Knife Knights have delivered a new video for “My Dreams Never Sleep,” a standout from 1 Time Mirage, their Sub Pop debut. The slightly NSFW and psychedelic visual was directed by animator Joe Garber (illustrator for Foo Fighters The Making of Concrete and Gold) and is a meditation on love, loss and letting go both on a mortal plane and in the afterlife. Garber offers this on the video, “In a dream, she calls him onward, and in sleep, she calls him back.”
Knife Knights Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Knife Knights (Ishmael Butler, Erik Blood, and OCnotes) have also announced their first-ever North American tour in support of 1 Time Mirage, which begins April 25th in Tacoma at the Tacoma Elks Temple and currently ends May 24th in Oakland at The New Parish. On select dates along the tour, there will be special guest appearances from the 1 Time Mirage universe. And from May 1st through May 24th, the group will be joined by Mello Music Group recording artist Lando Chill as direct support.
Apr. 25 - Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Elks Temple Apr. 26 - Victoria, BC - Eventide Music Series at Centennial Square Apr. 27 - Vancouver, BC - Fortune Sound Club May 01- Milwaukee, WI - Colectivo Coffee Back Room * May 02 - Minneapolis, MN - Icehouse * May 03 - Chicago, IL - Sleeping Village * May 04 - Detroit, MI - The Lager House * May 05 - Bloomington, IN - The Bishop Bar * May 06 - Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups * May 07 - Lakewood, OH -Mahall’s 20 Lanes * May 09 - Providence, RI - Columbus Theatre (small room) * May 10 - Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory * May 11 - Washington, DC - The Pie Shop Bar at Dangerously Delicious Pies * May 13 - Atlanta, GA - Aisle 5 * May 14 - Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder * May 15 - Oxford, MS - Proud Larry’s * May 17 - Austin, TX - Empire Control Room * May 18 - Dallas, TX - Ruins * May 21 - Tuscon, AZ - Club Congress * May 22 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom * May 23 - Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theatre * May 24 - Oakland, CA - The New Parish * * w/ Lando Chill
1 Time Mirage is out now on CD/LP/DL/CS worldwide from Sub Pop. The long-player features the highlights the aforementioned “My Dreams Never Sleep” along with “Give You Game,”“Seven Wheel Motion,”“Light Up Ahead (Time Mirage)” and “Low Key,” and was as produced by Ishmael Butler and Erik Blood at Protect and Exalt: A Black Space in Seattle. 1 Time Mirage includes guest appearances from labelmates Shabazz Palaces and Porter Ray, along with Stas THEE Boss, OCnotes, Thaddillac, El Mizell, Marquetta Miller, Gerald Turner, and Darrius Willrich.
1 Time Mirage orders through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers and Knife Knights shows will receive the limited Loser edition on blue vinyl (while supplies last). The album cover also features gorgeous artwork from Robert Beatty.
2019 International tour schedule includes North American headlining shows and appearances at Boston Calling, Governors Ball, and Bonnaroo (May 24th-June 13th)
After a landmark 12 months for Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, who released their debut album Hope Downs to worldwide critical acclaim in June 2018 – Sub Pop is excited to reveal new music from the Melbourne band in the form of single, “In the Capital.” The track (which is now live on all digital platforms) will also feature on a limited edition 7-inch alongside a B-side titled “Read My Mind.” The vinyl will be released on Friday, April 26th and is available to pre-order here from Sub Pop.
Rolling Blackouts C.F.’s Fran Keaney describes how “In the Capital” came together: “I first had the idea for the melody and some of the lyrics when I was swimming. It’s taken a while to finish the song, to make it feel like the initial feeling. I can’t neatly describe it, but something like connection despite distance. I was thinking about transience and water and death and big cities and fishing towns and moon river.”
In the Capital / Read My Mind Tracklisting: A. In The Capital B. Read My Mind
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Tour Dates + Ticket Links
To celebrate the arrival of new music, Rolling Blackouts C.F. has extended their 2019 international tour schedule with newly added North American, UK, and European headlining shows and festival appearances.
Rolling Blackouts C.F’s North American shows begin May 24th in Boston for Boston Calling and end June 13th in Manchester, TN at Bonnaroo. The group’s European and the UK run begins July 3rd at in Roskilde, DK’s Roskilde Festival and ends July 27th in Thirsk, UK at the Deer Shed Festival. Additional international festival highlights for the May-July timeframe include Governors Ball (May 31st), Lattitude Festival (May 31st), Down the Rabbit Hole (July 5th), and Mad Cool Festival (July 12th).
