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)

This coming Bumbershoot weekend, September 2nd-4th, Sub Pop Records is fairly well-prepared, and entirely thrilled, to host the above-mentioned Art Installation, Pop-up Store & Immersive Experience - aka Bumberstore - providing a rare glimpse of the unique art, design, culture, and (of course…) merchandise associated with the label. 

You are right in identifying this as another conveniently located Sub Pop retail experience you have to buy a ticket to get into! (See also Sub Pop’s Airport Store.)

And you may (or may not) now be wondering: Exactly what sort of hocus pocus does it take to turn this…

Into this?

Like the other seven wonders of the world, we began with coffee and donuts (obvs.) Also cold pizza: breakfast of champions and losers alike!

Next, gather your brightest minds, your most idea-ful artists and designers, your typically fairly shiftless staffers. Then, sacrifice one toe. Anyone’s toe will do, however the toe of a department director is sure to stack the deck in your favor.

It takes a village. And also roughly that many pillows…

And the hearts of an entire company. 

Add merch…

And we’re also hoping to sell some records.

Three days won’t be nearly enough time, but it’ll have to do. And we’re super stoked to see you there.

Find the Sub Pop Bumberstore at the International Fountain Pavilion. (there’s a map over here.)

We’ll leave the light on for you.

Set sail on the sonic seas of brand new music from German electro-wizards, The Notwist! 

We (Sub Pop, that is) are pleased to share release details on behalf of Superheroes, Ghostvillains & Stuff, their new live album which features 16 tracks from The Notwist’s extensive catalog, and was recorded on December 16, 2015 on the second of three consecutive, sold-out nights at UT Connewitz in Leipzig, Germany.  

If The Notwist are a new band to you, get to know them! On this page, you can read up on their rich history - over the years, the band has been involved in very notable and sonically awesome side projects like Ms. John Soda and Lali Puna, among others. In the meantime, you can listen to the live version of The Notwist classic, “Pick Up the Phone,” via the good people of Flood Magazine [link here].

Superheroes, Ghostvillains & Stuff will be available as a digital only release in North America from Sub Pop [here] and in Europe on 2xCD/3xLP/DL through Alien Transistor [here].

The Notwist have a European tour scheduled in 2016-17, and if they happen to be playing near you, do yourself a favor and join them for the night. They’re pretty magical live. (Dates below.)

[Photo Credit: Patrick Morarescu]

Tour Dates
2016
Nov. 05 - Weissenhaeuser Strand, DE - Rolling Stone Weekender
Nov. 06 - Berlin, DE - Lido
Dec. 12 - Düsseldorf, DE - Zakk
Dec. 13 - Luxembourg, LX - Atelier
 
2017
Feb. 02 - Zurich, DE - Rote Fabrik
Feb. 13 - Leipzig, DE - Conne Island
Feb. 14 - Hamburg, DE - Rosse Freiheit
Feb. 15 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
Feb. 16 - Gent, DE - Vooruit
Feb. 18- Reutlingen, DE - Franz K
Feb. 19 - Frankfurt, DE - Batschkapp

Clipping just dropped their official video for “Air ‘Em Out,” another stellar track off their upcoming Sci-Fi/dystopian concept album Splendor & Misery (out September 9th via Sub Pop and Deathbomb Arc.

The “Air ‘Em Out” visual was helmed by returning director Carlos Lopez Estrada (“Work Work,” “Inside Out”) and stars Clipping frontman Daveed Diggs. (Yes, that dude from Hamilton Musical.)
 
Lopez Estrada says of the clip, “I met with clipping a few months ago to talk about potential ideas for this video and Jonathan half jokingly said that we should put Daveed in zero gravity. I emailed them back a few days later saying “I know you were kidding, but what if we do?” We then embarked on a wonderful creative journey of scrappy visual effect techniques and ended up with our own janky version of zero gravity, which turned up to be a pretty cool thing, I believe.”

Splendor & Misery is led by the highlights “Baby Don’t Sleep,” “A Better Place,” and the aforementioned “Air ‘Em Out,”and is now available for preorder on CD/LP/DL/CASS from Sub Pop [here] and Deathbomb Arc [here].  Preorders through Sub Pop Mega Mart and independent retailers near you will receive the Loser edition - pictured above - on crystal clear vinyl while supplies last. 

Additionally, Wriggle, the group’s recent surprise EP, is also available [right over here].

Clipping’s current tour schedule in support of Wriggle and Splendor & Misery includes: A hometown release show on September 8th in Los Angeles at Highways Performance Space (with Busdriver and Pedestrian Deposit); September 11th at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival;  And September 30th in Los Angeles at the Smell. More dates will be announced soon, and the current schedule is below.

[Photo Credit: Sarah Sitkin]
 
Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Sep. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Highways Performance Space*
Sep. 11 - San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
Sep. 30 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell (Benefit Show)**
* w/ Busdriver, Pedestrian Deposit
** w/ The Mae Shi