News

NEWS : TUE, JUN 9, 2020 at 12:00 PM

Get Involved

Giving and volunteer work have always been fundamental components of Sub Pop’s and Hardly Art’s culture and business. We don’t always share this side of our business; for better or worse, we typically handle our gifts privately. Because we’ve been asked recently about the organizations we support, we’re sharing info about those organizations we’ve donated to and done volunteer work with, over the past four years. We’re proud to shine whatever light we can on all of these organizations, and help support the excellent work they do. Brief descriptions and links follow for organizations we’ve donated to in the last couple of years, and we encourage anyone curious to learn more.

In the last month we’ve contributed to:

The core activists and organizers of BLM Seattle-King County is a group of Black and other people of color focused on dismantling anti-black systems and policies of oppression.

Langston Seattle

LANGSTON guides generative programs and community partnerships that center Black art, artists and audiences and honor the ongoing legacy of Seattle’s Black Central Area. We support a variety of enriching programs, across multiple disciplines, rooted in our mission and values.

Preservation Hall Foundation

The Preservation Hall Foundation’s primary activity is to serve the next generation of New Orleans musicians and listeners through our education and community engagement programs.

Seattle King County NAACP

The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

During the current administration we’ve contributed to:

350

350 is building a future that’s just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis.

ACLU

The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union — beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.

Alki Community Council

The Alki Community Council is a neighborhood, residential group organized to promote the orderly and comprehensive enhancement, preservation and improvement of our neighborhood and beach.

American Diabetes Foundation

Improving the lives of all people with diabetes while moving us closer toward a cure.

Arts Corps

Arts Corps revolutionizes arts education by igniting the creative power of young people through culturally engaging learning experiences.

Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County

The core activists and organizers of BLM Seattle-King County is a group of Black and other people of color focused on dismantling anti-black systems and policies of oppression.

Black Prisoners’ Caucus

The BPC fosters respect, responsibility, self-worth and unity. The organization stands as a testimony to the potential of the African American community to create a healthier future for ourselves. The BPC promotes cultural growth and provides incarcerated men and women the tools and platform to confront social issues that perpetuate discrimination, inequality and oppression among prisoners and poor communities of color.

Cascade Bicycle Club / Major Taylor Project

Named after African-American world champion cyclist Marshall “Major” Taylor, the Major Taylor Project (MTP) empowers youth through bicycling. In after-school bicycling clubs MTP students explore their communities, build confidence and leadership skills, and discover their power to effect change.

CCAN Climate

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) is the first grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Community Enterprise Foundation - Bendigo AUS

At Community Enterprise Foundation™ we offer communities and not-for-profit organisations across Australia the opportunity to raise and distribute tax-effective donations to benefit their own communities.

Forterra

Forterra is a Washington-based nonprofit that enhances, supports and stewards the region’s most precious resources- its communities and its ecosystems

Hedgebrook

A literary nonprofit, our mission is to support visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape our culture now and for generations

HoC Foundation  (Hospice of Chattanooga)

Compassion, Accountability, Communication, Enthusiasm, Excellence. We at Hospice of Chattanooga will take the time to listen, honor your choices, and walk with you through life’s journey.

KEXP

KEXP’s mission is to enrich your life by championing music and discovery. KEXP is a nonprofit arts organization serving music lovers through in-person, broadcast and online programming.

Lambert House

Lambert House is an international leader in LGBTQ youth community building – the primary prevention strategy for the constellation of risks that disproportionately affects all LGBTQ youth.

Langston Seattle

LANGSTON guides generative programs and community partnerships that center Black art, artists and audiences and honor the ongoing legacy of Seattle’s Black Central Area. We support a variety of enriching programs, across multiple disciplines, rooted in our mission and values.

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is at the forefront of the fight to cure cancer. We are the largest nonprofit dedicated to creating a world without blood cancers.

Mary’s Place

Mary’s Place is a nonprofit organization in Seattle that provides safe, inclusive shelter and services for women, children and families on their journey out of homelessness.

Musicares

MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares’ services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality.

NRDC

NRDC works to safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

NW Parkinson’s Foundation

Our mission is to transform the way people live with Parkinson’s through awareness, education, advocacy, and care.

Preservation Hall Foundation

The Preservation Hall Foundation’s primary activity is to serve the next generation of New Orleans musicians and listeners through our education and community engagement programs.

Plymouth Housing

Plymouth Housing works to eliminate homelessness and address its causes by preserving, developing and operating safe, quality, supportive housing and by providing adults experiencing homelessness with opportunities to stabilize and improve their lives.

Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation

We provide hope, care and cures to help every child live the healthiest and most fulfilling life possible.

Seattle King County NAACP

The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

Share It Music

Support independent musical artists and advance community organizations by merging music and social causes. 

SMooCH

Seattle Musicians in support of uncompensated care at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Social Justice Fund NW

Social Justice Fund NW is a foundation working at the frontlines of social change

The Solutions Project

Committing 100% to racial and gender justice by supporting frontline leaders making 100% clean energy for all, happen. 100.org

Sweet Relief

Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems.

