You ask, we deliver! The Afghan Whigs first three releases on Sub Pop Records – Up In It, Congregation and the Uptown Avondale EP will be released on 180-gram vinyl on September 8th* via the Sub Pop Megamart, and at the merch table for all upcoming Afghan Whigs North American shows.
*Retail stores will begin carrying these titles on September 22nd.
Both Congregation and Up In It have been out of print on vinyl for several years now and Uptown Avondale has never been available on vinyl in the U.S. … EVER. All three titles will be issued on special Sub Pop “Loser” editions as well.
Full details on the reissues:
UP IN IT
LOSER EDITION DESCRIPTION: Transparent blue vinyl with white swirl. Pre-order here.
Track Listing:
Retarded
White Trash Party
Hated
Southpaw
Amphetamines and Coffee
Now We Can Begin
You My Flower
Son of the South
I Know Your Little Secret
CONGREGATION
LOSER EDITION DESCRIPTION: Transparent Red vinyl with white swirl. Pre-order here.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Record turned into a double LP with gatefold packaging to be played at 45 rpm.
The Afghan Whigs are currently in Europe for a brief second leg of their tour which includes performances at Way Out West Festival, Haldern Pop Festival, Flow Festival and Pukkelpop. The band will begin their North American tour on September 6th at a Sold Out show in Orlando, FL. The tour includes three Canadian shows (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver) and the band will be playing several markets they haven’t visited in years (Richmond, Birmingham, Kansas City, Houston). For up-to-date info on tickets, please visit theafghanwhigs.com.
In Spades, the group’s spellbinding new album is available on CD / 180 gram-LP / CS / DL worldwide from Sub Pop. Led by the singles “Demon In Profile,” “Oriole,” and “Arabian Heights” along with standouts “Copernicus,” and “Toy Automatic,” it is the follow-up to the band’s internationally acclaimed Do to the Beast. In Spades was recorded in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Memphis and Joshua Tree and written and produced by Greg Dulli. Read more on The Afghan Whigs In Spades here.
The first US Hot Snakes tour in six years happens November 8th-18th, 2017; Fan pre-sales begin TODAY at hotsnakes.shofetti.com.
[Photo Credit: Rick Froberg]
We’re incredibly excited to share the news that Hot Snakes – the band comprised of Rick Froberg, Jason Kourkounis, John Reis, Mario Rubalcaba, and Gar Wood – have signed to Sub Pop for the world! We will release the group’s first new album since 2004’s Audit in Progress, as well as reissue their exceptional catalog – Audit…, Suicide Invoice and Automatic Midnight – in the Spring of 2018.
These influential post-hardcore all-stars – boasting members of Pitchfork, Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Earthless, Obits, Burning Brides, OFF!, The Delta 72, and more – have released three of our favorite rock records of the past 20 years. And soon enough that’ll be four…
While we wait for new tunes, Hot Snakes have just scheduled headlining tour dates (their first new shows since 2011!), which begin November 8th, 2017 in Long Beach at Alex’s Bar and run through November 18th, 2017 in Philadelphia at Underground Arts. The trek includes stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Early pre-sales for these shows begin today, August 14th at noon ET, with tickets on sale to general public Thursday, August 17th at 12pm EST. For up to date ticket information, please visit hotsnakes.shofetti.com.
Nov. 08 - Long Beach, CA - Alex’s Bar Nov. 09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour Nov. 10 - San Francisco, CA - The Chapel Nov. 11- Portland, OR - Star Theatre Nov. 12 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey Nov. 15 - Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel Nov. 16 - Brooklyn, NY - Bell House Nov. 17 - Boston, MA - Middle East - Boston Nov. 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
There’s no time like the present to obsessively follow news of the Hot Snakes variety via Facebook, or right here on subpop.com.
More on Hot Snakes from Swami John Reis:
Hot Snakes formed in 2000, after the release of their first record, Automatic Midnight. They were John Reis, Jason Kourkounis, Rick Froberg, and Gar Wood. The band’s sound represented a return to the unrealized past of its members. This time their musics would be direct, undraped and rock ‘n’ roll while still maintaining the dense and turbulent character of the members’ previous work (“hard” labor). In April or May of that year, Hot Snakes found their live sound and established themselves as primo, down-stroke warlords.
Wikipedia says that in 2002 the band released their second album, Suicide Invoice. The album exhibited Hot Snakes slightly larger palate in mood and dissonance. People enjoyed the shows and listening to the recorded music. But, strain from controversy and fame would reveal cracks in the worn hides of these old road dawgs. Exit Jason Kourkounis to focus on other musics.
