Bully aka Alicia Bognanno is sharing “Lose You,” a new, gorgeous and fuzzy melancholic rocker, out today worldwide on all DSPs from Sub Pop. The single was recorded in 2022, at MMK Studios and Alicia’s House in Nashville, mastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound, and features vocal harmonies from Sophia Allison aka Soccer Mommy.
Bognanno says, “When ‘Lose You’ came about it was the first time I’ve considered having someone else sing on a Bully song. I love Sophie’s voice and have always admired everything she does so to me it was a no brainer. Watching her soar out of the Nashville scene and dominate indie music world wide has been a joy. Writing ‘Lose You’ was a way for me to work through the pain and reality of impermanence. It doesn’t make it any easier but reflection is often followed by growth and to me that’s what life is all about.”
Bully has announced new tour dates for the Spring and Summer of 2023. Highlights for this run of shows include: March 16th in Nashville opening for The Breeders, April 15th at the High Water Festival in North Charleston, SC, UK & EU dates May 20th-28th, and a 13-date run as main support for the Pixies and Franz Ferdinand June 8th-25th. See a full list of dates below.
Thu. Mar. 16 - Nashville, TN -The Basement East ^ Sat. Apr. 15 - North Charleston, SC - High Water Festival Sat. May 20 - Amsterdam, NL - London Calling Paradiso Mon. May 22 - Manchester, UK - Yes (Pink Room) Tue. May 23 - Bristol, UK - THEKLA Thur. May 25- Birmingham, UK - Dead Wax Fri. May 26 - London, UK - Moth Club Sat. May 27- Leeds, UK - Live At Leeds In The Park Sat. Jun. 03 - Lexington, KY - Railbird Festival Thu. Jun. 08 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway * Fri. Jun. 09 - Philadelphia, PA - The Met Philadelphia * Sat. Jun. 10 - Washington, DC - The Anthem * Mon. Jun. 12 - Columbus, OH - KEMBA Live! * Tue. Jun. 13 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE * Wed. Jun. 14 - Cincinnati, OH - The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center * Fri. Jun. 16 - Raleigh, NC - Red Hat Amphitheater * Sat. Jun. 17 - Asheville, NC - Rabbit Rabbit * Tue. Jun. 20 - Atlanta, GA - Coca-Cola Roxy * Wed. Jun. 21 - New Orleans, LA - The Fillmore * Fri. Jun. 23 - Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center * Sat. Jun. 24 - Dallas, TX - Southside Ballroom * Sun. Jun. 25 - Austin, TX - Moody Amphitheater *
^ w The Breeders * w/ Pixies and Franz Ferdinand
Since the release of her 2020 critically acclaimed record, SUGAREGG which Rolling Stone described as “full-throated, wild and free” and The New Yorker credited as “too insistent not to linger,” Bognanno has kept busy by writing, producing, and touring.
In 2022, Bognanno wrote the score and theme song for the NBC News Original Podcast Tiffany Dover Is Dead, which reached #1 on Apple’s podcasts chart last summer. She contributed the unreleased “Never Needed” to the limited-edition Portraits of Her charity album. Bognanno produced Bleed Out, the most recent longplayer from beloved indie mainstays The Mountain Goats. She also performed alongside an all-star band including Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail and Speedy Ortiz in Alex Ross Perry’s, musical workshop Slanted! Enchanted! which was inspired by the music of Pavement and is a part of a larger film project on the slacker-rock scene.
Bognanno is currently at work on a new full length album, which will see its release later this year from Sub Pop.
What people have been saying about Bully: “Sticky hooks, shout-along lyrics, and walloping, caffeinated riffs.”- Pitchfork
“The most explosive collection of songs from Bognanno’s discography.” [SUGAREGG] - Under the Radar
“…The songs on SUGAREGG feel like the singer, songwriter, guitarist, engineer and producer has reached a new level of comfort in her relationship with herself.” - Nashville Scene
“…Alicia Bognanno’s voice is as mesmeric and feral as ever, and her band sound simply, effortlessly, gigantic…you’re going to be rotting your teeth on SUGAREGG for weeks.” ★★★★ - NARC
Sub Pop Records is extremely proud to announce the return (for our 17th year!) of the Sub Pop Loser Scholarship. Further details on the scholarship are below, and even further below is some clarification on what we mean with all this “Loser” business.
