Seattle’s Sub Pop Records is extremely proud to announce the return (for our 13th 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 by “Loser.”
Sub Pop Records is offering a grand total of $15,000 in college scholarship money to three eligible high school seniors. There are three scholarships—one for $7,000, one for $5,000 and one for $3,000. 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. 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 the creative 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 Wednesday, March 20th, 2019.
Please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.com by Wednesday, March 20th. 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 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, 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 Wednesday, March 20th.
The band will perform Our Endless Numbered Days in its entirety (and with an orchestra) in Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Sub Pop and Iron & Wine will celebrate the 15th anniversary of Our Endless Numbered Days with the release of a newly expanded deluxe edition on CD/2xLP/DL worldwide on March 22nd, 2019. This version will feature eight previously never before heard demos, new artwork, and a 12-page booklet including liner notes from author Amanda Petrusich. You can now hear the demo version of ”Passing Afternoon” here.
Iron & Wine received its second Grammy nomination in two years as “Best Folk Album” for 2018’s Weed Garden. Their previous nomination was for “Best Americana Album” for 2017’s Beast Epic.
Our Endless Numbered Days (Deluxe Edition) 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 opaque pea green vinyl (while supplies last). There will also be a new T-shirt design available. For LP preorders of Our Endless Numbered Days (Deluxe Edition) in Europe and the UK from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on opaque dark green vinyl (while supplies last).
Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days (Deluxe Edition) Tracklisting:
1. On Your Wings 2. Naked as We Came 3. Cinder and Smoke 4. Sunset Soon Forgotten 5. Teeth in the Grass 6. Love and Some Verses 7. Radio War 8. Each Coming Night 9. Free Until They Cut Me Down 10. Fever Dream 11. Sodom, South Georgia 12. Passing Afternoon 13. Naked as We Came (demo) 14. Cinder and Smoke (demo) 15. Teeth in the Grass (demo) 16. Love and Some Verses (demo) 17. Free Until They Cut Me Down (demo) 18. Fever Dream (demo) 19. Sodom, South Georgia (demo) 20. Passing Afternoon (demo)
[Photo Credit : Kim Black]
Sam Beam, aka Iron & Wine, released Our Endless Numbered Days, his second album, in March of 2004. It followed his seemingly out of nowhere debut arrival, The Creek Drank the Cradle (2002) which was a quiet word of mouth treasure. Our Endless Numbered Days was recorded in Chicago and was the first in a string of releases to be produced by Brian Deck (Red Red Meat, Modest Mouse, Ugly Casanova, etc.).
Our Endless Numbered Days, which has sold over 556,000 copies, marked many firsts for Beam both professionally and personally and as Petrusich so rightly calls it in her liner notes “Our Endless Numbered Days is a timeless record about the passage of time.”
Upon its release SPIN called the record a “masterwork” one that is “self-assured, spellbinding, and richly, refreshingly adult.” Pitchfork, which gave the original album “Best New Music,” had this to say, “An astoundingly progressive record: Beam has successfully transgressed his cultural pigeonhole without sacrificing any of his dusty allure.”
Iron & Wine Tour Dates + Ticket Links
In conjunction with the re-issue, Iron & Wine will team up with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to perform the record in its entirety. Arrangements are being handled by noted composer David Campbell (Adele, Michael Jackson, Beck), whom will also conduct the LA Philharmonic.
These shows will include two sets – one with the orchestra and one solo acoustic – and feature songs from throughout the nearly 20-year career of Iron & Wine. These are the only scheduled performances of this nature planned around the anniversary of Our Endless Numbered Days.
Mar. 22 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Hall w/ Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Mar. 24 - Los Angeles, CA - Disney Hall w/ Los Angeles Philharmonic TBA - Washington, DC - Kennedy Center w/ National Symphony Orchestra
Weyes Blood’s new song, “Andromeda,” her first recording of original material since 2016’s acclaimed Front Row Seat To Earth, is now available worldwide from Sub Pop in all the digital places.
