On October 9th, METZ will release Atlas Vending, the most dynamic, dimensional, and compelling work of their career. Covering seemingly disparate themes such as paternity, crushing social anxiety, addiction, isolation, media-induced paranoia, and the restless urge to leave everything behind, each of Atlas Vending’s ten songs offers a snapshot of today’s modern condition and together form a musical and narrative whole.
The first single from Atlas Vending, “A Boat to Drown In,” is, according to METZ’s Alex Edkins, “…about leaving a bad situation behind. About overcoming obstacles that once held you back, rising above, and looking to a better future. The title refers to immersing yourself fully into what you love and using it as a sanctuary from negativity and a catalyst for change.” The band has shared a new video for the track which Video Director Tony Wolski sought to visually enhance and expand on these ideas. Wolski: “The song has a beautiful, crushing numbness to it that we wanted to mirror in the visual. So we chose to romanticize our main character’s descent into her delusions of love and togetherness. At a time when everyone’s simultaneously coping with some sort of isolation, a story about loneliness—and the mania that comes with it—seems appropriate to tell.”
Bolstered by the co-production of Ben Greenberg (Uniform) and the engineering and mixing skills of Seth Manchester (Daughters, Lingua Ignota, The Body) at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Atlas Vending, the band’s fourth full-length album, sounds massive, articulate, and earnest.
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 will be available as well. And in Canada, Atlas Vending will be available from Royal Mountain Records.
METZ Atlas Vending Tracklisting: 1. Pulse 2. Blind Youth Industrial Park 3. The Mirror 4. No Ceiling 5. Hail Taxi 6. Draw Us In 7. Sugar Pill 8. Framed by the Comet’s Tail 9. Parasite 10. A Boat to Drown In
About Atlas Vending:
“Change is inevitable if you’re lucky,” says guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins while talking about Atlas Vending, the fourth full-length album by Toronto’s METZ. “Our goal is to remain in flux, to grow in a natural and gradual way. We’ve always been wary to not overthink or intellectualize the music we love but also not satisfied until we’ve accomplished something that pushes us forward.” The music made by Edkins and his compatriots Hayden Menzies (drums) and Chris Slorach (bass) has always been a little difficult to pin down. Their earliest recordings contained nods to the teeming energy of early ‘90s DIY hardcore, the aggravated angularities of This Heat, and the noisy riffing of AmRep’s quintessential guitar manglers, but there was never a moment where METZ sounded like they were paying tribute to the heroes of their youth. If anything, the sonic trajectory of their albums captured the journey of a band shedding influences and digging deeper into their fundamental core—steady propulsive drums, chest-thumping bass lines, bloody-fingered guitar riffs, the howling angst of our fading innocence. With Atlas Vending, METZ not only continues to push their music into new territories of dynamics, crooked melodies, and sweat-drenched rhythms, they explore the theme of growing up and maturing within a format typically suspended in youth.
Covering seemingly disparate themes such as paternity, crushing social anxiety, addiction, isolation, media-induced paranoia, and the restless urge to leave everything behind, each of Atlas Vending’s ten songs offers a snapshot of today’s modern condition and together form a musical and narrative whole. Album opener “Pulse” is a completely unnerving exercise in reductionist tension, with verses providing little more than a lone discordant chord, a hammering kick drum, and the occasional punctuation of a diving bass note. From there METZ launches into “Blind Youth Industrial Park,” an absolute scorcher of paranoid dissonance and malicious force centered on a chromatic descending riff and a merciless four-to-the-floor drum battery.
The album hits its stride with “No Ceiling”—a minute-and-a-half rager that comes about as close to containing a pop hook as anything METZ has ever written. Though it’s still saturated with in-the-red distortion, this truncated anthem about discovering love and purpose provides the rare counterpoint to the band’s grievous compositions. But there’s no yielding to complacency on Atlas Vending, and the mercurial nature of love and romance is expertly captured in the alternately brutal verses and beguiling choruses of “Hail Taxi.” If METZ’s current mission is to mirror the inevitable struggles of adulthood, they’ve successfully managed to tap into the conflicted relationship between rebellion and revelry with the song’s tactics of offsetting their signature bombast with anthemic melodic resolutions.