Sub Pop Records is offering a grand total of $18,000 in college scholarship money to three eligible high school seniors. There are three scholarships—each for $6,000! As longtime, proud losers ourselves, we’re exceedingly happy to be able, in some small way, to help further the education of art-enthused misfits from the NW. Individuals from all cultures and communities are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be residents of Washington or Oregon, and graduating seniors on the way to full-time enrollment at an accredited university or college. We are looking for applicants who are involved and/or interested in music and/or creative media and arts in some way. However, you do not need to be pursuing an education in the arts.
To apply: you must submit an essay, one page or less, using any combination of the following questions as a guide (or write something completely your own, be inspired and creative!). Please list the school you are graduating from and the school you plan to attend in the fall at the top of your essay along with your contact information.
- What are you doing in the arts/music field in your community? - What does being a Sub Pop ‘Loser’ mean to you? - What are your influences and/or who inspired you to become involved in the arts? - Describe your biggest failure and explain how it has brought you closer to your goal(s). - Discuss a special attribute or accomplishment that sets you apart. - How has your family or community background affected the way you see the world? - Why should you be the Loser winner?
Applicants are strongly (!) encouraged to send digital links and/or provide hard copies of their artwork, photos of community involvement, radio show links, videos, etc. along with their essay (we have never had a winner who submitted only an essay w/no extras). However, please be aware that Sub Pop will not return any of this material, so please don’t send originals. Sub Pop will give equal opportunity to all applicants who fit the criteria outlined above.
The deadline for applications is Tuesday, March 21st, 2023. Please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.com by Tuesday, March 21st. We will announce the scholarship winners during the first week of April.
What we talk about when we talk about “Loser.” Here at Sub Pop Records, we use the word “loser” a lot. You may have noticed. We’ve printed it on things we sell (hats, shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!), we call the first, colored-vinyl, limited-edition pressings of the records we release the “Loser Edition,” and every year since 2007 ish we’ve awarded tuition money to college-bound NW high school students through the “Sub Pop Loser Scholarship.” And, it’s possible we take for granted that you guys catch our drift and understand what we mean when we’re all “loser this,” and “loser that.” So! The following…
Sub Pop’s use of the word “loser” goes back to the foundation of the label and is meant as a celebration of unabashedly being ourselves without conforming to any preconceived ideas of “normal.” To be a loser is central to the very idea of underground art and culture - all of it happening and thriving outside of the mainstream, and not necessarily looking for a way in. Bruce Pavitt’s “New Pop Manifesto” in the 1st issue of Subterranean Pop included, “The important thing to remember is this: the most intense music, the most original ideas… are coming out of scenes you don’t even know exist… Only by supporting new ideas by local artists, bands, and record labels can the U.S. expect any kind of dynamic social/cultural change…” And, since 2007 or so, with the Loser Scholarship, we’ve been adding students to that list, and putting our (or, our co-founder, big boss and biggest loser ever, Jonathan Poneman’s…) money where our mouth is. Sub Pop Records strives to bring attention to music and art from the fringes that might otherwise remain marginalized. And, in that same spirit, through our annual Loser Scholarship, we’re looking for art-enthused misfits in NW high schools, losers like us, to help them pay for college. We stand proudly with and support the misfits, weirdos and losers, because we believe that when we’re able to proudly be nothing other than our true selves, we have the ability to make the world stronger, smarter and better.
So, good luck, Losers!
And, again, please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.com by Tuesday, March 21st.
You can now hear new contributions to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 7 from Sidney Gish and Bartees Strange, both out today worldwide on all DSPs from Sub Pop.
