Sub Pop is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Night Flight Plus streaming service. Night Flight Plus members can now watch fifty Sub Pop videos with new introductions by the show’s original host Pat Prescott. Featured artists include Weyes Blood, Mudhoney, Sleater-Kinney, Orville Peck, and more.

Check out Night Flight’s official Sub Pop playlist here on Spotify.

Remembered by millions, Night Flight aired on the USA network from 11 PM–4 AM and is credited with breaking numerous alternative and avant-garde musicians and directors to TV audiences around the country. (Night Flight premiered four months before MTV). As DEVO’s Mark Mothersbaugh recalls, “Night Flight was one of the cool shows to be seen on, and it was a big deal to us to get the opportunity.”
 
The brand relaunched in 2016 as an on-demand streaming service offering exclusive access to the original 1980s episodes as well as an eclectic collection of cult films, music documentaries, and concerts. The new Sub Pop partnership allows users to stream current and legacy Sub Pop music videos adapted to the show’s original format.

 
Night Flight’s pioneering “Take Off” format featured artists and genres in “blocks” which helped cultivate the high cultural literacy Night Flight is now most known for today. An essential platform for discovery, Night Flight is honored to expose its loyal following to the music and video art of both new and legacy Sub Pop artists. 
 
Stuart S. Shapiro, Night Flight Creator, and CEO said: “Sub Pop is the quintessential independent label and Night Flight has always been dedicated to the discovery and support of emerging and alternative music artists. We are thrilled that Sub Pop is our first label featured on NF Plus and expect to make a big push to all the others.”
 
Night Flight Plus is available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and online. Subscription info is over here. 

Follow Night Flight on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Here we have a brand new track from the one and only King Tuff! He also has a little something to say about it:

“I’m Free” is a song I wrote a few years back which first appeared on Ty Segall’s album Freedom’s Goblin. Ty had asked me to write a song for him to record and I had this little demo laying around which I gave to him. I never really thought about it much after that but recently I was asked if I would ever release my own version of the song… so here it is! My favorite time to write songs has always been in the middle of the night. The world slows down and the little nocturnal critters start hooting, howling, buzzing, bubbling… there’s just different ideas that float around that you can’t catch during the day. This is a small song about that. The crickets and raindrops you hear towards the end of the song were recorded one night in June in Vermont outside of a witches hut.”

Listen here, too:  Spotify | Apple Music

U.S. tour dates February 22nd through March 12th, 2020.

The official video for Hot Snakes’ “I Shall Be Free,” directed and animated by Tiger Reis (the clip’s 13-year-old auteur and offspring of the band’s Swami John Reis), is out today! “I Shall Be Free” is a brand new single you can also listen to now through all the various DSPs. This new song follows the December 2019 release of the single “Checkmate,” which is also available now through all DSPs. And, “I Shall Be Free” will also be available directly from the band, in very limited numbers, as a physical 7” at their upcoming shows, starting Feb. 27. The 7” will also include the exclusive b-side “A Place in the Sun.”

Melbourne-based Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have released a new single, “Cars In Space,” and accompanying video as you see here. 

Watch worldwide from this link here.

“Cars In Space” is “the swirling words and thoughts before a breakup,” says Fran Keaney. It’s bold and classic, and propelled by the band’s singular chemistry. Its accompanying video, directed by Nick Mckk and Julia Jacklin, is set in broad daylight at an old-school Australian drive-in.

“Cars In Space” is the first taste of new music from Rolling Blackouts C.F. since their “In The Capital” / “Read My Mind” 7”, and its predecessor, 2018’s Hope Downs, “a debut album that applies their infectious brand of motorik jangle rock to lovelorn ruminations and geopolitical laments” (Pitchfork). Hope Downs was released to an incredible reception, earning year-end praise from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Paste, and more. 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.

[Photo Credit: Peter Ryle]

Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever Tour Dates + Ticket Links

Fri. Feb. 14 - Perth, AU @ Perth Festival

Sun. March 1 - Brisbane, AU @ Nine Lives Festival

Sat. March 14 - Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House w/ Pixies

Sun. March 15 - Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House w/ Pixies

Wed. March 18 - Melbourne, AU @ Brunswick Music Festival

Sat. March 28 - Bambra, AU @ Meadow Festival

Fri. May 22 - Madrid, ES @ Tomavista Festival

Sat. May 23 - London, UK @ All Points East

Sun. May 24 - Warrington, UK @ Neighbourhood Weekender

Tue. May 26 - Edinburgh, UK @ The Liquid Room

Sat. May 30 - Neustrelitz, DE @ Immergut

Mon. June 1 - Sala Apolo, ES @ Primavera Sound

Wed. June 10 - Bergen, NO @ Bergenfest

Fri. June 12 - Porto, PT @ NOS Primavera Sound

Sat. June 13 - Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret

The Homesick’s new album, which features the singles “I Celebrate My Fantasy,”  “Male Bonding,” “Kaïn,” and the title track, was produced by the band at Schenk Studio in Amsterdam, mixed by Casper van der Lans, and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring).

LP purchases of The Big Exercise through megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on bright yellow vinyl (while supplies last). Meanwhile, preorders in the UK and Europe from select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on opaque yellow vinyl (while supplies last).

[Photo Credit: Sarah Cass]

The Homesick Tour Dates + Ticket Links

The Homesick’s international tour schedule in support of The Big Exercise resumes February 21st, 2020 at Groningen at Vera and ends March 7th, 2020 in Utecht at Ekko. Additional live dates to be announced soon.

Feb. 21 - Groningen, NL - Vera 
Feb. 28 - Nijmegen, NL - Merleyn
Mar. 03 - Mainz, DE - Schon Schön
Mar. 04 - Oberhausen, DE - Gdanska 
Mar. 05 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
Mar. 06 - Rotterdam, NL - WORM
Mar. 07 - Utrecht, NL - EKKO

About The Homesick’s The Big Exercise:
If their debut Youth Hunt marked The Homesick’s tryst with faith and pastoral life, the band’s upcoming second album The Big Exercise brings them to more grounded, tangible pastures. With its title ripped from a passage in the Scott Walker-biography Deep Shade Of Blue, the record is a concentrated effort by Jaap van der Velde, Erik Woudwijk and Elias Elgersma to explore the physicality of their music in fresh ways (read more at Sub Pop).

Tracklisting:
1. What’s In Store
2. Children’s Day
3. Pawing
4. I Celebrate My Fantasy
5. Leap Year
6. The Small Exercise
7. The Big Exercise
8. Focus On The Beach
9. Kaïn
10. Male Bonding

Sub Pop Records is extremely proud to announce the return (for our 14th 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. Individuals from all cultures and communities are encouraged to apply. 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 Thursday, March 19th, 2020.
Please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.com by Thursday, March 19th. 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 Thursday, March 19th.