Georgian rippers Arbor Labor Union have shared their self-directed, official video for “Volume Peaks” - an illuminating track from I Hear You, their Sub Pop debut - watch it now by way of The A.V. Club.
The band had this to say of their surreal new visual: ”Four elemental entities take human form and instinctively set out in search for one another. Once the merry band is together, they fall deep into a dream of shared vision. They awake again with clear purpose and directive. They set out to attain their grandiose mission (see video premiere May 18th).”
Arbor Labor Union’s U.S. tour in support of I Hear You, is currently underway, with a show tonight, May 18th in Philadelphia, PA at Kung Fu Necktie. The tour ends Friday, June 17th in Athens, GA at the 40 Watt. Highlights for the tour include: New York’s Mercury Lounge on Thursday, May 19th; Chicago at Schubas on May 24th; Minneapolis at 7th Street Entry on May 26th; And June 8th at Bootleg Hi-Fi in Los Angeles. (complete dates below.)
Arbor Labor Union’s I Hear You is available right this very minute via Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Bandcamp and independent record shops near you, and we still have a few copies of the limited “Loser” edition on pink vinyl for you in the Mega Mart.
Tour Dates
May 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
May 19 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
May 20 - Cambridge, MA - Club Bohemia
May 21 - Buffalo, NY - The Leopard Lounge at Town Ballroom
Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary: Deluxe Edition - the reissue of the group’s acclaimed first album - is available now from Sub Pop Mega Mart, Wolf Parade.com, Amazon, and Bandcamp. The reissue features the original album, now as a double LP, along with the band’s pre-Sub Pop, self-titled EPs (released in 2003 and 2004), both of which are making their vinyl debut.
First run of the 3xLP version of Apologies to the Queen Mary (Deluxe Edition) will be on Loser edition peach, blue, and pink-colored LPs, while supplies last. The package features new artwork and includes the previously unreleased track “Snakes on the Ladder” from the Apologies… sessions. This release also got the remastering treatment by the band’s longtime associate Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering.
Also F yr I: the cassette version of the remastered original album (without bonus tracks) is now available here.
Wolf Parade will make their first TV appearance since 2006 with a performance on The Late Show with Stephen ColbertFriday, May 20th on CBS at 11:35pm / 10:35pm CT, so set those DVRs!
The reissue of Apologies to the Queen Mary: Deluxe Edition comes on the heels of Wolf Parade’s recently-announced 2016 reunion and currently-underway reunion tour. (tour dates + links are here.) Even more recently-announced is the band’s upcoming, self-released 4-song untitled EP. You’ll find these details on their website.
About Wolf Parade and ATTQM:
Spencer Krug, Dan Boeckner, Arlen Thompson, and Dante DeCaro – formed in Montreal in 2003. After the aforementioned self-titled EPs, the group released Apologies to the Queen Mary to much acclaim in September 2005, on Sub Pop. The album was recorded by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock and engineer Chris Chandler at Audible Alchemy in Portland, Oregon. The album was an entirely collaborative effort, barreling headfirst and breathlessly through songs written during Wolf Parade’s early years together as a band. The album has sold over 100,000 in the U.S. alone.
Shabazz Palaces immersive new video for “Dawn In Luxor” - a standout track from the group’s critically acclaimed album Lese Majesty - pairs stunning cinematography and VFX, with footage courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Hubble and Cassini missions. Director Stephan Gray dubs the new visual a “daydream on a nightwalk,” and the result is as mesmerizing as you’d imagine.
New to or already obsessed with Shabazz Palaces? Treat yourself to this YouTube Playlist.
ICYMI: Shabazz Palaces previously announced summer tour schedule runs June 4th through September 17th 2016. Highlights include: August 4th and August 8th supporting Radiohead’s Los Angeles shows (!!!) at the Shrine Auditorium; August 13th at Eaux Claires Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; August 27th at Brooklyn’s Afropunk Festival; And three U.S. west coast shows: September 15th-16th in Oakland at Fox Theatre and September 17th at the Hollywood Bowl with Flying Lotus, George Clinton + Parliament Funkadelic and Thundercat.
Shabazz Palaces’ Lese Majesty, is currently available for purchase on CD / 2xLP / CD from Sub Pop Megamart, iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp and an independent record store near you.
(Pictured: Two Sub Pop Corporate Associates With Party Hats and Balloons)
Sub Pop Airport Store 2nd Birthday Party Recap
May 1st. A day that is already full of holidays. Maybe you have spent prior firsts of May celebrating spring, erecting a maypole, and dancing in neo-pagan fertility rituals. Or perhaps you’ve been an ardent observer of International Workers’ Day, taking part in street marches and demonstrations (but maybe/hopefully you can agree with me that we should cut out of some these less imaginative pursuits.)
But now you can add another celebration to May 1st: The birthday of the Sub Pop Airport store! We are happy to share a birthday with fellow May Day babies like Jules Breton, Terry Southern, Judy Collins, Wes Anderson, and Jay Reatard, but I believe Sub Pop chose May 1st as our inauguration date because ‘mayday’ is an international signal for distress. And if a record label opening a store in an airport isn’t a cry for help, I don’t know what is!*
In typical Sub Pop fashion, May 1st flew right by us on a Sunday last week (“Where the hell did May come from? It was April just yesterday”- me). It then took us a week to figure out how to properly commemorate our 2nd birthday. Eventually, plans were made, and we decided to bring a little festive spirit to the airport on this most recent Monday afternoon, May 9th 2016.
