Also Announcing 2019 “True Love Is Making a Comeback” Tour.

Weyes Blood (pronounced wizebluhd) will release Titanic Rising, her fourth album and Sub Pop Records debut, worldwide on CD/LP/DL/CS April 5th, 2019. The album features the lead single  “Everyday,” and the previously released “Andromeda,” along with highlights “Movies,” “Wild Time,” and “Something to Believe.” The cover for Titanic Rising was shot in a bedroom submerged fully underwater (zero CGI). 

 

[Cover Art Photo Credit: Brett Stanley]

Titanic Rising, written and recorded during the first half of 2018, is the culmination of three albums and many years of touring: stronger chops and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement in transcendent vocals and levitating arrangements, conversational lyrics and thoughtful commentary on the modern condition of our souls. Like the Kinks meet WWII (or is it Bob Seger meets Enya?) Titanic Rising manages to ride that line between classic songwriting and post-apocalyptic futurism.

Titanic Rising is now available for pre-order from Sub Pop. LP pre-orders in North America through weyesblood.com, megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on maroon colored vinyl (while supplies last).  LP pre-orders of Titanic Rising in the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on red vinyl (while supplies last). There is also a new T-shirt design available now.

Titanic Rising
Tracklisting

1. A Lot’s Gonna Change
2. Andromeda
3. Everyday
4. Something to Believe
5. Titanic Rising
6. Movies
7. Mirror Forever
8. Wild Time
9. Picture Me Better
10. Nearer to Thee

Weyes Blood Tour Dates and Ticket Links

Weyes Blood has also scheduled an intergalactic headlining tour for the spring of 2019 in support of Titanic Rising, which begins on April 22nd in Brighton, UK at the Haunt and currently ends June 13th at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Weyes Blood and her band will visit the UK, mainland Europe, Canada, and the US for these dates. These dates will be preceded by a run of California shows, which run April 1st-April 5th, 2019. More 2019 dates to come.
 
Tickets for the newly announced shows go on sale Friday, February 15th at 10 am PST.

True Love Is Making a Comeback Tour 2019

California 
Apr. 01 - Fresno, CA - Strummers
Apr. 02  - Santa Cruz, CA - The Atrium at The Catalyst
Apr. 03 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones
Apr. 04 - Los Angeles, CA - Masonic Lodge [Sold Out]
 
UK/Europe
Apr. 22  - Brighton, UK - The Haunt 
Apr. 23 - Bristol, UK - The Exchange
Apr. 24 - Manchester, UK - YES (The Pink Room) 
Apr. 25 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall          
Apr. 27 - Berlin, DE - Kantine am Berghain
Apr. 28 - Hamburg, DE - Turmzimmer
Apr. 29 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Upstairs 
Apr. 30 - Dunkerque, FR  - 4Ecluses
May 02 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie
May 03 - Orleans, FR - Astrolabe
May 04 - Brussels, BE - Le Nuits Botanique (Venue: Rotonde)
 
North America 
May 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
May 16 - Seattle, WA - The Tractor Tavern
May 17 - Vancouver, BC - St. James Hall
May 18 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
May 21 - Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club
May 22 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
May 24 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern
May 25 - Montreal, QC - Petit Campus
May 26 - Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery
May 28 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
May 29 - New York, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
May 31 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
Jun. 01 - Philadelphia,  PA - Johnny Brenda’s
Jun. 03 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
Jun. 04 - Nashville, TN - The High Watt
Jun. 06 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada
Jun. 07 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall (upstairs)
Jun. 08 - Austin, TX - Antone’s
Jun. 11 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf
Jun. 12 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar
Jun. 13 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour

 

Weyes Blood recently released “Andromeda,” a stellar offering also found on Titanic Rising. The track plays on a few themes (mythology, astronomy, technology), and is ultimately a love song about finding something long-lasting in an ever-changing world full of distractions, unrealistic expectations (“looking up to the sky for, something I may never find”) and past disappointments. 

Stereogum recently named “Andromeda” one of its songs of the week, and said “There are few contemporary artists who sound like Natalie Mering. Her voice is enchanting, and on this song, she asks listeners to give themselves over to love, as if doing so will allow them to live in her plush, technicolor world a little longer.” And The FADER raves “…Mering, crafts melodies that feel rooted in another space and time.” 

About Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising:
The phantom zone, the parallax, the upside down—there is a rich cultural history of exploring in-between places. Through her latest,Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood (a.k.a. Natalie Mering) has, too, designed her own universe to soulfully navigate life’s mysteries. Maneuvering through a space-time continuum, she intriguingly plays the role of a melodic, sometimes melancholic, anthropologist.
 
