Los Angeles resident Jimmy Tamborello records, releases and occasionally performs music under the name Dntel. In 2007, we at Sub Pop released the Dntel album Dumb Luck which included contributions from a whole raft of talented people too numerous to list here (a short version of that list would include members of Grizzly Bear, Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, and Arthur & Yu). And at the end of 2010, we released a pair of companion EPs by Dntel, entitled After Parties 1 and After Parties 2. Together these two EPs total 8 tracks, all of them instrumental, and featuring (to the best of our “knowledge”) a list of guest contributors numbering exactly zero.
Back in 2001, we did not release the Dntel album Life Is Full of Possibilities. This album was originally released by the Plug Research label, and because we’ve always secretly wished we’d put it out back then, we’re going to release an expanded, re-mastered version of the album to mark its ten-year anniversary in October of 2011. This double-CD version of the album will include the re-mastered version of the original album on one CD and a collection of both previously released and new remixes, plus outtakes and b-sides on the other. The double-LP version will spread the re-mastered original 10-track album across two pieces of vinyl at 45 rpm 33rpm, with the bonus material included in the download that comes with the record. This will be the first time that Life Is Full of Possibilities has ever appeared on LP.
Life Is Full of Possibilities features collaborations with a number of guest artists, one of which, with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard (on “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan”), led to the formation of The Postal Service. Because Give Up, the 2003 album by The Postal Service, to date the group’s only full-length release, is Sub Pop’s second best-selling album of all time, this is worth noting. Also worth noting: the album was very well-received at the time of its release, earning a 9.3 rave review from Pitchfork, and the following from the BBC: “Few electronic musicians out there have come close to the strength of the songwriting contained within this delicately produced CD.” We’re exceedingly proud to be releasing this expanded, deluxed-up reissue of Life Is Full of Possibilities.
Dntel will be part of The Soft Alarm Tour with The One AM Radio and Geotic throughout the month of August. Click here for a full list of tour dates.
We at Sub Pop World HQ are going ape for the February15th release of the lengthy but fittingly titled record, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (forthwith, for the sake of brevity and crypticness, to be referred to as HCWNDBYW) from Scottish ear-bleeders, Mogwai. HCWNDBYW…will be available on a deluxe 2xCD (the bonus disc features “Music For A Forgotten Future (The Singing Mountain)” a 23 minute epic originally composed to accompany an art installation created by Olaf Nicolai and Douglas Gordon), or gatefold 2xLP (the LP comes with a digital download code which will include the bonus material). If you’re among the first 500ALL customers to pre-order HCWNDBYW by February 15th, we will send you thoughtfully conceived and beautifully executed limited edition Mogwai earplugs with case so the insane decibels will just make your ears throb instead of bleed. So you don’t have to wait until your order arrives to experience the soaring sounds of Mogwai, as soon as you complete your purchase we will grant you access to a stream of the new record in its entirety.
Do you know about the just-this-week-released Rano Pano 7" single? We hope so. The a-side of this single, “Rano Pano,” is on Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will and the b-side, “Hasenheide” is not. Also worth noting, the cover art here is in the style of classic Sub Pop Singles Club singles. Find it here: http://www.subpop.com/releases/mogwai/singles/rano_pano
Also brand new this week, Mogwai’s “Rano Pano” Video!
Jan 26 Tolbooth, Stirling, United Kingdom
Jan 27 Pailsey Town Hall (UK), Paisley , United Kingdom
Jan 28 Perth Theater, Perth , United Kingdom
Jan 29 Lemon Tree, Aberdeen , United Kingdom
Jan 30 Grand Ole Opry (UK), Glasgow , United Kingdom
Feb 13 Mandela Hall, Belfast, United Kingdom
Feb 14 Live Lounge, Galway, Ireland
Feb 15 Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
Feb 17 02 Academy Bournemouth, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Feb 18 University of Cardiff, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Feb 19 02 Academy Bristol , Bristol, United Kingdom
Feb 20 02 Academy Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Feb 21 Picture House UK, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Feb 23 The Regal, Oxford, n/a
Feb 24 Institute, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Feb 25 Brixton Academy, London, United Kingdom