Thank you to all the loyal customers who happened to be flying through Sea-Tac Airport bought plane tickets just to make it to our birthday party. Thank you to the members of the retail staff that took turns DJing their favorite Sub Pop singles. Without further ado, here is photographic evidence that we celebrated our 2nd birthday and delivered on all those promises we made earlier.
(Photo appropriated from our friends @ Sea-Tac Airport)
(Free cupcakes! These disappeared pretty quickly.)
(Brnt Zza playin’ the hits.)
(Behind the decks with DJ Hookups)
(The store is currently holding auditions to join (this cut-out of) Nirvana. Do you think you have what it takes?)
(Here’s artist/illustrator Stacey Rozich, whose artwork can be found on the latest Father John Misty album, getting her photo taken at the store.)
(Our newest addition to the polaroid wall. Thanks, Stacey!)
(A visual sneak-peek of the Sub Pop Podcast, recording for Season 2 at the airport.)
(A free CD sampler, still available while supplies last. With your help, and patronage at our airport store, we can Make Sub Pop Great Again.)
*just some of that good ol’ patented Sub Pop Sarcasm for you! I love my job and kiss the ground that my overlords walk on.
We’re thrilled to announce that Shabazz Palaceswill join Radiohead as support on the group’s forthcoming Los Angeles shows. The performances will take place on Thursday, August 4th and Monday, August 8th at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
The Radiohead support slots are the latest additions to Shabazz Palaces’ summer festival schedule, which includes: June 4th in Spokane for Volume The Inlander’s Music Festival; June 18th at Vancouver’s Levitation Festival; August 13th at Eaux Claires Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Brooklyn’s Afropunk Festival August 27th.
Additionally, Shabazz Palaces will join Flying Lotus, George Clinton + Parliament Funkadelic and Thundercat for three U.S. west coast shows: September 15th-16th in Oakland at Fox Theatre and September 17th at the Hollywood Bowl. (complete dates below.)
These summer tour dates are in support of Lese Majesty, which is available for purchase on CD / 2xLP / CD from Sub Pop Megamart, iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, and an independent retailer near you.
Treat your eyes and ears to a sampling of Shabazz Palaces mind melting videos and music in this YouTube Playlist.
What people are saying about Lese Majesty: Lese Majesty is Shabazz Palaces getting interstellar, a set of intricate, enigmatic, yet meaningful suites complete with an (initially) impenetrable multidimensional blueprint/map connecting it all in the liner notes. Beneath the visuals, the album contends with a strain of Afrofuturism that puts its faith in finding unities in contradictions and clarity in riddles (“I’m having my cake and I’m eating cake,” “facts stated to enhance what is pre-born,” “we try to unreproduce six tension intervals”), reconciling structure and formlessness, forethought and spontaneity….meter-defying breaks and tactile, synthesized bass-church/musique concrète production that turns human language into primordial elements of cosmic influence. It’s humbling stuff that urges you to dance but knows full well that, to do so, you’ll need to relearn new and better steps [50 Best Albums Of 2014] - Pitchfork
“Unlike their previous, also brilliant full-length Black Up, Shabazz Palaces’ new “sonic move” Lese Majesty is not necessarily conducive to absorption in small doses. The record is a massive, dense monolith, divided into suites that only start to make sense after countless repeat listens. It’s a bridge from rap’s beginnings in the early ’70s into its future — structurally, thematically, lyrically, sonically, all of it — that sounds so many light years ahead of everything else in the genre that its nods to the past only reveal themselves after one invests real time immersed in what we called “the impossibly deep, singular astral landscape” that the group has created.” [Album of the Year] - Gorilla Vs. Bear
“With their second album, Seattle hiphop duo Shabazz Palaces unshackled Afrofuturism from cliche in order to present a holistic almost familiar worldview that the future is already here, before demanding an honest response to that revelation. Hua Hsu said: Abstraction is only useful insofar as it shakes our reliance and this is what makes Lese Majesty’s primal futurism such a bewildering experience. Palaceer raps with secularity and conviction as all that was once solid melts into air - rules and codes vanish, leaving nothing but ghosts while beats dissolve into pretty colors.” [#7 / Albums of the Year] - The Wire
Tour Dates Jun. 04 - Spokane, WA - Volume: The Inlander’s Music Festival @ Terrain Stage Jun. 18 - Vancouver, BC - Levitation Festival @ Imperial Vancouver Aug. 04 - Los Angeles, CA - Shrine Auditorium * Aug. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - Shrine Auditorium * Aug. 13 - Eau Claire, WI - Eaux Claires Music Festival Aug. 27 - Brooklyn, NY - Afropunk Fest @ Brainfeeder Stage Sep. 15 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre ** Sep. 16 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre ** Sep. 17 - Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Bowl ** * w / Radiohead ** w/ Flying Lotus, George Clinton + Parliament Funkadelic, Thundercat, The Gaslamp Killer
