles Times
“His beloved Father John Misty debut was Fear Fun, issued in 2012. The new album, out now, is I Love You, Honeybear….and it is as good as, though quite different from, its predecessor.” - Wall Street Journal
“I Love You, Honeybear, an album by turns passionate and disillusioned, tender and angry, so cynical it’s repulsive and so open hearted it hurts.” [8.8 / 10, “Best New Music”] - Pitchfork
“Upping the spectacle from Fear Fun his 2012 debut, I Love You, Honeybear is an autobiographical set about love, marriage and derangement that’s both ironic and empathic.” [4/5] - Rolling Stone
“If there’s a funnier, stranger and more touchingly bizarre album released this year, it will be a very good year indeed.” [4/5] - Billboard
“This is a gorgeous album.” [10/10] - Exclaim
“For all the layers of irony on I Love You, Honeybear, the biggest irony of all might be that such an ostensibly knotty and confusing album’s real strength lies in something as prosaic and transparent as its author’s ability to write a beautiful melody.” [5/5] - The Guardian
“Album of the Week” - Stereogum
Tour Dates
Oct. 14 - Los Angeles, CA - Jimmy Kimmel Live! (Outdoor stage) Oct. 15 - Las Vegas, NV - Pool at the Cosmopolitan ** Oct. 16 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern ** [Sold Out] Oct. 17 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern ** [Sold Out] Oct. 18 - San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island Music Festival Oct. 22 - Galway, IE - Roisin Dubh* [Sold Out] Oct. 23 - Belfast, UK - Mandela Hall* Oct. 24 - Dublin, IE - Vicar Street [Sold Out]* Oct. 26 - Sheffield, UK - Plug [Sold Out]* Oct. 27 - Cambridge, UK - The Junction [Sold Out]* Oct. 28 - London, UK - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire [Sold Out]* Oct. 29 - London, UK - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire [Sold Out]* Oct. 31 - Paris, FR - Pitchfork Music Festival Paris* Nov. 01 - Bologna, IT - Locomotiv* Nov. 02 - Munich, DE - Strom* Nov. 03 - Weisbaden, DE - Schlachtof* Nov. 04-08 - Reykjavik, IS - Iceland Airwaves* Nov. 06 - Wangles, DE - Weissenhauser Strand* Nov. 09 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso* Nov. 10 - Brussels, BE - Ancienne Belguique* Nov. 11 - Nantes, FR - Stereolux* Nov. 12 - Lyon, FR - Epicerie Moderne* Nov. 13 - Koln, DE - Luxor* Nov. 15 - Stockholm, SE - Berns Hotel^ Nov. 16 - Copenhagen, DK - Vega [Sold Out]* Nov. 17 - Copenhagen, DK - Vega [Sold Out]* Nov. 21 - Mexico City, MX - Corona Capital Music Festival Dec. 03 - Auckland, NZ - St. James Theatre Dec. 05 - Berry Park, AU - Fairgrounds Festival Dec. 06 - Brisbane, AU - Max Watt’s Dec. 08 - Sydney, AU - Sydney Opera House Dec. 09 - Melbourne, AU - Forum Dec. 10 - Melbourne, AU - Forum [Sold Out] Dec. 12 - Geelong, AU - Meredith Music Festival [Sold Out] Dec. 11-13 - Perth, AU - Disconnect Festival * w/ Anna B. Savage ** w/ Mikal Cronin ^ w/ Briana Marela
In this collaborative effort, 4AD group Merchandise and Sub Pop’s own Dum Dum Girls present the new “Red Sun” b/w “Echo” 7” single, available worldwide Friday, November 27th from Sub Pop. (Listen to “Red Sun”)
“Red Sun” and “Echo” were both written after midnight. “Red Sun” is the story of love, power, and weakness. A 3 minute narrative about the mystery of human attraction and its hold on the psyche. “Red Sun,” played by Dee Dee, is half siren and half desert wanderer. She’s the temptress and the God of War the body of a girl who can make all men her victim. “Echo” takes place in the streets of Berlin. In “Echo” our narrator is lost in the madness of regret and lost love. In the warm streets of summer he’s frozen by his thoughts as if it were winter already. This new single was conceived in Tampa, FL and recorded between Tampa, Berlin and NYC during the summer of 2015.
(Photo Credit: Catie Laffoon)
Stereogum had this to say about “Red Sun”, “a moody track that rests on a pulsing, sinister synth line and arid guitar. Dee Dee handles the verses, playing some sort of man-eating desert siren, while Carson Cox jumps in on the chorus” (see track premiere October 19th).
The “Red Sun” b/w “Echo” single is now available for preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, and Amazon. Preorders through megamart.subpop.com will receive a limited edition version of the 7” pressed on clear purple vinyl (while supplies last).