Tellingly, Mering classifies Titanic Rising as the Kinks meet WWII or Bob Seger meets Enya. The latter captures the album’s willful expansiveness (“You can tell there’s not a guy pulling the strings in Enya’s studio,” she notes, admiringly). The former relays her imperative to connect with listeners. “The clarity of Bob Seger is unmistakable. I’m a big fan of conversational songwriting,” she adds. “I just try to do that in a way that uses abstract imagery as well.”
 
“An album is like a Rubik’s Cube,” she says. “Sometimes you get all the dimensions—the lyrics, the melody, the production—to line up. I try to be futuristic and ancient at once, which is a difficult alchemy. It’s taken a lot of different tries to get it right.” As concept-album as it may sound, it’s also a devoted exercise in realism, albeit occasionally magical. Here, the throwback-cinema grandeur of “A Lot’s Gonna Change” gracefully coexists with the otherworldly title track, an ominous instrumental. 
 
Titanic Rising, written and recorded during the first half of 2018, is the culmination of three albums and years of touring: stronger chops and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement in transcendent vocals and levitating arrangements—one she could reach only by flying under the radar for so many years. “I used to want to belong,” says the L.A. based musician. “I realized I had to forge my own path. Nobody was going to do that for me. That was liberating. I became a Joan of Arc solo musician.”
 
The Weyes Blood frontwoman grew up singing in gospel and madrigal choirs. “Classical and Renaissance music really influenced me,” says Mering, who first picked up a guitar at age 8. (Listen closely to Titanic Rising, and you’ll also hear the jazz of Hoagy Carmichael mingle with the artful mysticism of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the monomyth of scholar Joseph Campbell.) “Something to Believe,” a confessional that makes judicious use of the slide guitar, touches on that cosmological upbringing. “Belief is something all humans need. Shared myths are part of our psychology and survival,” she says. “Now we have a weird mishmash of capitalism and movies and science. There have been moments where I felt very existential and lost.”
 
As a kid, she filled that void with Titanic. (Yes, the movie.) “It was engineered for little girls and had its own mythology,” she explains. Mering also noticed that the blockbuster romance actually offered a story about loss born of man’s hubris. “It’s so symbolic that the Titanic would crash into an iceberg, and now that iceberg is melting, sinking civilization.” Today, this hubris also extends to the relentless adoption of technology, at the expense of both happiness and attention spans.
 
The track “Movies” marks another Titanic-related epiphany: “that movies had been brainwashing people and their ideas about romantic love.” To that end, Mering has become an expert at deconstructing intimacy. Sweeping and string-laden, “Andromeda” seems engineered to fibrillate hearts. “It’s about losing your interest in trying to be in love,” she says. “Everybody is their own galaxy, their own separate entity. There is a feeling of needing to be saved, and that’s a lot to ask of people.” Its companion track, “Everyday,” “is about the chaos of modern dating,” she says, “the idea of sailing off onto your ships to nowhere to deal with all your baggage.”
 
But Weyes Blood isn’t one to stew. Her observations play out in an ethereal saunter: far more meditative than cynical. “I experience reality on a slower, more hypnotic level,” she says. “I’m a more contemplative kind of writer.” To Mering, listening and thinking are concurrent experiences. “There are complicated influences mixed in with more relatable nostalgic melodies,” she says. “In my mind, my music feels so big, a true production. I’m not a huge, popular artist, but I feel like one when I’m in the studio. But it’s never taking away from the music. I’m just making a bigger space for myself.”

Seattle’s Sub Pop Records is extremely proud to announce the return (for our 13th year!) of The Sub Pop Loser Scholarship. Further details on the scholarship are below, and even further below is some clarification on what we mean by “Loser.” 

Sub Pop Records is offering a grand total of $15,000 in college scholarship money to three eligible high school seniors. There are three scholarships—one for $7,000, one for $5,000 and one for $3,000. As longtime, proud losers ourselves, we’re exceedingly happy to be able, in some small way, to help further the education of art-enthused misfits from the NW. Applicants must be residents of Washington or Oregon, and graduating seniors on the way to full-time enrollment at an accredited university or college. We are looking for applicants who are involved and/or interested in music and/or the creative arts in some way. However, you do not need to be pursuing an education in the arts.

To apply you must submit an essay, one page or less, using any combination of the following questions as a guide (or write something completely your own, be inspired and creative!). Please list the school you are graduating from and the school you plan to attend in the fall at the top of your essay along with your contact information. 

- What are you doing in the arts/music field in your community?

- What does being a Sub Pop ‘Loser’ mean to you?

- What are your influences and/or who inspired you to become involved in the arts?

- Describe your biggest failure and explain how it has brought you closer to your goal(s).

- Discuss a special attribute or accomplishment that sets you apart.

- How has your family or community background affected the way you see the world?

- Why should you be the Loser winner?

