You can now watch Low’s official, new video, directed by Manuel Aragon, for “Lies,” a standout track from Ones and Sixes, their acclaimed new album.
 
Aragon had this to say of the video, “Diego is a jornalero - a day laborer, struggling to maintain his livelihood. Daily, he navigates between two very different realities: one, the worker, very much on the outskirts of society, unseen, unnoticed; the other, a Mexican-American 20-something, one half of a mixed-race couple trying to sustain their relationship and manage their cultural differences.”
 
Low’s 2015 European headlining tour in support of Ones and Sixes, is currently underway, with a show tonight, Thursday, October 8th in Glasgow at Art School. Later this week, the group will play their largest headlining date at London’s iconic Roundhouse on October 10th. The European trek will end on November 2nd in Paris at Le Divan du Monde.  (see details below)
 
Low will resume U.S. touring on November 11th at Minneapolis’ First Avenue and continue through November 21st at Seattle’s Crocodile. Then in 2016, the group will embark on a two-week tour beginning January 30th in Evanston, IL at Space and ending February 13th in St. Louis at the Pageant.
 

 
Low’s Ones and Sixes is available for purchase from the Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp. Now sold-out through megamart.subpop.com, the limited “Loser Edition” of the double-LP on yellow vinyl and packaged in a variant slipcase cover is available from select independent stores and from the band themselves at upcoming tour dates, while supplies last.
 

 
Tour Dates
Oct. 08 - Glasgow, UK - Art School =
Oct. 10 - London, UK - Roundhouse ^
Oct. 12 - Koln, DE - Gebaude 9 =
Oct. 13 - Hamburg, DE – Knust =
Oct. 14 - Copenhagen, DK – Vega =
Oct. 15 - Stockholm, SE – Kagelbanan =
Oct. 17 - Berlin, DE – Lido =
Oct. 19 - Munich, DE – Ampere =
Oct. 20 - Bologna, IT - Teatro Antoniano =
Oct. 22 - Zaragoza, ES - Las Armas =
Oct. 23 - Barcelona, ES – Bikini =
Oct. 24 - Valencia, ES - Deleste Festival
Oct. 26 - Madrid, ES - Teatro Lara =
Oct. 27 - Santander, ES – Escenario =
Oct. 29 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso ^
Oct. 30 – Tourcoing, FR – Le Grand Mix =
Oct. 31 - Brussels, BE – AB +
Nov. 02 – Paris, FR – Le Divan du Monde =
Nov. 11 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue*
Nov. 12 – Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge*
Nov. 13 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge*
Nov. 14 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex*
Nov. 16 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour*
Nov. 18 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall*
Nov. 20 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir*
Nov. 21 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile*
Jan. 30 - Evanston, IL - Space           
Feb. 01 - Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
Feb. 02 - Baltimore, MD - Creative Alliance (Seated)
Feb. 03 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
Feb. 04 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
Feb. 05 - Birmingham, AL - Saturn
Feb. 06 - New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks                      
Feb. 08 - Houston, TX - Fitzgerald’s  
Feb. 09 - Austin, TX -  The Parish      
Feb. 10 - Dallas, TX - The Kessler Theatre
Feb. 12 - Nashville, TN - City Winery  Nashville, TN
Feb. 13 - St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway        
 
* w/ Andy Shauf
^ w/ Two Gallants
+ w/ Chelsea Wolfe
= w/ Mike Noga

For up to date information on tickets please visit http://chairkickers.com/shows.

METZ made their return to Last Call with Carson Daly on Friday, September 11th.  The band delivered incredible performances of II highlights “The Swimmer” and “Spit You Out,” filmed live at FYF Fest from Los Angeles.  