Feb 26 Academy 2 (Manchester University), Manchester, United Kingdom
Feb 27 Sage Gateshead, Gateshead, United Kingdom
Mar 06 Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany
Mar 07 Backstage Club EU, Munich, Germany
Mar 08 WuK, Vienna, Austria
Mar 09 Estragon, Bologna, Italy
Mar 10 Alcatraz, Milano , Italy
Mar 11 Rote Fabrik, Zurich , Switzerland
Mar 13 Den Atelier, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Mar 14 Stollwerck, Cologne, Germany
Mar 15 Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Mar 17 Le Trianon, Paris, France
Mar 18 L’Aéronef, Lille, France
Mar 19 La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
Mar 20 Le Transbordeur, Lyon, France
Mar 21 Théâtre Lino Ventura, Nice, France
Mar 22 Le Bikini, Toulouse, France
Mar 24 Rock School Barbey, Bordeaux, France
Mar 26 AB Main Hall , Brussels, Belgium
Mar 28 Grünspan, Hamburg, Germany
Mar 29 Postbahnhof, Berlin, Germany
Apr 01 Tradgar’n (Sweden), Gothenburg, Sweden
Apr 02 Rockefeller, Oslo, Norway
Apr 03 Debaser, Stockholm, Sweden
Apr 05 Tavastia Club, Helsinki, Finland
Apr 19 930 Club, Washington, DC
Apr 20 Starlight Ballroom, Philadelphia, PA
Apr 21 Webster Hall, New York City, NY
Apr 22 Webster Hall, New York City, NY
Apr 23 Paradise (MA), Boston, MA
Apr 25 Olympia De Montreal, Montreal, Canada
Apr 26 Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, Canada
Apr 27 Mr. Smalls, Pittsburgh, PA
Apr 28 St. Andrew’s Hall, Detroit, MI
Apr 29 Metro, Chicago, IL
Apr 30 Slowdown, Omaha, NE
May 02 Bluebird Theater – (CO), Denver, CO
May 03 In The Venue, Salt Lake City, UT
May 05 Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR
May 06 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Canada
May 07 Showbox (@ the Market), Seattle, WA
May 09 Regency Ballroom (SF), San Francisco, CA
May 10 Mayan Theater, Los Angeles, CA
May 11 Belly Up, Solana Beach, CA
May 13 Sunshine Theater, Albuquerque, NM
May 15 Granada Theater (TX), Dallas, TX
May 16 Stubb’s BBQ, Austin, TX
May 17 Warehouse Live – Ballroom (TX), Houston, TX
May 19 Workplay, Birmingham, AL
May 20 Center Stage (ATL), Atlanta, GA
Before we go, you have both downloads that we’ve offered from Mogwai too, right? Just in case, they are still available for download over on Sub Pop’s SoundCloud page: San Pedro Rano Pano
A few months back, the very good rock band Obits welcomed Alexis Fleisig as their new drummer. (Previous drummer and all-around excellent human Scott Gursky, decided to hang it up a few months before that.) Alexis is in or has been in about 500 bands (Girls Against Boys, Paramount Styles, Bellini, Soulside…) so it’s understandable that he did not realize that as a part of his employment at Obits Music, Filmworks and Probate, Inc., he is now contractually required to make music videos for the band as well. He is, after all, a busy guy. Owing to his respect for a legal, binding contract (it’s all right there, in black and white) and what turns out to be a genuine knack for making music videos, Alexis made a video for the song “Killer” from Obits’ 2011 album Moody, Standard and Poor (which, by the by, Exclaim! recently featured as one of their best punk records of 2011).
—Obits will be performing live at The Bell House in Brooklyn on Friday, December 30th. This, of course, is New Year’s Eve Eve, the new and much cooler celebratory event that is, we are right now pretending, ALLTHERAGE among many of the trend-setting young people of that borough.
—We recently received and are now offering for sale some more of the popular Les Obits t-shirts!
—Did you know that these same Obits participate in and are very funny in the use of the internet’s seemingly quite popular social media thingamajigs? While that former thing might be surprising and the latter not at all, they do! Like this: Obits on Facebook Obits on Twitter
Thank you for what we might as well assume to be your time and indulgence here.
Mister Heavenly, the originators of Doom-Wop, released their debut full-length, Out of Love, today, August 16th. The band is set to kick off their 14-date tour of the westerly portion of the United States this week as well and you can see the complete list of tour dates below.
In more Mister Heavenly news, you can also stream the band’s entire Out of Love record now either in that handy embedded streaming player above or right on the Sub Pop YouTube channel. Get in there and give it a listen.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to remind you that if you’re among the first 500 people to pre-order Out of Love on CD or LP via us here at subpop.com, you’ll receive TWO really cool gifts from the band. First is a Nick Thorburn two-sided, signed/numbered print and second is a Mister Heavenly stencil! Also, if you’re among the first 350 people to order the album on vinyl, you’ll it on a limited edition mustard-colored LP! Click here to order yourself a copy.
