News from 2/2021

NEWS : WED, FEB 3, 2021 at 7:00 AM

Flock of Dimes shares the official video for “Two,” the lead single from Head of Roses, her new album, out worldwide April 2nd, 2021 from Sub Pop

Today, Flock of Dimes (aka Jenn Wasner) is sharing “Two,” the official video and lead single from Head of Roses, her stunning new album out April 2nd, 2021 via Sub Pop. Wasner’s second solo LP, Head of Roses showcases her ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, combined with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator.

 Head of Roses is now available for preorder through Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on peach swirl vinyl (while supplies last). LP preorders in the U.K. and in Europe will receive the Loser edition on Magenta vinyl (while supplies last).

The video for today’s release, “Two,” which was directed by Lola B. Pierson and Cricket Arrisonstars Wasner and Arrison and explores the layers of artifice that we wrap ourselves in to make it through the day.
 
Directors Pierson and Arrison offer this on the video’s specific theme,“The world of the video shows two humans during three consecutive days. One human lives her life from morning to night, the other from night to morning. In the middle of the day they meet and the next day begins. By exploring dichotomies (natural/artificial, day/night, everyday/majestic) the work points to the pain caused by categorization and the joy of unification.”


 
Wasner elaborates: “’Two’ is about trying to find a kind of balance between independence and interdependence, and the multitudes within ourselves. It’s about trying to reconcile the desire to maintain a sense of personal autonomy and freedom with the need to connect deeply with others. And it’s about struggling to feel at home in a body, and learning how to accept that the projection of self that you show to others will always be incomplete.
 
“I made this video with an incredible team of generous and talented people, including some very dear old friends. I think what we made captures the spirit of the song perfectly—the sense of delight and wonder at the absurd beauty of everyday life, and the true moments of spontaneous joy that can erupt in those rare moments when you catch a glimpse of yourself the way others see you.”



 
Flock of Dimes’ Head of Roses, which features “Two,” along with the standouts “Price of Blue,” “Hard Way,” and “One More Hour,” was produced by Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) and Wasner at Betty’s in Chapel Hill, NC, engineered by Bella Blasko with additional engineering by Sanborn, mixed by Ari Picker and Blasko, and mastered by Huntley Miller. The album features appearances from guitarist Meg DuffyBon Iver’s Matt McCaughanWye Oak’s Andy Stack, and Landlady’s Adam SchatzHead of Roses follows the release of Like So Much Desire, her acclaimed digital EP released June 2020 on Sub Pop.
 
Head of Roses is now available for preorder through Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers in North America will receive the limited Loser edition on peach swirl vinyl (while supplies last). LP preorders in the U.K. and in Europe will receive the Loser edition on Magenta vinyl (while supplies last).


More on Head of Roses:
On her second full-length record, Head of Roses, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting. The result is a combination of Wasner’s ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator. 
 
Simply put, Head of Roses is a record about heartbreak, but from a dualistic perspective. It’s about the experience of having one’s heart broken and breaking someone else’s heart at the same time. But beyond that, it’s about having to reconcile the experience of one’s own pain with the understanding that it’s impossible to go through life without being the source of great pain for someone else.
 
“Part of the journey for me has been learning to take responsibility for the parts of things that are mine, even when I’m in a lot of pain through some behavior or action of someone else. If I’m expecting to be forgiven for the things I’ve done and the choices I’ve made and the mistakes that I’ve made, it would be incredibly cowardly and hypocritical to not also do the work that’s required to forgive others the pain they caused me.”
 
Showcasing the depth of Wasner’s songwriting capabilities and the complexity of her vision, Head of Roses calls upon her singular ability to create a fully-formed sonic universe via genre-bending amalgamation of songs and her poetic and gut punch lyrics. It’s the soundtrack of Wasner letting go – of control, of heartbreak, and of hiding who she is: “I think I’ve finally reached a point in my career where I feel comfortable enough with myself and what I do, that I’m able to relax into a certain simplicity or straight forwardness that I wasn’t comfortable with before.” Head of Roses puts Wasner’s seismically powerful voice front and center. Those vocals help thread it all together – it’s a textured musicality, quilted together by intentionality and intuition.
    
