On Friday, October 2nd, Sub Pop artists past and present – new signees CHAI, The Gotobeds (w/ Chicago’s Daddy’s Boy), Loma, METZ, The Postal Service, Chad VanGaalen, and Wolf Parade – will be offering a variety of new and unreleased material, special sales and deals through Bandcamp’s “No Revenue Share Day” aka #BandcampFriday.
CHAI’s “Donuts Mind If I Do” is a new song and the band’s label debut, available digitally now from Sub Pop. “Donuts…” will also be available on the group’s forthcoming “Donuts Mind If I Do” b/w “Plastic Love” 7” single out this November. This limited edition 7” is available to pre-order in two color options through Bandcamp – on either orange or turquoise colored vinyl.
$2 for both tracks, $1 per track (digitally).
$8 for the 7” single (physical + while supplies last).
Est. ship date for the 7” single is late November.
The Gotobeds “Sunny Youth” / Daddy’s Boy “Family Cat” is a split digital single with proceeds going to Prison Neighborhood Arts Project. “Sunny Youth” was recorded during sessions for The Gotobeds’ Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic, their Sub Pop debut, while Daddy’s Boy’s “Family Cat” was recorded earlier this year at Electrical Audio in Chicago by Steve Albini. Both tracks are previously unreleased.
$1 per track.
Kiwi. Jr’s “Undecided Voters” is the just-released, darkly comic and prescient single from the Toronto-based, newly signed Sub Pop band.
$1 per track.
Loma’s self-released “Wheal Owles,” is a long, loose, haunting, and very human 15-minute instrumental. Emily Cross on clarinet, Jonathan Meiburg on guitar, Dan Duszyniski on drums.
$5 for the track.
METZ’s entire digital discography, including the digital pre-order for Atlas Vending, their forthcoming album out October 9th, 2020 on Sub Pop, is available for sale at 35% off (or $39.65 in total).
Digital discography sale begins Friday and ends Thursday, October 8th.
Chad VanGaalen’s Lost Harmonies is a b-sides compilation of songs that were intended to be part of a synth-focused record called Lost Harmony. VanGaalen says of the project, “They were all improvised live and recorded them — quick and dirty. I was always critical of the way my voice still sounded like my normal voice, and the album got shelved. Eventually I returned to it and tried manipulating the sounds using pitch-shifting and changing tape speeds. I finally felt like it was cool to drool, and it evolved into Lost Harmonies. These are the kind of songs I make to entertain myself late at night.”
Pay what you want for the compilation on Friday, $1 per track after.
Available now on all DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop, and from Kiwi Club Records in Canada. Sub Pop has signed the Toronto, Ontario-based Kiwi Jr. to a worldwide deal and will release the band’s full-length label debut in 2021. Ahead of that release is “Undecided Voters,” Kiwi Jr.’s darkly comic new single and official video, which is available today on all DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop, and in Canada through the band’s Kiwi Club imprint.
Shot live on location at a candidates debate between two horse jockeys in a church basement, the “Undecided Voters” video plays with the absurdity of elections as sport and entertainment. Kiwi Jr. provides the soundtrack to the sordid affair, while local news reporters stalk the perimeter trying to piece together the scene inside.
Kiwi Jr. had this to offer on the single: “We all know UNDECIDED VOTERS: democracy’s driftwood, the third planks in the flotsam that purple the pie chart, always on sight and never a part of the scene. Placing imminent demise neatly to one side, KIWI JR. concentrate on the real Issues: the terrible alliance between King Crab and the timezones; 3D printing causing mass sculptor redundancies; and the playlist at the Duane Reade. After all, who is it we’re really voting for: Spartacus or the dead?”
Sub Pop first became acquainted with Kiwi Jr.’s music via the band’s debut, Football Money. The album, which was released in 2019 from the Canadian label Mint Records and eventually internationally in January 2020 through Persona Non Grata/Kiwi Club, was released to unanimous international praise.
Kiwi Jr. is Jeremy Gaudet (mic, guitar), Brohan Moore (drums), Mike Walker (bass), and Brian Murphy (guitar).
What “The People” have said about Kiwi Jr.’s Football Money: “With easy hooks, surprise structural twists, and a gift for non-sequiturs, the Canadian quartet’s debut is a vivid portrait of the big-city struggle…Gaudet has such a witty way with one-liners, and the band is so effervescent in their execution, that it’s easy to overlook the elevated level of craft at work.” - Pitchfork
“Packs a melodic punch — one that, echoing its most infectious track, will you leave you chanting ‘gimme more gimme more more more’.” - UNCUT
“There’s no sense in resisting the playful jangle of Kiwi Jr.” – NPR Music
Clipping’s new single “’96 Neve Campbell” is a tribute to the self-aware “final girl” character of the post-slasher film cycle, featuring Inglewood’s Cam & China, who prove they do more than survive the masked killer—they preemptive-strike his ass. The accompanying lyric video was directed by Clipping’s Jonathan Snipes and the group’s longtime collaborator Cristina Bercovitz. “’96 Neve Campbell” is from Visions of Bodies Being Burned, the follow up to their acclaimed 2019 release There Existed an Addiction to Blood, and the second installment in its sociopolitical horrorcore series.
