On Friday, June 7th, Man Man will release their new album, Carrot On Strings, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop Records. Following the single releases of “Iguana” and “Tastes Like Metal” comes the melodious bop “Alibi.”
Man Man has announced UK/EU dates for late October and November. See below for a full list of shows.
Wed. Oct. 30 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie Thu. Oct. 31 - La Rochelle, FR - La Sirène Fri. Nov. 01 - Rouen, FR - Le 106 Sat. Nov. 02 - Lille, FR - Le Grand Mix Mon. Nov. 04 - Bristol, UK - The Lanes Tue. Nov. 05 - Leeds, UK - Headrow House Wed. Nov. 06 - Birkenhead, UK - Future Yard Thu. Nov. 07 - Glasgow, UK - Hug & Pint Fri. Nov. 08 - Edinburgh, UK - Sneaky Pete’s Sat. Nov. 09 - Middlesbrough, UK - Teesside Univ. Students’ Union Sun. Nov. 10 - London, UK - MOTH Club Tue. Nov. 12 - Rotterdam, NL- Rotown Wed. Nov. 13 - Lasne, BE - Rideau Rouge Thu. Nov. 14 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Fri. Nov. 15 - Wiltz, LU - Prabbeli Sat. Nov. 16 - Dijon, FR - La Vapeur
Carrot On Strings is now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers, and in the UK/Europe from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and select UK/EU independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on Transparent Orange. All color vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Carrot On Strings was recorded at Mant Sounds studio in Glassell Park, Los Angeles, and produced by Matt Schuessler, with whom Kattner had worked on a cover of Neu!’s “Super” for the seminal Krautrock band’s box set. He and the band knocked out the songs live (workshopped in front of live audiences while Man Man toured) over 5 days in August 2022 and then hashing other sonic ideas over the following months. “I wanted things to be loose,” Kattner shares. “My intention was just to knock it all out,” he says. He even recorded more than a few of the single-track vocals while reclining on a couch. “It’s pretty wild,” he says — “because, you know, it wasn’t actually wild at all. It was the first time I wasn’t sequestered in an isolation booth, extensive baffling keeping me apart from the rest of the music. Something about being in the mixing room, tracking vocals, songs blasting out of the monitors that just felt perfect for this particular album.”
Man Man Carrot On Strings
Tracklisting: 1. Iguana 2. Cryptoad 3. Tastes Like Metal 4. Mongolian Spot 5. Blooddungeon 6. Carrots On Strings 7. Mulholland Drive 8. Pack Your Bags 9. Alibi 10. Cherry Cowboy 11. Odyssey
On June 28th, Sub Pop will release Washed Out’s fifth and most audacious album, Notes From a Quiet Life. The music of Washed Out has always levitated over a timeless frontier. You can sense it in his immersive, amorphous vocals, expansive soundscapes, and wistful storytelling. Before starting work on his new album, Washed Out’s creative force, Ernest Greene, and his family moved to a former horse farm in rural Georgia. He named the property “Endymion” (after the pastoral John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd), and it became a catalyst for his creative process. Directed by Kristian Melom, Greene has shared an intimate behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of Notes From A Quiet Life. Inspired by the lifestyle change and simplicity of country living, this documentary paints an intimate picture of the story behind the record.
Additionally, Washed Out has announced live shows to support his forthcoming record, with festival appearances at Just Like Heaven Festival in May, Sundown Festival and Twilight Concert Series in June, and Day In Day Out in July. North American Headline shows to follow in August. See below for a full list of shows.
