Today, Lael Neale is sharing the official video for “White T-Shirt,” a new song available now on all DSPs and recorded during the Star Eaters Delight sessions, her acclaimed album of 2023, released earlier this spring. The song was written and composed by Neale and produced and mixed by Guy Blakeslee.
Blakeslee says of the song, “‘’White T-Shirt’ dates back a number of years to when I used to follow Lael around LA to all of her barely publicized performances. The song never ceased to silence the chatter in the room. There was nothing I could add to this performance, it’s a raw gem that stands alone and cuts through the noise.”
Lael Neale has also extended her international tour schedule for 2023 in support of Star Eaters Delight, which resumes Tuesday, July 11th in Prague, CR at Zluté Lazné and currently runs through Friday, September 29th in Seattle, WA at The Paramount Theatre.
Highlights for the summer and fall run include UK & European dates supporting Ben Howard (July 11th-July 23rd), U.S. Pacific Northwest dates with label mate Weyes Blood (September 27th-29th), and new UK & European headlining shows (September 6th-16th). A current list of dates is below, and tickets for these shows are on sale now.
Tue. Jul. 11 - Prague, CR - Zluté Lazné * Wed. Jul. 12 - Warsaw, PL - Progresja Summer Stage * Fri. Jul. 14 - Berlin, DE - Zitadelle * Sat. Jul. 15 - Hamburg, DE - Stadtpark * Mon. Jul. 17 - Munich, DE - Tonhalle * Tue. Jul. 18 - Zurich, CH - X-Tra Podium * Fri. Jul. 21 - Glasgow, UK - SWG3 Yard * Sat. Jul. 22 - London, UK - Alexandra Palace Park * Sun. Jul. 23 - Cardiff, UK - Cardiff Castle * Wed. Sep. 06 - Rotterdam, NL - Roodkapje Thu. Sep. 07 - Utrecht, NL - Ekko Fri. Sep. 08 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso Upstairs Sat. Sep. 09 - Asten-Heusden, NL - Misty Fields Festival Mon. Sep. 11 - Bristol, UK - Crofters Rights Tue. Sep. 12 - Brighton, UK - The Prince Albert Wed. Sep. 13 - London, UK - Moth Club Thu. Sep. 14 - Dublin, IE - The Workman’s Club Sat. Sep. 16 - Leffinge, BE - Leffingeleuren Festival Wed. Sep. 27 - San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theater ^ Thu. Sep. 28 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theatre ^ Fri. Sep. 29 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater ^
* w/ Ben Howard ^ w/ Weyes Blood
The beguiling Star Eaters Delight reveals an expansion of Neale’s sonic collaboration with producer and accompanist Guy Blakeslee and arrives on the heels of her Sub Pop debut Acquainted With Night, which won international acclaim for its crystalline vocals, clever songwriting, and excellent use of Omnichord to build a world of beautiful reveries.
In April of 2020, Lael moved from Los Angeles back to her family’s farm in rural Virginia. Looking at the world from a distance and getting in tune with her own rhythms, she wrote and recorded steadily for two dreamlike years, driven by a need to make order out of chaos. Forged in isolation, Star Eaters Delight is a vehicle for returning, not just to civilization, but to celebration. She explains: “The unbroken silences on the farm compelled me to break them with sound. This album is louder and more external, calling out to the world.”
Star Eaters Delight was written by Neale, with arrangements and production by Guy Blakeslee. The recordings were made on cassette in Virginia and mastered by Chris Coady in Los Angeles.
Star Eaters Delight is available now from Sub Pop. LP orders from megamart.subpop.com, and select independent retailers in North America, the UK and Europe, will receive the Loser edition on gold vinyl.
What people are saying about Lael Neale’s Star Eaters Delight: “A unique, boldly weird proposition, and one that proudly carries the faint hint of tractor grease. Half of it comes on like cult 70s folk artist Karen Dalton hanging out with the Velvet Underground and Suicide, while the rest offers somewhat more modern balladry, placing her more in the world of Angel Olsen and Cat Power.” - THE GUARDIAN
“Spellbinding” ★★★★★ - SHINDIG!
“There’s something a little haunting about her voice, it helps too that she writes primarily on the Omnichord, which has a little bit of spookiness built into it. But this is kind of an album for Luddites about how to exist in a world that demands too much of your attention and how you can be intentional about the way you move through it. It was recorded on cassette, which I love because it brings a real warmth to it, and a real presence of being in the room, which I think really delivers that message home.” “New Music Friday: The Best Releases Out April 21st” - NPR MUSIC
“…An excellent new album” - STEREOGUM
“Neale has placed her trust in life’s meanders—and in its source—and the result is her best work yet: a golden mean between experimentation and pop, lo-fi and hi-fi, vitality and rest.” - PASTE
“Neale is imaginative, but she’s steeped in songwriting craft and she knows her way round a whopping chorus.” ★★★★ - MOJO
“Star Eater’s Delight…was recorded on cassette, and tape hiss acts like a third band member here. She sings of flowers, rivers, seas, and trees; holy water, perfect deaths; bells of time, patience, and the speed of medicine. Carried by words and rhythm, she’s barreling towards something just beyond the horizon.” - AQUARIUM DRUNKARD
“Neale has put together a tight package of an album with no stray notes but one also brimming with a sly multitude of ideas. Kudos to Neale for not playing it safe and simultaneously doing something wholly different than anyone else out there.” 9/10 - UNDER THE RADAR
“This collection of versatile songs acts as a tour of different neighborhoods in the beautifully smeary nocturnal dream world Neale began building on her last album.” ★★★★ - ALL MUSIC
“A collection of songs with the weight and conviction of hymns. Some have a more spare, lo-fi feel, with Neale’s voice accompanied by vintage instruments, including her signature mellotron, but the real centerpiece is the eight-minute “In Verona,” which brings a real sense of urgency to its invocations of Shakespeare.” “Notable Releases of the Week” - BROOKLYN VEGAN
“An elegantly spare showcase of her radiant voice, a tremulous yodel tinged with gospel and country inflections. Bathed in antique analog acoustics, spine-tingling ballads of romantic yearning....” - UNCUT
Sub Pop has released the 30th-anniversary edition of Six Finger Satellite’s The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird, the group’s underground classic and debut full-length from 1993, with a brand new, fully remastered CD and double-LP reissue.
