On the eve of Low’s UK & Ireland tour - on which they’re set to play tracks from their seminal 1999 EP Christmas - the Duluth trio present a reflective and inspiring new recording, closing out our current year and looking ahead to the next.

”Some Hearts (at Christmas Time)” finds Mimi Parker’s lead vocal soaring above Alan Sparhawk’s own artfully processed vocal and plaintive guitar motif.

The song comes with a short personal note from the band:

“To friends who have moved away and friends who have passed on this year. To one and all, especially those who are alone, we wish you a Merry Christmas and new hope for the new year. May we all find ways to lift each other.

With love,

Mimi, Alan and Steve.”

Low have an unparalleled pedigree when it comes to releasing seasonal aural delights. Their eight-song 1999 EP Christmas is often referred to as one of the best Christmas albums of the alternative era, and is a gift that many fans return to year in, year out. Originally championed by John Peel, the EP collects five Christmas-themed originals by the band as well as covers of “Little Drummer Boy,” “Blue Christmas” and “Silent Night.”

Starting today, fans will have a rare chance to experience the joy, peace and reflection imbued in these songs - as well as new release “Some Hearts (at Christmas Time)” - when they’re performed live in some of the most handsome venues that the UK and Ireland has to offer.

The tour, which includes two nights at London’s Union Chapel, is nigh-on sold out with just a handful of tickets remaining at certain venues.

Low Christmas 2016 tour

01 December – Norwich, UK – Arts Centre (SOLD OUT)
02 December – Buxton, UK – Opera House
03 December – Brighton, UK – St. Georges (SOLD OUT)
05 December – London, UK – Union Chapel (SOLD OUT)
06 December - London, UK - Union Chapel (SOLD OUT)
07 December – Bristol, UK – St. Georges (SOLD OUT)
08 December - Salford, UK - Eagle Inn* (SOLD OUT)
09 December – Halifax, UK – Minster (SOLD OUT)
10 December – Glasgow, UK – St. Lukes Church (SOLD OUT)
12 December – Belfast, UK – Empire
13 December – Dublin, IE - Christchurch (SOLD OUT)
14 December – Kilkenny, IE – Set Theatre

*LOW return to Salford, Greater Manchester on 8th December for an intimate performance at The Eagle Inn. The 80-capacity show will consist of an exclusive set of all-new material never before performed in Europe, with all profits donated to local homelessness charity Booth Centre. Support comes from Loop legend Robert Hampson and local singer-songwriter Elle Mary; marking the final Dots & Loops event to wind up ten years’ promoting in Manchester.

It’s that time of year again where we thank you for being the best customers imaginable in the world of music-buying peoples far and wide. 

In an effort to show our unending appreciation of you, we’ll now attempt to coerce you into spending even more of your hard earned shekels with us this holiday season… by offering 20% off on all* Sub Pop Mega Mart orders over $25 starting today and going all the way ‘til 11:59 pm on January 3rd.  Believe us when we say that we’ve got some of the best midsize-indie-record-label-branded merchandise your heart can handle, and we’d really love to sell it to you and your loved ones this holiday season. Knit hats, gloves, and sweaters? We’ve got ‘em.  Things designed to make you sweat (like sweatshirts and sweatpants, gutterbrain)? We’ve got those too. Trinkets and trash? Enough for everyone! We’ve also got a slew of really exciting 2016 releases that you might have missed out on from bands like Clipping., TAD, LVL UP, Goat, Kristin Kontrol, Morgan Delt, and so much more. 

All orders placed by December 19th are guaranteed to ship out before we close up shop for the year, so get your orders in early and often.  Related to this impending warehouse closure, any orders placed between December 19th and January 2nd will not ship out until after we are back in the office on January 3rd. 

Thank you in advance for your impending (wildly overzealous, we hope) gift buying spree.

Love, Sub Pop.

*All Current and future pre-orders from excellent artists like Pissed Jeans and Jesca Hoop are excluded from this 20% off sale. These items do, however, count towards reaching your $25 qualifying order total, so definitely pick those up too!  

As 2016 finally limps to a close, we’re happy to provide you the pleasant distraction of this the November edition of thee No Fly List! This month’s dispatch is stuffed with plenty of product placement and peppered with the sort of almost-humor you might expect from a tippling uncle at Thanksgiving. In what follows we’re going to explore what is perhaps Sub Pop’s most well-known, provocative, overused, and frequently misunderstood expression: “LOSER.”

If you have been keeping up with No Fly List posts from Sub Pop’s airport store since the beginning, you’ve probably wondered what our fourth most asked question is! (See top three FAQ’s) 

Wonder no more! It’s “What is loser, and why loser?” (Which, yes, is kind of actually two questions, but they’re related and we’re calling the shots here, so deal with it.) Let’s dig in…

According to LOSER; the recently expanded book by Clark Humphrey that chronicles the diverse Seattle sound and punk scene, it’s, “a statement of defiance against the yuppies’ obsession with ‘winners.’” The term “LOSER” or “losers of the music industry” was a reaction to corporate industry driven trends and views.