Applicants are strongly (!) encouraged to send digital links and/or provide hard copies of their artwork, photos of community involvement, radio show links, videos, etc. along with their essay (we have never had a winner who submitted only an essay w/no extras). However, please be aware that Sub Pop will not return any of this material, so please don’t send originals. Sub Pop will give equal opportunity to all applicants who fit the criteria outlined above.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday, March 20th, 2019.

Please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.com by Wednesday, March 20th. We will announce the scholarship winners during the first week of April.

What we talk about when we talk about “Loser.”

Here at Sub Pop Records, we use the word “loser” a lot. You may have noticed. We’ve printed it on things we sell (hats, shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!), we call the first, colored-vinyl, limited-edition pressings of the records we release the “Loser Edition,” and every year since 2007 we’ve awarded tuition money to college-bound NW high school students through the “Sub Pop Loser Scholarship.” And, it’s possible we take for granted that you guys catch our drift and understand what we mean when we’re all “loser this,” and “loser that.” So! The following…

Sub Pop’s use of the word “loser” goes back to the foundation of the label and is meant as a celebration of unabashedly being ourselves without conforming to any preconceived ideas of “normal.” To be a loser is central to the very idea of underground art and culture - all of it happening and thriving outside of the mainstream, and not necessarily looking for a way in. Bruce Pavitt’s “New Pop Manifesto” in the 1st issue of Subterranean Pop included, “The important thing to remember is this: the most intense music, the most original ideas… are coming out of scenes you don’t even know exist… Only by supporting new ideas by local artists, bands, and record labels can the U.S. expect any kind of dynamic social/cultural change…” And, since 2007, with the Loser Scholarship, we’ve been adding students to that list, and putting our (or, our co-founder, big boss and biggest loser ever, Jonathan Poneman’s…) money where our mouth is. Sub Pop Records strives to bring attention to music and art from the fringes that might otherwise remain marginalized. And, in that same spirit, through our annual Loser Scholarship, we’re looking for art-enthused misfits in NW high schools, losers like us, to help them pay for college. We stand proudly with and support the misfits, weirdos and losers, because we believe that when we’re able to proudly be nothing other than our true selves, we have the ability to make the world stronger, smarter and better.

So, good luck, Losers! And, again, please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.com by Wednesday, March 20th.

It’s the first time Dear Hamlyn will be available outside of Australasia. The band’s UK, European, and Ireland tour dates for 2019 begin tomorrow in London.

On March 8th, Luluc’s Dear Hamlyn, the duo’s debut album, will be available for the first time worldwide (outside of Australasia) on vinyl and through all DSPs from Sub Pop. This gives fans the first opportunity to discover the minimalist folk sound from which the band grew. A long player in the tradition of Nick Drake, you can see (above) the Lucy Dyson animated video for “The Wealthiest Queen”.

 

Luluc Tour Dates

 
Feb. 05  - London, UK - Lexington
Feb. 06 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
Feb. 08 Leffinge, BE - Cafe De Zwerver
Feb. 09 - Köln, DE - Die Wohngemeinschaft
Feb. 10 - Berlin, DE - Privatclub
Feb. 12 - Manchester, UK -Gullivers
Feb. 13 - Glasgow, UK - The Hug & Pint
Feb. 14 - Dublin, IE - Grand Social


[Photo Credit: Charlotte Demezamat]

The band will perform Our Endless Numbered Days in its entirety (and with an orchestra) in Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Sub Pop and Iron & Wine will celebrate the 15th anniversary of Our Endless Numbered Days with the release of a newly expanded deluxe edition on CD/2xLP/DL worldwide on March 22nd, 2019. This version will feature eight previously never before heard demos, new artwork, and a 12-page booklet including liner notes from author Amanda Petrusich. You can now hear the demo version of ”Passing Afternoon” here.

Iron & Wine received its second Grammy nomination in two years as “Best Folk Album” for 2018’s Weed Garden. Their previous nomination was for “Best Americana Album” for 2017’s Beast Epic.

Our Endless Numbered Days (Deluxe Edition) is now available for preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on opaque pea green vinyl (while supplies last). There will also be a new T-shirt design available. For LP preorders of Our Endless Numbered Days (Deluxe Edition) in Europe and the UK from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on opaque dark green vinyl (while supplies last).

Iron & Wine
Our Endless Numbered Days (Deluxe Edition)
Tracklisting:
 
1. On Your Wings
2. Naked as We Came
3. Cinder and Smoke
4. Sunset Soon Forgotten
5. Teeth in the Grass
6. Love and Some Verses
7. Radio War
8. Each Coming Night
9. Free Until They Cut Me Down
10. Fever Dream
11. Sodom, South Georgia
12. Passing Afternoon
13. Naked as We Came (demo)
14. Cinder and Smoke (demo)
15. Teeth in the Grass (demo)
16. Love and Some Verses (demo)
17. Free Until They Cut Me Down (demo)
18. Fever Dream (demo)
19. Sodom, South Georgia (demo)
20. Passing Afternoon (demo)

[Photo Credit : Kim Black]

Sam Beam, aka Iron & Wine, released Our Endless Numbered Days, his second album, in March of 2004. It followed his seemingly out of nowhere debut arrival, The Creek Drank the Cradle (2002) which was a quiet word of mouth treasure. Our Endless Numbered Days was recorded in Chicago and was the first in a string of releases to be produced by Brian Deck (Red Red Meat, Modest Mouse, Ugly Casanova, etc.). 
 