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Dum Dum Girls’ digital single for “Coming Down” (radio edit) b/w “Girls Intuition” is also now available for purchase through Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes and all streaming services. Both songs were available exclusively on very limited edition 7” vinyl.
This past July, Sleater-Kinney delivered a blistering headlining set to a sold-out crowd at Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival in support of No Cities To Love, their critically acclaimed 2015 album. One of the performances captured that night was the live highlight “Modern Girl” - from The Woods, the group’s 2005 album - and you can watch it now: youtube.com/watch?v=7Lepy_rq4T8
Earlier today, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein released her deeply affecting memoir, Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl via Riverhead Books. Read more about the book via her interview via Pitchfork today (see October 27th post).
Sleater-Kinney’s previously announced 2015 tour schedule resumes November 21st-22nd in Mexico City’s Corona Capital Festival. Then from December 4th-16th, Sleater-Kinney will embark on a Midwestern-East Coast U.S. (details below).
Sleater-Kinney’s No Cities To Love is one of the best reviewed albums of the year with “Best of 2015 (so far)” notices from the likes of Time, USA Today, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, The AV Club, The Guardian, Complex, NME, Stereogum, PASTE, and SPIN. No Cities To Love is available worldwide from Sub Pop, and you can stream it here.
What are “They” saying about No Cities To Love? Read the good words:
“America’s fiercest punk band....10 songs in 33 minutes, not a dud in the bunch, all surging in uptempo stomp-down-the-door mode. There’s more low-end thud to their sound than before. The whole album crackles with the palpable excitement of three rock lifers in a room, eager to see what happens when they plug in and let it rip.” [Best Albums of 2015 (so far)] - Rolling Stone
“The trio still snap and crackle on their first set since 2005. No Cities… might sound chaotic at first, but each element—Corin Tucker’s sweet snarl, Janet Weiss’ rugged beats, Carrie Brownstein’s noisy solos—is exactly in its right place.” [Best Albums of 2015 (so far)] - Entertainment Weekly
“…33 minutes of unbridled ferocity” [Best Albums of 2015 (so far)] - Time
“Hurtling, bristling, densely packed, white-knuckled songs that are all taut construction and raw nerve… The first great album of 2015” [Review] - New York Times
“…beautiful algebraic equations that solve problems that researchers never even knew existed, moving logically yet filled with left-turn riff maneuvers.” [Review] - LA Times
“The skeptic may be suspicious when I say that, after “All Hands on the Bad One” (2000), the new album, No Cities to Love, is my favorite Sleater-Kinney record, but it is: the musicians pull it off. The songwriters’ ability to create general but urgent scenarios is both more substantial and more insistent than before.” [Review] - The New Yorker
“The hardest-hitting thing they’ve ever done.” [Review] - Vulture
“As fresh and vitals as a debut, but also as nuanced and skillful as the work of three players with a decade-long inimitable report betwixt them” [First Listen] - NPR
“Their return is not a victory lap. It is a re-declaration of all they were, all they built… We still need Sleater-Kinney” [Review] - Pitchfork
“They were always tumultuous – a storm of longing, fury, aspiration, solidarity, and indomitable emotion” [Feature] - Billboard
The finest living rock band… Extraordinary” [9/10, Review] - SPIN
“Vociferous as ever” [Feature] - Nylon
“Hitting new chords and exploring structures with glee, with that same crucial energy” [Review] - LA Times
“The best rock band on the planet… [they] genuinely dominate, breaking down walls, rules and egos with nimble poise and savage fury” [Feature] - Noisey
“A perfect fusion of musical personalities, a spiky and sparkling rock ‘n’ roll machine” [Feature] - Slate
“As fresh and surprising, as unlikely and as unsatisfied… Promising that this part of the Sleater-Kinney story is only at its start” [Real Life Rock Top 10] - Greil Marcus
“Even their punchy, brief songs carry the weight of epics… genius lyrics and hook after inescapable hook” [A-, Review] - Consequence of Sound
“Roiling and erupting, building up tension and then releasing it gloriously” [Review] - Stereogum
Tour Dates
Nov. 21 - 22 - Mexico City, MX - Corona Capital Festival Dec. 04 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room at Old National Centre Dec. 05 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall Dec. 06 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart’s Dec. 08 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre Dec. 09 - Cleveland, OH - Masonic Auditorium Dec. 10 - Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall at Babeville Dec. 12 - Brooklyn, NY - Kings Theatre Dec. 13 - New York, NY - Terminal 5 Dec. 14 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza [SOLD OUT] Dec. 15 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg [SOLD OUT] Dec. 16 - Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel [SOLD OUT]
