On February 2nd, 2024, musical virtuoso J Mascis will release his fifth solo studio album, What Do We Do Now, worldwide on Sub Pop Records. Recorded at his studio Bisquiteen in Western Massachusetts, What Do We Do Now is J’s first solo album that features full drum and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic.
What Do We Do Now features guest musicians, including Western Mass local Ken Mauri of The B-52s on keys and Ontario-based polymath Matthew “Doc” Dunn on steel guitar.
Today, J also shares the star-strewn official video for What Do We Do Now’s lead single, “Can’t Believe We’re Here,” which features appearances from J and a few of his friends and foes. The video was edited by Adam Bale at Ballad Pictures. Click HERE to watch.
What Do We Do Now can be pre-ordered now from Sub Pop. North American orders from the Sub Pop Mega Mart will receive the limited Loser Edition on clear purple vinyl. In the UK and Europe, LP orders from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) will get neon pink Losers or a strictly limited edition run on Blue Curacao Vinyl available from this wonderful emporium – all whilst stock lasts!
Mascis is currently on the road with Dinosaur Jr., who are touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their sixth studio album, Where You Been—solo dates to be announced soon.
More on What Do We Do Now: What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, “J’s week beats your year.”
What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. “When I’m writing for the band,” he says, “I’m always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I’m thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it’s just what happened.”
Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of The B-52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, “Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I’m really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it’s kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it’s harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones.”
Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on “I Can’t Find You,” where he is Jack Nitzsche to J’s Neil Young, creating one of the album’s loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew “Doc” Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn’s steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc’s great 2022 Sub Pop single, “Your Feel,” he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads.
What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they’re presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he’ll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won’t be putting a band together. And I’m sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis’ instantly recognizable approach to making music.
So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him.
-Byron Coley
J Mascis What Do We Do Now
Tracklisting: 1. Can’t Believe We’re Here 2. What Do We Do Now 3. Right Behind You 4. You Don’t Understand Me 5. I Can’t Find You 6. Old Friends 7. It’s True 8. Set Me Down 9. Hangin Out 10. End Is Gettin Shaky
Sub Pop is getting into the AI biz! We keep “reading” all of these articles about Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and have decided it’s high time to give it a whirl. How hard can it be?
Our new PunkyGPT is smarter, funnier, and more helpful than we have ever beeen (the
bar is low…) We’ll let PunkyGPT take it from here…
Sub Pop’s Holiday Holid.AI Sale Now On!
Holidays (like everything) are improved by the addition of AI! Why settle for a fuddyduddy, ordinary holiday when you can have a new and improved holid.AI? There is no
legitimate reason!
And so, to celebrate the 2023 holid-AI season, we are offering our high-ish quality music
and merchandise at a discounted rate which is now available to you for discounted
purchase now. You are welcome for and to this gift of ours to you! Your trust and loyalty
have filled our hearts pockets with warmth cash, and we couldn’t be all that much more
thankful, we don’t think. This 2023 holid.AI sale is our way of giving you back deals for
you today.
Get holid.AI harmonies for less! Between 12:01am (PST) November 20th and 11:59 PM
(PST) January 1, 2024, buy $30 or more worth of stuff (not including shipping and tax)
from the Sub Pop Mega Mart and get 20% off all eligible items. Buy $75 worth of stuff
and you’ll also receive free domestic shipping!
What items qualify for Sub Pop’s Tuneful Melody of Holid.AI Savings? Everything in the
whole wide Mega Mart is eligible for this 20% off limited time deal now for a limited time,
except gift cards and Singles Club Vol. 8 subscriptions.
What items in particular would we recommend? PunkyGPT sez… the top
recommendations for your listening pleasure and best-in-class audio experience are new
music releases from Bully, Quasi, CHAI, Hannah Jadagu, Mudhoney, and additionally so
many more. We’re also pleased with our new Sub Fuzz Sweatshirt and also Flannels.
Please note! If there are any pre-order items in your cart at checkout, your entire order
will not ship until the shipping date of the furthest out pre-order. That could mean your
order will not ship until after the first of the year, and you will not receive any part of your
order in time for the holidays. The solution to this is: place multiple orders.
All orders placed by/on December 16th are guaranteed to ship out before we close
up shop for the year, so get your orders in early and often. Related to this
impending warehouse closure, any orders placed between December 17th and
January 1st will not ship out until after we are back in operation on January 2nd.