Sat. May 18 - Los Angeles, CA - Just Like Heaven Sat. Jun. 08 - Anchorage AK Sundown Festival Sat. Jun. 22 - Ogden, UT - Twilight Concert Series Sun. Jul. 14 - Seattle, WA - Day In Day Out Festival Thu. Aug. 01 - Atlanta, GA - The Eastern Fri. Aug. 02 - Columbia, SC - The Senate Sat. Aug. 03 - Asheville, NC - AVLFest Mon. Aug. 05 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl Tue. Aug. 06 - St. Louis, MO, Delmar Hall Thu. Aug. 08 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue Fri. Aug. 09 - Chicago, IL - Metro Sat. Aug. 10 - Madison, WI - Majestic Sun. Aug. 11 - Columbus, OH - Kemba Tue. Aug. 13 - Detroit, MI - Majestic Wed. Aug.14 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Fri. Aug. 16 - Norwalk, CT - District Music Hall Sat. Aug. 17 - Boston, MA - Paradise Sun. Aug. 18 - Brooklyn, NY - Paramount Tue. Aug. 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer Wed. Aug. 21 - Washington, DC - 930 Club Fri. Aug. 23 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle Sat. Aug. 24 - Birmingham, AL - Iron City
Notes From a Quiet Life is available to preorder now on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the Loser Edition on Honeydew Melon vinyl. LP orders from independent retail stores & Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) in the UK and Europe will receive the Loser Edition on Yellow-Green vinyl. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
Track Listing: 1. Waking Up 2. Say Goodbye 3. Got Your Back 4. The Hardest Part 5. A Sign 6. Second Sight 7. Running Away 8. Wait on You 9. Wondrous Life 10. Letting Go
Today, May 15th, Loma (Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, Jonathan Meiburg) shares “Pink Sky,” a dubby and mischievous standout from How Will I Live Without a Body?, out June 28th worldwide from Sub Pop.
The official “Pink Sky” video was directed and animated by Sabrina Nichols (youbet’s “Nurture,” The Smile’s A Light For Attracting Attention), working from watercolor artwork by Emily Cross.
Loma’s Jonathan Meiburg says, “This mischievous little song was a late addition to the album. We recorded it in a chilly, whitewashed room in southern England, and we didn’t have many instruments to work with at first - just a nylon string guitar, a 2-piece drum set, a Casio keyboard, and a clarinet. But we liked the challenge.”
Loma’s How Will I Live Without a Body?was self-produced and recorded in England, Texas, and Germany, mixed by Dan Duszynski, and mastered by Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound in New York. All songs were composed by the group—with a few nudges from a unique AI (see below).
How Will I Live Without a Body? is a gorgeous, unique, and oddly comforting album about partnership, loss, regeneration, and fighting a sense that we’re all in this alone. Many of its songs have a feeling of restless motion; faceless characters drift through meetings and partings, tangling together and slipping away. Throughout, the core of Loma’s sound remains intact: earthy, organic, and deeply human, anchored by Cross’s cool, clear voice.
Loma’s previous album, Don’t Shy Away, was galvanized by kind words from Brian Eno; this time they were inspired by another hero, Laurie Anderson, who offered a chance to work with an AI trained on her work. The band sent it two photos, and Anderson’s AI responded with two haunting poems. “We used fragments of these poems in two songs,” says Meiburg. “And then Dan noticed that one of AI-Laurie’s lines, ‘How will I live without a body?’ was perfect name for the album, since we nearly lost sight of each other in the recording process.” (Read more at Sub Pop).
How Will I Live Without a Body? is available to preorder on CD/LP/digitally worldwide from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, and select independent stores in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on Transparent Smoke Vinyl. In the UK and Europe, LP preorders through Sub Pop’s new Mega Mart 2, and UK/EU Independent retailers will receive the Loser edition on Neon Orange Vinyl (All whilst stock lasts!)
What people are saying about Loma: “Dusty piano arpeggios carry “How It Starts” by the off-again, on-again trio Loma, whose members overcame career and geographical separations to record a new album, How Will I Live Without a Body? The song itself suggests a tentative but inevitable reunion: “This is how it starts to move again,” Emily Cross sings, as Jonathan Meiburg (from Shearwater) and Dan Duszynski build an arrangement behind her, gathering heft as they reconvene.” - “The Playlist” - New York Times
“Gorgeous” [“How It Starts”] - Brooklyn Vegan
“Musically, the track is fascinating, all purposeful scatters of piano keys and contrastingly driving percussion, that feels like it’s dragging the whole thing forward, the ray of sunshine chipping away at the ice, daring it to crack…From a woven coffin to a stunning rebirth, Loma are back and on this evidence might just be even more vital than ever.” [“How It Starts”] “Five Things We Liked This Week (#1)” - For The Rabbits
“A beautiful return, it inaugurates a fresh chapter with tremendous guile, while Emily Cross sculpts the hypnotic video.” [“How It Starts”] - CLASH
Loma How Will I Live Without A Body?
