NEW TO US
Everything that’s new in the last six months in the Sub Pop Megamart! Scroll down and then keep on scrolling.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
Spoek Mathambo / Father Creeper - SP975
Johannesburg’s Spoek Mathambo (real name: Nthato Mokgata) first hotwired our world with a series of collaborative projects—Sweat X, Playdoe—that placed his smart, dirty vocals on top of electro-rap bangers that activated dance floors across the globe. Things went darker and deeper with his 2010 debut album, Mshini Wam, a record which took Spoek’s love affair with South African culture and his coined “township tech” as a starting point. As always, he pulled those influences in a direction all his own (incl. a pitched-down wobble-house cover of Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control”).
With the arrival of his second album, Father Creeper, Spoek Mathambo makes the Afro-futurists look old school. Each song arrangement is a statement in and of itself. Rock moments swerve electronic. The crisp, changing rhythms of Mathambo’s live drummer go cyborg with drum machine beats. Guitar lines snake and ripple across the album, ranging from summery highlife melodies to amped-up rock riffs. Soulfully sung choruses shift up into double-time rap choruses as video game bleeps splash through Mathambo’s gutturals. Lyrically, Father Creeper flips the concerns of mainstream rap by embracing a deep sensitivity for a traumatized society where the fucked-upedness is real, the optimism stubborn and the booty ripe. The more you listen to Mathambo’s world, the more it makes sense. The big picture shows us a musician hitting his stride with enough confidence and vision to craft songs as robust and challenging and attractive as life in our electrified, apocalyptic 2012.
Released: March 13, 2012
feedtime / the Aberrant years - SP980
With the Aberrant years, Sub Pop finally realizes our goal of releasing feedtime, a longtime staff favorite and a huge influence on the label’s early artistes. From 1978 or 1979 (dates are hazy) until the breakup of their classic lineup in 1989, Sydney, Australia’s feedtime—no, that’s not a typo, the ‘f’ is lowercase—shoved their mutant fusion of early American blues, stripped-down hard rock and minimalist punk on an often-hostile music scene. Their raw vision of rock music and disdain for trendy music-biz maneuvering earned them little in the way of mainstream success, but it did get them a rabid underground following (notably Sub Pop’s very own Mudhoney) and the support of seminal Aussie indie label Aberrant Records, Amphetamine Reptile Records and Rough Trade US.
The sound of feedtime was like nothing else in Australia: a vintage blues swagger via roots rock and the late ‘70s that didn’t come from an established clique, a pure strain of rock and roll with a relentless mechanical propulsion. It was the perfect symbiosis of syncopation, minimalist rock that carried a thunderous atmosphere of reckless intoxication and intense personal pain but with a self-assured “ease” amongst the chaos. The sound was both Zen-like transcendence and a form of self-defense from psychic scum. Impenetrable, yet welcoming. Guitar noise you could dance to with lyrics cut straight from experience, tradition and dead crazy urban confusion.
the Aberrant years collects the entire output of feedtime’s 1978-1989 lineup, including their self-titled debut, shovel, Cooper S and suction, plus gobs of rare bonus tracks and a full-color booklet with extensive liner notes by band biographer Leon O’Regan.
This is perfect sound and pure art. Avant-garde pub-rock. All hail the concrete urban blues.
Released: March 13, 2012
Memoryhouse / The Slideshow Effect - SP925
Memoryhouse formed some five years ago in the depths of Southern Ontario, Canada, in a mid-size town called Guelph as a collaborative project meant to serve as an artistic outlet for composer Evan Abeele and photographer Denise Nouvion. Evan, a dedicated student of classical music and a pop-music encyclopedist, intended Memoryhouse to be a multimedia art project, pairing his instrumental compositions with Denise’s photographs and short films. Testing ways to blur the boundaries between genres, to weave a synthesis of music and photography, they experimented with themes, lyrics and multiple layers of instrumentation. Nouvion’s soft, ethereal voice anchored the frozen textures of Abeele’s compositions with frank sentimentality—a unique approach towards humanizing the electro-pop compositions they were creating. The results, at once timeless and new, were impressive and in September 2011 we at Sub Pop released a fully re-recorded, remixed and re-mastered version of the band’s 2010 self-released, digital-only EP, The Years.
