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]
Sub Pop has signed The Bug Club for the whole wide world, with plans to release new music from the Wales-based band in 2024 and beyond.
The way you’re saying it, “prolific” isn’t the right word for The Bug Club. You’ve got to say it with the trademark Welsh lilt and pay due homage to this inimitable band’s origins in the renowned hit factory of Caldicot, South Wales. Do that, and you’re about right with how to summarize a group who’ve released ten singles, two albums, two EPs, three things nobody knew how to describe, and an album under a different band’s name, all since 2021, and while playing 200+ gigs a year.
The Bug Club is Tilly Harris (Bass, Vocals) and Sam Willmett (Vocals, Guitar). Their first offering for the label is “Quality Pints,” a track that deals with the pressing concerns of any conscientious touring outfit, taking to heart the rule of the three R’s as penned by renowned fellow pints fan Mark E Smith of The Fall: repetition, repetition, repetition. If it’s that important, which it is, it’s worth saying again.
Initially comprising the songwriting core of Willmett and Harris with Dan Matthew on drums, The Bug Club started plying their trade in 2016. They were signed by UK label Bingo Records in Autumn of 2020, and their first single, “We Don’t Need Room For Lovin’,” was released in February 2021. It quickly established The Bug Club as the tongue-in-cheek and live-focused antidote to the previous year’s penned-in pandemic drudgery. BBC 6 Music’s Marc Riley was an early champion, hammering the single, booking the band in for a session as soon as it was allowed, and rightfully praising songwriters capable of singing the whole alphabet in a two-minute song and making it work.
EP Launching Moondream One came next, complete with 7”, comic book, and free jingles (radio stabs are something of a forte for the band), followed by Pure Particles, whose vinyl release included a board game brimming with cult references. Fed up with the conventional approach, they then released “Intelectuals”: a standalone track that was actually a five-track ‘song suite’ like some kind of streaming-model-snubbing, Telecaster-bashing answer to Bach. Highbrow musos took a lyrical beating for the ages. Second standalone release, “Two Beauties,” marked release number two for 2022 and built up to the appearance of debut album Green Dream in F# by October. Lead single “‘It’s Art” encapsulated The Bug Club’s ethos good and proper: they’re only in this for fun, “you’re not supposed to feel it.” But they’re self-effacing because everybody does feel it. And it feels great.
The following January, they decided to pull their fingers out, get some disguises, and support themselves on tour as Mr Anyway’s Holey Spirits. A live album documented this, then they got abstract with titles and put out picture disc Picture This!. By the autumn of 2023, it was time for forty-seven-track, poetry-infused double album Rare Birds: Hour of Song. Their most ambitious realization of The Bug Club’s creative world so far, typically smart and surreal wordplay (as well as their standard enthusiastic obscenity), met with everything from raucous punk to gentle anti-folk. Ivor Cutler seemed to have left his surreal stamp somewhere — the fully illustrated picture book included with the record helped suggest that — but they’d never heard him until somebody else made the comparison. Happy accidents abound.
Things went pair-shaped with Sam and Tilly in 2024 after Dan swapped his sticks for his gardening tools and a quiet life in the countryside. During a trip to America, they caught the eye of Sub Pop. And guess what: new music is hurtling towards their ever-growing loyal fanbase, who can look forward to a year for The Bug Club with stuff going on constantly. Who’d have thunk it?
The Bug Club will support their upcoming Sub Pop release with a slew of UK and European tour dates. The dates begin May 10th in Wrexham, UK at Focus Wales and currently run through Saturday, November 16th in Norwich, UK, at Norwich Arts Centre. Additional international dates will be announced soon.
Fri. May 10 - Wrexham, UK - FOCUS Wales Sat. May 11 - Birmingham, UK - The Castle & Falcon Sun. May 12 - Brighton, UK - Komedia (Matinee) Sun. May 12 - Brighton, UK - Komedia (Evening) Fri. May 17 - Clitheroe, UK - The Grand Sat. May 18 - Sheffield, UK - Get Together Sat. May 25 - Bristol, UK - Dot To Dot Sun. May 26 - Nottingham, UK - Dot To Dot Mon. May 27 - Cardiff, UK - City Arms (Matinee) Mon. May 27 - Cardiff, UK - City Arms (Evening) Tue. Jun. 04 - Bristol, UK - The Fleece * Wed. Jun. 05 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom * Thu. Jun. 06 - London, UK - Sebright Arms Wed. Jun. 12 - Madrid, ES - Siroco Thu. Jun. 13 - Barcelona, ES - Sala VOL Sat. Jun. 15 - Andoain, ES - Andoaingo Rock Jaialdia Sat. Jul. 06 - Usk, UK - The Weekend Rumble Fri. Jul. 26 - Rock, UK - Rock Oyster Festival Fri. Aug. 02 - Pikehall, UK - Y Not Festival Fri. Aug. 30 - Brighton, UK - Brighton Psych Fest Sat. Aug. 31 - Hull, UK - The Adelphi Sun. Sep. 01 - Edinburgh, UK - Edinburgh Psych Fest Thu. Nov. 07 - Bournemouth, UK - Bear Cave Fri. Nov. 08 - Margate, UK - Lido Sat. Nov. 09 - Bedford, UK - Esquires Wed. Nov. 13 - Newcastle, UK - The Cluny Thu. Nov. 14 - Hebden Bridge, UK - The Trades Club Fri. Nov. 15 - Leicester, UK - The SoundHouse Sat. Nov. 16 - Norwich, UK - Norwich Arts Centre * w/ Shellac
“[Amen Dunes] has proven to be a fearless reinventer, a spiritually attuned songwriter, and a cerebral lyricist who’s well-primed to tell you something about yourself if you simply pay a visit to the flawed characters who inhabit his records” — Stereogum
Amen Dunes – the project of New York City-based Damon McMahon – unveils “Rugby Child,” the final single ahead of the release of Death Jokes, out this Friday via Sub Pop, following “Purple Land,” “Boys” and the album’s centerpiece, “Round the World.”