Sidney Gish is a singer-songwriter currently based in New York. She produced her first two albums, Ed Buys Houses (2016) and No Dogs Allowed (2017) while attending college in Boston. Following the moderate success of No Dogs Allowed, she toured the album throughout the US and Europe as a solo live looping act. In 2022, she toured as a support act for TV Girl, Beach Bunny, and Cavetown. She has been working on new music, and will be sharing more of it soon.
Sidney Gish says of her contributions to the series, “I start lots of songs, but finish very few. Sometimes, I try to overcome this habit by skipping the ‘ideas’ phase, and improvising a song to completion within a few hours. Both ‘Filming School’ and ‘MFSOTSOTR’ were created this way. ‘Filming School’ was recorded in fall 2021 at my apartment in Brooklyn. The lyrics were freestyled while reflecting on film school, which I did not attend. In 2022, I added bass & synth to ‘Filming School,’ as well as piano, engineered by Lily Wen at Figure 8 Studios. ‘MFSOTSOTR’ was recorded in late summer 2019 at my old apartment on Mission Hill. The lyrics were freestyled while staring at a meme of a buff man wearing high-waisted jeans. No edits were ever made to ‘MFSOTSOTR.’ It has haunted my hard drive for three years.”
Bartees Strange is a songwriter and producer based in Washington, DC. He was born in England to a military father and opera-singer mother Strange had a peripatetic early childhood before eventually settling in Mustang, Oklahoma. Later, he cut his teeth playing in hardcore bands in Washington D.C. and Brooklyn whilst working in Barack Obama’s administration and (eventually) the environmental movement. Since charting a path as a solo artist, Bartees Strange has released an EP reimagining songs by The National (Say Goodbye To Pretty Boy, 2020), his debut album proper Live Forever (2020), and the critically-acclaimed follow-up Farm To Table (2022).
Bartees says about “Tisched Off”: “As an up and coming musician, there’s a very special pain that comes with realizing a huge chunk of the artists you’re competing with have way more money and resources than you. This song takes little digs at them. It’s cute. Tisch is like the fashion school at NYU. When I was living in BK I ran into a bunch of young punk bands and experimental acts that rose quickly from that school. I remember feeling like damn - how do you compete with people like that? They’ve got some very real resources. Anywho - it’s just me making fun.”
Of “Keekee’in,” Bartees offers this: “This song is extremely special to me. During our tour with Car Seat Headrest the band had Covid. I was bunkered down with my guitarist Dan at his family’s house in the basement. I figured it would be cool to write something using only the tools we had. All of the instrumentation was done with stuff from that room. Matchsticks, pillows for drums, very random keyboards, etc. I wrote this song to get some feelings out I had about some business people I was considering working with - they ended up being shady and I was feeling very betrayed. I was thinking about how valuable it is to have people you can really trust. And how few those people are.”
Subscribe to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 7 to get twelve exclusive, limited-to-1,000-copies, colored-vinyl 7” records that you will, undoubtedly, love and adore. In addition to the Bartees Strange and Sidney Gish singles announced today, subscribers will get 7”s by Keiji Heino, SLIFT, The William Loveday Intention, Zeal & Ardor, Hunx and His Punx, The Shadracks, Dummy, Irreversible Entanglements, Party Dozen, and Matthew “Doc” Dunn.
Hear music from the series via the Singles Club playlist, and subscribe to the next round (Vol. 8, 2023-2024) here.
In the high-octane, provocative and hard AF new DEBBY FRIDAY single “I GOT IT,” cocksure and vainglorious lyrics about her “big ol ego” and “red blood libido” riddle this lucid, acid housey, high-BPM track that features accompaniment by Chris Vargas of Pelada / Uñas. The song is from GOOD LUCK, her full-length debut, out March 24th worldwide from Sub Pop.
The supercharged energy of “I GOT IT” fuels the grit and gloss of this official video, which stars FRIDAY and Vargas. The official video was directed by FRIDAY, and features interstitial imagery from the GOOD LUCK short film being released along with the album, later this spring.
