Clipping’s “Shooter,” a standout from Wriggle, the group’s summer EP, now has an officially official video (as seen above) directed by the massively talented Carlos Lopez Estrada. 

1/3 of Clipping - William Hutson - had this to say about it, “Since the beginning of the band, we had discussed making a dance video for one of our songs but didn’t think we could actually pull it off. When Voltaire Wade-Green offered to choreograph something for us, we jumped at the chance to work with him and the other dancers (all of whom were Hamilton ensemble members at the time). He and Carlos conceived the video together based on the scenarios of gun violence depicted in the song’s lyrics, and managed to match the cheery tone of the song to the seriousness of its themes.” 

[Photo Credit : Brian Tamborello]

The band also just added European dates to its 2016 tour schedule in support of Wriggle, and Splendor & Misery, their Sci Fi-Dystopian concept record released last month. The new dates begin December 9th in Brussels at M4 and end December 20th in London at Corsica Studios. The tour will include stops in Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and more. Clipping is currently in the midst of an east coast co-headline a tour with Youth Code (through November 4th). The group will also perform on Conan on TBS Thursday, November 17th.  Current tour dates are below.

Frankly, there is no shortage of Clipping related news we can’t shut up about. On their recent Seattle visit, Clipping sat for an interview with the Sub Pop Podcast, where they discussed art, intention and believe it or not, killer conference papers [listen here].  Frontman Daveed Diggs is also the current cover star of FLOOD Magazine’s 5th issue [view here]. And late last week, Clipping delivered “Fat Fingers,” a new, anti-Trump song for 30 Songs, 30 Days campaign [listen here]. 
 

Splendor & Misery is available now on CD/LP/DL/CASS worldwide from Sub Pop [here] and Deathbomb Arc [here]. For proof that this album is actually “fire” as the kids say, see/hear: “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “A Better Place,” and “Air ‘Em Out”.  The also excellent (also pretty fire) Wriggle EP is available from Sub Pop right over here.

Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Nov. 01 - St. Petersberg, FL - Local 662 *
Nov. 02 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
Nov. 04 - Austin, TX - Sound on Sound Festival
Nov. 17 - Los Angeles, CA - CONAN (TV appearance).
Dec. 09 - Brussels, BE - M4
Dec. 10 - Tilburg, NL - Incubate / 013
Dec. 12 - Tel Aviv, IR - Gagarin
Dec. 13 - Amsterdam, NL - Sugar Factory
Dec. 14 - Hamburg, DE - Hafenklang
Dec. 15 -  Berlin, DE - Cassiopeia
Dec. 16 - Frankfurt, DE - Zoom
Dec. 17 - Munich, DE - TBA
Dec. 18 - Düsseldorf, DE - FFT Foyer
Dec. 19 - Paris, FR - TBA
Dec. 20 - London, UK - Corsica Studios
* w/ Youth Code
^ World War (fka Mincemeat or Tenspeed)

Now for your viewing pleasure, we present the official video for “Union of Mind and Soul” by Goat. The visual trip is an alternate-vocal version of “Union of Sun and Moon,” the first track off Goat’s upcoming album, Requiem, which is out tomorrow, Oct 7th. According to directors Christofer Hogberg and Henrik Nyblom, the video for “Union of Mind and Soul” is a “coming of age flick from a different angle. A day in a life of a lone-rider young girl who created her universe.”

“Union of Mind and Soul” is available through all manner of digital music acquisition services, and is included in the digital download that comes with the vinyl LP of Requiem. North American fans can (and should) purchase the album on CD / 2xLP / DL / CASS from your local independent retailer, and also here. (via Stranded Rekords in Nordic countries, and Rocket Recordings in the rest of the world.)

Goat will be touring Europe throughout the fall, with more dates to follow. (Current schedule is below.) The band’s live show is legendary, and “…A psychedelic rock ritual of rhythm, motion, hypnotic repetition, and ecstatic drive.” according to the New York Times.

Requiem finds Swedish psych explorers Goat focusing more on their subdued, bucolic ritualism than psilocybin freakouts. (Stream Requiem here.) A clear folk-rock influence pervades the album, with stand-out tracks “Alarms,” “Try My Robe,” and “Union of Sun and Moon.”  But Goat hasn’t foregone their fiery charms—tracks like “All-Seeing Eye” and “Goatfuzz” conjure the sultry pulsations that ensnared us on 2012’s World Music and 2014’s Commune. Requiem is available via Sub Pop Records in North America, Stranded Rekords in Nordic countries, and Rocket Recordings in the rest of the world.