The new album is called The Slideshow Effect and its title speaks to what hasn’t changed for Memoryhouse: their continuing interest in the synthesis of the aural and the visual. It refers to the photographic/cinematic technique of zooming and panning to animate still images, often used in documentary film making to give movement to archival photographs. The 10-track album, produced by Abeele, with assistance from friend, collaborator, and occasional Memoryhouse bassist Barzin Hassani Rad, finds Memoryhouse heading toward a new clarity in composition as well as sound; a more organic direction for artists who are, in their own words, transitioning from a “bedroom recording project” into a fully realized band. Nouvion’s voice has never been more present than on the new album, which finds her stepping away from Memoryhouse’s past reverbed sound in favor of a more upfront, and intimate vocal approach. They half-seriously refer to their new sound as “Taylor Swift with Built to Spill as her backing band.” However The Slideshow Effect might be described, we fully-seriously love it.
If you pre-order The Slideshow Effect by February 28th, you’ll receive a limited edition photo scrapbook put together by the band!
Also worth noting, if you pick up The Slideshow Effect LP from us, or at your local, independent record store, you’ll get the Loser Edition, a colored vinyl version of the record, in this case, a lovely light purple. Just look for the official LOSER seal!
Released: February 28, 2012
PRODUCT BUNDLES
The Slideshow Effect bundle
+ 
Memoryhouse’s The Slideshow Effect on CD or LP bundled with Memoryhouse t-shirt.
More info on The Slideshow Effect (the bundled full length). Memoryhouse Dots (the bundled shirt).
Shearwater / Animal Joy - SP957
We at Sub Pop are exceedingly proud to present Shearwater’s Animal Joy, our first album by the band and their eighth overall. Led by Jonathan Meiburg, and featuring drummer Thor Harris, and bassist Kimberly Burke, Shearwater has been a favorite at Sub Pop HQ for many years. Why? Fellow Shearwater fan Gerard Cosloy puts it nicely:
“It’s been suggested—by fans, detractors, even by the band’s founder—that Shearwater and whatever we call underground/indie/whatever-rock in this part of the century are not an obvious fit. And that’s true. So much of what we hear these days (the lousy stuff, anyway) is willfully insular; Jonathan Meiburg’s songs, by contrast, have constantly tackled bigger questions and been propelled by massive musical ambitions.
We’re in an era in which minimalism and lower-than-low-tech have come in vogue. By contrast, Shearwater’s recordings—the epic “Island Arc” trilogy of Palo Santo, Rook and The Golden Archipelago in particular—have been expansive in a fashion like none of their contemporaries. On Animal Joy, Meiburg has opted to ditch an approach that paid huge artistic dividends over his last three Matador albums for a record that seems shockingly direct, immediate and intensely personal. He’s no stranger to lush, crafted recordings, but this one sounds like no prior Shearwater incarnation.
Someone’s bound to label this Shearwater’s transitional album, but to these ears, it sounds like a thrilling artistic rebirth. Just give ’em the fucking Grammy already!"
Worth noting: if you pick up the Animal Joy LP from us, or at your favorite US independent record store, you’ll get the LOSER Edition, a colored vinyl version of the record, in this case, a blood red and black swirl. Just look for the official LOSER seal on the cover!
Released: February 14, 2012
PRODUCT BUNDLES
Animal Joy + Gray T-Shirt
+ 
Animal Joy CD or LP + Gray T-Shirt
More info on Animal Joy (the bundled full length). Shearwater Gray (the bundled shirt).
Animal Joy + Natural T-Shirt
+ 
Animal Joy + Natural T-Shirt
More info on Animal Joy (the bundled full length). Shearwater Natural (the bundled shirt).