Mar. 10 - Tasmania, AU - Panama Fest Mar. 16 - Adelaide, AU - Adelaide Fest Apr. 24 - Brisbane, AU - Triffid May 03 - Castlemaine, AU - Theatre Royal May 04 - Melbourne, AU - Croxton May 10 - Sydney, AU - Manning Bar May 24 - Boston, MA - Boston Calling May 25 - Boston, MA - Boston Calling May 26 - Boston, MA - Boston Calling May 28 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts May 29 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall May 31 - New York, NY - Governors Ball Jun. 02 - Toronto, ON - The Mod Club Jun. 04 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall Jun. 06 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile Jun. 07 - Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre Jun. 08 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge Jun. 10 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall Jun. 11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Lodge Room Jun. 13 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Jul. 03 - Roskilde, DK - Roskilde Festival Jul. 05 - Ewijk, NL - Down the Rabbit Hole Festival Jul. 07 - Paris, FR - Le Point Ephémère Jul. 09 - Liverpool, UK - Invisible Wind Factory Jul. 11 - Dublin, IE - The Iveagh Gardens Jul. 12 - Madrid, ES - Mad Cool Festival Jul. 13 - Lisbon, PT - NOS Alive Jul. 15 - Glasgow, UK - St. Luke’s Jul. 16 - Sheffield, UK - The Leadmill Jul. 18 - Cardiff, UK - Clwb Ifor Bach Jul. 19 - Bedford, UK - Esquires Jul. 21 - Suffolk, UK - Latitude Festival Jul. 22 - Birmingham, UK - Mama Roux’s Jul. 23 - Reading, UK - Sub89 Jul. 27 - Thirsk, UK - Deer Shed Festival
[Photo Credit: Pooneh Ghana]
To say 2018 was a big year for Rolling Blackouts C.F. is an understatement. The release of the band’s lauded debut album Hope Downs– which featured singles “Mainland,” “Talking Straight,” “An Air Conditioned Man,” “Time In Common,” and “Sister’s Jeans” – was embraced by lovers of their early EPs, Talk Tight and The French Press, and new fans alike. The record quickly became one of the most internationally acclaimed Australian albums of the year, appearing in many sought after Best of 2018 lists, coming in at #5 on Rough Trade’s Albums of the Year list, #3 on MOJO’s Album of the Year List (+ was named MOJO’s “Debut Album of the Year”), #2 on UNCUT’s Albums of the Year & many more. The band kicked off 2019 by being shortlisted for the prestigious Australian Music Prize Award.
Rolling Blackouts C.F. also enjoyed tremendous support from the likes of KCRW, KCSN, KEXP, WXPN, Sirius XMU, The Current, WFPK, WNRN, KJAC, OpenAir, triple j, Double J, FBi Radio, PBS, Triple R,Pitchfork, The Guardian, PASTE,NME, Rolling Stone,BBC 6 Music, Stereogum, DIY, and countless others.
Meanwhile, the band’s renowned live show led to selling-out their mammoth Hope Downs Australian tour, as well as sold-out performances in London, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Philadelphia, New York City and more. The huge touring schedule also included shows at the world’s biggest music festivals, from Coachella, The Great Escape, Primavera, and Shaky Knees to Lowlands, Pukklepop, Green Man and Splendour in the Grass.
The current and fourth edition of the Sub Pop Singles Club will close at 11:59 pm PST on Sunday, March 3rd.
The series of 12 limited-edition 7” singles will now include a single by the almost-unspeakably good singer-songwriter Julien Baker, along with records including previously announced artists OCnotes, HIDE, Pallbearer, Uranium Club, Kikagaku Moyo, Man Man, Shannon Lay, Omni, Dream Decay, and more.
Subscribe here now - or at least by March 3rd - to ensure you don’t miss out!
And, if you need evidence of past glory to convince you to hit that buy button, you can now see the entire discography of Sub Pop’s prior Singles Clubs here.
====
Singles Club Vol. 4 Overview ATTENTION RECORD NERDS AND MUSIC FANS! We are now taking subscriptions for the fourth – and, who knows, perhaps the best! –incarnation of the legendary Sub Pop Singles Club. Are you desperate to hear new and exciting music? Do you pine for exquisitely packaged, colored-vinyl artifacts? Do you break into a sweat at the thought of missing out on limited-edition tchotchkes to hold over your friends’ heads? Well, subscribe by March 3rd, 2019 to feed your need!
