On May 20th, Sub Pop will release the debut album from Weird Nightmare, the electrifying new project from METZ guitarist and singer Alex Edkins. Hot on the heels of the album’s debut track, “Searching For You,” and its anthemic follow-up single “Lusitania,” comes the driving, ardent “Wrecked.” Edkins says of the song, “Wrecked” is about missing someone. For me, it’s about missing my wife and son while on tour. Being away has become harder and harder to do. I think most people can relate to it.  Feeling impossibly far away from the ones you love and coming to the realization that you won’t feel whole again until you return. I was really happy to collaborate with Alicia (Bognanno) on this song and I love what she adds to it. Alicia has a one in a million voice. A voice that you recognize immediately and she really lifts the song way up. Directed by Ryan Thompson, the video for “Wrecked” is a tail as old as time. When a pooch with no pack strays into the park, you know things are gonna get ruff…

As previously announced, Weird Nightmare has a clutch of North American shows, including a hometown album release show on May 21st in Toronto, ON at The Baby G. The band will also hit the road on a 7-date co-headlining tour with labelmates Kiwi Jr. Click here for a full list of shows. 

Weird Nightmare
S/T
 
1. Searching for You
2. Nibs
3. Lusitania
4. Wrecked
5. Sunday Driver
6. Darkroom
7. Dream
8. Zebra Dance
9. Oh No
10. Holding Out

On June 17th Sub Pop will release the sophomore international release from Greek artist, Σtella. Making her Sub Pop debut with the mesmerizing Up and Away, the Athens-based painter, visual artist, and performer Σtella (with a sigma) presents a vintage-flecked pop paean to the pangs and raptures of love. Exploring growth, change, and her personal and musical journey so far, proves Heraclitus was right; you never step in the same river twice.
 
On the heels of her latest offering, “Charmed” comes an Official video for the title track “Up and Away.”  Σtella shares: “for me, the expression “up and away” symbolizes freedom, a liberation – our need to break free and fly far away, like superheroes do. This video tells the inspiring true story of how two rebetiko musicians escaped from gunfire during Greece’s occupation by the Axis Powers in the 1940s.” Directed by Σtella and animated by YOKANIMA, you can watch this alluring video below.

Up and Away is now available for preorder/pre-save on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. Pre-orders from megamart.sub pop.com,select independent retailers in North America, and in the UK, and in Europe will receive the Loser Edition of the album on Opaque Blue Vinyl.

What people have said about Σtella:
“Σtella’s honey-rich vocals overlie a crisp, no-frills backing that has echoes of classic ’60s pop” - Line of Best Fit
 
“Bold, streamlined pop” - PASTE
 
“…Infectious disco-infused art-pop.” - I-D
 
Artist Bio:
Making her Sub Pop debut with the mesmerizing Up and Away, the Athens-based painter, visual artist, and performer Σtella (with a sigma) presents a vintage-flecked pop paean to the pangs and raptures of love. Exploring growth, change and her personal and musical journey so far, it proves Heraclitus was right; you never step in the same river twice.
 
“Its title comes from the opening track, “up, up, and away we go”! My excitement levels had hit the roof! I felt like I was flying!” Σtella declares. For a Greek-born, English-singing songwriter, Σtella’s prospects for a viable long-term career within her home country’s traditional landscape once appeared slim, but she remained positive. “I was happy doing what I love; making music I’ve listened to my whole life,” she says. Now, Σtella’s Sub Pop debut Up and Away emerges from Athens and London after a long-haul recording session with London-based producer Redinho, that found her rediscovering the 50s and 60s record collection her parents raised her on. “Growing up I loved playing ‘Sousourada’ by Nikos Gounaris on my grandfather’s old gramophone. I was thrilled by Greek folk-pop artists like Grigoris Bithikotsis and the great Tzeni Vanou, as well as international artists like Tony Motolla and Julio Inglesias, ” she remembers, among other sounds; “Living in a close-knit community by the mountains and sea, I vaguely recall being woken by neighbouring shepherds’ sheep bells…everything back then was so pure and innocent!”
 
