1. Get an early jump on resolutions for 2015. I can do this.
2. Listen to Mudhoney. Yes, their records and live performances, but here I mean to include their suggestions, opinions and endorsements as well. The performance of the reunited Flesh Eaters which Mudhoney opened on Tuesday, January 13th was just phenomenally good, even for a somewhat casual fan. Other examples include: the 2004 MC5/DKT tour (Mark sang), feedtime’s Seattle performance in 2012 (also a Mudhoney bill), the 2014 Sub Pop South America tour with Obits and METZ they helped to make happen, and… Though I could go on (ask anyone who suffers through working here with me) no doubt you get the picture. Even though I don’t think they had anything to do with the just-fucking-incredibly-good Scratch Acid reunion show at the Showbox a few years back, their track record is so good that I’m going to go ahead and make the association in my own memory. And, I am already looking forward to the shows they will play with Strange Wilds in the future that I am willing into existence (note to Mudhonies: please play some shows with Strange Wilds).
3. Make less of a big deal out of things like the bumper sticker, one of maybe 15, on the back of the red Chevy Genero-Sedan, which cut me off on this morning’snear- interminable crawl up the viaduct which read: “My other ride is YOUR MOM.” Maybe this person’s own mom was unavailable for riding? Perhaps this is, after all, okay with MY MOM? Accept what you can’t change, etc…
4. With the recent transition of the talented Mr. Frere-Jones from the New Yorker to Rap Genius or now Genius Just (RIP M. Hedberg) pin hopes for NY’er coverage of the brilliant new METZ album (details still TBA) elsewhere. That or shoot for annotation of same. Also: figure out what “annotation” means in this context.
5. W/R/T Sleater-Kinney, their new album No Cities to Love, and the towering, enduring talent it flaunts, admit and embrace that “surface envy” is an understatement. This is deep, abiding and well-earned envy. (And, while we’re on the subject of getting comfy with radioactive levels of well-justified envy, look at the big brain on this guy, mere weeks after his band’s debut album was certified gold.)
6. Investigate synonyms for “share.” This or give up reading music press releases, music-related news items, and the like. Alternate solution: substitute “crap out” for “share” every time it’s encountered in these materials. Laugh derisively to self, without the jovial camaraderie of friends and co-workers, maybe, for a moment, feel superior-ish. Repeat as necessary, with diminishing returns, die friendless and afraid. Wait, DON’T do this!
7. Sign up for innovative and largely fictional new streaming service SAP! Pitch to relevant parties new SAP/ASAP ad campaign and imagine, in embarrassing, florid detail, resulting wealth, how it will be spent, used to destroy entirety of enemies list, etc.
9. Recognize that most of what people are listening to through streaming services comes through playlists. And the most popular of these playlists, the ones that are really, I am led to believe, WORKING, are those with names like “Coffee Shop Indie Workout Mix,” “Sunday Morning Sex Jams,” or “It’s Friday Night and I Like Alternative Music.” And then, surrender to the idea of lowest common denominator playlist titling as PROMOTIONAL BEST PRACTICE with Sub Pop playlists bearing names like “Happy Top Songs Best,” “100 Great Music Things,” “Today’s Massive Hit Time,” etc. (consider repurposing spam subject lines for this use?). Nobody’s interest is going to be piqued by “Flatulent Mid-Morning,” so just knock that shit off.
Father John Misty has built his very own music streaming service, SAP, and best of all, IT’S FREE! As of this moment, his forthcoming sophomore effort, I Love You, Honeybear, is the sole body of work available to stream on the innovative new platform, but honestly, it’s all you need until the record’s release day just two weeks from now on February 10th. Pre-order I Love You, Honeybear from us here at Sub Pop, and head to SAP to stream Father John Misty’s work.
Olympia, Washington’s Strange Wilds, will released their Sub Pop debut, the “Standing” + 2 single, January 19th in Europe and January 20th in North America. The
single is now available digitally and as a 7”, and you can now listen
to the entire single via Brooklyn Vegan!
