Collective hearts here at Sub Pop HQ swell with pride today, as we’re thrilled to announce Father John Misty’s Pure Comedy - the highly anticipated follow-up to his internationally acclaimed album, I Love You, Honeybear - will hit store shelves the world over on Friday, April 7th.
Since 2012, Father John Misty aka Josh Tillman has unexpectedly emerged as a singular (if not undeniably, um, idiosyncratic) voice. Whether by virtue of his lyrics, which routinely defy the presumed polarities of wit and empathy; his live performances which may perhaps be described best as “intimately berzerk,” or the infuriating line he seems to occupy between canny and total fraud online or in interviews, Father John Misty has cultivated a rare space for himself in the musical landscape - that of a real enigma. Pure Comedy sees Tillman at the height of these powers: as a lyricist, and equally so a cultural observer - at times bordering on freakishly prescient. Tillman’s bent critiques, bared humanity and gently warped classic songwriting are all here in equal measure and - at 75 minutes - there’s a veritable fuck ton of it. The album navigates themes of progress, technology, fame, the environment, politics, aging, social media, human nature, human connection and his own role in it all with his usual candor, and in terms as timely as they are timeless.
Tillman wrote the majority of Pure Comedy throughout 2015 and recorded all the basic tracking and vocals live to tape (in no more than two takes each) at United Studios (fka the legendary Ocean Way Studios, favored by Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys) in Los Angeles March 2016. Album highlights include the title track alongside standouts “Leaving LA,” “Total Entertainment Forever,” “Ballad of the Dying Man,” “When The God Of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell To Pay” and “Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before The Revolution”.
Pure Comedy was co-produced once again by Josh Tillman and long-time producer Jonathan Wilson; mixed by Tillman, Wilson and Trevor Spencer, and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios. The album features string, horn and choral arrangements from classical iconoclast Gavin Bryars (Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet, Sinking Of The Titanic), with additional contributions from Nico Muhly and Thomas Bartlett.
Pure Comedy’s front/back covers and gatefold feature a gargantuan original piece (his first ever commission of its kind) by Ed Steed (The New Yorker) and cover variations for the standard LP and CD will be randomly distributed. Collect them all! Please!
A Deluxe 2xLP version on aluminum & copper vinyl, a die-cut customizable jacket with 4 interactive “background” sleeves (so you can have whatever sky you damn well feel like as the cover), all encased in a clear slipcase. Includes a fold-out poster and an exclusive holographic tarot card by Ed Steed.
A 2xLP gatefold version also available in 4 cover variations on black vinyl
A CD gatefold digipak with slipcase available in 4 cover variations
Digital
Cassette
TAKE NOTE: LP orders through Father John Misty’s Official Store, megamart.subpop.com, Bella Union and select independent retailers will receive a limited 7” single featuring the first physical release of fan favorite “Real Love Baby” on the A-side and the as yet unreleased track, “Rejected Generic Pop Song, March ‘15 #3” on the B-side (while supplies last). A new t-shirt design will be available from Sub Pop and Bella Union, in addition to a new line of merch from Father John Misty’s online store.
Pure Comedy Tracklisting: 1. Pure Comedy 2. Total Entertainment Forever 3. Things it Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution 4. Ballad of the Dying Man 5. Birdie 6. Leaving LA 7. A Bigger Paper Bag 8. When the God of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell to Pay 9. Smoochie 10. Two Wildly Different Perspectives 11. The Memo 12. So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain 13. In Twenty Years or So
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: Tillman and Grant James (“Funtimes in Babylon,” “I Love You, Honeybear”) also co-directed Pure Comedy: The Film. Pure Comedy is a gorgeously rendered black & white document of the live tracking, as well as a surreal look into Tillman’s writing process. A six-person crew, complete with cranes in the tracking rooms, captured every moment of the recording, giving the viewer intimate audience to actual album takes, including the one and only 2:00am performance of the 13-minute “Leaving LA.” It also features the only known recording of Tillman’s love ballad to his sound engineer Trevor Spencer. The 30-minute film is available for viewing now at Father John Misty’s new website.
Father John Misty’s first live appearance in support of Pure Comedy will be on the Coachella mainstage, Fridays April 14th, and 21st.
[Photo Credit: Guy Lowndes]
Read some (well, a veritable fuck ton) words from Josh over here, then follow him just about everywhere in the universe via Facebook.