Whilst painting at Athens School of Fine Arts, Σtella began writing and uploading her songs into the wild of the Internet. Her debut EP Keep Me Naked riffed on the free spirit of the American and Greek mid-century pop she discovered in record stores as a teen; from I’m Your Baby Tonight era Whitney and NOW compilations, to The Doors and pop prowess of Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush, Queen, Annie Lennox, and George Michael. Founding member of bands Fever Kids and CHEST, Σtella’s primitive synth-based numbers etched out her place. Releasing self-titled 2015 electro-pop debut Σtella and her 2017 LP Works For You, buzz and airplay beckoned, making her one of Greece’s most popular indie stars. Σtella is now a sought-after collaborator, writing, and singing for Greek underground artists – not to mention soundtracking the athletes’ parade at the first European Games in Azerbaijan, racking up a million Spotify streams, plus international festival appearances.
 
Walking or cycling around Kypseli’s lively neighbourhood, you will find Σtella perusing the market, checking out the hardware store tools on her beloved Athinas Street, or making music in her HAVABANANA studio. Joining forces with artist and producer Tom Calvert (aka Redinho) was a match made in Athens after he caught one of her gigs on a visit to the city. Up and Away took shape after their mutual appreciation for Khruangbin, Elias Rahbani, and Aris San gradually inspired them to capture the authentic sound of Σtella’s home country. The rest, as they say, is Ancient history. “I’d been listening to old Greek folk/pop songs and was ready to dive into new musical territories. Tom had a similar desire of creating a vintage sound. Instantly stars aligned; I was time-travelling, singing songs as The Chiffons or The Crystals would.”
 
Ever the storyteller bridging past with present, Σtella designed herself and Tom as medieval bards on Up and Away’s artwork, inspired by medieval woodcuts of musicians. 

“There were one or two interesting things going on in my life, but we won’t be going into those…, I was in a very emotional state at the time,” she says.
Following recent self-produced LP, The Break (released on Montreal’s Arbutus Records - Grimes, Majical Cloudz, Doldrums), Up and Away is a record of two halves moving between an all-consuming affair and deeper love. Σtella’s honeyed vocals are offset by dizzying blasts of Christos Skondras’ bouzouki improvisation and Sofia Labropoulou’s dreamy kanun, whilst vintage drums and bass are particularly foreboding on ‘Another Nation’ which has all the bravado and confidence of an artist who is happy to be stepping out. With a dewy whistle, “Titanic” describes a journey to the unknown and recites names (John Borie, Laura Mae) from a list of survivors of the sunken ship, before ‘The Truth Is’ leaps forward to acceptance (“alright, but still I miss you every night.”), ‘Who Cares’ topples into a boozy coping mechanism (“in a bottle we all fell”), and closes with the reflective ‘Is It Over.’
 
Like a rarity unearthed, Up and Away captures the conflicting emotions of love as it lives on in ways beyond our understanding or control. 

Up and Away
Σtella

Track Listing:
1. Up and Away
2. Nomad
3. Manéros
4. Charmed
5. Another Nation
6. Black and White
7. Titanic
8. The Truth Is
9. Who Cares
10. Is It Over

Today, Sub Pop will digitally release Flock of Dimes’ Head of Roses: Phantom Limb, a collection of unreleased tracks written around the same time as Head of Roses, previously unheard demos, favorite live performances, and covers. 

The selection of live recordings for Head of Roses: Phantom Limb run the spectrum, from solitary to exuberant. Some were made solo, in the summer of 2020, while other tracks are electrified with the energy that comes from a day cooped up making music with your friends. The versions of “Spring in Winter” and “Like So Much Desire,” from Wasner’s 2020 Like So Much Desire EP, were both recorded alone, on a grand piano in the rural sprawl of Pittsboro, North Carolina at Manifold Studios. The undulating, subdued version of “Hard Way” was recorded live for a KEXP session while Wasner was holed up in the Californian desert, and the live versions of “Two,” “One More Hour,” and “Price of Blue” that live on the bonus disc were recorded with the help of Wasner’s friends Mountain Man, Matt McCaughan, Joe Westerlund, Michael Libramento, Alan Good Parker, and Nick Sanborn out at Betty’s in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. There are also covers of two of Wasner’s favorite songwriters — Joan Armatrading’s “The Weakness in Me” and Joni Mitchell’s “Amelia,” the latter featuring contributions from former bandmate Aaron Roche.
 