Wasner and producer Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made of Oak) assembled Head of Roses in the same way you’d put together a mixtape, painstakingly and carefully melding disparate parts into a whole, transcending genre to weave a story of heartache and healing together. And in the same way a homemade, painstakingly-crafted mixtape plays out, with the maker’s fingerprints left all over its songs – so goes Head of Roses. Carefully curated and culled from the depths of Wasner’s heartbreak and healing, it’s deeply, intensely personal.
 
But just as we change ourselves by embracing the pain of loss and uncertainty, so too are the purpose of these songs changed through the act of creating them. Having succeeded in healing the person who made them, they now exist for those who find them in their own moments of need. Always in motion, the original spirit of creation has already flown from this place—but it’s left behind a blueprint, a tool for you, to lean on, too.
 
What people are saying about Flock of Dimes:
“It’s a gorgeous, lofty waltz, with synthesizers billowing around acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies, as Wasner sings an enigmatic reverie…” [“Like So Much Desire”] - New York Times
 
“Regardless of the how and when, Like So Much Desire is the kind of surprise release built for a time of isolation, even in these waning days of lockdown…her music here is spare and meditative — all slowburn and airy, mostly Wasner singing over restrained guitar and strings. It’s as customarily pretty as you’d expect…” [Like So Much Desire] - Stereogum
 
“Awash in comfort and calm, Like So Much Desire offers a space of peace and reflection, one that is most welcome in such uncertain times.” [Like So Much Desire] - PASTE
 
“The five atmospheric songs on the EP are a gorgeous showcase for Wasner’s songwriting and vocal abilities, with some spine-tingling harmonies and string arrangements.”[Like So Much Desire] - Brooklyn Vegan
 
“The five-track effort is a simply stunning collection, which draws us closer to Wasner than ever.” [Like So Much Desire] - Beats Per Minute
 
“Among the highlights are the title track, an offering about loss; “Spring in Winter,” a hymnal-like piece about NC’s seasonal beauty; and “Thank You Friends and Strangers”, which features actual sounds of chirping birds and outdoor noises.” [Like So Much Desire] - Consequence of Sound
 
“Wasner is a force to be reckoned with but on Like So Much Desire that is brought with an unforeseen gentleness. Arriving at a time when so little in life is balanced, the EP takes the pulse down a notch and gets to the deeply personal. Letting her voice take center stage, Wasner gets her message across like never before.” [Like So Much Desire] - Under the Radar


Flock of Dimes
Head of Roses
 
Tracklisting:
1. 2 Heads
2. Price of Blue
3. Two
4. Hard Way
5. Walking
6. Lightning
7. One More Hour
8. No Question
9. Awake for the Sunrise
10. Head of Roses


Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : FRI, FEB 5, 2021 at 7:00 AM

TV Priest’s debut, ‘Uppers’, is available now worldwide!

Today, TV Priest release Uppers, their full-length debut on CD/LP/CS/DSPs worldwide through Sub Pop. 

Sub Pop became fans of TV Priest’s politically urgent, mechanical, subtly humorous (and self-deprecating) post-punk following the release of their standalone singles “House of York” and “Runner Up” as well as the Uppers early preview tracks “This Island” and “Slideshow.”


“Decoration,” Uppers’ centerpiece, has a streamlined groove soundtracking Charlie’s lyrical vignettes that captures the absurdity and mundanity of life. Its opening and closing line (“I’ve never seen a dog do what that dog does”) is a misremembered quote by Simon Cowell about a performing dog on Britain’s Got Talent. Charlie says, “We often said it in the studio as a kind of in-joke when someone did something good or unexpected. Having already toyed around with the ‘Through to the next round’ line,’ this seemed too good to leave out.” And the chorus “It’s all just decoration” is credited to the 2-year old niece of Alex’s fiancé, who reassured him after he pretended to be scared by Halloween decorations. 


