Ones and Sixes has earned Low international acclaim from the likes of NPR Music, Under the Radar, The Guardian, DIY, Q, MOJO, Uncut, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune, CLASH, The Sunday Times, and more. And the band are the current cover stars of MAGNET’s September issue, interviewed by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon (view cover / read an excerpt of the story here).
Low’s previously announced North American and European tour in support of Ones and Sixes, begins September 18th in Madison, WI and ends November 21st in Seattle, WA. (see below for dates + ticket links)
Ones and Sixes is available for purchase from the Sub Pop Mega Mart, iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp. [ Loser edition LPs are sold out in the Mega Mart (sorry and thank you!), so head to your local purveyor of fine vinyl records today if you want to snag a Loser Edition LP on that stunning yellow vinyl. ] Whatever format you get - you’re ears will thank you.
[ photo by Zoran Orlic ]
Tour Dates
Sep. 18 - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon* Sep. 19 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall* Sep. 21 - Toronto, ON - The Mod Club* Sep. 22 - Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz PDB* Sep. 23 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall* Sep. 24 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg* Sep. 25 - Hamden, Connecticut – The Ballroom at The Outer Space* Sep. 26 - Washington, DC - Black Cat* Oct. 07 - Manchester, UK - Cathedral ^ Oct. 08 - Glasgow, UK - Art School = Oct. 10 - London, UK - Roundhouse ^ Oct. 12 - Koln, DE - Gebaude 9 = Oct. 13 - Hamburg, DE – Knust = Oct. 14 - Copenhagen, DK – Vega = Oct. 15 - Stockholm, SE – Kagelbanan = Oct. 17 - Berlin, DE – Lido = Oct. 19 - Munich, DE – Ampere = Oct. 20 - Bologna, IT - Teatro Antoniano = Oct. 22 - Zaragoza, ES - Las Armas = Oct. 23 - Barcelona, ES – Bikini = Oct. 24 - Valencia, ES - Deleste Festival Oct. 26 - Madrid, ES - Teatro Lara = Oct. 27 - Santander, ES – Escenario = Oct. 29 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso ^ Oct. 30 – Tourcoing, FR – Le Grand Mix = Oct. 31 - Brussels, BE – AB + Nov. 02 – Paris, FR – Le Divan du Monde = Nov. 11 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue* Nov. 12 – Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge* Nov. 13 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge* Nov. 14 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex* Nov. 16 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour* Nov. 18 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall* Nov. 20 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir* Nov. 21 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile* Feb. 01 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
* w/ Andy Shauf ^ w/ Two Gallants + w/ Chelsea Wolfe = w/ Mike Noga
Speaking of exciting news: Up Records (via Sub Pop) will reissue Built To Spill’s much loved classic There’s Nothing Wrong with Love, the second full-length album released by the legendary indie rock band. It was originally released September 13, 1994 on the Up Records label with the stellar line-up of Doug Martsch, bassist Brett Nelson, and drummer Andy Capps, with Phil Ek producing. The album features enduring singles “In the Morning,” “Car,” and “Distopian Dream Girl.”
There’s Nothing Wrong With Love will be available October 30th from Up Records - distributed through Sub Pop - and is now available for preorder from Sub Pop Mega Mart.
On a related note, theThere’s Nothing Wrong With Love playlist is also available for your audio visual consumption, featuring official videos for “In The Morning,” “Car,” “Fling,” and “Big Dipper” via Up Records YouTube channel [view it here]
There’s Nothing Wrong with Love was exceptionally well received by critics upon its release. It went on to earn “Best Albums of 90’s” notices from the likes of Pitchfork, PASTE, SPIN, and has sold nearly 140k copies to date. This new, vinyl edition is the first time the album has been available on vinyl since its original run. Let the rejoicing commence!