Shearwater / Shearwater Gray - 2095799
New Shearwater t-shirt featuring artwork from their new album, Animal Joy. Printed on American Apparel.
Released: February 14, 2012
OR GET IT IN A BUNDLE!
This product is bundled with the following products. Click the links for more info!
Shearwater / Shearwater Natural - 2095798
Brand new Shearwater t-shirt featuring artwork from their new album, Animal Joy. Printed on American Apparel shirts.
Released: February 14, 2012
OR GET IT IN A BUNDLE!
This product is bundled with the following products. Click the links for more info!
Memoryhouse / Memoryhouse Dots - 2092599
This t-shirt features artwork from Memoryhouse’s debut record, The Slideshow Effect. Printed on American Apparel’s 50/50 blend t-shirts for maximum softitude!
Released: January 30, 2012
OR GET IT IN A BUNDLE!
This product is bundled with the following products. Click the links for more info!
Dum Dum Girls / Bhang Bhang - 4084093
“Bhang Bhang I’m a Burnout” b/w “Last Caress”
On blue or white vinyl! It’ll be a surprise!
Released: January 11, 2012
Low / I Could Live in Hope - 4064385
I Could Live In Hope is the first full-length album by Duluth, Minnesota slowcore group Low, released in 1994. It was produced by Mark Kramer.
Released: January 10, 2012
Mudhoney / Mudhoney & King Salmon LP - 4004493
In 1995 during the grunge boom, when Steve Turner had a break from Mudhoney, Kim Salmon (The Scientists) was invited to join the band in Seattle. So Salmon accepted the invitation from his friends and flew from Australia to Seattle to check whether the experience was viable and worthy. After a while they amicably split, leaving behind this gem along the way, lost for the last 15 years and recently found. Then in September 2010, Mudhoney and Kim Salmon met again in New York for the ATP Festival, with a band list including The Scientists, Mudhoney, Stooges, Sonic Youth, and more. On this occasion, they spoke about releasing the record. And here it is… and it’s a masterpiece. Like a cross between Kim Salmon’s Sin Factory and Mudhoney’s early albums, this is a gem of swamp and grunge like no other before.
Released: January 5, 2012
Michael Yonkers / Michael Yonkers & The Blind Shake Period LP - 4050895
Music freaks world-wide know now know Michael Yonkers as one of the most exciting sounds in psychedelia. However, although Michael Yonkers has been making music since the early 1960s, until the release of Microminiature Love by DeStijl Records in 2002, he was a relatively obscure figure in the Minneapolis music scene. That might have been different if Sire Records would have released his psych classic Microminiature Love in 1968, as planned, but that was not to be. Shelved for decades, the world – or a small handful of the world – got to hear folk offerings like Grimwood.
Things changed when Clint Simonson of Destijl stumbled on one of Michael’s records – Border of My Mind – in the late 90s. Brothers Jim & Mike Blaha also lucked their way into Michael Yonkers world by a chance encounter with a 7” put out by Get Hip Records. All three set off to find this fascinating musician…and they did. While Simonson heard, fell in love with, and finally released Microminiature Love, the Blaha brothers and their band The Blind Shake chanced into a jam session with Yonkers. That jam was to lead to a fantastic collaboration by Michael Yonkers with the Blind Shake entitled Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons.
Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons is not only a great collection of punk-induced psychedelia, as heavy as anything can be without sludging to death; it was also the best thing Yonkers had done since Microminiature Love, and a high point of the Blind Shake. A few years later Yonkers and the Shake got together for a brief split/collaborative album on Learning Curve Records. Good stuff but not quite as powerful as the two aforementioned monsters. Now comes Period, Michael Yonkers and the Blind Shake’s first full album together since Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons and their best yet.