The band’s extensive headlining (and earsplitting) world tour on behalf of II is currently storming through Europe and ends November 28th-29th in Brighton, UK at the Mutation’s Festival weekender.  Hardly Art recording artists Protomartyr join METZ as direct support on certain dates.  (see below)

METZ II has earned “Albums of the Year (so far)” notices from the likes of Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The AV Club, SPIN, Treble, and more. II also scored the band its highest chart position in the U.S. to date, entering at #98 / Billboard Top 200.  In Canada, the album debuted at #27 on the Top 200 albums chart.

At radio, II peaked at #8 on the CMJ Top 200 chart. The album also saw support with FMQB Alternative Specialty reporters, peaking at #1 on the albums chart, and its lead-off track “Acetate” at #2 on the singles chart.

On a related note, you can also watch METZ’s amazing KEXP in-studio performance, filmed August 4th while on a tour stop in Seattle. The live session includes II tracks “Wait in Line,” “The Swimmer,” “Spit You Out,” and “Acetate.”

- - - - -

METZ II is currently available on CD / LP / DL worldwide from Sub Pop, and we encourage you to purchase it in all your favorite formats via the Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp.

- - - - -

What do “They” say about METZ II?  Quite a lot, actually:

“Metz colors outside the lines — obliterates them, really.”  - New York Times

“The record twitches with the flying-off-the-rails urgency of the band’s live shows as Metz sandblasts the industrial precision of their first album into a nastier, more shambolic attack.” [Best Albums of 2015 (so far)] - Rolling Stone
 
“These mild-looking Canadians revive the golden age of early Nirvana and ’90s grunge with 10 walloping noise-rockers—but there are surprising hooks amid all the Sturm und Drang.”  [Best Albums of 2015 (so far)] - Entertainment Weekly
 
“The record is all killer, no filler.” - [Best Albums of 2015 (so far)] -AV Club
 
“II is looser and fuzzier than its predecessor… one of 2015’s standout records.” [8.5 / 10] - MAGNET
 
“This isn’t just purgative music hell-bent on bloodletting and catharsis; it’s also carefully composed, with loving attention paid to fine detail and immaculate precision.” [“First Listen”] - NPR Music
 
“Creating a soundscape of claustrophobic, ravenous guitar riffs awash in feedback and distortion, with drums that never let you catch your breath. You’ll feel it in your stomach as much as you hear it.” [First Play] - CBC Music
 
“Album of the Week” - Stereogum
 
“Hits like a concussion grenade, and you’ll revel in the damage long after the room’s been cleared.” [4/5]- Alternative Press 
 
“II, like the record that preceded it, is still a seasick and unyielding document of brutalist experimentation. But because the trio is willing to explore different avenues, there’s more corners to get lost in.” [8/10] - SPIN
 
“Album of the Week” - Treble
 
“A direct gut-punching affair.” [5/5] - DIY

“Bigger, faster, louder, stronger - in many ways ‘II’ is everything the band’s second record ought to be.” [8/10] - Loud & Quiet

“Bold, unsympathetic and brutally effective.” [8/10] - NME

“Raucous, filthy and hummable in equal measure.” [8/10] - Rock Sound

“A second volume of string-bending, amp-busting noise-punk…Awesome.” [4/5] - Time Out London

“II is what Metz do best: brazenly truculent hardcore.” - The Guardian

“Few bands anywhere do this sort of thing this well.” - The Quietus

“With II, Metz have done more than enough to cement themselves as the new kings of transgressive hard rock, and that’s a crown which is going to be difficult for anyone to wrestle from them.” [8.5/10] - The Line of Best Fit 

“This album has achieved a seemingly impossible feat by sounding even more aggressive than the one that preceded it.” [8/10] - The 405

“The whole record is a dizzy, punk joy - taking itself far less seriously than most proper hardcore bands, whilst sounding twice as aggressive as any of them, and with better tunes.” [8/10] -Drowned in Sound

“II almost feels like Metz wanted to push the boundaries to see just how dark and dirty they could play while still carrying a tune and continuing to draw listeners in with unconventionally gripping arrangements - and good on them, they pulled it off!” [10/10] -Louder Than War