Tracklisting 1. Please, Come In 2. Arrhythmia 3. Unbraiding 4. I Swallowed a Stone 5. How It Starts 6. Dark Trio 7. A Steady Mind 8. Pink Sky 9. Broken Doorbell 10. Affinity 11. Turnaround
On August 2nd, J.R.C.G. will release Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra), the second album and Sub Pop debut from the Tacoma, WA-based artist Justin R. Cruz Gallego. Conceived and executed primarily in Gallego’s home studio, Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra) was co-produced by Gallego and Seth Manchester (The Body, Battles, and Mdou Moctar.) Together, they retained the intimacy of Gallego’s home recordings while taking advantage of the hi-fi stylings of Manchester’s Machines With Magnets Studio in Rhode Island.
Driven by opposing forces, Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra) weds scouring electronics to hooky, powerful beats in a way that feels visceral and new. The lead single, “Dogear,” is a face-melting party starter that sounds like Talking Heads and Rudimentary Peni forced to jam together. “I wanted a song that felt playful in the way it attempted to be dissonant without taking itself too seriously,” Gallego says. Directed by Dustin Houston and Sam Klickner, you can watch here.
J.R.C.G. will be opening for Mdou Moctar, with headline dates to follow. See below for a full list of shows.
Tue. Jun. 18 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall $ Wed. Jun. 19 - Detroit, MI - Magic Bag $ Thu. Jun. 20 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom $ Fri. Jun. 21 - Buffalo, NY - Ashbury Hall $ Sun. Jun. 23 - Boston, MA- Paradise Rock Club $ Wed. Jun. 26 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw $ Thu. Jun. 27 - Washington, DC - 9:30 CLUB $ Fri. Jun. 28 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer $ Fri. Aug. 02 - Portland, OR - Polaris Hall Sat. Aug. 03 - Seattle, WA - Clock-Out Lounge Thu. Aug. 15 - Reno, NV - Holland Project Fri. Aug. 16 - San Fransisco, CA - Kilowatt Bar Sun. Aug.18 Tucson - Congress Tues. Aug. 20 - Austin, TX - Mohawk Thu. Aug. 22- New Orleans, LA - Siberia Fri. Aug. 23 - Atlanta, GA - 529 Sat. Aug. 24 - Nashville, TN - Hubba Hubba Tiki Tonk Sun. Aug. 25 - Raleigh, NC - Kings Tue. Aug. 27 - Richmond, VA - Warehouse Wed. Aug. 28 - Washington, DC - Pie Shop Fri. Aug. 30 - Providence, RI - AS220
$ w/ Mdou Moctar
About J.R.C.G. - Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra): To experience Justin R. Cruz Gallego’s pulverizing Sub Pop debut is to get burned down to ashes and burst forth, born anew. Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra), the Tacoma-based artist’s second album is driven by opposing forces: noisy abstractions and tightly structured beats, anguish and dissolution at the outside world and empowerment within, apathy and catharsis. Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra) weds scouring electronics to hooky songs and Gallego’s powerful drumming in a way that feels visceral and new. It’s his most personal statement to date, at once playful and intent, driven and combustible, total fucking chaos mixed into glints of broken-glass beauty.
Born in Tucson, Arizona, Gallego experienced culture shock as a child after relocating to the frigid climes of the Pacific Northwest. He found solace in the Seattle punk scene centered around Iron Lung Records and has since remained a fixture in the underground community.
“I see this record as first and foremost a musical statement,” Gallego says. “I grew up in punk and DIY subcultures, but before that I had Latin music playing in the background through my childhood and every phase of adolescence. It was surprisingly natural to incorporate. I realized I wanted to go deeper into these rhythms. I wanted to make a record that felt as experimental as much as it felt from the perspective of a Latino. When I got a glimmer of that possibility, it felt exciting.”
“Drummy” launches J.R.C.G. beyond the sound of the project’s 2021 debut, Ajo Sunshine, marrying that album’s noisy experimentalism to a newfound focus on rhythm. “It was the first song I wrote for Grim Iconic. To me, it’s the very next scene after the last album closes. ‘Drummy’ married the two approaches and pushed it into this next sequence of songs.” Fascinating amalgams of visceral rhythms and incandescent noise permeate Grim Iconic… (Sadistic Mantra), from the looping hand drums of “34” to the Funhouse-meets-Tropicália blasts of “World i.” It all embraces a sense of freedom while facing modernism.
“Dogear” is a face-melting party starter that sounds like someone forced Talking Heads and Rudimentary Peni to share a practice space. “I wanted a song that felt playful in the way it attempted to be dissonant without taking itself too seriously,” Gallego says. “Cholla Beat” is even more ambitious, an anthemic mix of WAR and Wire led by unruly synthesizers spiraling down a labyrinth of production.