“Press Gang” is inspired by Charlie’s grandfather’s life’s work as a photojournalist and war correspondent on the UK’s Fleet Street from the 1950s to the early 1980s. The song is about the shifting role in the dissemination of information and ideas, and how the prevailing narrative that the “Death of Print Media” has contributed to a “post truth” world.

Album closer “Saintless” is the most personal and raw moment on Uppers. Charlie wrote a note to his son after his birth, following a difficult period his wife had faced during and after the pregnancy. The song is about how as parents we’re fallible and human, and while the world can be a difficult place at times the one thing that gets you through is giving your love to those that need and appreciate it. “Saintless” rides a motorik beat, with guitars, bass and synths building layers of intensity and emotion that replicate and swell with the message of the track.

Uppers sees TV Priest explicitly and outwardly trying to avoid narrowmindedness. Uppers sees TV Priest taking musical and personal risks, reaching outside of themselves and trying to make sense of this increasingly messy world. It’s a band and a record that couldn’t arrive at a more perfect time.

About TV Priest’s Uppers:

It’s tempting to think that you have all the answers, screaming your gospel every day with certainty and anger. Life isn’t quite like that though, and the debut album from London four-piece TV Priest instead embraces the beautiful and terrifying unknowns that exist personally, politically and culturally.

Posing as many questions as it answers, Uppers is a thunderous opening statement that continues the UK’s recent resurgence of grubby, furious post-punk music. It says something very different though – something completely its own.

Four childhood friends who made music together as teenagers before drifting apart and then, somewhat inevitably, back together late in 2019, TV Priest was born out of a need to create together once again, and brings with it a wealth of experience and exhaustion picked up in the band’s years of pursuing “real life” and “real jobs,” something those teenagers never had.

In November 2019, the band – vocalist Charlie Drinkwater, guitarist Alex Sprogis, bass and keys player Nic Bueth, and drummer Ed Kelland – played their first show, to a smattering of friends in what they describe as an “industrial freezer” in the warehouse district of Hackney Wick. “It was like the pub in Peep Show with a washing machine just in the middle…” Charlie laughs, remembering how they dodged Star Wars memorabilia and deep fat fryers while making their first statement as a band.

Unsurprisingly, there isn’t a precedent for introducing an album during a global pandemic, but among the general sense of anxiety and unease pervading everything at the moment, TV Priest’s entrance in April with the release of debut single “House of York” - a searing examination of the Monarchy - served as a breath of fresh air among the chaos, its anger and confusion making some kind of twisted sense to the nation’s fried brains.

It’s the same continued global sense of anxiety that will greet the release of Uppers, and it’s an album that has a lot to say right now. Taking musical cues from The Fall and Protomartyr as well as the mechanical, pulsating grooves of Kosmische Musik, it’s a record that moves with an untamed energy. Over the top of this rumbling musical machine is vocalist Charlie, a cuttingly funny, angry, confused, real frontman.

What people have been saying about TV Priest:

“Fuzzed-out post punk from London four-piece on debut LP… harsh, brittle eruptions offering up a variety of teeth-rattling noises.” [UppersUncut

Ragged yet tight, sprawling yet focussed, it’s a singular vision of a disparate time. It rounds up most of the usual suspects of our Un-united Kingdom, the pop culture, the insularity, the lies on the side of a bus, but manages to breathe new life into those old tropes by sheer force of personality. [Uppers, ★★★★] - DORK

“The post-punk band have caught attention with a string of superb singles, exemplifying their scorching post-punk sound.” - CLASH

“Vocalist Charlie Drinkwater scrolls endlessly as his country fades into irrelevance on British band TV Priest’s latest fiery missive.” [“This Island”/ “20 Best Rock Songs Right Now, Aug.”] - The FADER