What people have said about There’s Nothing Wrong With Love:
“Built To Spill’s Doug Martsch put Boise, Idaho, on the musical map with sprawling guitars, nasally vocals and heartfelt lyrics. Before the group fleshed out their sound with the guitar bits, BTS won over listeners with these straightforward, poignant songs. It’s an intimate glimpse inside one of indie rock’s great songwriters before he found himself.” [90 Best Albums of the 90’s] - PASTE
“The second album by Doug Martsch’s long-running band is a declaration of his awesome powers as a songwriter and guitarist…There’s Nothing Wrong With Love is the work of an artist who gets to treat Boise, Idaho, as a rock capital because he can outplay anyone: The sheer variety of instrumental textures Martsch crams into these songs’ riffs and fills and raw solos is amazing on its own.” - Wondering Sound
“True or false: Doug Martsch is the Peter Frampton of 1990s indie? Sure, he might not have the hair, the tight pants, or the voice box, but it’s difficult to think of another soul more worthy of resident guitar god; maybe J Mascis, but he never brought the pop side like King Framp. That’s the side most in evidence on There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, before Martsch started bringing the sprawl in spades. Humble, wry song-tales about heads-up-seven-up, Albertson’s stir-fry, and Bowie-hating stepdads abound, while earnest tracks like “Twin Falls” and “Big Dipper” set the pace for the entire Northwestern indie-pop scene.” [Top 100 Albums of the 1990’s”] - Pitchfork
“…Their second full-length and first genuinely great record…There’s Nothing Wrong With Love is the sound of scrappy mountain manchildren toying with their powers, pushing the limits of their form, setting the table for future tours de force.” - STEREOGUM
“The second album by Boise, Idaho’s Built to Spill was the cuddliest little guitar epic of the decade. Just as the luster was wearing off the grunge gold rush, singer guitarist Doug Martsch challenged slacker cynicism with basement-band symphonies that turned his own private Idaho into indie rock’s last unknown territory.” [Greatest Albums of the 90’s] - SPIN
“…Love is an absolute classic from the decade..” [“Dusting ‘Em Off”] - Consequence of Sound
Eugene Mirman’s I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) is a 9-volume, 7-LP comedy album that will be available October 30th (on vinyl / digital / chair / robe) worldwide from Sub Pop. The video trailer for this epic collection is available now via the good folks at Mashable (see premiere Sept. 10th).
I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) is the culmination of a long-time dream of Eugene’s. It includes a vast array of sounds that can be described as varyingly poignant, erotic, practical, romantic, mind-altering, educational, and humorous. Need to learn Russian? Eugene provides. Meditation sounds? Eugene provides. The sound of a grown man crying? Eugene provides. Oh, also, this release contains a full set of live standup recorded at Columbia City Theater in Seattle, WA June 6, 7, & 8, 2014.
I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) includes:
LP1 - Live In Seattle At The Columbia City Theater Good-humored noticings from America’s “Master of the Noticing!”
LP 2A - A Guided Meditation For The Thoughtful Body A calming meditation to cheer and sooth the cluttered mind, the injured heart and the anxious body
LP 2B - Fuckscape An erotic soundscape for lovebirds and adventurous friends
LP 3 - Eugene’s Comprehensive Sound Effects Library Tremendous, mouth-made sound effects for amateur and professional foley artists alike
LP 4 - Digital Drugs A binaural acoustic pharmacy for the carefree or ill
LP 5 - Over 45 Minutes of Crying A full-hearted 45-minute cry-a-thon
LP 6A - Introduction To Spoken Russian The language of Pushkin as taught by someone who left Russia at the age of 4
LP 6B - Ringtones & Outgoing Voicemail Messages For Your Personal Use Turn every phone call you miss or receive into a thousand-million smiles
LP7 - 195 Orgasms Sorry.
I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) will be available digitally, or as a lavish, 7-LP box set from Sub Pop Mega Mart. Additionally, limited-edition embroidered robes and an armchair - all with embedded audio players - will be available to purchase from megamart.subpop.com (while supplies last).
Eugene Mirman will soon embark on the I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) Tour, which spans October 30th - November 19th. Support will come in the form(s) of Derrick Brown and Josie Long (select dates - see below).
About Eugene Mirman’s I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome): Feel yourself going inward. You’re a piece of hot chocolate, sinking through the marshmallow of yourself. Cutting through everything, into a warm hugzone.
Let Eugene Mirman’s new album I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome)center you with “A Guided Meditation for the Thoughtful Body,” teach you conversational Russian, and soundtrack your next intimate getaway with “Fuckscape.” Or just listen to him crying for 45 minutes.
The monumental 9-volume/7-LP set, due October 30th on Sub Pop Records, is much more than a comedy album, and much less than the 100 CD-album that Mirman originally conceived for the project 10 years ago. In addition to Mirman’s brilliant stand-up performance at Seattle’s Columbia City Theater in June 2014, the collection includes more than 500 tracks featuring: a guided meditation for various body parts; an erotic new age “Fuckscape” for sexing to; a comprehensive sound effects library, voiced by Mirman, including everything from “rain” to “zoo with nothing to lose”; an aural pharmacy of “digital drugs” from marijuana to apple cider vinegar; over 45 real minutes of real crying; an introduction to possibly useful Russian phrases; ringtones and outgoing voicemail messages for your personal use; and 195 consecutive orgasms. It is, as comedian Daniel Kitson writes in the set’s liner notes, “a parade of excellence punctuated with benevolent explosions of the purist, uncut, nonsense.”
