“Make Sub Pop Great Again.” You’ve seen the shirt, and the skateboard and perhaps the promotional compact disc compilation, but what have you really done for us lately? This month marks my first foray into airport-store-blogging, as our beloved (and, arguably, somewhat luscious) Jackson has decamped to New Orleans. And, I’d like to do my bit to help restore Sub Pop’s greatness by sharing a few of the most important planks in our party platform. Here’s a look at some of what you could expect if (your god of choice forbid…) Sub Pop was elected president, governor, alderman, or block watch captain…

PARTY PLATFORM  

• We will try to put our name, really big, on everything we touch. This is something we feel very strongly about. It’s kind of un-American not to, and it sends a clear message. Sub Pop can be Great and our typeface sizes need to reflect that.
• Extremely well-organized cups and neatly-folded shirts. At the Sub Pop airport store, we have a team of dedicated professionals working practically around the clock (6am -10pm, to be precise) to ensure that all cups meet the strict presentation guidelines put in place by our award-winning art department. All mug handles are to point at an exact 315 degree angle. Shirts are routinely inspected and adjusted using proprietary state-of-the-art folding technologies.
• Equal Access. The Sub Pop Airport store strives to be somewhat accessible. We’re not here to erect barriers between you and that brand new Logo Grey Athletic w/Black T shirt. We’re trying to build bridges, not walls. So, our store is conveniently located in the central terminal at Seatac Airport in Seattle, Washington and all you need is a ticket to travel, a valid form of government-issued identification and a dream. You also need ample time (we suggest the $85 TSA precheck pass to reduce your security wait time). Also, you’re probably going to need a spare hand for all that schwag so we do suggest checking all bags for a nominal $50 to $100 fee (see corresponding airline for exact prices). To recap: ticket, ID, dream, expendable time dedicated to shopping, and two unencumbered hands. That’s it. You are access Sub Pop.
• We believe in the power of the same shirt in many different colors. Black on white, white on black, yellow on green, green on blue, blue on a lighter blue, etc… We know life is full of hard decisions and we also know that the choices we make ultimately define who we become. At Sub Pop, we want to help you become a better you, a you who owns at least five to seven color combinations of Sub Pop T-shirts. So, whether your blood runs red or blue, rest assured, we’ve got the shirt that’s going to match it.
• Transparency. We believe certain Loser editions should be on transparent vinyl, colored vinyl, swirly marble vinyl. We often have these in stock long after other record stores have sold out. The choice is clear. But it’s also black and white. It’s Fuschia. It’s teal. The choice is yours.

For more information regarding the party platform please refer to the informational poster board from our recent Bumbershoot festival pop-up shop.

Seattle weirdo punks So Pitted just premiered an official video for “woe” from neo (their Sub Pop debut) via the discerning music consumers of Brooklyn Vegan. The visual was shot in Seattle and directed by the Fabulous Downey Brothers, and it’s poised to deliver 100% of your daily value for weirdness. 

Brooklyn Vegan describe it thusly: “Featuring some out-there animation and green-screen antics, it’s a hyperreal match to So Pitted’s melted noise (see premiere September 19th).”

So Pitted have also scheduled a fall tour in support of neo, acting as direct support for The Garden. The trek begins October 9th in Reno, NV at Holland Project and ends November 4th in Santa Barbara, CA at Velvet Jones. You’ll find a complete list of tour dates right over here.

So Pitted recently visited 90.3 KEXP for a live performance. Watch the session, to see performances of neo highlights “cat scratch,” “pay attention to me,” “woe,” PLUS a new track titled “no name #4.” You can also watch the band’s recent (+very official +very fun) Jane Child inspired video, “feed me.”

So Pitted’s neo is now available on CD / LP / DL / CASS worldwide wherever fine records are sold, and also here.

“Union of Mind and Soul” is an alternate-vocal version of “Union of Sun and Moon,” the first track off GOAT’s upcoming album, Requiem. This reworking of the album track is available through all digital services, and will be included in the digital download that comes with the Requiem vinyl LP.