Like Yonkers and the Shake’s previous work, Period is tuneful and heavy and punk and psychedelic, but there is also something more. The album has an energy which is dark but not sinister. Yonkers’ lyrics are intense, even painful, but his voice is strong. The swirl of sound created by his homemade guitar is other worldly, and when woven into the guitar/baritone guitar/drum throb and punch created by the Blind Shake, Period is nothing less than great. Seriously, after six straight months of listening to Period, I think it is a classics of heavy weirdness – a melding of Von Lmo’s Future Language, High Rise II, and Monoshock’s Walk to the Fire. Period is even worthy of a listen next to Blue Cheer’s Vincebus Eruptum. Yeah, it is a pretty good record. Vinyl copies of Period are housed in a Stoughton “old style” tip-on sleeve.
Released: January 4, 2012
Shearwater / The Golden Archipelago - 4095799
Shearwater continue to explore the beauty, menace, and fragility of the natural world – and that increasingly rare species, the indivisible album – on The Golden Archipelago, the band’s most absorbing and accomplished work to date. The new record is the third panel of a triptych that includes 2006’s enigmatic Palo Santo and 2008’s acclaimed Rook, albums linked by themes of environmental and personal decay and humans’ impact on nature. In The Golden Archipelago, Shearwater turn to a portrait of life on islands – a world of alternating lushness and austerity, numinous silences and sudden cataclysms, and the strange flowerings of plant, animal, and human life that only arise in isolation. These are intimate subjects for songwriter Jonathan Meiburg. As a researcher, he’s camped on islands at the edges of the world, including the Falklands, Tierra del Fuego, the Galapagos, Madagascar, Nunavut, and New Zealand’s Chatham Islands, and once spent a few surreal months in a remote Aboriginal settlement in northern Australia. Adding his grandfather’s WWII experiences as a radio operator in the South Pacific to these travels gave Meiburg plenty of fodder for the songs of The Golden Archipelago, in which he weaves these times and places together with common feelings of wonder, grief, and defiance. The Golden Archipelago opens with the first strains of the anthem of Bikini Atoll, sung by Bikinians in exile on the islet of Kili, where they’ve lived since atomic tests left their home uninhabitable. It’s a fitting introduction to the gentle, eerie “Meridian”, with its depiction of an air raid on an island garrison. From there, Shearwater take us on an island-hopping journey of spectacular contrasts, from the distant heights of “Landscape at Speed” to the snowy expanses of “Hidden Lakes”, from the manic, shuddering confines of “Corridors” to the isolated vistas of “Castaways”. It’s an album of lofty goals and great risk, but Shearwater have never been afraid to dream in widescreen. Like Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, Husker Du’s Zen Arcade, or Pink Floyd’s polarizing opus The Final Cut, The Golden Archipelago’s beautifully and strangely-wrought musical textures summon a majesty, drama, and individuality that few current records attain, or even attempt. The band worked for months with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Black Mountain, Polyphonic Spree, Explosions in the Sky) to capture the thrilling dynamics that have always marked their live performances, burnished by subtle orchestrations and cascades of mallet percussion. The results are singular, revelatory, and demand to be appreciated as a whole. Islands under siege, islands of impenetrable solitude, islands of the world and islands of the mind – all are here in The Golden Archipelago, whose shores and reefs flicker and beckon, even as they crumble under rising seas.
Released: December 15, 2011
Shearwater / Rook - 4095797
Cut ’n Pasted from the Matador site:
Hailed as “almost impossibly majestic and beautiful” (NPR “album of the year”), Shearwater’s Palo Santo (2007, Matador), a suite of ethereal but oddly disquieting art-rock songs loosely centered around the life and death of singer Christa Paffgen (aka Nico), marked the Texan quartet’s debut on the national stage. Several publications, including The New York Times, named it one of the year’s best, and the band’s singular combination of sonic abandon and restraint, spun around the soaring, otherworldly voice of part-time ornithologist Jonathan Meiburg, drew comparisons to late-period Talk Talk and both the lovely and anxious moments of Eno’s early solo work.