Brooklyn Vegan says of “Standing”: ”StrangeWilds make bruising, guttural punk rock: heavy, loud and fast, with dark clouds looming.” The folks at Brooklyn Vegan aren’t esteemed for nothing; they know their stuff!
Preorders for StrangeWilds “Standing” +2 are available now through the Sub Pop Mega Mart.
Learn more about the relatively new Sub Pop band:
StrangeWilds
formed in Olympia, WA in 2012. The band grew out of the fertile
Pacific-Northwest punk scene, with members from Negative Press, Outlook,
Wreck, and a bunch of other punk/hardcore bands of the last few years.
Sometime in 2014, the band settled into the classic, economical,
power-trio configuration of bass, drums, a single guitar, and vocals,
and recorded “Standing,” their second release (their first being the
four-song “Wet” 7” on Inimical Records).
Even working here at Sub Pop HQ, the reality that there is actually a brand new, and possibly best yet, Sleater-Kinney record is more than just a little unbelievable. But here we are, January 20th, 2015, almost one full decade since The Woods, the masterful record that saw the band into a hibernation of sorts, and we have No Cities to Love, one half hour of perfect punk rock from one of the best rock bands in history (sure, we’re biased, but we stand by that). Welcome back, Sleater-Kinney is truly one of the most pleasurable things that this blog has typed.
With
the unabashed pride befitting such circumstances, Sub Pop Records
hereby reveals completion of a new recording agreement with Los
Angeles-based psychedelic pop artist Morgan Delt, to extend throughout
the known universe. Following a 2013 cassette release bearing the subtly
evocative title Psychic Death Hole, Trouble in Mind Records released his self-titled album in January, 2014. That album earned acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, LA Weekly, Fact Magazine, and Impose,
and the attentions of the typically complacent staff of Seattle’s Sub
Pop Records. Morgan Delt also won fans in The Flaming Lips, who invited
him to tour and record with them. Morgan is currently working on a new
album for Sub Pop and will tour the West Coast at the end of January. We
eagerly await both. Full dates below.
What Are People Are Saying About Morgan Delt? This: “Listen
to the taped-together percussion on opener “Make My Grey Brain Green”,
which rides a scratchy bass line and flowers into something like the
moment when Dorothy’s black-and-white world goes RGB. There’s the
Morricone-meets-Jodorowsky acid drone of “Barbarian Kings”, the cyclical
wobble of “Little Zombies”, the way “Chakra Sharks” rattles and crashes
through a hornet’s nest of guitars into a wailing refrain of “Bye bye,
farewell.” Throughout the album there’s a heightened, eerie quality to
his vocals; the feeling is something like an asylum patient waving to a
car as it recedes over the horizon.” - Pitchfork
“This
debut album proper, an 11-track collection on the Chicago imprint
Trouble In Mind, takes something from the Ariel Pink school of outré
production, although Delt is quite obviously on his own trip, and you
could just as easily work him into a lineage that stretches from The Red
Krayola and West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band through to
psych-influenced beatmakers such as Edan, Gonjasufi and The Gaslamp
Killer.” - Fact Magazine
“He
allows his guitar and vocals to meld into a single, constantly mutating
surface that coats Morgan Delt like neon jelly in a vacuum,
continuously rippling and hovering in all directions. The overall effect
suggests the sound of a crafty intellect worming its way through the
pleasantly foggy maze of an Rx-abuse cloud.” - Impose
“A
lot of people have done the same kind of excavation and restoration
work he has, but few have done it as memorably. Almost no one has done
it with songs as good as these.” - All Music Guide
Tour Dates Jan. 31 - Santa Ana, CA - Indigo Fest @ The Observatory Feb. 04 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel Feb. 06 - Vancouver, BC - The Electric Owl Feb. 07 - Seattle, WA - Barboza Feb. 08 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom Sabertooth Micro Fest
