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
We couldn’t be more excited to announce today that Montreal’s Doldrums have agreed to release their label debut, The Air Conditioned Nightmare, on CD / LP / DL April 6th in Europe and April 7th
in North America. The album was recorded in Montreal and LA and
produced by Doldrums’ Airick Woodhead, and is a remarkable Sub Pop debut in every sense. But, don’t just take our word for it, listen to the lead single “HOTFOOT” (embedded) now to see what we’re going on so effusively about.
The Air Conditioned Nightmare is Doldrums follow-up to their 2013 debut Lesser Evil.
Airick Woodhead, the DJ, producer and performer behind Doldrums makes a
sizeable leap from being darling of the same fertile Montreal warehouse
creative explosion that gave the world the likes of Grimes, Majical
Cloudz and Blue Hawaii to simply being a stand-alone artist and composer
on the cusp of something quite special.
Preorders for The Air Conditioned Nightmare are now available from Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, Amazon and Bandcamp. All customers who pre-order the LP version of The Air Conditioned Nightmare from megamart.subpop.com
will receive the limited “Loser Edition” on clear vinyl and a limited
edition 7” which features the songs “IDONTWANNABEDELETED” (feat.
Samantha Urbani) and “Market Signals.” Additionally, there will be a new
T-shirt design available both individually and as part of a bundle with
purchases of the new record.
The fact that we’re just a handful of days away from releasing Sleater-Kinney’s eighth full-length, No Cities to Love, still seems too good to be true. Just a few months ago, the idea that Sleater-Kinney were going to release one of their most powerful and poignant records to date, almost ten years past their last record,The Woods, was an almost laughable pipe dream (note to self: look up origin of the term “pipe dream”). Well, here we are, barely into 2015, and we’ve already released a beautiful, career-spanning S-K box set featuring remastered versions of the band’s long out-of-print vinyl LPs, and just over a week until the due date of their most anticipated record yet, No Cities to Love.
In celebrating this celebration-worthy moment, Sub Pop is giving away one copy of the Start Together box set on out-of-print, limited-edition, colored-vinyl (the black vinyl is still in print and available here) to one random person who pre-orders No Cities to Love by 11:59 PM (PST) on January 19th from SubPop.com on the format of their choice. We will notify the winner on January 20th. If you have already pre-ordered the record on any format, you are already entered to win!
Shabazz Palaces’ Sub Pop labelmate, Chad VanGaalen, is more than just an insanely prolific and creative songwriter and performer, he’s equally accomplished as an illustrator and animator. He’s done many videos for himself, but he’s also directed videos for other Sub Pop artists like J Mascis and The Head and the Heart. All of which brings us to his latest directorial effort, the music video for Shabazz Palaces’ Lese Majesty track, “Forerunner Foray”, which Gorilla Vs. Bear premiered today.