This year’s much-anticipated Rook takes the band into realms both richer and stranger. Though a similarly haunted, elegaic mood – punctuated by flashes of dread and menace – pervades the album, Rook is its own animal, at once more accessible (the near-title track, “Rooks”, anchored by Thor Harris’ thunderous kick drum, a booming organ, and a stately trumpet line, could almost be mistaken for radio-friendly) and more accomplished than its predecessor, with a depth and grandeur that seem improbably packed into the album’s tidy 35 minutes. Squalls of feedback have largely given way to sudden gusts of strings and woodwinds, though the band’s fondness for unusual instrumentation remains intact – harp, hammer dulcimer, and a curiously carved metal box all take featured roles. Each song is a mini-epic, from the in-medias-res opening of “On the Death of the Waters” to the pounding (but drumless) urgency of “Leviathan, Bound”, the abrupt rock of “Century Eyes”, the crystalline depths and heights of “I Was a Cloud” and “The Snow Leopard”, and the final, elegant flourish of “The Hunter’s Star”. Rook is unlike any other album you’ll hear this year – or any year. It has the vividness and ineffability of a waking dream, the strange beauty and internal logic of a fairy tale, and above all, evokes a vanishing world that may or may not be our own.
Released: December 15, 2011
Shearwater / Palo Santo - 4095796
Shearwater has transformed itself to the point of reinvention on Palo Santo, the band’s fourth album. The first Shearwater release to be made up entirely of songs by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg, Palo Santo resembles previous Shearwater albums only incidentally. It’s a thrilling, paradoxical record—icily warm, welcoming and threatening, sloppy and immaculate—and one which NPR called “impossibly majestic and beautiful” in naming it the best record of 2006.
Released: December 15, 2011
Jakob Olausson / Morning and Sunrise - 4000380
Jakob Olausson’s ?Morning and Sunrise? CD from De Stijl Records
Released: December 15, 2011
Sub Pop / Loser Knit Hat - 30000873
In an attempt to achieve the same dizzying heights of success we attained when we manufactured the first ear-warming favorite Sub Pop Knit Hat, we’ve stripped it down, simplified, and self-deprecated it and came up with the heather gray, LOSER edition of this winter friend. Your head is going to be stoked, trust us.
Released: December 14, 2011
Obits / Obits October 2011 In Person Tour Poster - 30785993
Printed on sturdy card-stock, this handsome poster at one time announced and foretold, and now commemorates, the October 2011 tour conducted IN PERSON by the very good rock band Obits. These posters are just about (if not exactly) 14" wide by 22" tall.
Please note! Because these posters are neither fold-able nor roll-able and therefore must be shipped rather expensively and entirely flatly, we will only ship these to US addresses!
Released: November 29, 2011
Seapony / Sailing - SBL-73049
Well well well, if it isn’t the first new Seapony material to surface since their debut LP, Go With Me, was released earlier this year. “Sailing” is a subdued, earwormy number, featuring added acoustic guitar layers and delicate instrumentation. “I Saw You” is the more upbeat track, which is why we did the sensible thing and put it as the b-side. Take that, logic. Limited press on black vinyl.
Released: November 22, 2011
J Mascis / Circle - SP981
A new 7" single from J Mascis with his cover of Edie Brickell’s “Circle” on the a-side and “I’ve Been Thinking,” from the Several Shades of Why sessions on the b-side. J’s been playing “Circle” at shows during the past year or so and it’s become a big audience favorite. And “I’ve Been Thinking” was included as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Several Shades of Why.
Released: November 22, 2011
Full Toilet / Full Toilet 7" LP - SP987
Angry young man. Short attention span. Volatile and erratic. Bad personal relations. Turbulence and anger. Channeling ultimate unhappiness. Burts of rage. Full Toilet 13-song 7". Timeless torment spews forth.
Released: November 22, 2011
The Sandwitches / The Pearl - SBL-73048
“The Pearl” 7" presents two brand new tracks from San Francisco’s Sandwitches, both of which showcase their unique vocal phrasing and warbly Americana-tinged creations. This is the first material to follow the band’s acclaimed Mrs. Jones’ Cookies LP, and both songs are exclusive to this 7". Nothing else sounds quite like The Sandwitches, and vice versa. Limited pressing on black vinyl.