“Andromeda” 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.
“Andromeda” was written and composed by Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, co-produced by Mering and Jonathan Rado, and mixed by Kenny Gilmore in Los Angeles. “Andromeda” will be found on her highly anticipated fourth album, due out later this Spring worldwide from Sub Pop.
[Cover Art Photo by Brett Stanley]
Weyes Blood Tour Dates
Weyes Blood has scheduled four California shows this spring, beginning April 1st in Fresno at Strummers and currently ending April 4th in Los Angeles at the Masonic Lodge. Tickets for these shows go on sale Friday, January 18th at 10 am PST. Additional dates will be announced soon.
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
On February 15th, 2019, Sub Pop will release the debut album Castfrom Polish artist Perfect Son (aka Tobiasz Biliński). The 10-track album features the previously released lead single “It’s For Life,” along with the highlights “Promises,” and the latest offering, “Lust.” Biliński and his wife Anna Mayer-Biliński directed the atmospheric lyric video as seen above. (see also CLASH “Track of the Day” January 15th).
With powerful, sweeping production that recalls the best pop beats of Matthew Dear and arcing melodies that conjure the majesty of Jonathan Meiburg, Perfect Son animates sensations of lust, belonging, and newfound trust with tumescent electronic arrangements that threaten the safety of any sound system.
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.
Laborers at the rarity-factory are currently hard at work generating test pressings and art for these limited-edition, colored-vinyl 7” singles, and we have more exciting artists lined up for the series. Do away with your FOMO (that means “fear of missing out,” we are told) and subscribe now! And then buy another as a gift for the record geek in your life! We will be taking subscriptions into early 2019 (exact date TBA), but after then these lovely vinyl artifacts will be forever unattainable to anyone who did not subscribe!
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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 now and 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 definitelyprobably 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 for a limited time only, so don’t sleep on it.
Things to know:
Subscribing 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.
Rejoice! For it is now the time of year when we thank you for being nearly the best customers in the whole wide world of music-and-also-perhaps-t-shirts-or-mugs-buying peoples far and wide.
And we do this, somewhat predictably, by trying to persuade you to buy more stuff - DEEPLY DISCOUNTED STUFF - from us!
It’s heart-warmingly crafty the way we’ve managed to turn a “thank you” into a “please” this holiday season. Anyhoo, here are the related details: Between now/last Friday and 11:59 PM (PST) January 6, 2019, buy $25 or more worth of stuff (not including shipping and tax) from the Mega Mart and get 20% off all eligible items. Buy $100 worth of stuff and receive free domestic shipping! THAT”S ON TOP OF THE AFOREMENTIONED DISCOUNT! WTF??
Believe us when we say that we’ve got some of the best midsize-indie-record-label-branded merchandise your heart can handle, and we’d really love to sell it to you and your loved ones this holiday season. Knit hats, gloves, and sweaters? We’ve got ‘em. Things designed to make you sweat (like sweatshirts and sweatpants, gutterbrain)? We’ve got those too. Trinkets and trash? Enough for everyone! We’ve also got a slew of really exciting 2018 releases that you might have missed out on from bands like Low, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Father John Misty, Green River, J Mascis, Luluc and so much more. Speaking of J Mascis and best midsize-indie-record-label-branded merchandise … we’ve got two exceptional new apparel items for sale this season, and they too are included in our Epic Sale.
Ineligible items do count toward the $25 and $100 thresholds, they just don’t qualify for the discount.
Please note! If there are any pre-order items in your cart at checkout, your entire order will not ship until the shipping date of the furthest out pre-order. That means your order will not ship until after the first of the year, and you will not receive any part of your order in time for the holidays. The solution to this is: place multiple orders.
All orders placed by December 17th are guaranteed to ship out before we close up shop for the year, so get your orders in early and often. Related to this impending warehouse closure, any orders placed between December 18th and January 6th will not ship out until after we are back in the office on January 7th.
Thank you in advance for your impending (and wildly overzealous, we hope) gift buying spree.