In 2004 Mario Rubalcaba joined the band and Hot Snakes released their third and last studio album, Audit in Progress. An increased attraction to dissonance surfaced as the band spiraled downward into a mid-life punk crisis. Yet, more shows were played and enjoyed and the band visited many cities all over the world. By 2005, the band had stopped performing.
2011 saw the return of Hot Snakes. The band appeared on the premier festival circuit. Both drummers performed with the band on the songs which they each recorded. The reformation proved the band to still be in the top 5. They discussed writing new material and building upon this revitalized momentum. After an additional 6 years of discussions, Hot Snakes returned to the studio in 2017 to commence recording. And, lucky for all of us, 2017 finds Hot Snakes charging back, renewed, playing shows and planning for the release of a new album in 2018 on Sub Pop Records.
International Tour Kicks Off With Hometown Release Day Show in Providence, 8/11
Downtown Boys will release their third album (and Sub Pop debut), Cost of Livingon August 11. Produced by Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, one of indie-rock’s most mythological figures (he also produced Blonde Redhead, The Gossip, and others), Cost of Living shows a sense of maturity without compromising the band’s righteous assault and captivating presence. Fans can hear the radical masterpiece in its entirety a week early, streaming via NPR First Listen today.
The Providence, RI band previously released the single “Lips That Bite” via Adult Swim Singles Program- the follow-up to the politically charged single “A Wall.” Downtown Boys use their ferocious energy and powerhouse live shows to unite crowds in the struggle to smash racism, queerphobia, capitalism, fascism, boredom, and all things people use to try to close our minds, eyes and hearts.
In addition to festival appearances at Riot Fest, London Calling, and Made In America, Downtown Boys are about to kick off an international tour, starting on release day in the band’s hometown of Providence, RI. Full list of dates is HERE.
[Photo Credit: Miguel Rosario]
The position of Downtown Boys has been clear since they started storming through basements and DIY spaces with their radically-minded, indefatigable rock music: they are here to topple the white-cis-het hegemony and draft a new history. This is how Downtown Boys began, and their resolve has only strengthened as both their sound and audience have grown. Like the socially conscious groups of years past, from Public Enemy to Rage Against the Machine, Downtown Boys harness powerful sloganeering, repetitive grooves, and earworm hooks to create one of the most necessary musical statements of today.
The time is now for you to follow Downtown Boys everywhere over the known internets via Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Bandcamp.
Bully burst onto the scene in 2015 with their critically acclaimed album Feels Like. Today the band announces their Sub Pop debut Losing, and share lead track “Feel The Same.”
Fronted by Alicia Bognanno, Bully was born in 2013. Bognanno was an engineer who cut her teeth working at Electrical Audio in Chicago. Together with guitarist Clayton Parker and Reece Lazarus on bass, they made a debut album received unanimous critical acclaim and Bognanno became a point of intrigue. A rock icon in the making, with her signature scream, messy blonde hair hanging in her face, with formidable skills as both a player and a engineer who prefers recording to tape. “The coarse Cobain head-scream of Bully singer, songwriter and guitarist Alicia Bognanno is its own resuscitating jolt of protest,” said Pitchfork. “She spends much of Feels Like tearing the house down with her howl.” The success propelled the band into an exhaustive touring cycle with spots on huge festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapallooza, Pitchfork Music Festival and ACL and a late night appearance on Conan.
While Feels Like tumbled headlong into the precarious nature of Bognanno’s young adult life, Losing is a document of the complexity of growth: navigating breakups with sensitivity, learning not to run away from your troubles but to face them no matter how messy they may be. The debut single, “Feel The Same’ is the album opener. Like an electric-shock Bognanno is back in your face tackling the angst of a young person feeling their way through the world. The song describes the prison of a manic mind-set, being trapped in your own head. On “Seeing It” she addresses the issue of personal safety and navigating the world as a woman. On “Running” she focuses on personal relationships and the avoidance of facing the demise of a personal relationship.
Losing is an internal, carefully focused record, a universalized diary and an exorcism-not of any one specific demon, but the host of them that characterize contemporary anxieties. Bully are growing up, sure, but their fire is in no way diminishing.
Losing is available for pre-order now from Sub Pop Records and Bully’s webstore. LP pre-orders of the album from Sub Pop and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Edition on clear vinyl with black swirls (while supplies last).
Losing was engineered and mixed by lead-singer Alicia Bognanno in Chicago at Electrical Audio.
