Watercolor, the long-awaited and eagerly anticipated Sub Pop debut from Seattle’s own Porter Ray, will be available worldwide on March 10th, 2017. Porter is a Seattle based MC who caught the attention of Shabazz Palaces’ Ishmael Butler, who signed him to the label in 2014.
“Sacred Geometry [Constellation Mix]”- Watercolor’s lead single - is an extended album version featuring The Palaceer, Ishmael Butler of Shabazz Palaces, and Ray’s childhood friend and cohort, Cashtro. This alternative album mix is available on the digital & LP versions of the record.
The FADER premiered the track today (see/hear exclusively at The FADER) and had this to say:“On the first track from the Seattle native’s forthcoming Watercolor, Porter leads the song with melodic cadences and descriptive verses. Here, he and his collaborators all highlight the narratives that make up this holy equation.”
Porter Ray is a natural… he sounds like East Seattle feels. From the same wet blocks that spawned Quincy, Jimi and Ishmael, comes Porter Ray. Having previously penned six projects showcasing dexterous wordplay, unflinching honesty and vulnerability, tempered with equal degrees of braggadocio and charm; Porter is an old soul, a storyteller par excellence, a griot possessing insight beyond his years.
A bit of Context…
Porter Ray has had no choice but to feel deeply. Loss and violence seemed to plague Porter’s adolescence and early adulthood. His father fell gravely ill and his subsequent passing signaled the beginning of a dark time. Leaving high school devoid of any certification was next. Losing his younger brother to a much-publicized case of gun violence four years later only added to the young de facto patriarch’s heavy heart and perceived curse. The year following found some of his closest friends [including his son’s mother] locked up in the penitentiary with lengthy sentences.
Watercolor features original production from B-Roc, Dez Anthony, and Kmtk, and was mixed by Erik Blood. It is vocally flavored by guest appearances from THEE Satisfaction’s Stas THEE Boss,Cashtro, Nate Jack, and Jus Moni. Iconic Central District MC, Infinite, of Narkotik and Tribal Productions, as well as Black Constellation elders Palaceer Lazaro and Fly Guy Dai of Shabazz Palaces also make key contributions.
Watercolor is now available for preorder on CD / 2xLP / DL / CASS from Sub Pop [order here]. LP pre-orders through the Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Edition on translucent vinyl with magenta swirl in North America & Translucent vinyl in Europe, while supplies last.
Follow all things Porter Ray everywhere in the galaxy via Facebook | Twitter | Instagram, and around the globe:
Tour Dates Feb. 17 - Seattle, WA - Sole Repair* Feb. 26 - Seattle, WA - Crocodile** Mar. 08 - Seattle, WA - Barboza (album release party) Mar. 15-19 - Austin, TX - SXSW * w/ Sisters ** w/ Pickwick
Pissed Jeans’ “Ignorecam” twists the idea of fetish cam shows—”where the woman just ignores you and watches TV or eats macaroni and cheese or talks on the phone”—into a showcase for Matt Korvette’s rancid yelp and his bandmates’ pummeling rock. “I love that idea of guys paying to be ignored,” says Korvette.
Recently, Pissed Jeans shared Why Love Now’s lead single “The Bar Is Low” and you can hear here. Speaking of the band and single… The New York Times says: “Matt Korvette, the skeptical frontman of a terrific, coarsely named post-hardcore band from Allentown, Pa., doesn’t want to hear your compliments. As a dude, he knows he’s being graded on a curve…The track feels partly inspired by a recent series of unmaskings in the public sphere. “It just seems to be quite an easy bet,” Mr. Korvette sputters. “Those we adore just haven’t spilled their secrets yet.” But the excoriation is all-inclusive: By the end, he floats a claim about our rate of evolution as a species. (Spoiler alert: It’s not hopeful.)”
[Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz]
Pissed Jeans previously announced 2017 tour dates in support of Why Love Now, span February 23rd-March 11th, and include stops in Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, Somerville, and Philadelphia. Tix are on sale now, w/additional live dates to come. (find dates + links below)
Why Love Now was co-produced by Lydia Lunch, Arthur Rizk and Pissed Jeans, and will be available February 24th on CD / LP / CASS / DL (preorder is advised via this link here).
Read more about Pissed Jeans from Maura Johnston here, and follow the band all over the internets on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Feb. 23 - Washington, DC - Black Cat Feb. 24 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Bazaar Feb. 25 - Somerville, MA - ONCE Ballroom Mar. 10 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle Mar. 11 - Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA
Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever just shared their cheeky new video for ”Julie’s Place,” the first single off their forthcoming EP (and Sub Pop debut), which we here at Sub Pop are stoked to release later this Spring.
True story: After the band spent their video budget on an idea that didn’t work out ($$¯\_(ツ)_/¯$$), they decided to film singer/guitarist Fran Keaney mowing his lawn on a Saturday morning. This simple idea actually ended up being much more in the band’s utilitarian style. So in a sense, out of defeat of an excess of options came a lean opportunity to do something more truthful.
[Photo Credit: Rubin Utama]
“Julie’s Place” levels up on everything that made Talk Tight such an immediate draw. It’s about being young and dumb but full of bravado. Sprinting guitars mimic singer Keaney’s pangs of heartache, his awkwardly sensual lyrics calling to mind the chaos and confusion of being around someone you can’t get off your mind.