Our Endless Numbered Days, which has sold over 556,000 copies, marked many firsts for Beam both professionally and personally and as Petrusich so rightly calls it in her liner notes “Our Endless Numbered Days is a timeless record about the passage of time.” 
 
Upon its release SPIN called the record a “masterwork” one that is “self-assured, spellbinding, and richly, refreshingly adult.”  Pitchfork, which gave the original album “Best New Music,” had this to say, “An astoundingly progressive record: Beam has successfully transgressed his cultural pigeonhole without sacrificing any of his dusty allure.”

Iron & Wine Tour Dates + Ticket Links

In conjunction with the re-issue, Iron & Wine will team up with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to perform the record in its entirety. Arrangements are being handled by noted composer David Campbell (Adele, Michael Jackson, Beck), whom will also conduct the LA Philharmonic.

These shows will include two sets – one with the orchestra and one solo acoustic – and feature songs from throughout the nearly 20-year career of Iron & Wine. These are the only scheduled performances of this nature planned around the anniversary of Our Endless Numbered Days.

Mar. 22 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Hall w/ Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Mar. 24 - Los Angeles, CA - Disney Hall w/ Los Angeles Philharmonic
TBA  - Washington, DC - Kennedy Center w/ National Symphony Orchestra

Live in London will be available on 2xCD/3xLP/DL/CS and was taped before a live audience at the Eventim Apollo. The album features the Conchords performing new songs from the sold-out UK and Ireland edition of “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour.”

You heard right, ladies and gents: Flight of the Conchords will release Live in London on 2xCD/3xLP/DL/CS worldwide via Sub Pop on March 8th, 2019. This past October and ten years after the launch of their hit HBO series, musical comedians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement returned to the network for an all-new comedy special. Live in London was taped before a live audience at the Eventim Apollo and features the Conchords performing new songs from the sold-out UK and Ireland edition of “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour.” 
 
The Live in London album features 7 new songs including “Iain and Deanna,”“Father and Son,”“Summer of 1353,” “Stana,” “Seagull,” “Back on the Road,” and “Bus Driver.” The album also features performances of fan favorites “Inner City Pressure,” “Bowie,” “Foux du Fafa,” “Mutha’uckas - Hurt Feelings,” “Robots,” “Carol Brown” and “The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)’ (the latter two bonus tracks edited out of the broadcast due to time constraints).

Live in London is now available for preorder from Sub Pop.

LP preorders in North America through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on clear w/blue and yellow high melt vinyl (while supplies last). Additionally, LP preorders of Live in London in Europe and the UK from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on clear vinyl (while supplies last).

Flight of the Conchords
Live in London
Tracklisting:
1. Father and Son *
2. Band Reunion 
3. Iain and Deanna *
4. Inner City Pressure 
5. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra 
6. Summer of 1353 *
7. Complimentary Muffin 
8. Stana *
9. Stuck in a Lift 
10. Foux du Fafa 
11. Seagull  *
12. Mutha’uckas - Hurt Feelings 
13. One More Anecdote 
14. Back on the Road *
15. Thank You London 
16. Bowie 
17. Bus Driver *
18. Tuning 
19. Robots 
20. Shady Rachel 
21. Carol Brown **
22. The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room) **
* =  new song
** = bonus track not included in the TV special

[Photo credit: Colin Hutton/HBO]

New Zealanders McKenzie and Clement debuted on HBO in 2005 in an edition of the comedy series “One-Night Stand,” returning to the network in 2007 for the debut season of their acclaimed, Emmy-nominated series “Flight of the Conchords,” which followed fictionalized versions of their lives in New York City. The duo also signed a worldwide deal with Sub Pop Records for their recorded music, going on to release the Grammy-winning EP, The Distant Future in 2007, followed by two full-length albums - their self-titled debut in 2008, and I Told You I Was Freaky in 2009. 

The Conchords have also enjoyed individual success. Clement’s film credits include the “Rio” movies, “Men in Black 3,” “What We Do in the Shadows” and “The BFG,” and he’s also been seen in his role in FX’s “Legion.” McKenzie was the music supervisor for “The Muppets,” which won him an Academy Award® for Best Original Song for “Man or Muppet,” and “Muppets Most Wanted.”