With deep kick drums and hi-hats underneath a serpentine guitar riff, “Rugby Child” explores the psychic dis-ease that affected us all at the height of the pandemic and one’s desire to break from this mortal coil. McMahon sings, “You hear that Annie died? / She was straight for fifty days / When they said to stay inside / She must’ve just gone crazy.” “The song was written in April 2020, and flips between memories of touring, and that present moment of spring,” McMahon explains. “A musician from New York I had known had just overdosed. He wasn’t named Annie, but she stands in for him out of respect.”
The “Rugby Child” video completes the Death Jokes trilogy of videos and is once again directed by McMahon’s ongoing collaborator Steven Brahms. Featuring McMahon and modern dancer Jennifer Florentio, the video was filmed in an abandoned detox center in Flatbush.
“A daring turn in a different direction” (NPR Music) for Amen Dunes, Death Jokes marks his first record since 2018’s Freedom (named a “best album of the decade” by Pitchfork). Death Jokes sees McMahon immersing himself in the electronic music he’d grown up with at raves and clubs but never imagined himself able to make. For the first time since the project’s incarnation in 2006, the spiritual reflections and meditations of Amen Dunes are turned away from himself and out sharply towards the world. Through samples and lyrics, the album plays like a scathing electronic essay on America’s culture of violence, dominance, and destructive individualism.
Following a New York City performance next week and a summer tour of the UK and Europe, Amen Dunes will return to the US for an appearance at Pitchfork Music Festival in July and then embark on a North American tour in August, including a festival performance at Outside Lands in San Francisco. A full list of dates is below and tickets are on sale here.
Today, musician and Sub Pop recording artist SUKI WATERHOUSE is announcing THE SPARKLEMUFFIN TOUR, a brand new headlining trek that will visit 24 cities across North America this Fall. THE SPARKLEMUFFIN TOUR will kick off on Saturday, September 28th in Denver at Mission Ballroom and will make stops in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, and more.
The tour will feature direct support from RCA Records act Debbii Dawson on September 28th, and her Sub Pop labelmateBully from October 17th through December 21st (select dates).
Special fan presales for THE SPARKLEMUFFIN TOUR begin Wednesday, May 8th at 8am (local) and end Friday, May 10th at 9 am (local). Fans can RSVP here to receive the artist presale code on Wednesday. Tickets for the general public will be on sale Friday, May 10th at 10 am (local) here.
The announcement comes on the heels of her Coachella debut closing out the Gobi stage both weekends. She performed her new singles “My Fun” and “Faded” along with fan favorites like “Nostalgia,” “Too Love,” “OMG,” and her newly-certified Platinum single “Good Looking,” along with a cover of the Oasis classic “Don’t Look Back In Anger.”
The upcoming series of dates follows a ramped-up year of Suki playing some of the largest crowds of her career in South America (Lollapalooza in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), the US (Governors Ball, Ohana, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits Festival, and now Coachella), and Mexico (at Corona Capital).
The tour will be in support of Suki’s forthcoming album, which includes “Faded,” “My Fun,” “To Love,” and “OMG,” and is due out later this year worldwide on Sub Pop.
