NEWS : MON, AUG 9, 2021 at 7:00 AM
Hear Washed Out’s and Porridge Radio’s contributions to Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 6, available now at all DSPs
Today, Monday, August 9th marks the release of Washed Out’s “Sidney’s Lullaby” b/w “Miles’ Lullaby” and Porridge Radio’s cover of Wolf Parade’s “You Are A Runner And I Am My Fathers Son,” available now on all DSPs.
The songs are from their contributions to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 6, which continues Sub Pop’s limited-edition, subscription-only 7” vinyl singles. While the vinyl editions are only available to Singles Club subscribers – which you can become via the Sub Pop Mega Mart! – the music can now be heard on all digital music services. If you want the 7”s, hurry up and subscribe, as the 1,000 available subscriptions are nearly sold-out.
For Washed Out’s (aka Ernest Greene) contribution, he recorded two very sweet, ambient lullabies named for his sons, Sidney and Miles. He offers this on the recording, “For me, the process of writing a traditional song (with verses, choruses, etc.) can be a very time-consuming practice. There is always an initial feeling of excitement upon discovering an interesting chord progression or melody, but the nuts and bolts of actually seeing the song through until the end can be quite maddening.
“I love to offset this way of working by improvising short instrumental sketches simply for the fun of creating and I feel like this material often has a purity and spontaneity that is often missing in my more “produced” work.
“Much like every other musician who was forced to stop touring because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I spent a lot of time at home and because of quarantine measures spent more time with my two young children than I ever have before. As any parent can tell you, it is an amazing experience seeing them discover the world around them and their minds are so pure, honest, and open. I thought these two instrumental sketches had a sweetness and playfulness about them that characterized certain aspects of their development during this time. I tried to capture both of their unique spirits but also the tenderness I feel for them as their father.
“Perhaps these songs might come across as too personal or sentimental - like sharing an intimate family photograph with a stranger. However, I hope that listeners might think back to their own childhoods and how it felt to have such an innocent view of the world around you.”
Washed Out recently announced a headlining North American tour for late winter 2022. For up to date information on tickets please visit https://washedout.net/Tour.
Porridge Radio’s cover of “You Are A Runner…,” the Wolf Parade fan favorite, is the A-side to their contribution to Sub Pop Singles Club (and follows the release of their cover of The Shins’ “New Slang,” its B-side, late last month).
Porridge Radio’s Dana Margolin had this to say, “Sub Pop are a label I’ve loved for a long time, and when they asked if we wanted to release some songs with them this summer, I looked through their back catalog and chose 2 songs to cover that had a big impact on me as a teenager.”
Beginning as Margolin’s sadcore bedroom project, Porridge Radio developed into an idiosyncratic post-punk 4-piece after she moved to Brighton and met her future bandmates. They inelegantly knot together Margolin’s vicious, furious emotional outpourings with beautiful pop melodies. After a series of demos, and the growing legend of their intense live shows, their lofty debut Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers came out via Memorials of Distinction in 2016, documenting struggles with life, love and boredom, and showcases the scrapbook absurdism at Porridge Radio’s core.
The band’s 2020 Secretly Canadian debut, Every Bad, is a culmination of what has been in their head for some time. Every Bad arrived full of grand, sweeping ambition – with vocals so urgent that it often feels like it is moved by compulsion rather than choice, with all the rawness of early Karen O, and influences as disparate as Charli XCX and The Cranberries. After receiving wide critical acclaim across the board, Every Bad was shortlisted as one of the Hyundai Mercury Prize’s albums of 2020.
Porridge Radio’s updated international tour schedule now runs August 2021 through June 2022. Please visit the band’s tour dates page for more info. https://porridgeradio.com/tour