Tour Dates

Sep. 11 - Rome, IT - INIT
Sep. 12 - Milan, IT - Lo Fi Club
Sep. 14 - Zurich, CH - Kinski Club
Sep. 15 - Lausanne, CH - Le Romandie
Sep. 17 - Toulouse, FR - le Metronum
Sep. 19 - Madrid, ES - Sala Lemon
Sep. 20 - Porto, PT - Hard Club/Amplifest
Sep. 21 - Bilbao, ES - Kafe Antzokia
Sep. 23 - Lyon, FR - Le Transbordeur
Sep. 24 - Relms, FR - Festival Elektricity
Sep. 25 - Dusseldorf, DE - Zakk
Sep. 26 - Hamburg, DE - Reeperbahn Festival
Oct. 16 - Stockholm, SE - Debaser
Oct. 17 - Lund, SE - Mejeriet
Oct. 18 - Oslo, NO - John Dee
Oct. 19 - Aarhus, DK - Atlas ^
Oct. 20 - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen @ Christiana ^
Oct. 22 - Nijmegen, NL - Doornroosje ^
Oct. 23 - Amsterdam, NL - Bitterzoet ^
Oct. 24 - Zwolle, NL - Let’s Get Lost Festival
Oct. 27 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie ^
Oct. 28 - Lille, FR - L’ Aeronef ^
Oct. 29 - Antwerp, BE - Trix ^
Oct. 30 - Birmingham, UK - Hare and Hounds ^
Oct. 31 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club ** ^
Nov. 01 - London, UK - Scala  **
Nov. 03 - Bristol, UK - The Fleece **
Nov. 04 - Manchester, UK - Sound Control **
Nov. 05 - Glasgow, UK - Stereo **
Nov. 06 - Dublin, IR - Whelans
Nov. 18 - Helsinki, FI - Supermassive Festival
Nov. 20 - Utrecht, NL - Le Guess Who? Festival
Nov. 21 - Kortrijk, BE - Sonic City Festival
Nov. 29 - Brighton, UK - Mutations Festival
** w/ Protomartyr
^ w/ Crows

For ticket links, click here.

On Friday, October 16th (yes, that’s THIS coming Friday!) Beach House will release Thank Your Lucky Stars, their second LP of 2015.  The album (recorded during the same two month span as Depression Cherry) is now available for preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart, Bandcamp, Amazon, iTunes, and will be available at your local independent purveyor of fine records this Friday, Oct. 16th.

Beach House also issued this note about the special release:

“Thank Your Lucky Stars is our sixth full length record. It was written after Depression Cherry from July 2014 - November 2014 and recorded during the same session as Depression Cherry. The songs came together very quickly and were driven by the lyrics and the narrative. In this way, the record feels very new for us, and a great departure from our last few records. Thematically, this record often feels political. It’s hard to put it into words, but something about the record made us want to release it without the normal “campaign.” We wanted it to simply enter the world and exist.

Thank you very much,

Beach House”

LP and digital copies of the album will be available beginning Friday, October 16th, with the CD version following on Friday, October 30th.  LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com will receive the limited “Loser” edition on green vinyl (while supplies last).

Beach House’s worldwide tour in support of both Depression Cherry & Thank Your Lucky Stars resumes on October 24th at Belfast’s Mandela Hall, and their 2015 dates end with a sold-out 3-night stand December 17-19 in San Francisco at The Fillmore. (details below)  

In further exciting news, Beach House will appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Friday, October 16th (at 11:35pm ET / 10:35pm CT), so set those DVR’s, folks.