Requiem will be available in North America on CD / 2xLP / DL / CASS on October 7th, 2016. (via Stranded Rekords in Nordic countries, and Rocket Recordings in the rest of the world.)  North American fans can (and should) preorder* the new record here. 

*LP pre-orders through the Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent record stores will receive the limited Loser Edition on translucent red vinyl with black streaks (as pictured below) while supplies last.

GOAT will be touring Europe throughout the fall, with more dates to follow. These dates, and related ticket links, may be found here.

Requiem finds Swedish psych explorers GOAT focusing more on their subdued, bucolic ritualism than psilocybin freakouts. A pronounced folk-rock influence pervades the album, with stand-out tracks “Alarms,” “Try My Robe,” and “Union of Sun and Moon.”  But GOAT hasn’t foregone their fiery charms—tracks like “All-Seeing Eye” and “Goatfuzz” conjure the sultry pulsations that ensnared us on 2012’s World Music and 2014’s Commune.

Feast your sees and hears on Morgan Delt’s brand new Vinyl Williams directed video for “Some Sunsick Day,” the standout single from Phase Zero, his Sub Pop debut. This tripped-out new visual premiered today by way of Brooklyn Vegan (see here).

Delt’s North American fall tour begins tonight, September 14th in Chicago, IL at Schubas and ends September 24th in Brooklyn, NY at Baby’s All Right. Support for these dates will come from Sub Pop label mates Mass Gothic. (listing + links below.)

[Photo Credit: Lily Keep]

Phase Zero is now available in finer record stores throughout the known universe, and also here.  The album features singles “I Don’t Wanna See What’s Happening Outside,” “The System of 1000 Lies,” and the above-embeded “Some Sunsick Day.”

Tour Dates + Ticket Links

Sep. 14 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle

Sep. 15 - Detroit, MI - UFO Factory

Sep. 16 - Toronto, ON - The Silver Dollar

Sep. 17 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz

Sep. 20 - Washington, DC - DC9

Sep. 21 - Philadelphia, PA - Boot & Saddle

Sep. 23 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East

Sep. 24 - Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right

All dates with Mass Gothic

Experimental Noise Hip-Hop trio Clipping made its network television debut on the Late, Late Show with James Corden just last night, performing “A Better Place” off Splendor & Misery (stream the album here). Set your sights on this magnificent performance right here, right now. 

Corden also caught up with Diggs about a number of topics, including texting regularly with his childhood hero, MC Hammer [watch it here].

Clipping is also the subject of features this week, in both the Los Angeles Times [link] and The New York Times [link].

Splendor & Misery, Clipping’s Sci-Fi/dystopian concept album, is out Friday, September 9th on CD/LP/DL/CASS, worldwide from Sub Pop [link here] and Deathbomb Arc [link here]. The album is led by highlight tracks “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “A Better Place,” and “Air ‘Em Out,”  

Preorders through Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent retailers near you will receive the Loser edition on crystal clear vinyl (while supplies last; we’re nearly sold out of these beauties in the Mega Mart).

Clipping’s current tour schedule in support of Splendor & Misery and its summer predecessor, the Wriggle EP (get it here), includes: two hometown appearances tonight, Thursday, September 8th beginning with an in-store at Amoeba Records in Hollywood (6pm), and concluding with a headline show at Highways Performance Space with Busdriver and Pedestrian Deposit (9pm); September 11th at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.

TOUR UPDATE - Dates added as follows: beginning October 26th in Brooklyn at the Market Hotel and ending November 4th in Austin at Sound on Sound Music Festival. Along the way, the group will see support from Youth Code (October 26-November 2nd).  Preceding the tour there will be two Southern California shows including the just-announced appearance on September 24th at Music Tastes Good Festival, and September 30th in Los Angeles at the Smell with The Mae Shi. There will be additional live dates announced soon, but for now see current dates below.