Released: November 8, 2011
The Beets / Let the Poison Out - SBL-73045
The Beets are the best band to ever exist from Queens, NY, and this is their third full-length record. Recorded with Gary Olsen of the Ladybug Transistor, Let the Poison Out is a collection of 13 songs about letting the poison out of your system. Semi-metal cover artwork by Matthew Volz. Expect references to the Ramones, Howard Stern, and dead people. All LPs include a download code. THE BEETS!
Released: October 24, 2011
Fleet Foxes / Fleet Foxes Type Poster - 30777998
This Fleet Foxes poster features art from their 2011 release, Helplessness Blues.
Released: October 19, 2011
Nirvana / Nirvana Bleach Poster 2-Sided - 30034999
Large and glossy, this 2-sided Nirvana poster features two epic images of the legendary trio. You should consider buying two so both sides can be displayed at once. Poster size is 24″ × 36″.
Released: October 19, 2011
Niki & The Dove / The Drummer - SP986
Niki & The Dove, the Swedish duo of Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf who NME recently referred to as “…one of Europe’s most exciting bands,” return with this new, digital-only EP called The Drummer. Four of the seven tracks here (“The Drummer,” “Last Night,” “Mother Protect,” and “Manon”) will appear on the band’s forthcoming and as-yet-unscheduled 2012 full-length debut. Along with their June 2011 single for The Fox, this new EP provides plenty of reasons to look forward to in 2012.
NME (these guys again…) had the following to say about “The Drummer”:
“Niki & The Dove continue distilling the elemental into cautionary, unpredictable electronic shapes on this, perhaps their most gleaming pop moment to date.”
Niki & The Dove will be on tour throughout the UK for much of October and will support Hurts in the UK in early November.
Released: October 18, 2011
Sub Pop / Down for Life Gray - 2000065
Lookie here! A gray version of the shirt that we brought to the Annual Pitchfork Festival in Chicago! Designed by Chicago son, Ryan Duggan. Printed on American Apparel’s tri-blend for the ultimate in luxury.
Released: October 17, 2011
Mudhoney / Mudhoney/Gas Huffer split 7" - 4004492
A: Mudhoney – “You Stupid Asshole”
B: Gas Huffer – “Knife Manual”
Released: October 12, 2011
Still Corners / Still Corners Silhouette - 2094099
Well, here’s a new Still Corners t-shirt featuring artwork from their 2011 release, Creatures of an Hour. Printed on American Apparel 50/50.
Released: October 11, 2011
OR GET IT IN A BUNDLE!
This product is bundled with the following products. Click the links for more info!
Vetiver / Can't You Tell (Remixes) - SP984
The limited-edition “Can’t You Tell (Remix)” 12" contains two new remixes of the song “Can’t You Tell” from Vetiver’s mid-2011 full-length The Errant Charm on its a-side. The b-side has both an instrumental version of “Can’t You Tell” and the original album version.
Here’s Andy Cabic from Vetiver…
“’Can’t You Tell’ has a lot of ambience and mood, it’s a very summery track whose length is devised to end quickly enough that you’d want to press play again. These remixes present an opportunity to expand on the mood of the song and to extend the length and reveal a little more detail in the tracks and the spirit of the summer, just before it’s over.”
Released: October 11, 2011
Sub Pop / Hthr Blck w/Lght Gry Logo - 2000064
Sub Pop logo shirt on an American Apparel 50/50 t-shirt.