Losing
Track Listing:
1. Feel the Same
2. Kills to Be Resistant
3. Running
4. Seeing It
5. Guess There
6. Blame
7. Focused
8. Not the Way
9. Spiral
10. Either Way
11. You Could Be Wrong
12. Hate and Control
More About Bully and Losing: by Patty Schemel
In rock - as in life - change is unavoidable, often painful, but ultimately necessary, and Alicia Bognanno and her band Bully have dealt with a lot of it since their debut record
Feels Like hit in 2015. Now with a new label and another couple years worth of life experience, the 12 new songs on Losing feel like perfect anthems for a generation still learning to harness the power of resistance. With a vocal style that is as pretty as it is powerful, and emotionally resonant lyrics, Alicia channels the loss of innocence and reveals a raw honesty in songs that are distinctly hers.
I love Bully the way I love Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr and the Breeders. Their sound takes me back to the stripped down and thoughtfully engineered songs that haunt me long after they’re gone and never get old. Another good reason to be with Sub Pop, who have always been associated with music that is built to last.
I feel like all my best work has been born of heartbreak and upheaval; maybe most musicians feel that way. “The title of the record -Losing - kind of says it all,” Alicia says. “After being on the road so long and coming back to Nashville we all had a lot of changes going on in our personal lives that we were trying to deal with / adjust to and that was really the motivation for this one.”
“Feel the Same” is about being stuck in the claustrophobia of a manic state of mind. It’s Alicia’s favorite song to scream. “Seeing It,” she says, is about the unique anxiety and vigilance about personal safety that comes with being a woman: “Such a blurring place to be / stuck in your own body.” Lately Alicia has been lending her voice as an advocate for gun control, women’s rights and speaking out in support of animal rights. In some ways my generation were in a bubble in the 90s; I never gave any thought to what Bill Clinton was up to, for instance - but in 2017, Losing sounds like a personal and necessary call to arms to me; we need rock n roll now more than ever.
[Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen]
Bully Tour Dates + Ticket Links
Bully will head out on a North American Tour beginning November 2nd. Highlights include Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 13th, Thalia Hall in Chicago in two nights at the Mercy Lounge in the band’s hometown of Nashville.
11/02/17- St Louis MO - Off Broadway
11/03/17 - Iowa City IA - The Mill
11/04/17 - Minneapolis MN - Fine Line Music Cafe
11/06/17 - Madison WI - High Noon Saloon
11/07/17 - Chicago IL - Thalia Hall
11/08/17 - Detroit MI - Marble Bar
11/09/17 - Toronto ON - Lee’s Palace
11/10/17 - Montreal QC - Bar le Ritz
11/12/17 - Boston MA - Great Scott
11/13/17 - Brooklyn NY - Music Hall of WIlliamsburg
11/14/17 - Philadelphia PA - First Unitarian Church
The new METZ track, “Drained Lake,” is a propulsive, jagged thing; heavy 21st century post-post-punk, with an infectious sea-sick synth line added for good measure. Strange Peaceis their highly-anticipated third full-length album due out September 22nd.
“Drained Lake” reflects “The constant struggle to know yourself and make sense of your life and surroundings. What is my purpose? Holding on to who you are while fending off pressure to bend to what other people want and expect from you,” says METZ frontman Alex Edkins.
Strange Peace is available for pre-order now from both Sub Pop and Royal Mountain Records. [Canadian fans can pre-order the new record here.]
LP pre-orders of the Sub Pop album from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Edition on clear vinyl with red and green swirls (while supplies last).
METZ recently shared a visual for Strange Peace’s lead track “Cellophane” (and you should watch it here). Stereogum says, “‘Cellophane’ is big and juicy and punishing, just like every METZ track, but it’s also a bit more melodic and structured than most of the band’s work. If this is what we can expect from a new album, we should be excited about it.”