The song sequencing follows a cradle-to-grave trajectory, spanning from primitive origins through increasingly nuanced and turbulent peaks and valleys all the way to the climactic closer, “A Boat to Drown In.” The lyrics speak to this arc as well, with the songs addressing life’s struggles all the way through to death, as Edkins snarls “crashed through the pearly gates and opened up my eyes, I can see it now” before the band launches into the album’s cascading outro.
While past METZ albums thrived on an abrasive relentlessness, the trio embarked on Atlas Vending with the goal to make a more patient and honest record—something that invited repeated listens rather than a few exhilarating bludgeonings. It’s as if the band realized they were in it for the long haul, and their music could serve as a constant as they navigated life’s trials and tribulations. The result is a record that sounds massive, articulate, and earnest. Bolstered by the co-production of Ben Greenberg (Uniform) and the engineering and mixing skills of Seth Manchester (Daughters, Lingua Ignota, The Body) at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, METZ deliver the most dynamic, dimensional, and compelling work of their career.
Like so many of you, we are spending A LOT of time at home these days. And, because (despite all the sarcasm…) we really do care about you guys a whole lot, we are here to help!
Coloring Sheet #3 has arrived, and it’s as true today as it was in 1991… Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge! That’s right, Mudhoney’s timeless classic is now available in the rare and sought after coloring sheet format. Download the full-size .jpeg here.
And here we have Sub Pop Coloring Sheet #2, the second in a series of [who knows?]. Hat tip to our friends Flight of the Conchords, their legendary self-titled album, and Illustrator Tyler Stout. (Here for free download as a JPEG because who uses TIFF anyway?!)
BEHOLD below: Sub Pop Coloring Sheet #1, the first in a series of at least one! (Avail to you, FOR FREE, as either a JPEG or TIFF.)
Simply by downloading, printing and then applying your own, unique art-like skills to this handy, Sub Pop-based, at-home coloring-fun activity, you will avail yourself of an opportunity to…
While away the hours between waking to what really seems kind of like the same day over and over again, and the sweet release of sleep!
Distract yourself from the great, yawning chasm of doubt and dread opening ever wider at our very feet!
Sharpen up your skills, in preparation for an assuredly satisfying career in the world of fine art!
Show off your individual flair and good taste!
Create something delightful to post on social media and then (OF COURSE) tag us! (@subpop #subpopcoloring) There is the distinct possibility we will be moved to feature the best/weirdest/funniest of these in our Instagram feed!
Fun, right? WE KNOW!
We have also very recently created new Sub Pop-branded “Work From Home” playlists sure to provide you with minutes upon minutes of pure listening ECSTASY through many of today’s popular music streaming services. Please access these playlists here!
(You can also listen to the playlist that the art for Sub Pop Coloring Sheet #1 normally accompanies, not at all coincidentally titled “Home Is Where All of These Bands Are,” at any of the several streaming options available to you here!)
Please note: we owe a debt of great gratitude to our Late 30’s Art Director Sasha Barr for creating the art for these playlists, the associated Coloring Sheet #1, and so much more.
Father John Misty’s Anthem +3 is a digital EP featuring covers of Leonard Cohen, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, and Link Wray, that is now available in all DSPs through Sub Pop, with the exception of Europe through Bella Union. Hear here.
Anthem was recorded a few weeks ago with longtime collaborator and producer Jonathan Wilson at Wilson’s Fivestar Studios in Topanga, California.
Father John Misty Anthem+3 Tracklisting: 1. Anthem (Leonard Cohen) 2. Fallin’ Rain (Link Wray) 3.Trouble (Yusuf / Cat Stevens) 4. One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (Leonard Cohen)
The additional three covers were recorded over the past few years by Wilson (“One of Us Cannot Be Wrong,” “Trouble”), and Haxan Cloak (“Fallin’ Rain”) and have all been previously released.