We couldn’t be prouder to announce that Melbourne’s own Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s Sub Pop debut EP, ‘The French Press” will be out on March 10th. Now have a listen to title track, “French Press” while you check out their newly announced tour dates - they’re coming to the US too! (see dates below).
In case you missed it, watch their brilliantly infectious video for “Julie’s Place” right here.
“The French Press” EP levels up on everything that made their debut EP, “Talk Tight,” such an immediate draw. Multi-tracked melodies which curl around one another, charging drums and addictive bass lines converge to give each track its driving momentum. Honed through their live shows, this relentless energy carries the record through new chapters in the band’s Australian storybook.
[Photo Credit: Rubin Utama]
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s songs have always had all the page-turning qualities of a good yarn and “The French Press” EP is no different. Somewhere between impressionists and fabulists, lyricists Fran Keaney, Tom Russo and Joe White often start with something rooted in real life – the melancholy of travel on ‘French Press’, having a hopeless crush on ‘Julie’s Place’ – before building them into clever, quick vignettes. The result is lines blurred between fiction and reality – vibrant stories which get closer at a particular truth than either could alone.
Blending critical insight and literate love songs, “The French Press” EP cements Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever as one of Australia’s smartest working bands.
“The French Press” EP will be available on vinyl, CD and of course digitally. Preorder is on now via this here link.
You could (and should) follow Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever everywhere in the known universe… via Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
TOUR DATES
Fri. Jan. 27 - Melbourne, AUS @ Howler w/ Whitney
Thu. Feb. 2 - Sydney, AUS @ OAF w/ Whitney
Mon. Mar. 3 - Fri. Mar. 17 - Austin, TX @ SXSW
Sat. Mar. 18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts w/ Tennis
Sun. Mar. 19 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Tennis
Tue. Mar. 21 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom w/ Tennis
Wed. Mar. 22 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom w/ Tennis
Thu. Mar. 23 - Brooklyn, NY @ Shea Stadium
Sun. Ma. 26 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Fri. Apr. 21 - Cats @ Adelaide, AUS @ Rocket Bar
Sat. Apr. 22 - Sydney, AUS @ Newtown Social Club
Fri. Apr. 28 - Brisbane, AUS @ Black Bear Lodge
Sat. Apr. 29 - Byron Bay, AUS @ The Great Northern
Sleater-Kinney’s Live In Paris - the group’s first ever live album - hits store shelves (and hot little hands) the world over, next Friday, January 27th. Hear a live version of The Woods standout “What’s Mine Is Yours” here right now.
Earlier this month, Sleater-Kinney also released a video for “Surface Envy (Live)” comprised of fan footage from shows the band has played over the years; feast your eyes upon it here.
Live In Paris features thirteen tracks from the sold-out show which was captured on March 20th, 2015 at the city’s historic La Cigale venue, during the band’s celebrated international tour in support of their acclaimed eighth album, No Cities to Love. The show’s setlist featured songs from No Cities to Love, The Woods, One Beat, The Hot Rock, Dig Me Out, andCall the Doctor.
Sleater-Kinney: Live In Paris will be available worldwide on CD / LP / DL / CS and we encourage you (please) to preorder yours over here.
You might want to sit down for this one, dear reader, because on this coming March 10th, 2017, Sub Pop will release unto the world a remixed and expanded reissue of Soundgarden’s Ultramega OK, a long-planned “correction” of the legendary band’s GRAMMY®-nominated debut full-length. The album was originally recorded and released in 1988 on SST Records. While the band enjoyed working with the original producer, Drew Canulette, they soon realized they weren’t quite happy with the final mix. Thus, shortly after the album’s release, the band decided to remix the album for subsequent pressings. However, success intervened: the band rapidly scored a deal with A&M and began work on their major-label debut, Louder Than Love, and the Ultramega OK remix project fell by the wayside as Soundgarden climbed their way to (ultra)mega-stardom.
[Photo Credit: Charles Peterson]
In 2016, after worldwide success, a hiatus, and many albums and tours, the band finally acquired the original multi-track tapes to Ultramega OK and carved out time to dig into the remix. They handed the tapes over to longtime friend and engineer Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Skin Yard), who worked with the band to create a fresh mix of the album that, for the band, ties up this persistent loose end and remedies the sound of their debut full-length.