‘Tis the season for reflection, gratitude and pretending to know how to use AI, and we’re
so thankful for your support during the holid.AIs. May the end of your year be filled with
happiness and also Sub Pop merchandise!
With love,
Sub Pop Records: Artificially Intelligent Since 1988
Today, Friday, December 1st, Suki Waterhouse brings the holiday cheer with a cover of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” which will be available as a one-month-only stream and download through Bandcamp. This driving, moody, and fuzzy new take on the holiday classic was produced by Medasin and Boy Deco and mixed and mastered by Medasin, all in Los Angeles.
A portion of the “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” single proceeds will go to A Sense of Home, the Los Angeles nonprofit organization.
A Sense of Home’s core belief is that a home full of hope, dignity, and love is the first step to forging a successful life. Their mission is to create first-ever homes for former foster youth to stop the cycle of homelessness.
Suki says, “Celebrating the holidays by creating this cover of ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ was an absolute joy, and I’m thrilled to support A Sense of Home, a cause that’s been close to my heart since 2019.”
Georgie Smith, A Sense of Home’s founder and CEO, says, “We are so moved by Suki’s humanitarianism and dedication. In 2019, she created a home for a young mother, Liz, and her daughter, Naomi. Both of whom are thriving today, thanks to Suki. We are thrilled to share in the joy of Suki’s new beautiful song, which will enable us to create more homes for deserving young people exiting foster care.
Suki Waterhouse has been winning over audiences across the globe touring in support of the Milk Teeth EP (featuring the hit single “Good Looking,” which went viral on TikTok and peaked at #1 on Spotify’s Viral USA Chart) and her Brad Cook-produced (The War On Drugs, Bon Iver) debut album, I Can’t Let Go, both released in 2022 via Sub Pop.
In 2023, Suki wrapped the “Coolest Place in the World Tour,” her sold-out North American headline run with stops in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. That spring, she released the single and official video for “To Love.” In June, Suki followed it by releasing “Everyday’s A Lesson in Humility,” a summery collaboration with Belle and Sebastian, and in August, joined Local Natives on a reimagining of their single, “NYE.”
Suki also played to some of the largest crowds of her career in South America (Lollapalooza in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), the US (Governor’s Ball, Ohana, and Austin City Limits Festivals), and most recently, in Mexico (at Corona Capital). Suki also starred as Karen Sirko in “Daisy Jones & The Six,” the Emmy-nominated Amazon television miniseries based on the popular book by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
About A Sense of Home: A Sense of Home’s mission is to prevent homelessness by creating first-ever homes and a community of care for youth aging out of the foster care system. Kids who are removed from their family are placed in foster care and are moved from place to place, never having a home where they belong. Once they age out of foster care, these young people are alone in the world, and home becomes ever more elusive. 50% of the homeless population spent time in foster care.
The average American child is completely financially dependent on their parents until age 24, and almost 60% are dependent on their parents until age 29. 50% of this is spent on housing. For a foster youth with no family support — it is understandable why so many are confronted with homelessness.
A Sense of Home began as a random act of kindness and has become a movement — emboldening the community to become family to foster youth — the family that they’ve never had. In only 90 minutes, volunteers create a dream home, and lives are instantly changed. Watch how it is done here.
85% of those ASOH serve are young women, and 65% have children of their own. ASOH is also preventing another generation from being placed in foster care.
The model has been so successful in LA — creating 900 homes in 8 short years — that it will soon scale to NYC and other cities.
Sub Pop will release SLIFT’s ILION, the third full-length album by the French psychedelic rock outfit, on January 19th, 2024. Today, the band shares the new song “Nimh” with a visualizer by Dimitri Thouzery & Guthio.
“Nimh” is a 9+ minute prog-infused journey filled with jazzy rhythms, deft guitar/bass/drum interplay, and layered textures, all anchored by a massive Black Sabbath-esque riff that eventually crumbles into a thundering doom-metal coda. It’s a fitting sample of the forthcoming album, which launches SLIFT even deeper into the cosmos, merging the furious intensity of metal and the wigged-out guitar heroics of psych-rock with post-rock’s epic sense of scale.