Tour Dates

Oct. 24 - Belfast, UK -  Mandela Hall
Oct. 25 - Dublin, IE - Vicar Street
Oct. 26 - Glasgow, UK - ABC
Oct. 27 - Manchester, UK - The Ritz
Oct. 29 - Paris, FR - Pitchfork Music Festival
Oct. 30 - London, UK - Shepherds Bush Empire
Oct. 31 - London, UK - Shepherds Bush Empire [Sold Out]
Nov. 02 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso  
Nov. 03 - Brussels, BE - Autumn Falls @ AB  [Sold Out]
Nov. 04 - Koln, DE - Gloria
Nov. 05 - Luxemborg, LU - Den Atelier
Nov. 07 - Reykjavik, IS - Iceland Airwaves
Nov. 10 - Oslo, NO - Sentrum Scene
Nov. 11 - Gothenburg, SE - Tradgarn
Nov. 12 - Stockholm, SE - Debaser Medis  [Sold Out]
Nov. 13 - Copenhagen DK - Vega  [Sold Out]
Nov. 14 - Hamburg, DE - Kampnagel K1
Nov. 16 - Berlin, DE - Huxley’s
Nov. 17 - Munich, DE - Freiheiz
Nov. 18  - Lausanne, CH - Les Docks
Nov. 20 - Barcelona, ES - Apolo [Sold Out]
Nov. 22 - Madrid, ES - La Riviera
Nov. 23 - Lisbon, PT - Armazén
Nov. 24 - Porto, PT - Teatro sa da Bandeira
Dec. 07 - Santa Ana, CA - The Observatory [Sold Out]
Dec. 09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre [Sold Out]
Dec. 10 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre [Sold Out]
Dec. 11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre [Sold Out]
Dec. 12 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre [Sold Out]
Dec. 17 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore [Sold Out]
Dec. 18 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore [Sold Out]
Dec. 19 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore [Sold Out]

For ticket info please visit http://www.beachhousebaltimore.com/tour.

We’re super happy to announce that The Album Leaf’s 2004 classic In A Safe Place vinyl reissue is available now worldwide from Sub Pop. This vinyl edition of the album - out of print since 2007 - has been repressed both on black and a limited “Loser” edition colored vinyl (while supplies last). In A Safe Place vinyl is now available for purchase at megamart.subpop.com, and you can revisit the official video for track “On Your Way” right here.

Later this fall, The Album Leaf will perform In A Safe Place in it’s entirety at All Tomorrow’s Parties “Nightmare Before Christmas” weekender, to be held at Prestatyn Holiday Centre, North Wales, UK, November 27th-29th, 2015. For more info please visit
https://www.atpfestival.com/events/atpnbc112015/view/eventinfo.

In A Safe Place’s songs “On Your Way,” “Eastern Glow,” “Window,” “Over the Pond,”  TwentyTwoFourteen,” “The Outer Banks” and “Another Day” have been featured in a variety of TV shows and films over the years, including The OC, CSI Miami, Brotherhood and more. Additionally, “Window” was used in a fan made, mashup video [view here] featuring Charlie Chaplan’s speech from The Great Dictator, which has amassed over 15 million views.
 
About The Album Leaf: 
Jimmy LaValle has released critically-acclaimed solo work as The Album Leaf (the name comes from a Chopin piece) since 1999’s mellow An Orchestrated Rise to Fall (Linkwork). During the realization of 2003’s Lifetime or More (Arena Rock) and Seal Beach (Acuarela) EPs, he prepared himself to take on a new direction by founding his rich, textural documents on minimalist beats. At the time of 2003’s recording sessions, however, nothing could have prepared LaValle for the experience he had in Iceland.
 
LaValle befriended Sigur Ros on their first U.S. tour, and they encouraged him northward to Iceland. With the help of his hosts, including members of Sigur Rós and Múm, LaValle was able to craft an album that ventures into new territory. Chillingly delicate and more pop-based than ever before, In A Safe Place masterfully negotiates the spaces between minimal electronic music and melancholy instrumental neo-rock. The inclusion of vocals from The Black Heart Procession’s Pall Jenkins, Sigur Rós’ Jon Thor Birgisson, and LaValle himself is one of the striking results from this newly collaborative process.
 