While they were at it, the band dug out six early versions of tracks that wound up on Ultramega OK. The songs were recorded in 1987 on 8-track tape by Jack Endino and Chris Hanzsek at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, and mixed by Jack Endino in 2016. These versions feature the band in raw, powerful form – sonically closer to the band’s Endino-recorded six-song debut, Screaming Life – and provide a fascinating window into the development of songs that eventually became staples of the band’s set. The six songs comprise what the band refers to as Ultramega EP, and they are included in this reissue.
Ultramega OK is available for preorder available now on CD / 2xLP / DL / CASS from Sub Pop and soundgardenworld.com. The album comes packaged in a foil-stamped gatefold with custom dust sleeves, features liner notes from Kim Thayil and Jack Endino, and includes a previously unseen photo from renowned photographer Charles Peterson. Preorders of the LP from megamart.subpop.com, soundgardenworld.com, and select independent retailers will receive the Loser edition on marble blue and maroon vinyl (while supplies last).
Track listing:
1. Flower 2. All Your Lies 3. 665 4. Beyond the Wheel 5. 667 6. Mood for Trouble 7. Circle of Power 8. He Didn’t 9. Smokestack Lightning 10. Nazi Driver 11. Head Injury 12. Incessant Mace 13. One Minute of Silence 14. Head Injury (early version) 15. Beyond the Wheel (early version) 16. Incessant Mace (early version) 17. He Didn’t (early version) 18. All Your Lies (early version) 19. Incessant Mace (V2) (early version)
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Hailed as grunge innovators, Soundgarden redefined rock music for a generation. In the late ‘80s, the band – singer Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Hiro Yamamoto, and drummer Matt Cameron – combined a punk ethos, brutal metal soundscapes, and Cornell’s ravenous roar to capture the attention of the masses. Jagged and ferocious, their music was deeply at odds with the synth-pop and hair metal which dominated the ‘80s airwaves. Early indie releases, including seminal Screaming Life and Ultramega OK, quickly led to a dedicated indie following as the band toured on both sides of the Atlantic. Subsequent albums, including Badmotorfinger,Superunknown, and Down on the Upside, achieved multi-platinum sales and launched the band to international fame.
Jesca Hoop’s “Memories Are Now” is the title track from her forthcoming label debut (out February 10th) and now’s the time to listen: here.
Memories Are Now is an album of stunning original songs- raw yet brimming with energy, forged from rich life experience and emotional depth. Beautifully delivered by an artist that has steadfastly honed her unique craft of musical storytelling.
Jesca Hoop’s previously announced international tour dates in support of Memories Are Now span January 28th through April 6th, 2017. The U.S. shows begin February 26th in Austin, TX and include stops in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The U.K. shows begin March 28th and include stops in London, Leeds, Bristol, Norwich, Manchester, Brighton, and Cambridge. (see dates below)
Jesca recently recorded an intimate performance on Marc Riley’s BBC 6 radio show, which features a sneak peek of “Pegasi” [watch here], and while your at it you should watch her poignant video for another Memories Are Now track, “The Lost Sky”.
Memories Are Now will be released on CD / LP / DL and is available for pre-order now here. LP pre-orders through megamart.subpop.com will receive the limited Loser Edition on robin’s egg blue colored vinyl (while supplies last).
Tour Dates
Jan 28th - Glasgow, UK, Roaming Roots Revue @ Celtic Connections Feb. 26 - Austin, TX - 3TEN @ Austin City Limits Live Feb. 28 - Atlanta, GA - Terminal West Mar. 02 - Vienna, VA - Jammin’ Java Mar. 05 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle Mar. 06 - Allston, MA - Brighton Music Hall Mar. 08 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge Mar. 14 - Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center Mar. 17 - Seattle, WA - Fremont Abbey Arts Center Mar. 18 - Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater Mar. 20 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall Mar. 21 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy Mar. 28 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club Mar. 29 - London, UK - The Lexington [Sold Out] Mar. 30 - Bristol, UK - Exchange Mar. 31- Leicester, UK- The Musician Apr. 01 - Brighton, UK - Patterns Apr. 02 - Norwich, UK - Epic Studios Apr. 03 - Cambridge, UK - Portland Arms Apr. 06 - Manchester, UK - Gorilla