They fit in with the post-punk revival - sultry, prophetic lyricism with brash instrumentation…” [“This Island”] - Brooklyn Vegan

“Scorching” [“This Island”] - DIY

“The track’s distorted organs serve as riled-up opening remarks before gruelling dark vocals spit out patriotic cliches and commemorative Latin phrases. “This is not my national anthem” sneers Charlie Drinkwater over a fuzzy echo of the Star-Spangled Banner. Thrashing industrial guitars smash any sense of security.” [“House of York”] - The Line Of Best Fit

“’This Island’ is a densely packed ball of energy, and their occasional spillovers of momentum are exhilarating.” - PASTE

“A frenzied anthem.”[“House of York”]  - Earmilk

“A riotous debut single… finding a balance of subtlety and decisive awakening that’s fed through the laconic, abstract drawl of Charlie Drinkwater, seamlessly subverting into a deafening anthem in itself.” [“House of York”] - So Young

“Their sound is ultimately chaotic, with cuts of fuzzy distortion creating a disorienting and thrilling listening experience.” [“House of York”] - Gigwise



TV Priest
Uppers

 
Tracklisting:
1. The Big Curve
2. Press Gang
3. Leg Room
4. Journal of a Plague Year
5. History Week
6. Decoration
7. Slideshow
8. Fathers and Sons
9. the ref
10. Powers of Ten
11. This Island
12. Saintless


Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : THU, FEB 11, 2021 at 7:00 AM

Sub Pop signs Hannah Jadagu for the world and shares official video for “Think Too Much,” her new single and label debut

Sub Pop has signed Hannah Jadagu, an 18 year-old singer, songwriter, and producer from Mesquite, Texas, to release her music throughout the known universe. Her first release is the sprightly indie pop single “Think Too Much,” with an accompanying official video directed by Cameron Livesey, which stars Jadagu and a group of close friends enjoying a fall day in New York City. As for how the song was produced, the incredibly resourceful Jadagu recorded “Think Too Much” using her iPhone 7, an iRig, a microphone, guitar, and Garageband iOS, a process that has served her well throughout her young recording career.
 
“‘Think Too Much’ is the only song that I’d written with the intent of putting it on an EP,” Jadagu says. “Sonically, I was challenging myself to make a song that was high energy, fun, and a ‘bop,’ as I like to call it. At the time, I remember listening to a lot of Dayglow, Jean Dawson, and Winnetka Bowling League, and thinking to myself, ‘These people are making such catchy and fun songs without even trying.’ Then I thought to myself, ‘You’re really thinking too much.’ I asked all my friends what they thought about ‘too much,’ compiled their responses, chose some fun chords and rhythms inspired by Snail Mail and Phoenix, and went to work.”
 
She continues, “Essentially the song is a conversation with myself, as heard through the chants and the ‘kids voices,’ which is just my voice recorded in different pitches and tones. The lines ‘You’re just getting started, you’re the coolest I know’ were inspired by one of my favorite teachers in high school. She never actually taught me, but she was the young, cool teacher that would come into my leadership class, and we would bond over music and stylistic choices (Shout-out, Ms. Drillette). After letting go, and using a scrapped guitar demo I had, I was able to finally write and produce ‘the bop’.”




Sub Pop first became aware of Jadagu in early 2020 via her Soundcloud recordings “Unending” and “Pollen.” While growing up in the Dallas suburb, she began making music at home, as a fun and creative outlet. Bedroom pop artists like Her’s, Gus Dapperton, Yeek, and Sales served as inspiration, as did listening to mixtapes in the car that her mom made, while they drove around town.
 
“When I was in elementary school, I would always finish my work early to play on the computers and use GarageBand on the early Macs,” Jadagu says. “That was my first glimpse into music production. Then, I gravitated towards percussion and school choirs, even joining the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas.”
 