You could (and should) feel the same about this band; follow Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever everywhere in the known universe… via Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
The day when the Riot grrrl of Sleater-Kinney ignited La Cigale
“The American feminist punk trio Sleater-Kinney…came to present their eighth album, No Cities To Love, on Friday, March 20th in a Cigale full to bursting. A cult concert.
For some, Friday, March 20 was synonymous with solar eclipse and peak pollution. For others, it was mainly the arrival of the Sleater-Kinney in Paris, their eighth album, No Cities To Love, under the arm. The kind of cult rendezvous for feminist punk followers, nostalgic Riot Grrrl and all those who shed a tear when the [band] announced their separation. It was in 2006, and Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss had decided to store their guitars for an indefinite period after shaking the feminist rock scene for twelve years. It took them nine to reform and give birth to a new album more pop than punk but still carrying a crazy energy.
To say that the Sleater-Kinney are ultra charismatic on stage would almost be an euphemism. Carrie Brownstein, who has a second career on the small screen in the satyr series Portlandia, martyred her guitar like twenty years ago, while supporting Corin Tucker…singing. Behind them, Janet Weiss, on drums, makes sure of the frenzy of the pieces. Squares of fabric hanging on the back wall float in the air, caressing a light sailing between red and blue. Sublime.
The live is in the image of their albums: abrasive. Without bass or keyboard, their songs bathe in a post-adolescent rebellion, so enjoyable that it sticks you butterflies in the belly. The kind of concert to make you want to go back in time to hang out at Olympia in 1994, preferably with their band.
The trio, accomplice, unrolls a setlist bordering on perfection. The concert opens with ‘Price Tag,’ an explosive bomb from their latest album. A good entry… All [songs are] played with the same animal ferocity.”
But these two reminders, as long as stuffed with old tubes (including the incredible Dig Me Out) will ensure the concert its label “cult”. Before concluding, Corin Tucker will call for respect for gender equality, in the purest tradition Riot Grrrl. In 1996, the Sleater-Kinneysang I’m the Queen of rock’n’roll on the delirious ‘I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone.’ Twenty years and a reformation later, the trio proves it more than ever.”
Les Inrocks
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Sleater-Kinney: Live In Paris is the first recording from the famed group that documents its blistering stage performance. This thirteen track album - which features Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, Janet Weiss, and touring member Katie Harkin - was captured on March 20th, 2015 at historic Paris venue, La Cigale.
The Sleater-Kinney: Live In Paris setlist culls material from No Cities to Love, The Woods, One Beat, The Hot Rock, Dig Me Out, andCall the Doctor. The album and performance was mixed by John Goodmanson at Avast and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, and will be available on CD / LP / DL / Cass worldwide on January 27th, 2017. Preorder is on right now [right here], and as you might suspect, LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com will receive the album on Coke Bottle Clear vinyl. (while supplies last!)
Live In Paris Tracklisting 1. Price Tag * 2. Oh! ^^ 3. What’s Mine Is Yours ** 4. A New Wave * 5. Start Together # 6. No Cities To Love * 7. Surface Envy * 8. I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone ## 9. Turn It On ^ 10. Entertain ** 11. Jumpers ** 12. Dig Me Out ^ 13. Modern Girl **
* from No Cities to Love ** from The Woods ^ from Dig Me Out ^^ from One Beat # from The Hot Rock ## from Call the Doctor
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S-K “bootleg” credits:
Carrie Brownstein: guitar and vocals
Corin Tucker: vocals and guitar
Janet Weiss: drums and vocals
Katie Harkin: keyboards and guitar
Mixed by John Goodmanson
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Cover Art Photos by Joshua Mellin, Ryan Muir, Augusta Quirk, Jason Williamson
Art direction / design Jeff Kleinsmith
Recorded live on March 20, 2015 at La Cigale in Paris, France
Thank yous
Dan Mapp, Sabrina Braswell, Jeremy Lemos, Tim Nichols, Dan Mancini, Scott Adamson, Abbey Simmons, Sub Pop Records, Lever and Beam, James Alderman, La Cigale, and all our amazing fans without whom this record wouldn’t be possible.
Here at the tail-end of 2016, it’s a little tough to deny that this has been an inordinately trying year. A brief and sadly incomplete list of the events that brought us together to cry, reflect, regain composure, and then cry again would include the death of Bowie, the Orlando nightclub shooting, the death of Leonard Cohen, the Ghost Ship fire, and… Well, the list goes on. Enough so that the world actually does kind of seem like it’s a crumbling gingerbread cookie right on the fragile edge of oblivion. We should (and, we very much hope, will!) all do what we can to respond to these challenges, and those that are sure to come.
There are also, it’s worth remembering, some things to celebrate from 2016. And, some of those very things are compiled in Sub Pop’s Best of 2016 collection, which many of us here at the Airport Store contributed to, and which can be found here:http://bestof2016.subpop.com/.
Here, also, is a summary of all the neat holiday items we started carrying at the Airport Store that just may provide a welcome distraction from the horrifying chaos that is modern times:
Music
The Ventures’ Christmas Album (CD)
The New Possibility: John Fahey’s Guitar Soli Christmas Album (CD)