FRIDAY says of “I GOT IT,” “This track is a ‘Get in the Uber, Bitch!’ ode to nightlife, purgatory, and club rats everywhere. Uñas and I had been wanting to collab for a while and this was a case of right vibe, right time.”
Her upcoming short film GOOD LUCK is a pseudo-autobiographical tale, largely drawn from FRIDAY’s own life and experiences growing up as a zillenial anti-heroine. A surrealist reflection on the tumultuous whirlwind that is the end of adolescence and the emotionality of youth, GOOD LUCK is co-directed by FRIDAY and Nathan De Paz Habib (Chino Amobi’s Eroica, and The Bicycle).
DEBBY FRIDAY’s previously announced international headlining tour dates and festival appearances in support of GOOD LUCK resume Friday, February 17th in Toronto with a sold out Boiler Room performance, and currently run through May 6th, 2023. FRIDAY will also appear at SXSW (March 15th - 18th). Additional live dates to be announced soon.
Fri. Feb. 17 - Toronto, ON - Boiler Room Wed. Mar. 15 - Austin, TX - SXSW Thu. Mar. 16 - Austin, TX - SXSW Fri. Mar. 17 - Austin, TX - SXSW Sat. Mar. 18 - Austin, TX - SXSW Fri, Mar. 24 - Montreal, QC - Phi Centre Sat. Mar 25 - Toronto, ON - Garrison Wed. Apr. 12 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios Thu. Apr. 13 - Seattle, WA - Barboza Fri. Apr. 14 - Los Angeles - Zebulon Sat. Apr. 15 - Vancouver - Cobalt Wed. Apr. 19 - Brooklyn, NY - Babys Alright Thurs. Apr. 20 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle Wed. May 03 - London, UK - Corsica Studios w/ Grove
GOOD LUCK is available now to preorder from Sub Pop. LP pre orders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent stores in North America, the U.K., and E.U., will receive the limited Loser edition on metallic silver vinyl (while supplies last).
GOOD LUCK features “SO HARD TO TELL,” “I GOT IT,” “WHAT A MAN,” and was co-produced by DEBBY FRIDAY and Graham Walsh (METZ, Holy Fuck) at Candle Recording Studio in Toronto, and mastered by Heba Kadry in New York.
Released in January, DEBBY FRIDAY’s “SO HARD TO TELL” saw incredible amount of praise from the likes of Pitchfork (Best New Track), NPR (Now Playing), The FADER (‘Song You Need In Your Life”), Billboard, Nylon, FLOOD, Cool Hunting, Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, Treble, Dork, DIY, CLASH, Our Culture and more.
What people are saying about DEBBY FRIDAY: “In contrast to the pulse-quickening tempos and noisy synths of her past music, her production is deft and graceful, with a skipping beat and cascading backing vocals. ‘Lady Friday/All you do is rеbel,’ Friday chastises herself—tough talk against a fragile, gorgeous sound.” [“SO HARD TO TELL”/ “Best New Track”] - Pitchfork
“One of the young year’s most audacious bangers” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] - Billboard
“Intoxicating…” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] - Stereogum
“Hyperpop can sometimes come off as abrasive but in the hands of Canadian singer DEBBY FRIDAY it’s soulful, even elegant.” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] - NYLON
“A graceful entrance into yet another territory: lush R&B”[“SO HARD TO TELL”] - NPR Music
“If you’ve ever deep-dived into Debby Friday’s discography, you’ll know she slammed this single into left field, but man is it a hit! This edgy extraordinaire has taken a dip into the darkside via falsetto pop.” ” [“SO HARD TO TELL”] - MTV
“In contrast to the pulse-quickening tempos and noisy synths of her past music, her production is deft and graceful, with a skipping beat and cascading backing vocals. ‘Lady Friday/All you do is rеbel,’ Friday chastises herself—tough talk against a fragile, gorgeous sound.” [“SO HARD TO TELL”/ “Best New Track”] - Pitchfork
“Friday strikes a remarkable balance on her forthcoming debut LP, GOOD LUCK: between the boisterous and the tranquil, the erudite and the crass, a packed dancefloor and quiet isolation. Featuring unequivocal bangers like “I GOT IT,” “PLUTO BABY,” and “HEARTBREAKERRR,” Debby Friday is destined for bigger stages in 2023 (15 Artists to Watch in 2023).” - SPIN
About DEBBY FRIDAY’S GOOD LUCK: The usual boom-and-bust cycles of growing up – breaking down, gathering the strength to get up, fumbling hard, doing it all over again - can feel unmooring, to say the least, but, and according to DEBBY FRIDAY, its tragedies and glories need savoring. Losing illusions, gaining expectations; getting deep into the private, soupy kaleidoscope of what’s possible and what’s futile – GOOD LUCK, her debut, and supernovic, full-length album, is built on welcoming the journey’s complicated drops and mountain highs with something more like grace.