Released: October 6, 2011
Stare Case / Lose Today - 400382
Lose Today wields the ethereal meditative power leftover from The Velvet Underground’s Sweet Sister Ray epic bootleg. The result: a melodious somnolent grievance that leaves the listener to feast on a curiously endless and internal banquet. Young snarls and writhes in irritated spiraling pronouncements that trail off in regretful, pained fashion, producing the same eventual something-isn’t-right that The Velvet Underground secured, but set aside to allow the Michigan basement bluesmen to borrow. Also, here is Young’s virgin performance on bass, a venture that proves suiting as his sparse yet stable meanderings are the backbone to a jam lost in the arcane. At times the bass lines seem to be counting off the seconds until an eventual meltdown. Meanwhile, Olson wanders off on woodwinds, seemingly tangled in wavelengths, letting his own sounds guide him through a brassy chilling darkness. He follows scales—Indian scales, blues scales—though the subtlety of Olson’s discipline fosters to an expansive intimacy, a nuance so massive his quips on flute and saxophone are the secret architects of Lose Today’s meditation. Olson takes the spiraling mania inspired by the likes of The VU’s Sweet Sister Ray lose-all jam and lets it blossom into a soundtrack for a secret think tank whose sole purpose is to maintain a shadowed fire.
Released: September 22, 2011
Obits / Les Obits Shirt - 2078597
Rick Froberg from Obits designed a new t-shirt for the band’s recent Romance Awareness Month Tour 2011. It’s an especially terrific design from an especially talented artist. And, because WE TOTALLY KNOW THOSE GUYS, we managed to obtain a handful of these t-shirts when the Romance Awareness Month Tour 2011 came to an end. There are few of these and we know of no immediate plans from the band to make more (and we don’t have any of those plans of our own). So, get ’em while you can. These are printed on those supple American Apparel 50/50 cotton/ploy blend shirts.
Released: September 15, 2011
Carissa's Wierd / Tucson - SBL-73042
The first new recordings from Carissa’s Wierd in over 7 years. This 7" features two brand new songs from the seminal northwest band, both exclusive to this release. Recorded at Mysterious Red X with Ben Kersten and featuring the band’s original lineup. First pressing on black vinyl.
Released: September 13, 2011
Hertta Lussu Assa / Hertta Lussu Assa - 4000383
Gnomic no-fi plunk, wheeze, rattle and moan courtesy of an unfortunately monikered (well…at least to English language readers anyway…it probably means something just lovely in Finnish…) supergroup comprised of Jonna Karanka aka Kuupuu, Laura Naukkarinen aka Lau Nau and Merja Kokkonen aka Islaja that draws from the seemingly eternal well of stoned detuned mischief that feeds the viaducts of the Finnish underground. The sheer density of acts positing variants on this same post-Amon Duul / Siloah-like freakout stylee there gives rise to questions of bandwagon hopping, but that’s a discussion for another time. For the here and now, this first release of theirs is a choice manifestation of heavy-lidded third-mind acoustic weirdity that’s as ungainly as it is mystically/chemically blasted.
Released: August 16, 2011
Circuit des Yeux / Portrait - 4000384
Portrait is Haley Fohr’s third LP and a massive step in her growth as a musician and artist. While pursuing a degree in recording and ethnomusicology she has become proficient in the studio. The result—radically unexpected qualities of cohesion and hi fidelity posit Portrait’s narratives in a space that we’ve yet to experience. This sort of playing the game in the way that the game is usually played, I think is usually called a sell-out. And had her intent faltered to the slightest degree that conclusion might be apropos. But it’s merely an effort to strip the canvas bare and get face to face with things. And it’s Haley’s intent that continues to be championed, as it has endured the acts of recording and performing and yet still stands strong and pristine. the rare qualities of strength and character can only be attributed to a rare artist. The modest, clarion sparkle of Portrait would not have been expected, or even achievable, considering the arc of Symphone and Sirenum, and it stands as a cornerstone and a monument, a testament to the daily practice of channeling her 21 yr old, roiling emotions into sound recordings.
Released: August 16, 2011
Sub Pop / Sub Pop Side Logo - 2000067
Printed on American Apparel tri-blend Track Shirts for the luxurious feel only a blend of three things can bring to you.
Released: May 12, 2011