Recently, Clipping also released the gravity-defying “Air ‘Em Out” visual, which was directed by returning director Carlos Lopez Estrada (“Work Work,” “Inside Out”), and stars the group’s lyricist/frontman Daveed Diggs. (yes, he’s that Hamilton Musical, Tony Award Winning actor.)

[Photo Credit: Brian Tamborello]

What precisely have The People said about Splendor & Misery? We’re glad you asked:

“A magnificent, nerve-jangling and altogether rather riveting blast of unflinching white noise and throb, virtuoso rapping and, most improbable of all, richly romantic gospel-choir interludes designed as much to disconcert as to offer tuneful respite from and guidance through the surrounding sonic shrapnel.” [9/10, Album of the Week] - Loud & Quiet

“A hugely inventive slab of sonic theatre plotted to the tiniest detail..” [4/5] - MOJO

“Replete with sci-fi references and nudges to Afrofuturist musicians before them, the album confronts the crushing darkness inherent to the alienation of black diaspora and speculates on the identity as an intrinsically fluid process. Splendor & Misery is sincere and staunchly ambitious. With it, clipping. Have solidified their position at the forefront of experimental music.” [8.6/10] - Northern Transmissions

“The production, helmed by dual composers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, make use of field recording techniques only instead of chimes and sampled radio alarms, the sharp clangs of breached hulls and airlocks closing are the content used to create these paranoia inducing and dissonant instrumentals. What makes Splendor & Misery beckon for repeat listens, bar Daveed Diggs torrential flow, is how concise and dense the record is. It flows like a satellite in orbit, emerging over horizons witnessing serene beauty only to encounter disruptive asteroid belts moments later like the three ‘Interlude’ tracks where Daveed spits over broken and static-laced connections.” [8/10] - CLASH

“Utterly uncomfortable, but with such an imaginative foundation that you can’t help but feel invited back to try to learn a little more about the strange and beautiful world of Clipping.” [8/10] - Under the Radar

“The space hiphoperatics of California trio Clipping extend the story of the middle passage into the cosmos.” [Album review] - The Wire

“It’s Afro-futurist dystopia from an album…that tells the “Her”-like love story of a man who survives a slave uprising on an interstellar ship and an onboard computer. That might explain the industrial sounds, pre- and post-digital revolution, and the sense of disorientation; but you don’t need to know it to feel the track’s organization and power.” [“Baby Don’t Sleep,” Playlist] - New York Times

“Beatmakers Snipes and Hutson send you plummeting into the mainframe with a musique concrète cut-up beat of television fuzz and white noise. Negative space sucks the air out of your chest as Diggs raps in an arresting staccato, deconstructing the hegemony in a most deliberate manner: “Saviors are fiction / memories are fading like ghosts.” [“Baby Don’t Sleep”] - Passion of the Weiss

“This bangs, in the most enervating fashion possible.” [“Baby Don’t Sleep”] - Stereogum

“Spirits are present in clipping.’s  video for “Air ‘Em Out.” We open on frontman Daveed Diggs settling in to another shift at his jumpsuit-requiring place of employment. As the beat builds, however,  mysterious tremors start to unsettle Diggs and the litany of office supplies at his desk. It’s another top-quality video from a group that has made a habit of just that, a simple idea perfectly executed.” [“Air ‘Em Out,” Best Videos of August 2016] - Pigeons & Planes

Tour Dates + Ticket Links

Sep. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Amoeba Records instore (6pm)

Sep. 08 - Santa Monica, CA - Highways Performance Space* (9pm)

Sep. 11 - San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Electronic Music Festival

Sep. 30 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell (Benefit Show)**

Oct. 26 - Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel * ^

Oct. 27 - Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery *

Oct. 28 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 *

Oct. 30 - Miami, FL - Gramps *

Nov. 01 - St. Petersberg, FL - Local 662 *

Nov. 02 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl *

Nov. 04 - Austin, TX - Sound on Sound Festival

* w/ Youth Code

** w/ The Mae Shi

^ World War (fka Mincemeat or Tenspeed)