SUKI WATERHOUSE ‘THE SPARKLEMUFFIN TOUR’ 2024 DATES: Sat. Sep. 28 - Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom * Thu. Oct. 17 - Houston, TX - House of Blues ^ Fri. Oct. 18 - Austin, TX - ACL Live at the Moody Theater ^ Sat. Oct. 19 - Dallas, TX - The Factory in Deep Ellum ^ Mon. Oct. 21 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren ^ Tue. Oct. 22 - San Diego, CA - The Sound ^ Wed. Oct. 23 - Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre ^ Fri. Oct. 25 - San Francisco, CA - The Warfield Mon. Oct. 28 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom ^
Tue. Oct. 30 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater ^
Mon. Dec. 02 - Kansas City, MO - The Truman ^ Tue. Dec. 03 - St. Louis, MO - The Factory ^ Wed. Dec. 04 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room at Old National Centre ^ Fri. Dec. 06 - Cleveland, OH - The Agora ^ Sat. Dec. 07 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount ^ Tue. Dec. 10 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall ^ Wed. Dec. 11 - Washington, DC - The Anthem ^
Fri. Dec. 13 - Boston, MA - Roadrunner ^ Sat. Dec. 14 - Montreal, QC - MTELUS ^ Sun. Dec. 15 - Toronto, ON - HISTORY ^ Tue. Dec. 17 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre ^ Wed. Dec. 18 - Chicago, IL - The Salt Shed ^
Thu. Dec. 19 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium ^
Sat. Dec. 21 - Atlanta, GA - The Eastern ^
^ w/ Bully
* w/ Debbii Dawson
About Suki Waterhouse
Sub Pop recording artist Suki Waterhouse has worked nonstop since the May 2022 release of I Can’t Let Go, her label debut. Later that year, she released the “Nostalgia” single and the Milk Teeth EP (featuring the newly Platinum-certified viral hit, “Good Looking”). In 2023, Suki released the monumental ballad “To Love.” She embarked on a wildly successful headline tour and would go on to perform in front of the largest festival crowds of her career in North and South America.
In 2024, Suki released the jubilant “OMG” and the sparkling “My Fun” and “Faded” ahead of her well-received Coachella debut, closing out the Gobi stage. “To Love,” “OMG,” “My Fun,” and “Faded” will be on her forthcoming album due out this year. Suki will also support that release with “The Sparklemuffin Tour,” her headlining tour this fall.
On June 28th, Sub Pop will release Washed Out’s fifth and most audacious album to date, 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. In 2021, Washed Out’s creative force, Ernest Greene, left Atlanta to return to the countryside he knew growing up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today, he is preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him.
He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion” (after the pastoral John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd — its opening line: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”). It has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large-scale visual-art experiments. That purity of vision is what makes Notes From a Quiet Life so potent. It’s the first album Greene wholly self-produced, with mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Mura Masa) and David Wrench (Caribou, Florence + the Machine).
Unabashed and unafraid to pioneer and incorporate new technologies within his art, Greene enlisted multi-disciplinary Artist, Writer, and Director Paul Trillo to direct the music video for the album’s lead single, “The Hardest Part.” Created using OpenAI’s Sora, “The Hardest Part” marks the first collaboration with an artist and filmmaker to be generated entirely utilizing this technology.
Director Paul Trillio shares: “I had the seed of this video concept 10 years ago, where we do an infinite zoom of a couple’s life over the course of many decades, but I have yet to attempt it because I figured it’d be too ambitious for a music video. While the technology is experimental and cutting-edge, I wanted to do something that also felt like a classic music video that would hold your attention no matter what tech was being used in the process. I was specifically interested in what makes Sora so unique. It offers something that couldn’t quite be shot with a camera, nor could it be animated in 3D, it was something that could have only existed with this specific technology. The surreal and hallucinatory aspects of AI allow you to explore and discover new ideas that you would have never dreamed of. Using AI to simply recreate reality is boring. I wasn’t interested in capturing realism but something that felt hyperreal. The fluid blending and merging of different scenes feels more akin to how we move through dreams and the murkiness of memories. While some people feel this may be supplanting how things are made, I see this as supplementing ideas that could never have been made otherwise. Many artists in this industry are constantly compromising and negotiating their ideas with the reality of what can be made. This offers a glimpse at a future where music artists will be given the opportunity to dream bigger. An overreliance on this technique may become a crutch and it’s important that we don’t use this as the new standard of creation but another technique in the toolbelt.”
Ernest Greene says about the song & video: “‘The Hardest Part’ is a story about nostalgia and love lost. With the video, I wanted to bring this narrative to life in a sincere way that was also exciting and unexpected. I’ve been a fan of Paul for a long time and he is amazingly skilled at incorporating cutting-edge visual effects that elevate a story instead of simply supplementing it with shock and awe. He was at the top of my list of potential collaborators.
What he’s come up with is nostalgic, sad, uplifting, and often quite strange. However, he still manages to make you feel for the characters and invested in the journey of how their lives progress. I think that Paul is right when he says that this video could only be made using this new AI technology. In my opinion, the hallucinatory quality of Sora clips feel like the beginning of a new genre unto itself - one that is surreal and unpredictable and entirely unique to traditional cinema or even animation.”
About Sora/OpenAI: OpenAI’s Sora is an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative videos from text instructions. Though the model is not yet released, OpenAI is working with a number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be most helpful for creative professionals.
About OpenAI: OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
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.
Washed Out Notes From a Quiet Life
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