Previously announced 2017 international tour dates for METZ begin with a two-night stand September 5th and 6th in Atlanta at 529 and ends December 16th in Houston at Warehouse Live. The band have added two new dates as direct support for Modest Mouse on October 10th in Providence, RI at Lupo’s and October 11th in Sayreville, NJ’s Starland Ballroom. Additionally, METZ will play shows with Suuns (September 29th-30th), Uniform (October 2nd-6th), Protomartyr (September 22nd; November 2nd-8th), Brian Case (November 9th), Drahla (November 12th-24th), and Cherubs (December 15th). All of their current tour dates follow:
Sep. 05 - Atlanta, GA - 529 Sep. 06 - Atlanta, GA - 529 Sep. 07- Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Festival Sep. 22 - Detroit, MI - The Princess Boat ! ^^ Sep. 25 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall Sep. 29 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace * Sep. 30 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace * Oct. 02 - Boston, MA - Sinclair # Oct. 03 - Philadelphia, PA - The First Unitarian Church # Oct. 04 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg # Oct. 05 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom # Oct. 06 - Washington, DC - Rock & Roll Hotel # Oct. 07 - Hamden, CT - The Ballroom Oct. 08 - Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa Oct. 10 - Providence, RI - Lupo’s ** Oct. 11 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom ** Nov. 02 - Prague, Czech Republic - Futurum ! Nov. 03 - Wroclaw, Poland - Klub Firlej ! Nov. 04 - Warsaw, Poland - Klub Hydrozagadka ! Nov. 06 - Berlin, Germany - Bi Nuu ! Nov. 07 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen ! Nov. 08 - Hamburg, Germany - Knust ! Nov. 09 - Zwolle, Netherlands - Poppodium Hedon ^ Nov. 10 - Kortrijk, Belgium - De Kruen (Sonic City Festival) Nov. 12 - Le Havre, France - Le Tetris % Nov. 14 - Nimes, France - La Paloma % Nov. 15 - Bordeaux, France - Theatre Barbey % Nov. 16 - Toulouse, France - Club Metronum % Nov. 17 - Barcelona, Spain - La (2) De Apolo % Nov. 18 - Madrid, Spain - Moby Dick % Nov. 20 - Nantes, France - Pole Etudiant % Nov. 21 - Paris, France - Le Trabendo % Nov. 22 - London, UK - The Garage % Nov. 23 - Bristol, UK - The Fleece % Nov. 24 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club % Nov. 25 - Brighton, UK - The Haunt Dec. 07 - Seattle, WA - Neumos Dec. 08 - Vancouver, BC - Cobalt Dec. 09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Dec. 11 - San Francisco, CA - Independent Dec. 12 - Los Angeles, CA - Teragram Dec. 13 - San Diego, CA - Casbah Dec. 15 - Austin, TX - Mohawk & Dec. 16 - Houston, TX - Studio @ Warehouse Live * w/ SUUNS # w/ Uniform ! w/ Protomartyr ^ w/ Brian Case % w/ Drahla & w/ Cherubs ** w/ Modest Mouse ^^ w/ Preoccupations, Tyvek, Adult
Downtown Boys use their ferocious energy and powerhouse live shows to unite crowds in the struggle to smash racism, queerphobia, capitalism, fascism, boredom, and all things people use to try to close our minds, eyes and hearts. Today, the band has released their highly anticipated and critically acclaimed third album, Cost of Living, on Sub Pop. Produced by Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, one of indie-rock’s most mythological figures (he also produced Blonde Redhead, The Gossip, and others), Cost of Living shows a sense of maturity without compromising the band’s righteous assault and captivating presence.
The position of Downtown Boys has been clear since they started storming through basements and DIY spaces with their radically-minded, indefatigable rock music: they are here to topple the white-cis-het hegemony and draft a new history. This is how Downtown Boys began, and their resolve has only strengthened as both their sound and audience have grown. Like the socially conscious groups of years past, from Public Enemy to Rage Against the Machine, Downtown Boys harness powerful sloganeering, repetitive grooves, and earworm hooks to create one of the most necessary musical statements of today.
In addition to festival appearances at Riot Fest, London Calling, and Made In America, Downtown Boys are about to kick off an international tour, starting today in the band’s hometown of Providence, RI. Full list of dates are HERE.
What have “The People” said about Downtown Boys? Well, since you asked…
“Accompanied by production from Greg Norman and Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, Downtown Boys sound sharper than ever, their urgency tightened into a raging storm.” – Pitchfork, Best New Track
“[A Wall] feels powerful enough to break down any physical boundary.” – FADER
“Downtown Boys’ mission: to reject boundaries that separate our humanity.” – NPR
“Listening to [A Wall] feels like being seen, recognized—the head-nod—and the power in both the delivery and the words bring solace and strength.” – Jezebel
“There are serious grooves on Cost Of Living, chugging basslines that propel one song into the next, mood pieces that are thick and urgent and tightly controlled. […] They make music that aims to inspire some spark of radical progress in this country, and the torch is all of ours to bear.” – Stereogum
“For five years, the Providence-born punk collective Downtown Boys have been one of America’s most incendiary bands, their no-nonsense political stances and chaotic songs coming together in messages of personal and societal liberation.” – Boston Globe
“In their best moments … Ruiz and company solidify their status as the most vital band in the scene right now.” – Afropunk
“Downtown Boys are one of the most exciting bands around.“ – Salon