The Pablove Foundation

The Pablove foundation is a US pediatric cancer nonprofit organization. At the Pablove Foundation, we approach pediatric cancer at the intersection of art and science.

The Painted Turtle

To provide a year-round, life-changing environment and authentic camp experience for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses.

Totem Star

Totem Star supports a diverse community of young recording artists learning music and life skills through mentorship and meaningful relationships. Our work in the studio and on the stage fosters growth in collaboration, leadership, and self-identity.

Vera Project

Vera strives to fulfill its mission to foster a participatory creative culture through popular music concerts, arts programs, experiential learning and volunteer opportunities for all ages, especially young people.

The Village of Hope Seattle

The Village of Hope is rooted in an African/African American experience, and we are committed to a powerful and unified community. We welcome and embrace all people who are in the struggle to end racism and usher in justice.

Youthcare

YouthCare works to end youth homelessness and to ensure that young people are valued for who they are and empowered to achieve their potential.

We’re also fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to organize volunteer efforts during work hours. Here are some of the organizations and causes we’ve supported in that way:

Bike Everywhere Day (Cascade Bicycle Club)

Black Prisoners’ Caucus

Bloodworks Northwest

Bureau of Fearless Ideas

Chicken Soup Brigade

Forterra

Mary’s Place

Motley Zoo Animal Rescue

National Voter Registration Day + The Washington Bus

NW Harvest

NW Parkinson’s Foundation

Operation Sack Lunch

Plymouth Housing Group

Planned Parenthood

Pike Place Market Foundation

Puget Soundkeeper

Rain City Rock Camp for Girls

Rainier Beach HS: Building Leaders of Change (BLOC Party)

Safe Consumption Sites

Salvation Army

Save the Showbox

Skate Like A Girl

South Park Info & Resource Center

Totem Star

UW Arboretum

The Vera Project

Veteran’s Affairs (The VA)

The Village of Hope Seattle

WA Trail Association

WA Talking Book and Braille Library

Washington Ceasefire

West Seattle Helpline

Youngstown Cultural Arts Center / Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (DNDA)

YouthCare


Posted by Chris Jacobs

NEWS : FRI, JUN 5, 2020 at 7:00 AM

Sub Pop & Hardly Art Releases for Bandcamp Friday (June 5th, 2020)

On Friday, June 5th, Sub Pop & Hardly Art artists past and present – Bully, Corridor, Downtown Boys, The Helio Sequence, Hot Snakes, Shannon Lay (with Steve Gunn), METZ, Mudhoney, Pissed Jeans, Protomartyr, Shabazz Palaces (with Stas THEE Boss), and Weyes Blood – will be offering a variety of special sales and deals through Bandcamp’s “No Revenue Share Day.” Additionally, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s excellent new album Sideways to New Italy, released today, will be available on the site for the first time. 

Sub Pop and Hardly Art will be passing through 100% of digital sales revenue on Bandcamp to all of our active artists today.

 
Bully
All funds raised Friday will go to gideonsarmyunited.org.
 
Corridor
Pay-what-you-want for each of the band’s releases on June 5th only.
All funds raised Friday will go to www.hoodstock.ca.

Downtown Boys
All funds raised Friday will be split between instagram.com/btfacollective and gofundme.com/f/fangbailfund

The Helio Sequence
Acoustic Live at the Triple Door        
Pay-what-you-want with a $10 minimum, $1/track for individual songs.
 
Hot Snakes
“They Put You Up to This”     
The track from their 2018 split single w Mudhoney, released as a limited-edition 7” for Sub Pop’s 30th anniversary, is being released digitally for the first time ever for one day only on Bandcamp on June 5.
Pay-what-you-want on June 5th.

METZ
“Acid” b/w “Slow Decay”
“M.E.”
“Escalator Teeth/On and On”
“Eraser” b/w “Pure Auto”
“Can’t Understand”
“Dirty Shirt” b/w “Leave Me Out”
All of METZ’s currently available singles (listed above) will be pay-what-you-want on June 5th.

Mudhoney
Live Mud        
First digital release of Mudhoney’s long out of print limited-edition vinyl-only release from 2007, only on Bandcamp. 11 tracks of Mudhoney live from Mexico City, recorded Dec. 10, 2005, by Brett Ellason at Patacio de los Deportes
Pay-what-you-want on June 5th.
 
Pissed Jeans
“Don’t Need Smoke to Make Myself Disappear” b/w “Love Clown”*
“Sam Kinison Woman” b/w “L Word”**
*2006 Sub Pop debut 7”, available for the first time on Bandcamp.
**Pissed Jeans’ 2010 7”, finally available on Bandcamp
Pay-what-you-want on June 5th.
All funds raised Friday to go to www.phillybailout.com.
 
Protomartyr 
Old Spool and Gurges 1        
This release includes “Born to Be Wine,” originally released as a single from Adult Swim, and “French Poet,” which initially appeared on the Sub Pop 1000 compilation.
$1/track, $2 total
 
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Sideways To New Italy
The band’s second album for Sub Pop will be available Friday, June 5th.
 