Nigerian-born, then an emigré to bits of Canada - from Montreal to Vancouver to Toronto - DEBBY FRIDAY’s roamings through space and time really began when the sun fell. Nightlife was her emancipation from the toughness of home life, and she fell into it, body and soul, totally seduced. Raves til sunrise; house music in unknown basements and warehouses – the lure of the party was the perfect escape. “I was like a little club rat,” she laughs. Her adoration of the world that it opened for her came in “almost in a sensual way (read more at Sub Pop).
DEBBY FRIDAY GOOD LUCK
Tracklisting: 1. GOOD LUCK 2. SO HARD TO TELL 3. I GOT IT (feat. Uñas) 4. HOT LOVE 5. HEARTBREAKERRR 6. WHAT A MAN 7. SAFE 8. LET U DOWN 9. PLUTO BABY 10. WAKE UP
Lael Neale returns with her beguiling new full-length Star Eaters Delight, which will be available on CD/LP/CS/DSPs April 21st, 2023 worldwide from Sub Pop. The album, which features the highlights “I Am The River,” “In Verona,” “Must Be Tears,” and “Faster Than The Medicine,” was written by Neale, with arrangements and production by Guy Blakeslee. The recordings were made on cassette in Virginia and mastered by Chris Coady in Los Angeles.
Star Eaters Delight reveals an expansion of Neale’s sonic collaboration with producer and accompanist Blakeslee and arrives on the heels of her Sub Pop debut Acquainted With Night, which won international acclaim for its crystalline vocals, clever songwriting, and excellent use of Omnichord to build a world of beautiful reveries. That album saw praise from the likes of Uncut, MOJO, Loud & Quiet, The AV Club, Stereogum, SPIN, and earned “Best of 2021” placement from Under the Radar, Les Inrocks, Aquarium Drunkard, Gold Flake Paint, Still Listening, Secret Meeting and more.
Photo credit: Alexandra Cabral
In April of 2020, Lael moved from Los Angeles back to her family’s farm in rural Virginia. Looking at the world from a distance and getting in tune with her own rhythms, she wrote and recorded steadily for two dreamlike years, driven by a need to make order out of chaos. Forged in isolation, Star Eaters Delight is a vehicle for returning, not just to civilization, but to celebration. She explains: “The unbroken silences on the farm compelled me to break them with sound. This album is louder and more external, calling out to the world.”
Album opener “I Am The River” melts the ice with a dynamic explosion of minimalist transcendental pop clearly descended from the Velvets branch of modern music’s family tree. Watch the official self-directed video for “I Am The River.”
Lael Neale is also sharing her international tour schedule for 2023 in support of Star Eaters Delight which begins April 22nd in Los Angeles at Permanent Records Roadhouse and currently runs through May 27 in Gothenburg, Sweden. For the US run, the tour will have stops in Washington, Austin, Nashville, Tucson, New York, Northampton, and Philadelphia. Tickets for these shows are on sale now.