The band said of the song/video: “‘Nimh’ is the second track on the record; it follows ‘Ilion.’ It’s a piece that talks about men’s slow but certain descent towards total madness. To illustrate this, the song tells the story of the drift through space of a ship, the ‘Nimh,’ and its crew, which is made up of leaders of huge corporations and anyone who has accumulated a lot of money on Earth. They set off for what they think will be a new world but never arrive at their destination. The gods of Time are facetious. The song is sung by the people left on Earth, prophesying this failure, abandoned to live on this barren planet entering the last millennia of its existence. As surprising as it may seem, we had Nina Simone in mind when writing a good part of the piece, especially the second part. To support the song’s subject, we also pushed our psych-rock towards bands like Converge.”
Formed in 2016, SLIFT quickly made an impression on rockers worldwide with their 2017 debut EP, Space Is the Key, the following year’s full-length La Planeté Inexplorée, and their acclaimed 2020 album UMMON.
SLIFT will embark on a mammoth UK & EU tour beginning February 23rd in Brighton, UK, and ending April 6th in Marseille, France. The band’s 2023 KEXP performance is a tantalizing taste of the band’s live powers, which merge earth-rattling volume, cosmic soundscapes, and psychedelic visuals into a mind-bending, glorious experience. See below for a complete list of dates.
Fri. Feb. 23 - Brighton, UK - Chalk Sat. Feb. 24 - Manchester, UK - Gorilla Sun. Feb. 25 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s Mon. Feb. 27 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Wed. Feb. 28 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom Thu. Feb. 29 - Lille, FR - Aéronef Fri. Mar. 01 - Paris, FR - La Cigale Sat. Mar. 02 - Saint Malo, FR - Route du Rock Hiver Wed. Mar. 13 - Toulouse, FR - Bikini Fri. Mar. 15 - Nantes, FR- Stereolux Sat. Mar. 16 - Rouen, FR - 106 Mon. Mar. 18 - Bruxelles, FR - Ancienne Belgique Tue. Mar. 19 - Utrecht, NL - Tivoli Vredenburg Wed. Mar. 20 - Cologne, DE- Club Volta Thu. Mar. 21 - Groningen, NL - Vera Fri. Mar. 22 - Hamburg, DE - Gruenspan Sun. Mar. 24 - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen Mon. Mar. 25 - Gothenburg, SE - Pustervik Tue. Mar. 26 - Oslo, NO- John Dee Wed. Mar. 27 - Stockholm, SE - Hus 7 Sat. Mar. 30 - Berlin, DE - Lido Mon. Apr. 01 - Leipzig, DE- UT Connewitz Mon. Apr. 02 - Stuttgart, DE - Wisemann Club Tue. Apr. 03 - Esch Sur Alzette, LU - Kulturfabrik Wed. Apr. 04 - Zurich, CH - Mascotte Thu. Apr. 05 - Lyon, FR - Epicerie Moderne Fri. Apr. 06 - Marseille, FR - Espace Julien
SLIFT
ILION
1. Ilion 2. Nimh 3. The Words That Have Never Been Heard 4. Confluence 5. Weavers’ Weft 6. Uruk 7. The Story That Has Never Been Told 8. Enter The Loop
In February, the world-famous stoic maestro J Mascis will release his fifth solo studio album, What Do We Do Now, worldwide on Sub Pop Records. On the heels of the friend-studded video for “Can’t Believe We’re Here” come the beguiling and electrifying “Set Me Down.”
J has scheduled two solo headline shows for 2024 in Australia, which coincidentally happens during a run with his other band, Dinosaur Jr. The dates include Sydney’s Liberty Hall on Tuesday, February 20th, and in Brisbane at The Triffid on Saturday, February 24th. Additional solo dates will be announced soon.
Mascis is currently on the road with Dinosaur Jr., who are touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their sixth studio album, Where You Been.
What Do We Do Now can be pre-ordered now from Sub Pop. North American orders from the Sub Pop Mega Mart will receive the limited Loser Edition on clear purple vinyl. In the UK and Europe, LP orders from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) will get neon pink Losers or a strictly limited edition run on Blue Curacao Vinyl available from this wonderful emporium – all whilst stock lasts!
Tracklisting: 1. Can’t Believe We’re Here 2. What Do We Do Now 3. Right Behind You 4. You Don’t Understand Me 5. I Can’t Find You 6. Old Friends 7. It’s True 8. Set Me Down 9. Hangin Out 10. End Is Gettin Shaky