Tour Dates + Ticket Links

Oct. 07 - Malmö, SE - Babel

Oct. 08 -  Köpenhamn, DK - Den grå hal

Oct. 10 - Köln, DE - Stadtgarten

Oct. 11 - München, DE - Ampere

Oct. 12 - Berlin, DE  - Berghain

Oct. 13 - Heidelberg, DE - Karlstorbahnhof EnjoyJazz

Oct. 14 - Paris, FR - Cabaret Sauvage

Oct. 16 - Antwerp, BE - Desertfest

Oct. 17 - Brighton, UK - All Saints Church

Oct. 18 - London, UK - Coronet

Oct. 19 - Bristol, UK - SWX

Oct. 20 - Newcastle, UK - Riverside

Oct. 21 - Glasgow, UK - 02 ABC

Oct. 22 - Manchester, UK - Albert Hall

Nov. 11-12 - Oslo, NO - Oslo Psych Fest

Sub Pop label mates (and BFFs for life) Mass Gothic and Kyle Craft toured the East Coast this past August, and the whole wild ride was documented by Co-Directors Addison Post and P. Nick Curran of Loroto Productions (who also directed Mass Gothic visuals for “Nice Night” and “Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me”). Watch the entire documentary now, right over here.

Both bands have been playing their music on the road this year; Mass Gothic in support of their self-titled debut, and Kyle Craft in support of his Sub Pop debut, ”Dolls of Highland.” 

Speaking of raucous good times… The time is now for you not to miss seeing Kyle Craft and his band play live; they’re currently on tour with Drive By Truckers through the end of November.

[Kyle Craft - Photo by Andrew Toups]

[Mass Gothic - Photo by Shawn Brackbill]

Philadelphia’s Pissed Jeans have been making gnarly noise for 13 years, and on their fifth album Why Love Now, the male-fronted quartet is taking aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life—from fetish webcams to office-supply deliveries. The album will see its worldwide release on February 24th, 2017, and we’re pretty fucking psyched about it.
 
Pissed Jeans’ gutter-scraped amalgamation of sludge, punk, noise, and bracing wit make the band—Matt Korvette (vocals), Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums)—a release valve for a world where absurdity seems in a constant battle trying to outdo itself. Why Love Now picks at the bursting seams that are barely holding 21st-century life together. Take the grinding rave-up and lead single “The Bar Is Low” [link] which, according to Korvette, is “about how every guy seems to be revealing themselves as a shithead.”

As they did on their last album, 2013’s Honeys, Pissed Jeans offer a couple of “fuck that shit type songs” about the working world, with the blistering “Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst” turning unwieldy job titles into sneering punk choruses and “Have You Ever Been Furniture” waving a flag for those whose job descriptions might as well be summed up by “professionally underappreciated.”

And the startling “I’m A Man,” which comes at the album’s midpoint, finds author Lindsay Hunter (Ugly Girls) taking center stage, delivering a self-penned monologue of W.B. Mason-inspired erotica—office small talk about pens and coffee given just enough of a twist to expose its filthy underside, with Hunter adopting a grimacing menace that makes its depiction of curdled masculinity even more harrowing.

No Wave legend Lydia Lunch shacked up in Philadelphia to produce Why Love Now alongside local metal legend Arthur Rizk (Eternal Champion, Goat Semen). “I knew she wasn’t a traditional producer,” Korvette says of Lunch. “We wanted to mix it up a little bit. I like how she’s so cool and really intimidating. I didn’t know how it was going to work out. She ended up being so fucking awesome and crazy. She was super into it, constantly threatening to bend us over the bathtub. I’m not really sure what that entails, but I know she probably wasn’t joking.”

The combination of Lunch’s spiritual guidance and Rizk’s technical prowess supercharged Pissed Jeans, and the bracing Why Love Now documents them at their grimy, grinning best. While its references may be very early-21st-century, its willingness to state its case cement it as an album in line with punk’s tradition of turning norms on their heads and shaking them loose.

Read more on Pissed Jeans from Maura Johnston here.

Why Love Now will be released on CD / LP / DL, and is available for preorder now here. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com will receive the limited Loser Edition on lavender vinyl (while supplies last).

And at last, let us encourage/facilitate your obsessive following of Pissed Jeans on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Listen to Season 2 Episode 1, and Subscribe Now!

As previously mentioned here on this very blog, the Sub Pop Podcast makes its (we really hope) triumphant return for a 10-episode second season TODAY aka mere months after its unforeseeably really, pretty great first season earlier this year, and in response to largely precedented levels of demand for more. 

Enter Episode 1 of Season 2, wherein we learn all about the Sub Pop Airport Store at Sea-Tac Airport. Hear from employees of the store, employees of the company who don’t (usually) work at the store (including, in an exclusive first-time-ever appearance, leader and co-founder of Sub Pop, Jonathan Poneman!), and random airport store customers (randomly including Stacey Rozich, friend of the label and excellent artist!).

Season Two of the Sub Pop Podcast will run weekly from October 12th through December 14th and will be available through all finer podcast distribution points. Here are two ways to subscribe:

iTunes subscribe link: http://u.subpop.com/1Svyqr3

Other subscribe link: http://u.subpop.com/2dOUctz

In case you missed it, you can listen to the trailer for Season Two (and, again, every previous episode) at subpop.fm RIGHT NOW. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe (in iTunes or anything) right now, too. We might (and do) encourage you to sign up for the podcast mailing list; New episodes will be delivered weekly until December 14, 2016.

Also why not send us your thoughts and feelings here? podcast@subpop.com.

The Sub Pop Podcast: Absolutely nothing sounds better.