“I’ve wanted to make this album for a long time,” says Mirman, best known for his roles on Bob’s Burgers, Flight of the Conchords,Delocated, and for the annual Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival in Brooklyn, NY. He brainstormed dozens of ideas for discs, including some that sounded funnier than they turned out to be in execution (“you quickly run out of secrets to whisper to your dick,” for example). “Since so much of what I wanted to do seemed sort of simple, I bought a moderately good podcasting microphone and actually recorded myself crying for 45 minutes on a sun porch in Cape Cod. A lot of people ask me if the crying is looped, which it is not. I cried for 45 minutes.”
Mirman quickly realized, however, that he needed professional help, and enlisted musicians and longtime friends Christian Cundari and Matthew Savage to record and engineer the album in their Boston studio. “What began as an inquiry, turned into a long, amazing collaboration,” says Mirman. “For the next few years, I’d take the train up to Boston and we’d record, drink, eat authentic Chinese food, record more and edit.”
Conceiving and editing hundreds of sound effects, ringtones, and orgasms was hard work, but also a lot of fun, and highly improvised.
“‘Fuckscape’ came from the fact that there’s a 24-hour soundscape in the elevator at the hotel that I would often stay at when I’d go to Boston to work on this, and I made some joke like ‘I’m going to make a soundscape for fucking,’” says Mirman. “A lot of it was just trying to make friends in the other room who were listening to me record this thing laugh. It’s definitely pretty funny to say that an album features 195 orgasms. I don’t know that I want people to listen to them, and there’s people I definitely want to not be aware that I’ve done this, but I do think it’s funny.”
I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome) will be available on vinyl, digitally and in various atypical physical formats including a run of collectible chairs and robes that play the album.
“One of the things that I’d originally told [Sub Pop A&R head] Tony Kiewel was that I wanted it to come out in all sorts of formats, and by that I meant a chair, a robe, and other objects,” says Mirman. “Basically, in today’s music industry, it makes sense to have it be a chair but not a CD.”
The first LP, the stand-up album itself, features Mirman’s signature sharp, absurd commentary including “The Time I Was Mugged In Mexico With Michael Stipe” and “Not Happy About A Parking Ticket I Got In Portsmouth, NH,” destined to become a classic for repeated listening.
As for what to do with the rest of it, the possibilities are infinite. “If you make a mix you should throw in 10 orgasms or sound effects, and I think you’d be surprised how fun that would be,” says Mirman. “I think it’ll be a spice that people add throughout their lives.”
To quote one of many discarded titles for the album, please enjoy this dumb, weird thing.
Tour Dates Oct. 30 - Brooklyn, NY - The Bell House * Nov. 06 - Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest Nov. 11 - Los Angeles, CA - Largo * ^ Nov. 12 - Seattle, WA - The Neptune * ^ Nov. 13 - Portland, OR - Newmark Theatre *^ Nov. 19 - Boston, MA - The Paradise * ^ * w/ Derrick Brown ^ w/ Josie Long
Attention, vinyl nerds! Sub Pop will reissue Sharpen Your Teeth,
the underground classic and lone offering from Ugly Casanova, on 2xLP worldwide
October 30th. The long, out-of-print vinyl edition will come with the original
13 track album and 4 bonus songs: “Babies Clean Conscience,” “Diggin Holes,”
“Roads to Go to Roads to Go to…“ (which were available as limited edition
singles around the album’s release); AND (because you also need this gem in yer life) the unreleased “They Devised A Plan to
Fuck Forever,” recorded during the Sharpen Your Teeth sessions.
Sharpen Your Teeth is now available for preorder through Sub Pop Mega Mart. The 2xLP will be available both on black and as a limited
“Loser” edition yellow / white with yellow vinyl (while supplies last). In light of this, may we suggest preorder as the prudent path?
About Ugly Casanova:
Ugly Casanova is Isaac Brock, of Modest Mouse.
Or, possibly, it is a mysterious savant named Edgar Graham, who imposed himself
on Modest Mouse at the Denver show of the band’s 1998 tour, introduced himself
as Ugly Casanova, and, through a haze of unnerving instability, shared some
rough songs with the band. His songs, though delivered hesitantly…
shamefully, even… displayed unmistakable talent. By the end of Modest Mouse’s
tour, Casanova, with much reluctance, was persuaded to record some of these
songs and hand them over to record labels for issue as singles or parts of
compilations. Predictably, immediately after he had done so, he disappeared.
Other than a sheaf of ramblings delivered to
Modest Mouse’s singer Isaac Brock in the summer of 1999 that then inspired that
band’s The Moon and Antarctica nothing had been heard from Casanova in
years and those that still thought of him grew fewer. Then in November of 2001,
a faded and water-damaged bundle was discovered among a stack of
old packages during one of those general decontamination purges that so often
follows a mail scare. Addressed simply to “Sub Pop, Seattle, WA,” there was
little evidence of its origin. Inside, swathed in tape, Silly Putty and pelts
of three identifiable rodents was a greeting from the long-lost Graham.