Shabazz Palaces ft. Stas THEE Boss
“MEGA CHURCH”
Previously unreleased single.
Pay-what-you-want on June 5th, $1/track after.
 
Shannon Lay & Steve Gunn
“Clay Pigeons”
In these transformational times we must find new ways to connect and create together. Steve Gunn and Shannon Lay are on opposite sides of the country but exchanged recordings and covered this song in honor of John Prine and Blaze Foley. All proceeds on June 5th will go to the Black Visions Collective in Minnesota in support of racial equity. [Steve Gunn appears courtesy of Matador Records.]
Pay-what-you-want on June 5th, $1/track after.
All proceeds will go to the Black Visions Collective in Minnesota in support of racial equity. www.blackvisionsmn.org.
 
Weyes Blood
Titanic Rising
Rough Trade Session
Pay-what-you-want for June 5th only.



Posted by Rachel White

NEWS : WED, JUN 3, 2020 at 6:58 AM

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever release new single, “Cameo” - Their highly anticipated new album ‘Sideways to New Italy’ is out this Friday

Melbourne-based band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever will release their highly-anticipated second album, Sideways to New Italy, this Friday,  June 5th via Sub Pop. Today, they release the album’s fourth single, “Cameo,” which follows “Falling Thunder,” “She’s There,” and “Cars in Space.” ‘Cameo’ begins with open guitar strums and Fran Keaney’s lone voice, before building to a swirling roar, showcasing a band at the peak of their powers both instrumentally and lyrically.

“This is a love song. It’s about reaching through time portals,” says Keaney. “The lyrics were pieced together over about a year like a little puzzle. I found the first pieces in Rushworth, and the last pieces in Darwin.”


Sideways to New Italy is available for preorder from Sub Pop. Preorders of the LP through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America, the U.K., and Europe, will receive the limited Loser edition (while supplies last).



Posted by Rachel White

NEWS : WED, MAY 27, 2020 at 7:00 AM

A Letter From Weyes Blood / “Wild Time” Video (NSFW)

May 27, 2020

Good day everyone,

Here is a video for my song “Wild Time” that was shot on 16mm pre-Pandemic, then edited together during isolation. Felt like the right time to let this video out into the world, seeing as we’re all getting saddled down by some pretty grim realities. This song is about yearning for wildness and Mother Nature in a time of chaos. It’s for sensitive people who worry about the fate of humanity and feel powerless to do anything about it.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking apocalyptic thoughts and realizing that won’t get you anywhere. What if the world has always been ending? What if the sprawl of our cities are just as wild as the forests? What if climate change and the destruction of our natural habitat is a reflection of the nature within us, however sublimely horrifying and hard to understand?  We’re animals, we play out a very precarious drama of life, and we grasp for what’s left of the protective womb - but maybe the notion that we’re somehow separated from her is an illusion. Maybe it is, truly, a wild time to be alive. Maybe getting in touch with that as a culture and society would avert the worst case scenarios of ecological crisis and existential dread.

If you’ve gotten this far, wow, thank you for actually taking the time to read this. In other news, as you may have assumed, I am canceling all of my headline shows for 2020, but I’m beginning to work on my next album that will come out in 2021- a different time, when hopefully we can see each other face to face once again.

xo

Natalie (aka Weyes Blood)




Posted by Rachel White

NEWS : WED, MAY 13, 2020 at 8:58 AM

Bully’s covers of Nirvana’s “About a Girl” and Orville Peck’s “Turn to Hate” available now at all DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop

[Photo credit: Angelina Castillo]

Stream both tracks now here:  smarturl.it/Bully_AAGTTH.

Earlier this month, Bully delivered two excellent covers of Nirvana’s “About a Girl” and Orville Peck’s “Turn To Hate” via a sold-out 7” single and cassette, and now, both are available at all DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop.
 
Bully’s Alicia Bognanno offered this on the covers, “Normally during this time I’d be running around trying to promote the upcoming record and rehearsing to get ready to tour again but given the circumstances, I’m trying to work with what I can do at home alone. I picked a couple Sub Pop songs to cover to release something in the meantime. I played everything on these songs (for better or worse haha) and tracked them in my living room. Gotta do what ya gotta to spice it up sometimes.”


 
Of the “About a Girl” cover, Rolling Stone raved, “Hearing the Nashville band cover Nirvana is almost too obvious — but, good God, is it glorious. Their spin on 1989’s “About a Girl” strikes a perfect balance of raw and melodic, without ever sounding like the output of a cover band…Still, it’s not just a skilled copy of a classic. She mixes in some experimental guitar squeals on the instrumental and a truly trippy solo that keeps the sound from going thoroughly Nineties. Plus, Bognanno differentiates herself from your average karaoke crooner with her stellar delivery.

As for her take on “Turn To Hate,” Stereogum had this to say, “A song that sounds incredible in Bully’s rocket-fueled garage rock style.” Paste concurs, “Bully’s rendition is possibly even better than the original with its incredibly anthemic chorus.”


Posted by Rachel White