Gallego’s influences for the album are vast, ranging from British documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis to electric Miles Davis to audio miscreants like Demdike Stare and Oneohtrix Point Never. But it’s Gallego’s assured sonic vision that resounds the loudest. And, while J.R.C.G. is a solo project, conceived and executed primarily in Gallego’s home studio, he found strength in opening the project to others, starting with Seth Manchester as co-producer. Manchester’s penchant for bone-rattling frequencies, as seen in his production work with The Body, Battles, and Mdou Moctar, made him a natural fit for Gallego. Together, they retained the intimacy of Gallego’s home recordings while taking advantage of the hi-fi stylings of his Machines With Magnets Studio in Rhode Island. The closing song, “World i,” offers a glimpse into the live experience of Grim Iconic…(Sadistic Mantra), with upwards of seven band members blasting off. The album features a fascinating mix of supporting players, many of whom cycle through J.R.C.G.’s live lineup: Morgan Henderson (The Blood Brothers, Fleet Foxes), Jason Clackley (Dreamdecay, The Exquisites), Jon Scheid (Dreamdecay, U Sco), Erica Miller (Casual Hex, Big Bite), Veronica Dye (Terminator) Phil Cleary (U Sco), and Alex Gaziano (Dreamdecay, Kidcrash, Science Amplification).
Taken as a whole, G.I.S.M. is a whirlwind of sound, pummeling, and cleansing. It’s a sweaty, thrilling aural adventure and, like a great basement show, it’ll leave you breathless, exhausted, and wanting to repeat it all over again. As any good mantra should.
Tomorrow, Friday, May 10th, Sub Pop and Sunny Day Real Estate will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band’s landmark album Diary. Earlier this Spring, we announced a new pearlescent vinyl edition of the remastered double LP, and its release coincides with the band’s 2024 US tour commemorating the album’s anniversary, which is currently underway.
Originally formed in Seattle in 1992, Sunny Day Real Estate featured Nate Mendel (bass), William Goldsmith (drums), Dan Hoerner (guitar, vocals) and Jeremy Enigk (vocals, guitar). Diary, the band’s first full-length album, was released in 1994 on Sub Pop, going on to become the seventh-best-selling record in the label’s history, with more than 231,000 copies scanned in the US alone. Diary was recorded at Chicago’s Idful Studios with producer Brad Wood and released to critical acclaim.
Pitchfork, in its “50 Best Indie Rock Albums of Pacific Northwest,” said of Diary, “The title would later be ridiculed as a symbol of emo’s inward focus, but Sunny Day Real Estate’s Diary, their 1994 debut on Sub Pop, can be read in various ways: in the form of punk rock evolving away from its original designs into more dynamic and insecure space, or as a display of spiraling interplay between four talented musicians from Seattle.”
The Diary 30th Anniversary Tour continues tonight, Thursday, May 9th with a sold-out show at Philadelphia, PA’s Theatre of Living Arts and currently ends with a two-night stand Friday, October 18th and Saturday, October 19th in Los Angeles at The Belasco. Please find a current list of dates below. For more information on tickets, please visit https://sunnyday.realestate.
Thu. May 09 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts [Sold Out]
Fri. May 10 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts [Sold Out]
Sun. May 12 - Boston, MA - Big Night Live
Wed. May 15 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza [Sold Out]
Thu. May 16 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza
Wed. Aug. 14 - Dallas, TX - The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
Sat. Aug. 17 - Denver, CO - Summit
Tue. Aug. 20 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox [Sold Out]
Wed. Aug. 21 - Portland, OR - Pioneer Courthouse Square (PDX Live)
Fri. Aug. 23 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox [Sold Out]
Sat. Aug. 24 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox
Sun. Sep. 22 - Louisville, KY - Bourbon and Beyond Festival
Wed. Sep. 25 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues [Sold Out]
Thu. Sep. 26 - Detroit, MI -
Sat. Sep. 28 - Minneapolis, MN - The Fillmore
Oct. 11-13 - Las Vegas, NV - Best Friends Forever Festival
Tue. Oct. 15 - San Francisco, CA - August Hall [Sold Out]
Wed. Oct. 15 - San Francisco, CA - August Hall
Fri. Oct. 18 - Los Angeles, CA - The Belasco [Sold Out]