First developed/stumbled upon in the summer of 1988, “LOSER” made its way onto a Sub Pop t-shirt that very year. Consistent with the label’s aesthetic embrace of apathy (and characteristic of the time), images were sporadically misprinted, contained gaps, and sometimes were even screened in reverse. You can scope photos of the original “LOSER” shirt in such books as Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge by Mark Yarm, and Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe by Bruce Pavitt.

In grunge speak, courtesy of Sub Pop’s current CEO Megan Jasper back when she was still the label’s receptionist, a loser is a “cob nobbler.” And, the greeting “Dear Loser” was used endearingly in the infamous Sub Pop rejection letters of the early nineties. The term was later used to market a Sorachi Ace-forward American pale ale developed in Seattle by local brewery Elysian. It’s also a term used in the card game contract bridge.

So that’s why Loser Editions! And, why don’t you have Bloom, Fear Fun, or King Tuff on colored wax? It might be because you didn’t pop in to the Sub Pop store at SeaTac. The Sub Pop airport shop is often the last place you might be able find one of these limited slick discs before they hit the wicked online aftermarket. When the pre-sale is sold out and the stash at your favorite shop has dwindled to nothing, your Loser Edition might just be one plane ticket away.

More “LOSER” related fact and fiction…

One of the earliest singles I’ve scored since becoming a Sub Pop employee is TAD’s long-out-of-print 7” single for “Loser” b/w “Cooking With Gas” (SP55).  While this release was limited to 3,000 copies on a green transparent vinyl 7”, both tracks are now available on the deluxe edition reissue of 1990’s Salt Lick. The 45 has a killer back cover by celebrated local cartoonist Peter Bagge, which exists now on a fine black t-shirt.

Are we forever going on about “LOSER” this and “LOSER” that because of the Beck song? Fuck no! Beck was/is not on Sub Pop. He did, however, put out the 1994 release One Foot in the Grave on Olympia-based label K Records (the latter day reissue of which is occasionally stocked on vinyl in the ‘non-Sub Pop’ section of the airport store with the rest of the PNW titles and related artists). 

Life as a “LOSER” is not for everyone. Tourists regularly walk by the store and stare. Some stop and think out-loud how unsuitable something like this would be for their youngster. Others imagine their choice of relative sporting a big, bold “LOSER” (as punishment or gift, who can say?). For those daring and/or proudly unambitious enough to let their “LOSER” flag fly, however… As the holiday season approaches, this charming stocking awaits, (available online only!), as does a great heap of other shit that says LOSER on it. 

Now if you don’t have any other questions; beat it LOSER!    

Philadelphia’s Pissed Jeans have been making gnarly noise for 13 years, and on their fifth album Why Love Now, the male-fronted quartet is taking aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life—from fetish webcams to office-supply deliveries. The album will see its worldwide release on February 24th, 2017, and we’re pretty fucking psyched about it.
 
Pissed Jeans’ gutter-scraped amalgamation of sludge, punk, noise, and bracing wit make the band—Matt Korvette (vocals), Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums)—a release valve for a world where absurdity seems in a constant battle trying to outdo itself. Why Love Now picks at the bursting seams that are barely holding 21st-century life together. Take the grinding rave-up and lead single “The Bar Is Low” [link] which, according to Korvette, is “about how every guy seems to be revealing themselves as a shithead.”

As they did on their last album, 2013’s Honeys, Pissed Jeans offer a couple of “fuck that shit type songs” about the working world, with the blistering “Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst” turning unwieldy job titles into sneering punk choruses and “Have You Ever Been Furniture” waving a flag for those whose job descriptions might as well be summed up by “professionally underappreciated.”

And the startling “I’m A Man,” which comes at the album’s midpoint, finds author Lindsay Hunter (Ugly Girls) taking center stage, delivering a self-penned monologue of W.B. Mason-inspired erotica—office small talk about pens and coffee given just enough of a twist to expose its filthy underside, with Hunter adopting a grimacing menace that makes its depiction of curdled masculinity even more harrowing.

No Wave legend Lydia Lunch shacked up in Philadelphia to produce Why Love Now alongside local metal legend Arthur Rizk (Eternal Champion, Goat Semen). “I knew she wasn’t a traditional producer,” Korvette says of Lunch. “We wanted to mix it up a little bit. I like how she’s so cool and really intimidating. I didn’t know how it was going to work out. She ended up being so fucking awesome and crazy. She was super into it, constantly threatening to bend us over the bathtub. I’m not really sure what that entails, but I know she probably wasn’t joking.”

The combination of Lunch’s spiritual guidance and Rizk’s technical prowess supercharged Pissed Jeans, and the bracing Why Love Now documents them at their grimy, grinning best. While its references may be very early-21st-century, its willingness to state its case cement it as an album in line with punk’s tradition of turning norms on their heads and shaking them loose.

Read more on Pissed Jeans from Maura Johnston here.

Why Love Now will be released on CD / LP / DL, and is available for preorder now here. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com will receive the limited Loser Edition on lavender vinyl (while supplies last).

And at last, let us encourage/facilitate your obsessive following of Pissed Jeans on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.