Numerous tapes and a list of requests that alternated between raving demands
for destruction of said tapes and meek pleas for recognition of their contents
were extracted from the mess of the package. Fortunately Sub Pop recognized
that the tapes held promise, and released them in 2002 as Sharpen Your Teeth.
Until such time as Graham/Casanova resurfaces to
take credit for his work and add a bit more to whatever understanding of him
still exists, Sharpen Your Teeth will have to suffice. Produced by Brian
Deck and Isaac Brock at Glacial Pace Studios (Oregon), Ugly Casanova’s songs
are here performed by Misters Brock and Deck, as well as John Orth (Holopaw),
Tim Rutili (Califone, Red Red Meat), Pall Jenkins (The Black Heart Procession),
and a handful of like-minded collaborators.
Ugly Casanova - Sharpen Your Teeth
Vinyl track listing:
1. Barnacles 2. Spilled Milk Factory 3. Parasites 4. Hotcha Girls 5. (no song) 6. Diamonds On the Face of Evil 7. Cat Faces 8. Ice On the Sheets 9. Bee Sting 10. Pacifico 11. Smoke Like Ribbons 12. Things I Don’t Remember 13. So Long to the Holidays 14. Babies Clean Conscience* 15. Diggin Holes* 16. They Devised a Plan to Fuck Forever* 17. Roads to Go to Roads to Go to…*
Please join us in welcoming the newest member of the Sub Pop roster: Mass Gothic, the
Massachusetts-bred, NYC-based outfit, has signed with Sub Pop Records for a
worldwide deal and we’re pretty damn stoked about it.
The group, led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Noel Heroux
will release its label debut (and tour extensively to support it) sometime in
2016. More specific details will be forthcoming soon. Mass Gothic will make its
official live debut at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York this October.
More about Mass Gothic:
Noel Heroux grew up outside of
Boston, Mass. He began playing piano at a very early age, and started writing
and recording music in his early teens.
In 2005, he formed an early version of the rock band Hooray
for Earth, playing shows and self-releasing early demo recordings locally.
Heroux initially started the band as a solo project, but it quickly morphed
into a full-fledged band effort upon the release of its debut EP in 2008. In
Hooray for Earth’s brief career, the group recorded two full-length LPs
and two EPs, before calling it quits in 2014.
Mass Gothic finds Heroux at the helm writing and recording all of its material,
augmented by a full band in studio and on stage. Mass Gothic will release its
Sub Pop debut in 2016, with extensive touring to follow.
Folks, we are stoked to announce the imminent reissue of The Album Leaf’s 2004 classic In A Safe Place on vinyl, worldwide September 25th, 2015. This vinyl edition of the album, which has been out of print since 2007, will be repressed both on black and a limited “Loser” edition colored vinyl (while supplies last). This fine LP is in production as we type, and is now available for preorder at megamart.subpop.com.
But wait, there’s more: Later this fall, The Album Leaf will perform In A Safe Place in it’s entirety at All Tomorrow’s Parties “Nightmare Before Christmas” weekender, to be held at Prestatyn Holiday Centre, North Wales, UK, November 27th-29th, 2015. Event info lives here: https://www.atpfestival.com/events/atpnbc112015/view/eventinfo.
In A Safe Place’s songs “On Your Way,” “Eastern Glow,” “Window,” “Over the Pond,” TwentyTwoFourteen,” “The Outer Banks” and “Another Day” have been featured in a variety of TV shows and films over the years, including The OC, CSI Miami, Brotherhood and more. Additionally, “Window” was used in a fanmade, mashup video [view here] featuring Charlie Chaplan’s speech from The Great Dictator, which has amassed over 15 million views.
About The Album Leaf:
Jimmy LaValle has released critically-acclaimed solo work as The Album Leaf (the name comes from a Chopin piece) since 1999’s mellow An Orchestrated Rise to Fall (Linkwork). During the realization of 2003’s Lifetime or More (Arena Rock) and Seal Beach (Acuarela) EPs, he prepared himself to take on a new direction by founding his rich, textural documents on minimalist beats. At the time of 2003’s recording sessions, however, nothing could have prepared LaValle for the experience he had in Iceland.
LaValle befriended Sigur Ros on their first U.S. tour, and they encouraged him northward to Iceland. With the help of his hosts, including members of Sigur Rós and Múm, LaValle was able to craft an album that ventures into new territory. Chillingly delicate and more pop-based than ever before, In A Safe Place masterfully negotiates the spaces between minimal electronic music and melancholy instrumental neo-rock. The inclusion of vocals from The Black Heart Procession’s Pall Jenkins, Sigur Rós’ Jon Thor Birgisson, and LaValle himself is one of the striking results from this newly collaborative process.