Attentive oldsters may recall the first edition of the Singles Club, which coincided with the launch of Sub Pop as a semi-functioning (and we do mean semi) record label, and featured Nirvana, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, L7, and countless (ok, around 75, to be more precise) other era-defining artists from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Fans of a more youthful age may remember the second and third editions, which ran from 1998-2002 and 2008-2009, respectively, and together included hitmakers like Iron and Wine, Bright Eyes, The White Stripes, Death Cab for Cutie, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Get Up Kids, The Dutchess and the Duke, Om, Thee Oh Sees, and many more.
All of this ancient history is to say: 1. WE INVENTED THIS SHIT! 2. We’ll get you lots of great music, and there’s a good chance you’ll wind up with some highly sought-after rarities. And, 3. We’re seasoned pros at this and we’ll definitely probably get all your records delivered to the correct address right on time.
For the eminently reasonable postpaid (meaning shipping is included in the price; tax is not) price of $130 for the U.S., $170 for Canada, $185 for Mexico, and $195 for the rest of the world, you will receive twelve (12) 7” singles, shipped directly from Sub Pop HQ in Seattle to you, starting in April of 2019. These singles will feature exclusive tracks by artists from all over the map, both literally and figuratively, but tied together by the common thread of being great at what they do and inspiring to us. We hope you’ll feel the same. This offer is valid until11:59 pm PST, Sunday, March 3rd, 2019.
Things to know:
Subscribing by March 3rd, 2019 is the only way to get the physical 7”s. They will not be available in stores.
You can subscribe from anywhere in the world.
You can purchase a subscription as a gift – simply enter the recipient’s name and address in the delivery address fields for your order.
Each single will be available for streaming and digital purchase two weeks after that single ships. But by then you will not be able to go back in time, subscribe, and get that single. So sign up now if you want vinyl!
Subscriptions are exempt from any Mega Mart sale discounts.
You can buy a subscription in the same order as other items you wish to purchase from us. We will ship the rest of your order as soon as possible, but no Singles Club 7”s will ship until April 2019, when you’ll get the first two, with successive singles to follow in pairs every other month thereafter. (We are shipping two singles at a time, every other month, because shipping is expensive and we want this subscription to be relatively affordable.)
Singles Club subscriptions cannot be sent to your local store and are not part of the Sub Pop Local program. As such, there is no free-shipping option for the Singles Club.
If you need to change your address at any point during your subscription, please email websales@subpop.com.
Today, February 15th, 2019, marks the debut release of Cast from Polish artist, Perfect Son (aka Tobiasz Biliński). The 10-track album features the previously released lead singles “It’s For Life,” “Lust,” and the latest video offering, “Promises.” Inspired by the legend of Golem and the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, “Promises” depicts an unusual love story, in an undetermined time. Isolated in an old house away from people, lives SHE. Unable to coexist with others, SHE creates a partner, a humanoid. You can unravel this love story, directed by Jarek Tokarski here.
Cast was co-produced by Biliński and Marcin Buźniak at Axis Audio in Warsaw, with additional production from Jeff Zeigler at Uniform Recording in Philadelphia, and mixed/mastered by Buźniak.
The band has announced a string of Polish shows beginning on March 20th in Warszawa, with additional dates beginning on April 4th in Torun. Perfect Son will also appear at this years OFF Festival in Katowice this coming August. Additional European dates to follow.
Mar. 20 - Warszawa, Poland - Hydrozagadka Apr. 04 - Torun, Poland - NRD Apr. 05 - Gdansk, Poland - Zak (PL) Apr. 11 - Poznan, Poland - Meskalina Apr. 12 - Łódź, Poland - Radio Lódź, Apr. 13 - Lublin, Poland - Dom Kultury Apr. 14 - Kraków, Poland - Zet Pe Te Apr. 17 - Wrocław, Poland - Stary Klasztor Apr. 18 - Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland - Magnet Off On, Aug. 02 - Katowice, Poland - Off Festival (Poland) Aug. 03 - Katowice, Poland - Off Festival (Poland) Aug. 04 - Katowice, Poland - Off Festival (Poland)
Live in London was taped before a live audience at the Eventim Apollo. The album features the Conchords performing new songs from the sold-out UK and Ireland edition of “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour.”
You can now hear Flight of the Conchords’ live version of fan favorite “Carol Brown” from Live in London, their forthcoming album. The song first appeared in the “Unnatural Love” episode of their hit HBO series and is also available in its original form on I Told You I Was Freaky, the duo’s second studio album on Sub Pop.