CARE is a leading international humanitarian organization fighting global poverty that places special focus on working alongside poor women who, equipped with the proper resources, can assist whole families and entire communities escape poverty through improved basic education, prevention of the spread of HIV, increased access to clean water and sanitation, expanded economic opportunities and the protection of natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters and helps people rebuild their lives.
Ground Game LA is a community-driven organization dedicated to building power for the residents of LA. Since 2017 Ground Game LA has been connecting with Angelenos about housing, immigration, civic participation, homelessness, criminal justice reform, militarization, and more. Whether through coalition building, issue campaign organizing or knocking on doors, Ground Game LA empowers residents to actively shape the Los Angeles they want to see.
Father John Misty released the live album Off-Key in Hamburg in March on Bandcamp to benefit the MusiCares Covid-19 Fund which has generated over $80,000 in support. Off-Key in Hamburg is now available on all DSP platforms.
As previously announced, Bully will release their new album SUGAREGG worldwide on August 21st through Sub Pop. Bully’s Alicia Bognanno has shared a new video for the single “Every Tradition”, which she co-directed remotely with Alan Del Rio Ortiz. Pivoting traditional video making techniques due to the pandemic, Del Rio Ortiz and Bognanno aimed to make something simple yet interesting with the budget and time they had. Del Rio Ortiz walking Bognanno through the gear via Facetime and Bognanno sending over shots as she filmed to make sure they were on track. “After we tested out this method (me shooting alone at my house and sending the footage to Alan to edit and put everything together) with Where to Start I liked it so much I wanted to do it again and trusted Alan to turn my mess into a well put together music video. Surprisingly I was a lot more comfortable on my own as opposed to having a crew of people there like there has been for past music videos. I also have a newfound appreciation for any cinematographer because god damn it’s a lot of work.”
This filmic exploration perfectly encapsulates the vibrant themes of the song, Bognanno adds, “‘Every Tradition’ is one of the most literal songs on the record, forcing myself throughout the writing process to cut out the bullshit and put down on paper exactly what was going through my mind, silencing the paranoia of the different ways it could be received. Some songs just call for that sort of process and ‘Every Tradition’ was one of them.”
SUGAREGG was produced and mixed by John Congleton and Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, with additional production and mixing by Graham Walsh, recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and Palace Sound in Toronto, Ontario, and mastered by Heba Kadry.
Preorders of SUGAREGG are now available from Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on a translucent blue w/white “smoke” colored vinyl. Meanwhile, preorders in the U.K. and Europe through select independent retailers will receive the Loser edition on transparent red vinyl. There will also be a new t-shirt design available.
Artists from the labels’ rosters are covering their favorite Sub Pop/Hardly Art songs.
Sub Pop and Hardly Art are, together, very excited to announce Got You Covered (a cover song series)! Got You Covered will feature Hardly Art and Sub Pop artists covering their favorite songs from the labels’ catalogs. Beginning today, Monday, July 6th at 6 pm PT (and every weekday evening this week), artists like Yuno, Chad VanGaalen, Lala Lala, Whitmer Thomas, and Jenn Champion will offer their takes on songs by Beach House, The Vaselines, Chastity Belt, and Nirvana.
The first installment of Got You Covered, Yuno’s excellent and sweetly affecting rendition of the Beach House song “Zebra,” is available to see/hear right now here.
Second in the series, here now is Jenn Champion’s take on Nirvana’s “Dive.”
Number three from the Big Baby himself: comedian / musician / world-famous actor Whitmer Thomas covers his friends Chastity Belt’s anthemic hit “Different Now” over here.
Please join us here in our appreciation of multi-talented weirdo Chad VanGaalen covering The Vaselines “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.”
Polish singer and producer Perfect Son covers Chad VanGaalen’s “Molten Light” from beloved (and recently repressed to vinyl!) album ’Soft Airplane’ here.
Here’s Lala Lala’s lovely rendition of Beach House’s “Space Song.”
Prepare to be mesmerized here by Morgan Delt covering another mellifluous Beach House classic, “PPP.”
Rounding out this week’s collection of ‘Got You Covered’ tunes, here’s Alicia aka Bully absolutely shredding a cover of Sub Pop alum Orville Peck’s hit song ‘Turn to Hate.”