Clipping’s Daveed Diggs says of Cam & China’s contribution to “‘96 Neve Campbell”: “We’ve been fans of theirs for a long time, going back to the days when they were in the group Pink Dollaz. Cam and China continue to be some of the most consistent and under-appreciated lyricists on the West Coast. We’ve been trying to do a song with them for a while now, and this one felt like a perfect fit. They bodied it.”
Visions of Bodies Being Burned is available to preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited, Loser edition on mixed red/orange/yellow colored vinyl (while supplies last). Meanwhile, LP preorders of Visions of Bodies Being Burned throughout the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on gold vinyl (while supplies last).
Read more about Clipping and Visions of Bodies Being Burned right over here.
Don’t Shy Away will be out worldwide October 23rd from Sub Pop.
Loma (Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, and Jonathan Meiburg) has delivered two new official videos from Don’t Shy Away, their forthcoming longplayer. The aerial shot for melancholic new single “Don’t Shy Away” (the title track) was filmed, directed and edited by Duszynski, while the hypnotic, introspective album opener “I Fix My Gaze” was filmed, directed, and edited by Cross.
Duszynski says of the video for “Don’t Shy Away”: “I knew I wanted a single shot with a gradual reveal to complement the slower enveloping mood of the song. The time-stopping effect draws me in without distracting from the music. I also love Jonathan and the dogs’ cameos.”
Cross offers this on “I Fix My Gaze”: “I wanted to convey the feeling of being free even within a walled-in space. Recognizing that you’re trapped, in a way, but that there is still beauty and joy to be found.”
Meiburg says: “The video for ‘Don’t Shy Away’ was pure serendipity. So many things happen in it—the dogs, the birds, the timing—that could never be replicated, even if we tried. And I love Emily’s vision for ‘I Fix My Gaze.’ Emily was a visual artist before she was a musician, and it comes through in everything she does.”
The Malick-esque visuals were filmed in Texas (“Don’t Shy Away”) and Arizona (“I Fix My Gaze”).
Don’t Shy Away will be available on CD/LP/CS/DL October 23rd, 2020 worldwide through Sub Pop. Preorders of Don’t Shy Away are now available from Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers in North America will receive the album on translucent yellow vinyl. Meanwhile, LP preorders in the U.K. and Europe through select independent retailers will receive the album on dark green vinyl.
What “The People” are saying about Loma: “Atmospheric melodies and Cross’ otherworldly vocals blend to absorbing effect…” [Don’t Shy Away, 8/10] - Uncut
“Loma are making some gorgeous, otherworldly music.” [“Half Silences”] - Stereogum
“Cherish their return, it’s a triumph” [“Ocotillo”] - For The Rabbits
“Cross’ vocals are heaven-sent” [“Ocotillo”] - Beats Per Minute
Plus, the band will perform forthcoming album Atlas Vending, in its entirety, live-streamed from The Opera House in Toronto on October 15th.
The stunning new METZ video for “Blind Youth Industrial Park,” the latest track from Atlas Vending, the band’s soon-to-be-released new album, is out now. The beautifully dystopian video depicts a woman dragging an injured companion on a stretcher through an alien landscape as the pair are tracked by a squad of armed soldiers, and provides sharp contrast to the song, which is an ode to the naivety of youth and the freedom of being unburdened by the world around you.
Shot in Queenstown, on the South Island of New Zealand, “Blind Youth Industrial Park” was directed by Dylan Pharazyn. Here’s Pharazyn on his inspiration for the video: “I started thinking of the feeling of war or samurai films, beautiful but dark and violent… but then I had this idea to work up a more unique world… I started to think of a more futuristic setting — more unusual and dream-like with the story set on a distant planet where there is future technology and some kind of alien magic… like a futuristic fable. I loved the idea of the hero Ayeth on this nomadic walk through an epic landscape… I loved the strength in her and the pairing of her with a wounded companion, something really human and vulnerable… I wanted that emotive warmth countering the cold military images.”
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Known for their unrivalled, high energy live shows and relentless touring, the band has felt a huge void with the loss of live music this year. In the hopes of capturing some of that inimitable spirit and connection, today METZ are also announcing that they will perform Atlas Vending, in its entirety, live from The Opera House in Toronto. These live streams will air in North & South America at 6 pm PT / 9 pm ET on October 15th, and on Oct 17th at 8 pm BST / 9 pm CEST / 8 pm AEST for those in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.
Frontman Alex Edkins shares that “Something that is intrinsic to who we are as people has been taken away. We want, so badly, to find that feeling again, to forget the world for a moment, and share a brand new album that we love very much (plus some oldies) with you. To all the people of the world who have come to our shows to dance, sweat, and scream, we hope you can join us once again with this show.” You can purchase tickets and ticket bundles with LPs and merch for these shows by clicking here.
Preorders of Atlas Vending are now available from Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com, METZ’s merch store, and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser Edition on pearlescent grey and silver vinyl. Vinyl preorders in the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on light rose-colored vinyl. A new t-shirt design is available as well. And in Canada, Atlas Vending will be available from Royal Mountain Records.
