Sub Pop kicks-off the eighth and latest round of its legendary Singles Club with new music by Brontez Purnell and Margarita Podridas, both out today worldwide on all DSPs from Sub Pop. The very limited 7” vinyl versions can be had only by subscribing at the Sub Pop Mega Mart.
 
Brontez Purnell has been making music since the ‘90s. He started in The Social Lies, a hardcore Afro-punk duo in Alabama in his teens, and later Gravy Train!!! He then went on to lead his long-running project, The Younger Lovers. He is also a dancer, filmmaker, choreographer (The Brontez Purnell Dance Company), and the author of eight books.
 
Brontez says, “‘Jaboukie’ was originally called ‘100 Boyfriends,’ but I found out that apparently I can be sued for calling that song that since I named my book that (though the song was written waaaaaaaaaaaaay before the book). So then I was like, ‘so which N**** am I gonna @ with this song.’ And Jaboukie was the one who sent a DM text right after I had that thought! True story! So it’s for him❤️. Also, it’s Sub Pop, so I had to rep with my fave Nirvana song from middle school.” Check out the video for “Jaboukie” here.
 
Hermosillo, Mexico-based quartet Margaritas Podridas was born out of admiration for the underground rock landscape of the ‘90s, culling from the distortion-laden songwriting of the grunge scene, the scuzz-coated pop of shoegaze, and the noisy sojourns of that decade’s college rock’s guitar icons. Sonics aside, there’s a political streak and DIY ethic in Margaritas Podridas that recalls the confrontational idealism of their musical forebearers, evidenced in their underage scene-building efforts in their hometown, their negation of the English language despite their growing international fanbase, and their penchant for giving the middle finger to sexism in both the music industry and the broader world.
 
Carolina Rivera of Margaritas Podridas says, “‘Filosa’ is one of my favorite songs we’ve ever done. It is a very playful song composed by Rafael, but the lyrics were written by me about feeling stuff you can’t say, hurting the one you love by being indecisive, with anger, and desperation. We had the opportunity to work with very talented friends while recording and producing these songs, such as Jack Endino, who produced Bleach, one of our favorite albums by Nirvana. It was such a dream for us, as well as Felipe Garcia, who has been recording with us since the beginning in our hometown Hermosillo, Sonora.”
 
Rivera continues, “‘Vómito’ is composed by Poncho. This song is also one of our favorites to play live; it is a song about intense emotions that make you puke. The dynamics of both songs are very playful and exciting, we are very happy with how they came out. It is a dream come true to release them through one of the coolest labels in the music industry, which has had many of our favorite bands that we love, in its catalog.”
 
Subscribe to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 8 now to get twelve super-limited 7” vinyl records featuring exclusive music by today’s finest musicians! It’s limited to a mere 835 subscriptions, because it’s volume 8, and 2023 is Sub Pop’s 35th birthday! In a world of over 8 billion people (all of whom are record collectors – we checked!), that clearly qualifies this product as MEGA RARE. So, join the .00001% by treating yourself to a subscription immediately! You’ll get 7”s by Margarita Podridas, Brontez Purnell, Vanishing Twin, Suki Waterhouse, and more artists to be announced in the very near future. And, to top it all off, you’ll get a lavish storage box, with art by @oldsweaty, to keep the records together. Trust us, this thing’s gonna be the belle of your bookshelf!
 
You will get two singles in the mail roughly every other month, starting April 2023 and ending February 2024. Computer users: fear not! You will also get digital downloads of the tracks through your Sub Pop Mega Mart account.
 
Hear music from the series via the Singles Club playlist, and subscribe here.