The multitalented Jadagu currently resides in New York City, and is in her first year attending NYU. She will release her debut EP later this spring. Hannah is definitely just getting started, and we could not be more excited.



Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : FRI, FEB 5, 2021 at 9:00 AM

Watch the “Girl Power Jam” lyric video from Bob’s Burgers Valentine’s Day available now digitally worldwide from Sub Pop

Today, Sub Pop has released Bob’s Burgers Valentine’s Day which features songs from the 20th Television’s Emmy-award winning hit comedy, now in its eleventh season.
 
The Bob’s Burgers Valentine’s Day release features music performed by the main cast members – Bob (H. Jon Benjamin), Linda (John Roberts), their children Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman), Louise (Kristen Schaal) and handyman Teddy (Larry Murphy). 
 
Bob’s Burgers Valentine’s Day features ten songs from the show including the lyric video for “Girl Power Jam,” along with highlights “Hate The Way I Love You,” “Sky Kiss” (“Intro” and “Extended”)  and “The Right Number of Boys.”
 
Bob’s Burgers Valentine’s Day is the third holiday-themed EP release (along with Thanksgiving and Bob’s Burgers Christmas released November 2020) and is available now worldwide through all DSPS from Sub Pop.



About Bob’s Burgers Valentine’s Day
Every fan of Bob’s Burgers has a favorite song from the show. Every fan also has a favorite holiday episode. 
Sub Pop Records has gathered together these fan-favorite Valentine’s Day musical moments from seasons one through eleven so you can enjoy them with your loved ones.  Produced by the series creator and executive producer Loren Bouchard’s Wilo Productions in partnership with Bento Box Entertainment, with Sub Pop licensing the rights from 20th Television.
Fans know that music is more than just a condiment to Bob’s. Sometimes silly, sometimes sprawling, always heartfelt and firmly in the voice of the show, the music of Bob’s Burgers is part of the meat of the thing itself.


Bob’s Burgers 
Valentine’s Day 

Tracklisting:
1.The Briefest of Glances
2. Sky Kiss (Intro)
3. Sky Kiss (Extended)
4. Girl Power Jam
5. Alone
6. Doot Doo I Love You
7. Friend Zone
8. Hate the Way I Love You
9. No Pants in Space
10. The Right Number of Boys



Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : WED, FEB 10, 2021 at 7:00 AM

Watch Ya Tseen’s official video for “Close the Distance” from Indian Yard, the group’s Sub Pop debut

On April 30th, 2021, Sub Pop will release Indian Yard, the debut record from Sitka, Alaska project Ya Tseen. Band founder, Nicholas Galanin is one of the most vital voices in contemporary art. His work spans sculpture, video, installation, photography, jewelry and music; advocating for Indigenous sovereignty, racial, social and environmental justice, for present, and future generations.
 
Indian Yard is a compelling document of humanity centered in an Indigenous perspective. Created by one of the world’s foremost Indigenous artists, the irrepressible Indian Yard is an intense illumination of feeling and interconnectedness. On the groups’ debut offering, “Close the Distance”, Galanin “reflects on the universal need for connection and the expression of desire across distances. The official video, directed by Stephan Gray (Shabazz Palaces “Dawn In Luxor,” “Deesse Du Sang”), extends beyond human experience to consider physical expressions of desire in biological, mechanical, and celestial forms.”




Galanin began working on the record in 2017 while going back and forth between his home in Sitka and Juneau, Alaska where he was carving a totem pole. The album entwines falling in love and the birth of a child with the urgency of current social and environmental justice movements to tear down destructive systems and build anew.  He shared the concepts with bandmates Zak D. Wass and Otis Calvin III and together they structured the album alongside longtime collaborator Benjamin Verdoes. Through sessions in Sitka and Seattle, a cast of brilliant friends—Shabazz Palaces, Nick Hakim, fellow Indigenous Alaskan singer and songwriter Qacung, to name a few—helped form Indian Yard into a cataract of intensely current pop wonders. 