Among the second disc of bonus material is a Head of Roses beginning – the acoustic demo of “Lightning,” recorded ages ago in the secondary room at Betty’s, before the song hit its final shape on Head of Roses. There’s also a handful of previously-unreleased Head of Roses outtakes – “Wonder” and “Go with Good,” both written at the same time as the rest of the record, but ultimately left on the cutting room floor. And then there’s a kind of postscript: Wasner wrote and recorded “It Just Goes On” in one afternoon at her friend Stella Mozgawa’s studio, and the version that exists here—guitar, bass, vocals and drums—are those first unedited performances of hers, along with some invaluable production contributions by Ethan Gruska. Head of Roses was complete by that time, but she knew this brand new song was still connected to that collection —a last word, a sort of epilogue. In that same way, Phantom Limb serves as a bid adieu, a final reflection on the past two years of Wasner’s songwriting.
 
Flock of Dimes’ previously announced six-date headline in support of Head of Roses begins April 28th in Asheville, NC at Isis Music Hall and ends May 4th at Brooklyn, NY at Elsewhere Zone 1.
 
Thu. Apr. 28 - Asheville, NC - Isis Music Hall
Fri. Apr. 29 - Saxapahaw, NC - Haw River Ballroom
Sat. Apr. 30 - Charlottesville, VA - The Southern
Sun. May 01 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
Tue. May 03 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
Wed. May 04 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere Zone 1

You can now hear the new contributions to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 7 from Sydney, Australia’s Party Dozen, and Toronto, Ontario’s Matthew “Doc” Dunn, both out today worldwide on all DSPs from Sub Pop.
 
Sydney, Australia two-piece Party Dozen - saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet - set forth a pair of blistering, sax-heavy noise-rock tracks, including the A side “Fat Hans Gone Mad,” about a mysterious gentle giant named Hans. Hans is liked by his colleagues and generally quite a polite henchman. Violence is never his first response to a situation, he’s so large it rarely comes to that. Hans is at peace with the world, it seems to move around his 250 pound frame and most days Hans feels pretty good. But today is a bad day. Fat Hans Gone Mad. Party Dozen’s new full-length The Real Work is out on Temporary Residence later this year, and will tour the UK for the first time ever, this May 14th-17th, 2022. The single is pressed on brown vinyl.
 
Toronto polymath multi-instrumentalist and underground-music icon Matthew “Doc” Dunn (also known for work with The Cosmic Range, U.S. Girls, Jennifer Castle, Kevin Morby, Sunburned Hand of the Man, and more) contributes a spellbinding pair of tunes with a little help from his friends. “Your Feel” dances into frame with a zigzagging solo from Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and swelling mellotron from producer Asher Gould-Murtaugh, as Dunn’s insistent vocals conjure the pains of longing for a lover’s touch. B side “Look In” mellows the tempo to a country slow-dance with glistening slide guitar, as Dunn wipes the tears from his eyes and moseys off into the sunset. It won’t be long until he returns to channel his latest experiences into song. This single is pressed on opaque yellow vinyl.
 
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 singles from Party Dozen and Matthew “Doc” Dunn announced today, subscribers will get 7”s by Bartees Strange, The William Loveday Intention (feat. Billy Childish!), The Shadracks (feat. the son of Billy Childish!), Sidney Gish, Dummy, Hunx and His Punx, and more TBA. Vol. 7 runs from April, 2022 and ending February, 2023.
 
The Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 6 series included subscription-only 7” singles by John Waters, Kim Gordon/J Mascis, Jeff Tweedy, Duma, LIDS, Washed Out, Hand Habits, Porridge Radio, Sheltered Workshop Singers, TV Priest, BNH Deluxe, and The Black Tones. Hear music from the series via the Singles Club playlist, and grab one of the last remaining subscriptions here (we only made 1,000 and they’re almost gone!).