US 2023
Sat. Apr. 22- Los Angeles, CA - Permanent Records Roadhouse
Mon. Apr. 24 - Phoenix, AZ - Trunk Space
Wed. Apr. 26 - Austin, TX - Chess Club
Sat. Apr. 29 - Nashville, TN - drkmttr
Wed. May 03 - Washington, DC - Comet Ping Pong
Fri. May 05 - New York, NY - Public Records
Sat. May 06 - Northampton, MA - Parlor Room
Sun. May 07 - Philadelphia, PA - Dolphin
UK/EU 2023
Mon. May 15 - Manchester, UK - The Castle Hotel
Tue. May 16 - London, UK - The Lexington
Wed. May 17- Paris, FR - La Boule Noire
Thu. May 18 - Tourcoing, FR - Le Grand Mix
Fri. May 19 - Brussels, BE - Botanique (Witloof Bar)
Star Eaters Delight is now available to preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, the UK and Europe, will receive the Loser edition on gold vinyl.
Lael Neale still has a flip phone and there were no screens involved in the creation of her new record Star Eaters Delight.
The album is her second for Sub Pop and reveals an expansion of her sonic collaboration with producer and accompanist Guy Blakeslee.
In April of 2020, in the wake of transformations both personal and global, Lael moved from Los Angeles back to her family’s farm in rural Virginia. Looking at the world from a distance and getting in tune with her own rhythms, she wrote and recorded steadily for two dreamlike years, driven by a need to make order out of chaos. Forged in isolation, Star Eaters Delight is a vehicle for returning, not just to civilization, but to celebration.
She says, “Acquainted with Night (recorded in 2019, and released in 2021), was a focusing inward amidst the loud and bright Los Angeles surrounding me. It was an attempt to create spaciousness and quiet reverie within. When I moved back to the farm, I found that the unbroken silences compelled me to break them with sound. This album is more external. It is a reaching back out to the world, wanting to feel connected, to wake up, to come together again.”
Album opener and lead single “I Am The River” melts the ice with a dynamic explosion of minimalist transcendental pop clearly descended from the Velvets branch of modern music’s family tree.
“Lael is always telling me to play fewer notes,” says Blakeslee, whose spare yet cinematic arrangements create an ambient space in which Neale’s clear and unaffected voice can explore familiar themes in an unexpected way. Subtle but potent references to Shakespeare, Emerson and the Bible (which she hasn’t read) swirl together with deeply personal musings and touches of wry humor, always more optimistic than cynical.
“I like to use archetypal language because I want to get a rise out of people. I want to trigger a response. A single archetypal word carries more weight and punch than an ordinary word. Jesus means more to us than Joe,” she notes.
Album centerpiece “In Verona” is a sprawling gospel dirge in which the narrator-as-newscaster chants hypnotic incantations to lament a society plagued by divisions and hypocrisies, reimagining the Montagues and Capulets without mentioning them by name and cautioning the listener to “cast no stone.”
Lael continues, “The past few years have seen more mud slinging & finger pointing than I’ve witnessed in my life. When I found myself getting drawn into the fray, this phrase became a mantra helping me seek higher ground and a broader perspective.”
“Faster Than The Medicine” gallops across a misty imagined English countryside, frenetically propelled by the drum machine built into Neale’s signature Omnichord, while the bittersweet “Must Be Tears” invokes Nico with its pulsing Mellotron strings.
While this is a record about polarities- country vs. city, humanity vs. technology, solitude vs. relationship - the deeper intention is to heal; to come to terms with our differences and put the broken pieces back together again. Lael’s affinity with the Transcendentalists has to do with her quest to hold onto sovereignty over her own mind. In a time when our devices are constantly flooding us with information, opinions and propaganda, Lael is intentional about what she takes in - hence the flip phone and the cassette recorder.
She claims to be a minimalist “not because I don’t like things, but because I value freedom more.”