Indian Yard is now available for preorder on CD/LP through Sub Pop. LP preorders through megamart.subpop.comselect independent retailers in North Americathe U.K., and Europe will receive the standard LP on black vinyl.
 
There will also be a North American deluxe edition on clear vinyl available for preorder in the coming weeks. The deluxe packaging will include a 24-page hardcover LP-sized book with covers featuring a sci-fi landscape populated by a toddler wearing artist Merritt Johnson’s sculpture Mindset, a VR headset woven from sweetgrass. The interior art was designed by Galanin. This deluxe edition will be available while supplies last.


More on Ya Tseen’s Indian Yard:
Nicholas Galanin is one of the most vital voices in contemporary art. Born in Sheet’ka (Sitka, Alaska), Galanin is Tlingit and Unangax̂; he creates from this perspective as an Indigenous man. His work calls for an accounting of the damages done to land and life by unfettered capitalism while envisioning and advocating alternate possibilities. For the 2020 Biennale of Sydney, he excavated the shape of the shadow cast by the monumental statue of Captain James Cook, a call for the burial of monuments to violent histories; ArtNEWS and Artsy called a defining work of 2020. Land Swipe—a painted deer hide that depicts the NYC subway map, marked with selected sites of police violence against Black youth—was called one of “the most important art moments in 2020” by The New York Times. His work spans sculpture, video, installation, photography, jewelry, and music; advocating for Indigenous sovereignty, racial, social, and environmental justice, for present, and future generations.
 
His debut as Ya Tseen (“be alive,” and a reference to his Tlingit name Yeil Ya Tseen) is Indian Yard, his first album for Sub Pop.  Rich with emotional range and sharp awareness, Indian Yard explores love, desire, frustration, pain, revolution, and connection through magnetic expressions of an Indigenous mind and body. The lusty electro-soul cascade of “Close the Distance,” the lithe funk frolic of “Get Yourself Together,” the insistent weight of “Back in That Time,” sung in Yupik: These 11 tracks put Galanin, Ya Tseen, and Indigenous art at large in a current musical conversation with the likes of Moses Sumney and TV on the Radio, FKA Twigs, and James Blake.
 
Indian Yard is a profound record of liberation and an implicit act of protest, making its case by facing the intersection of past, present, and future realities. In a nod to Sun Ra, “Gently To The Sun” mentions “meds for a nightmare”—an apt description for a record that offers a much-needed antidote for what now ails us personally and universally.
 
This is not, by any means, Galanin’s first album. He has released a steady stream of records under a panoply of aliases, including Silver Jackson and Indian Agent. He has worked with the likes of Meshell Ndegeocello, Tanya Tagaq, and Samantha Crain. And for the better part of a decade, he’s also been part of the revolutionarily borderless art collective Black Constellation alongside Shabazz Palaces and THEESatisfaction (read full bio at Sub Pop).


Ya Tseen
Indian Yard


Tracklisting:
1. Knives (feat. Portugal. The Man)
2. Light the Torch
3. Born into Rain (feat. Rum.gold and Tunia)
4. At Tugáni
5. Get Yourself Together
6. Close the Distance
7. We Just Sit and Smile Here in Silence
8. A Feeling Undefined (fat. Nick Hakim and Iska Dhaaf)
9. Synthetic Gods (feat. Shabazz Palaces and Stas THEE Boss)
10. Gently to the Sun (feat. Tay Sean)
11. Back in That Time (feat. Qacung)


Posted by Abbie Gobeli

NEWS : WED, FEB 17, 2021 at 7:00 AM

SUB POP’S 2021 LOSER SCHOLARSHIP DETAILS!

Sub Pop Records is extremely proud to announce the return (for our 15th 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 media and 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 Wednesday, March 24th, 2021.
Please send all submissions and attachments to scholarship@subpop.com by Wednesday, March 24th. 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 2007ish 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 or so, 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 Wednesday, March 24th




Posted by Andrew Sullivan