CHAI — the beloved Japanese quartet composed of identical twins MANA (vocals/keys) and KANA (guitar), drummer YUNA, and bassist/lyricist YUUKI — are “professional purveyor[s] of whimsy” (The New York Times). Today, the four-piece unveils their first new single/video of 2023, “We The Female!” Following CHAI’s acclaimed 2021 album, WINK, which “exudes a newfound sense of serenity, even as they remain committed to exuberant self-love” (Pitchfork), “We The Female!” continues expanding CHAI’s canon of anthemic dance jams. The accompanying video, directed by Cezan Iseda, is a charming collage of 80s television homages. 

Of “We The Female!,” YUUKI adds: “We are human and were born as female, but we have both female and male aspects in each of our souls, each with our own sense of balance.  We can’t just label ourselves into clear-cut, simple categories anymore! I’m not anyone else but just ‘me,’ and you are no one else but just ‘you.’ This song celebrates that with a roar! Yooooooooo!!”  

WATCH CHAI’S “WE THE FEMALE!” VIDEO

WINK followed CHAI’s beloved 2017 debut PINK, and their superb 2019 sophomore effort, PUNK. Surrounding WINK’s release, CHAI was profiled in V Magazine, The New York Times, NPR  and more; it was named one of the year’s best releases by Under The Radar and Paste, who hailed: “CHAI make every moment feel like a treat.” 

“WE THE FEMALE!” is a small taste of what CHAI has in store for the year.

In due acknowledgment of Mudhoney’s 35th Anniversary in 2023, King County Executive, Dow Constantine has declared April 7th to be Mudhoney Day in King County, WA. This official proclamation highlights their contributions to the Seattle music scene and beyond, crediting them for “35 years of brilliant musical mayhem.”  

On April 6th (now officially known as Mudhoney Day Eve…), from 4-6pm, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Steve Turner will also take to the ones and twos, DJing a live set at Sub Pop on 7th (the label’s retail store at 2130 7th Ave.) in Seattle. This event will feature exclusive, new band merch, including a Mudhoney-branded flannel shirt (the “Flat-Out Flannel”), Autograph Series Reading Glasses, a Plastic Eternity T-shirt, a Plastic Eternity snapback hat, and a new set of Mudhoney album cover postcards. Wine aficionados (or “Winos”) can grab a bottle of the Schloss Mudhoney Riesling, a collaboration with Washington winery, Sleight of Hand, that will also be available for purchase in Seattle at the Sub Pop Airport Store, Sleight of Hand tasting room, and Easy Street Records. Attendees will also be able to purchase the new album, Plastic Eternity, on all available physical formats – one day early – at the event!

Plus! Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion, Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner’s new book chronicling the birth and evolution of Mudhoney and the Seattle grunge scene, is available for pre-order now and will be out June 13, 2023!

Mudhoney’s previously announced international tour dates in support of Plastic Eternity are below. Tickets for these shows are on sale now.

 
Plastic Eternity is available for preorder on CD/LP/CS/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser Edition on “shiny gray matter” vinyl. In the UK, and in Europe the Loser Edition will be available on silver vinyl (both editions available while supplies last). There is also a new T-shirt design available.

Mudhoney 

Plastic Eternity
 
Tracklisting:
1. Souvenir of My Trip
2. Almost Everything
3. Cascades of Crap
4. Flush the Fascists
5. Move Under
6. Severed Dreams in the Sleeper Cell
7. Here Comes the Flood
8. Human Stock Capital
9. Tom Herman’s Hermits
10. One or Two
11. Cry Me an Atmospheric River
12. Plasticity
13. Little Dogs 

Sub Pop is thrilled, chuffed even, to announce that we, the ‘practically legendary’ Seattle-based media conglomerate, will be Rough Trade Stores’ ‘Label of the Month’ for the entirety of April 2023!

A compensated spokesperson from Rough Trade gave us the following very nice (and objectively true…) statement…, “What can we say about Sub Pop Records? A label born from the ardent practice of DIY culture, built on a pioneering grunge scene and a reformed idea of what it means to be a music brand. Though they are a decade our junior, we’ve enjoyed growing up together and witnessing the evolution not only of music, but of our own institutions; the breadth and diversity among their current roster is testament to this. Sub Pop’s culture is as much about the label as it is about the music. They are one of the best indie labels in the world, and we’re proud to call them friends. Long, long may they live.”