[Album Art Photo credit: Colin Hutton/HBO]
Live in London will be available on 2xCD/3xLP/DL/CS worldwide via Sub Pop on March 8th, 2019. This past October and ten years after the launch of their hit HBO series, musical comedians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement returned to the network for an all-new comedy special.
Live in London is now available for preorder from Sub Pop. LP preorders in North America through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on clear w/blue and yellow high melt vinyl (while supplies last).
This Loser right here:
Additionally, LP preorders of Live in London in Europe and the UK from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on clear vinyl (while supplies last).
The Live in London album features 7 new songs including the “Iain and Deanna,”“Father and Son,”“Summer of 1353,” “Stana,” “Seagull,” “Back on the Road,” and “Bus Driver.” The album also features performances of fan favorites “Inner City Pressure,” “Bowie,” “Foux du Fafa,” “Mutha’uckas - Hurt Feelings,” “Robots,” and “The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)’ (the latter two bonus tracks edited out of the broadcast due to time constraints).
Also Announcing 2019 “True Love Is Making a Comeback” Tour.
Weyes Blood (pronounced wizebluhd) will release Titanic Rising, her fourth album and Sub Pop Records debut, worldwide on CD/LP/DL/CS April 5th, 2019. The album features the lead single “Everyday,” and the previously released “Andromeda,” along with highlights “Movies,” “Wild Time,” and “Something to Believe.” The cover for Titanic Rising was shot in a bedroom submerged fully underwater (zero CGI).
The new single, “Everyday,” chronicles the chaos of modern love and dating - short attention spans, restlessness, and the continuous crusade (and carnage) to find some kind of all-encompassing soul mate. Watch the official video, in all its bloody terror, directed by Weyes Blood here.
[Cover Art Photo Credit: Brett Stanley]
Titanic Rising, written and recorded during the first half of 2018, is the culmination of three albums and many years of touring: stronger chops and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement in transcendent vocals and levitating arrangements, conversational lyrics and thoughtful commentary on the modern condition of our souls. Like the Kinks meet WWII (or is it Bob Seger meets Enya?) Titanic Rising manages to ride that line between classic songwriting and post-apocalyptic futurism.
Titanic Rising is now available for pre-order from Sub Pop. LP pre-orders in North America through weyesblood.com, megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on maroon colored vinyl (while supplies last). LP pre-orders of Titanic Rising in the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on red vinyl (while supplies last). There is also a new T-shirt design available now.
Titanic Rising Tracklisting
1. A Lot’s Gonna Change 2. Andromeda 3. Everyday 4. Something to Believe 5. Titanic Rising 6. Movies 7. Mirror Forever 8. Wild Time 9. Picture Me Better 10. Nearer to Thee
Weyes Blood has also scheduled an intergalactic headlining tour for the spring of 2019 in support of Titanic Rising, which begins on April 22nd in Brighton, UK at the Haunt and currently ends June 13th at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Weyes Blood and her band will visit the UK, mainland Europe, Canada, and the US for these dates. These dates will be preceded by a run of California shows, which run April 1st-April 5th, 2019. More 2019 dates to come.
Tickets for the newly announced shows go on sale Friday, February 15th at 10 am PST.
True Love Is Making a Comeback Tour 2019
California Apr. 01 - Fresno, CA - Strummers Apr. 02 - Santa Cruz, CA - The Atrium at The Catalyst Apr. 03 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones Apr. 04 - Los Angeles, CA - Masonic Lodge [Sold Out]
UK/Europe Apr. 22 - Brighton, UK - The Haunt Apr. 23 - Bristol, UK - The Exchange Apr. 24 - Manchester, UK - YES (The Pink Room) Apr. 25 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall Apr. 27 - Berlin, DE - Kantine am Berghain Apr. 28 - Hamburg, DE - Turmzimmer Apr. 29 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Upstairs Apr. 30 - Dunkerque, FR - 4Ecluses May 02 - Paris, FR - La Maroquinerie May 03 - Orleans, FR - Astrolabe May 04 - Brussels, BE - Le Nuits Botanique (Venue: Rotonde)
North America May 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent May 16 - Seattle, WA - The Tractor Tavern May 17 - Vancouver, BC - St. James Hall May 18 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir May 21 - Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club May 22 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall May 24 - Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern May 25 - Montreal, QC - Petit Campus May 26 - Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery May 28 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair May 29 - New York, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg May 31 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall Jun. 01 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s Jun. 03 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl Jun. 04 - Nashville, TN - The High Watt Jun. 06 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada Jun. 07 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall (upstairs) Jun. 08 - Austin, TX - Antone’s Jun. 11 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf Jun. 12 - Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar Jun. 13 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour
Weyes Blood recently released “Andromeda,” a stellar offering also found on Titanic Rising. The track plays on a few themes (mythology, astronomy, technology), and is ultimately a love song about finding something long-lasting in an ever-changing world full of distractions, unrealistic expectations (“looking up to the sky for, something I may never find”) and past disappointments.