Mister Heavenly on Tour:
8/18 Portland, OR @ Branx
8/19 Vancouver, BC @ The Bilmore Cabaret
8/20 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
8/22 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
8/24 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
8/25 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
8/26 Omaha, NE @ Toyota Antics Block Party
8/27 Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
8/28 Norman, OK @ Opolis
8/29 Denton, TX @ Hailey’s
8/30 Austin, TX @ Mohawk
9/1 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
9/2 San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink
9/3 Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Festival
Having thus far enjoyed a monumental year, with a sold out world tour and the release of the superb and critically acclaimed 7th studio album, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, Mogwai are ready to embark upon another chapter. The band are set to release their Earth Division EP, which carries 4 brand new tracks, highlighting a creative departure from the band’s trademark cinematic mantra of pulverizing, scorched guitar riffage, into a more recontextualised domain of hazy electronic distortion, accompanied by spiky wafts of violins, violas, cellos and double bass and jagged keys.
Earth Division discretely demonstrates another side of Mogwai’s stratospheric level of brilliance with its ever-rotating, hypnotic soundtracks that drift dreamy into force, while absorbing into the paranormal. The EP is a collaboration of barded guitar distortion and haunting piano, which might offer the listener something different, but it still carries the band’s hallmarks and will be available on September 13 in North America via Sub Pop Records and on September 12 via their own label, Rock Sound, in Europe.
Earth Division EP tracklisting, which will be available on CD, 12" vinyl and digitally:
1. Get to France.
2. Hound of Winter.
3. Drunk and Crazy.
4. Does This Always Happen?
Mogwai are: Dominic Aitchison, Stuart Braithwaite, Martin Bulloch, Barry Burns and John Cummings.
Mogwai are headlining at this month’s iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse, London on July 23 and they will also be appearing at the End Of The Road Festival on September 3, which sold out in record time. They are also returning to the US for a few shows in the beginning of September. Click here for a full list of tour dates.
Still Corners debut full-length, Creatures of an Hour is hitting shelves on October 11, but we have tunes off the band’s forthcoming debut & 7" to share with you now. Insert your email in the widget above to hear the track “Cuckoo.” Like what you hear? You can purchase said 7" by clicking here.
Read on for more information on Still Corners:
Many bands lay claim to the adjective “cinematic.” But how many can claim a truly cinema-worthy moment as part of their inception? It was a dark and foggy night when Still Corners songwriter Greg Hughes first laid eyes on vocalist Tessa Murray. “It sounds stupid but it’s completely true,” he recounts. “I was on a train that was going to London Bridge. But for some reason it went to this other stop. And I got out, and this other person got out. It was Tessa.”
It was a fitting moment for the American musician who came to London to pursue a career in music. A devoted cinephile—whose first release Remember Pepper recalls both the youthful tone of French New Wave and the unease of Italian horror—Hughes sees film as a major influence, from the projections (created by band member Leon Dufficy) that feature heavily in their live performances (“It’s nice to have something lovely to look at”), to the free-floating grace of debut full-length, Creatures of an Hour. “There’re just certain things in certain movies, like older horror movies and other foreign films, that you see sometimes. They just have a certain vibe and atmosphere,” says Hughes. “You’ll see a girl walking towards a train, it’s very atmospheric. There’s a great vibe in that—all these little bits, these tiny moments. That’s what I was trying to go back to. To bottle that up and put it into a song.”
Recorded at Hughes’ own studio in Greenwich, the devil is truly in the details of Creatures of an Hour. Fusing whispered intimacy to the emotional expansiveness of composer Ennio Morricone, Hughes crafts deceptively simple songs that linger like half-remembered dreams. Lead single “Cuckoo” shines in its simplicity, a single drumbeat, ghostly guitar, and distant organ highlighting Murray’s haunting soprano as she asks, “I’d like to read your mind/can you read mine?” “It’s about confusion,” explains Hughes. “It’s about being confused. Am I going crazy? Does this person like me? What’s happening? That’s the vibe of the whole record really.”
Elsewhere, the tone isn’t so much one of emotional conflict as it is pure atmosphere. Like a world-class art director, Hughes fills the set of “Endless Summer” with walls of reverb and splashes of longing, echoing a very real conflict in his own life—the pursuit of the illusive London sun. “It’s about wishing and chasing after the fleeting sun of England and wishing for an endless summer—or at least that the summer would go on a bit longer,” he says with a laugh. “It only seems to last about a week here!”
For the time being, Hughes is happy to maintain Still Corners’ musical mystery as—like many artists—he’s discovered less is more. “I don’t like to talk too much on decoding the songs. It takes the mystery away,” he says, cagily. “I like when people listen and then come up with their own kind of thing.”
Still Corners (now filled out to a 4-piece by Leon Dufficy and Luke Jarvis) are releasing their debut LP Creatures Of An Hour on October 11th. Tour dates to be announced soon.
So grab some popcorn and stick around, for Still Corners this is just act one.