Plus, in a rare instance of true synergy, April 1st, 2023 marks Sub Pop’s 35th anniversary! And we are hereby kicking off celebrations of our 35 or so years of excellence in our chosen field (whatever that might be). Happy Birthday to us!
 
As some small measure of our true gratitude surrounding this ‘Label of the Month’ business, we have pressed 5 arguably classic albums from our bountiful catalogue on exciting, coloured vinyl! These limited-edition pressings will be sold exclusively via the Rough Trade stores, both in the group’s 5 UK physical retail locations (see below for addresses) and online via the magic of impersonal, odorless web sales.
 
The details thereof:

 
Get to it, collector scum! (whilst stocks last…)
 
We’ve also collaborated on a handsome and exclusive new t-shirt, featuring print on both the front and back, which will also be available from Rough Trade (whilst stocks last). This t-shirt is available in two colours (if you count black and white as colours, and we do) and in several sizes.
 
Sub Pop and Rough Trade: Making April (2023) Great Again!

Today, Stockholm-based artist waterbaby has signed to Sub Pop worldwide and is sharing her first single “Airforce blue,” and its charming, firework-laden video, which introduces her hypnotic and evocative approach to music. “Airforce blue,” is available today worldwide on all DSPs.
 
“Airforce blue” is a swirling autotuned hymnal that distills the dizzying multitudes and nuances of crushing on someone. The song was created by waterbaby, Marcus White, and Anton Fernandez in Stockholm, Sweden. The video, also directed by her main collaborator White, underpins this unknowable evocative feeling, placing waterbaby amidst the backdrop of New Year’s Eve fireworks in Stockholm.

The FADER calls the track “An unguarded DIY R&B moment coming out of the Swedish capital (see March 29th news post).”
 
More on waterbaby:
Artists have always had a knack for understanding the strange psychological sorcery that comes with crushing on someone. waterbaby - intimately knows the tiny nuances between love – which is to say, the bond between two people – and the one-sided, up-and-down feelings of infatuation: the plaintive longing, the shifty wanting and the not-wanting, and all the luxuriously intrusive thoughts that come with them. If you’re at all familiar with the patterns of this (il)logic, you’ll find a welcome home in the world of waterbaby’s rhapsodic, technopastoral crush songs.
 
waterbaby’s auto-tunelets work like this: there’s the confessional of sisterly, guitar-assisted warmth infused with humane, sticky lyrics that surface in your head like bubbles floating to the top of an aquarium. waterbaby, along with executive producer and collaborator Marcus White, creates a mystic sort of blend – the songs feel spell-like, but they honor the feelings of what it’s like to love, or at least to want to feel loved.
 
The chief love in waterbaby’s life has always been music, of course. It’s infused in her blood: her great-grandad was a jazz pianist; her uncle worked in clubs and arranged concerts, and that Stockholmian syndrome of preternaturally knowing how to craft the perfect song – it’s a part of her that’s palpable in everything she writes or touches.
 
It could be because she’s got a choir-school upbringing that’s done something to her voice – made it familiar with Pythagorean melodies and spare, delicate ideas that sound simple at first but really get into the spiritual in their own way. “My parents hated my music,” she laughs, talking about her private love of the megastars of R&B that she’d sainted as paragons of sounds and feelings that accessed the full range of emotions she was getting familiar with.
 
Those emotions range from sad to empathetic, from hopeful to cocky, from doleful to ecstatic. “Airforce blue,” her first single, with tones as liquidly bright as a fish whipping through the ocean, gives form to the feel of the latter sort of pain. “I still miss you” goes the chorus over and over again, if that’s any help. Crushes and longing seem to map her life over with meaning and joy.