Selective Listening: Notes from the Desk of the General Manager, October 2015

“And the stars fell over Michigan…”

Andy Kotowicz was Sub Pop’s VP of Sales and Director of Marketing and also worked in our A&R Dept. with bands like The Baptist Generals, A Frames, Mudhoney, Comets on Fire, Fruit Bats, Pissed Jeans, Damon & Naomi, Vetiver, Shabazz Palaces, Radio Birdman, Wolf Eyes, and Michael Yonkers. He worked here from 2000 to 2010, through a crazy, exciting time for the label. Lacey did a great “People Who Work Here” interview with him back in 2007.

And, five years ago this month, way too goddamned soon, our co-worker and friend died as a result of injuries he sustained in a car accident. I don’t think I have anything especially new or helpful to add about the loss of a loved one, or anything all that insightful about the inexorableness of time. It’s frightening to me to mark the passing of these last five years in the knowledge that we only knew each other for ten. And, I worry about the gradual fade of my Andy memories.

So! For my own benefit and for the benefit of people who didn’t get to know him (there are several of them here at Sub Pop now), let’s go over a few. While we’re now, as a company and as just a group of people, definably less for his absence, we are, absolutely without a doubt, so much more, so much better for the time we had. Here’s some of the stuff I’m grateful for and the ways in which Andy still influences what Sub Pop is and what (I think…) we want to keep working to become.

And though there are a million of these, I’m not deluded enough to presume that kind of sustained attention. So here are five…

1. Let’s have a good time with this. What we do here should be fun, and he was the funniest guy. A few, quick examples… The Northwest Pole, as I kept trying to get him to be known around the office, almost exclusively and altogether affectionately referred to Vetiver’s album Tight Knit as Ted Knight. He thought that the next Palin baby should be named Cram, Twig or maybe Pep Rally. He helped create stuff like this and also this.

2. Mix it up sometimes. He was unafraid of saying what he really thought, sometimes blowing his top. Andy would often fake this for effect, knowing he had a reputation. But, that rep was based on real stuff, strongly-held feelings. I was in one memorable meeting in which he said to a co-worker, flat-out, “Listen: I don’t fucking work for you.” Come to think of it, that’s at least a little bit of number 1, too…

3. Please to enjoy. He loved lunch and also wine. Us too. That’s it. (Zingerman’s: I am coming for you, sooner or later…)

4. Love it to death. He had a prodigious, wide-ranging and just wholly enthused love of music. The above list of artists he worked with here is way more than proof enough. But! He was also the ad hoc reggae buyer for Easy Street Records here in Seattle (paid in store credit), and a heartfelt advocate for music he loved, regardless of any affiliation with Sub Pop. The following email to the entire staff about Eddy Current Suppression Ring playing in Seattle is a good example of that spirit: “Hey guys! Just wanted to recommend going to see them at Vera with the Helpers tonight! Caught them at the Funhouse last night and they were fucking unreal! For those who don’t know, they are Australian and have never been to Seattle before, so this is a really rare treat. Turn this opportunity yes. Do the job. Go see this band tonight. Do it. You will be so glad you did.” Why would anyone say no to that??

5. Don’t be so predictable. Sadly unlike an awful lot of people, he could hold two seemingly opposing thoughts at the same time. In addition to the Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Demdike Stare and The Equals, he also loved Beyonce. He would regularly surprise me with his insights and perspective on work stuff, both about how we as a record label behave out in the world and how we operate as an organization internally. He had a Devo energy dome at his desk AND a Bo Schembechler bobblehead. (This is an excellent opportunity to confirm that we are, really, putting out a 7-LP box set from Eugene Mirman which includes, among other things, a full 45-minute LP of crying. This is not fake.)

I think of and miss him regularly. We have been very lucky.

Celebrate Rocktober-wicz, gang.