Stereogum recently named “Andromeda” one of its songs of the week, and said “There are few contemporary artists who sound like Natalie Mering. Her voice is enchanting, and on this song, she asks listeners to give themselves over to love, as if doing so will allow them to live in her plush, technicolor world a little longer.” And The FADER raves “…Mering, crafts melodies that feel rooted in another space and time.”
About Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising: The phantom zone, the parallax, the upside down—there is a rich cultural history of exploring in-between places. Through her latest,Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood (a.k.a. Natalie Mering) has, too, designed her own universe to soulfully navigate life’s mysteries. Maneuvering through a space-time continuum, she intriguingly plays the role of a melodic, sometimes melancholic, anthropologist.
Tellingly, Mering classifies Titanic Rising as the Kinks meet WWII or Bob Seger meets Enya. The latter captures the album’s willful expansiveness (“You can tell there’s not a guy pulling the strings in Enya’s studio,” she notes, admiringly). The former relays her imperative to connect with listeners. “The clarity of Bob Seger is unmistakable. I’m a big fan of conversational songwriting,” she adds. “I just try to do that in a way that uses abstract imagery as well.”
“An album is like a Rubik’s Cube,” she says. “Sometimes you get all the dimensions—the lyrics, the melody, the production—to line up. I try to be futuristic and ancient at once, which is a difficult alchemy. It’s taken a lot of different tries to get it right.” As concept-album as it may sound, it’s also a devoted exercise in realism, albeit occasionally magical. Here, the throwback-cinema grandeur of “A Lot’s Gonna Change” gracefully coexists with the otherworldly title track, an ominous instrumental.
Titanic Rising, written and recorded during the first half of 2018, is the culmination of three albums and years of touring: stronger chops and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement in transcendent vocals and levitating arrangements—one she could reach only by flying under the radar for so many years. “I used to want to belong,” says the L.A. based musician. “I realized I had to forge my own path. Nobody was going to do that for me. That was liberating. I became a Joan of Arc solo musician.”
The Weyes Blood frontwoman grew up singing in gospel and madrigal choirs. “Classical and Renaissance music really influenced me,” says Mering, who first picked up a guitar at age 8. (Listen closely to Titanic Rising, and you’ll also hear the jazz of Hoagy Carmichael mingle with the artful mysticism of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the monomyth of scholar Joseph Campbell.) “Something to Believe,” a confessional that makes judicious use of the slide guitar, touches on that cosmological upbringing. “Belief is something all humans need. Shared myths are part of our psychology and survival,” she says. “Now we have a weird mishmash of capitalism and movies and science. There have been moments where I felt very existential and lost.”
As a kid, she filled that void with Titanic. (Yes, the movie.) “It was engineered for little girls and had its own mythology,” she explains. Mering also noticed that the blockbuster romance actually offered a story about loss born of man’s hubris. “It’s so symbolic that the Titanic would crash into an iceberg, and now that iceberg is melting, sinking civilization.” Today, this hubris also extends to the relentless adoption of technology, at the expense of both happiness and attention spans. The track “Movies” marks another Titanic-related epiphany: “that movies had been brainwashing people and their ideas about romantic love.” To that end, Mering has become an expert at deconstructing intimacy. Sweeping and string-laden, “Andromeda” seems engineered to fibrillate hearts. “It’s about losing your interest in trying to be in love,” she says. “Everybody is their own galaxy, their own separate entity. There is a feeling of needing to be saved, and that’s a lot to ask of people.” Its companion track, “Everyday,” “is about the chaos of modern dating,” she says, “the idea of sailing off onto your ships to nowhere to deal with all your baggage.”
But Weyes Blood isn’t one to stew. Her observations play out in an ethereal saunter: far more meditative than cynical. “I experience reality on a slower, more hypnotic level,” she says. “I’m a more contemplative kind of writer.” To Mering, listening and thinking are concurrent experiences. “There are complicated influences mixed in with more relatable nostalgic melodies,” she says. “In my mind, my music feels so big, a true production. I’m not a huge, popular artist, but I feel like one when I’m in the studio. But it’s never taking away from the music. I’m just making a bigger space for myself.”