Formed in 1990 in Providence, Rhode Island by J. Ryan (singer/keyboards), John MacLean (guitar), Peter Phillips (guitar), Chris Dixon (bass), and Rick Pelletier (drums), Six Finger Satellite quickly signed to Sub Pop and released the band’s first demo tape as the Weapon EP.
Following Weapon, Dixon left the group and was replaced by Kurt Niemand, and the band quickly jumped into making their debut full-length with Bob Weston (of Shellac, who later named a single The Bird Is the Most Popular Finger in honor of Six Finger Satellite). Released in 1993, The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird was the first release to truly capture the adventurous, biting spirit and sound of Six Finger Satellite.
The album is a landmark of noisy, distressing post-punk, drawing influence from Gang of Four, The Birthday Party, and Wire while adding a healthy dose of the band’s own, unique sonic antagonism. Amongst the brittle rock tracks, The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird has dashes of ahead-of-their-time keyboard and studio experiments that became more prominent on the band’s later albums, presaging LCD Soundsystem, DFA Records, and much of the early-2000s post-punk revival.
All Music offers this, “This is the band’s rawest record, featuring the least amount of studio gadgetry and manipulation. J. Ryan’s voice bears no effects or bizarrely buried/contorted trickery, sounding hoarse and anxious throughout. Nonetheless, it certainly sets the table for the band’s love of noise and lunacy, combined with a healthy splash of bizarre humor. Hardly any other indie band at the time was doing this.”
In 2008, Pitchfork rightly called The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird “one of the best noise-rock records of the ‘90s,” writing that “the transitions from silly to searing highlight Six Finger Satellite’s unpredictable and caustic approach… this was the first of several examples of them spurning underground trends, and their most exhilaratingly bitter pill to swallow.”
The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird, featuring a new cover design by Dare Matheson, is now available from Sub Pop. LP orders from megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, and the UK and EU, will receive the limited Loser edition on Red and Blue vinyl.
Six Finger Satellite The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird
Tracklisting: 1. [Untitled] 2. Home for the Holy Day 3. [Untitled] 4. Laughing Larry 5. [Untitled] 6. Funny Like a Clown 7. [Untitled] 8. Deadpan 9. [Untitled] 10. Hi-Lo Jerk 11. [Untitled] 12. Love (via Satellite) 13.[Untitled] 14. Save the Last Dance for Larry 15. [Untitled] 16. Solitary Hiro 17. [Untitled] 18. Neuro-Harmonic Conspiracy 19. [Untitled] 20. Takes One to Know One 21. [Untitled] 22. [Untitled] 23. Takes One To Know One 24. [Untitled]
Today, Wednesday, August 16th, marks the release of new Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 8 contributions from Thrash Palace, Gaye Su Akyol, and a collaborative project from Clipping’s Jonathan Snipes and singer Jessica Winter – each available now on all DSPs and as limited-edition vinyl 7” singles.
Thrash Palace is the new supergroup composed of Erika M. Anderson, Vice Cooler, and Sarah Register. In 2022, guitarist Register (Talk Normal, Kim Gordon, and UK-based trio Better Corners), LA-based producer Cooler (XBXRX, Kim Gordon, Peaches, Louisahhh, AH-MER-AH-SU), and Anderson (aka EMA, also of Gowns, Amps for Christ) pulled off a 48-hour recording session at Cooler’s studio, thus birthing Thrash Palace.
Two songs from the session form Thrash Palace’s debut single. On the anthemic “Go,” Anderson’s growling voice rides alongside Register’s barnstorming guitar and Cooler’s stadium-ready drums, pounding out an urgent heartbeat. The contemplative B-side “Teenage Spaceship” highlights the interwoven vocals of Anderson and Register. The two songs offer a tantalizing taste of what’s to come from the trio.
Gaye Su Akyol is a singer, painter, and anthropologist from Istanbul, Turkey. Her two new, self-produced tracks for the Singles Club fuse hard rock, surf, and electronic music to push at the boundaries of rock and Anatolian psychedelic music (see New York Times Dec. 2019 feature).
Their single leads with a cover of “Love Buzz,” originally by the Dutch psych band Shocking Blue, and famously covered by Nirvana on their 1988 debut single. It is a fitting tribute to the huge impact Nirvana had on Akyol in at a young age. The B-side, “‘Böyle Olur Mu,” breathes new life into the song with hard-to-forget electro baglama, thick bass riffs, heroic guitars, and dark beats. Akyol has a series of US dates in September that includes stops in Philly, DC, Boston, NYC, SF, and Seattle.
Jessica Winter is a musician and producer from the UK. She has produced Mercury Prize winners The Big Moon, and remixed Metronomy, among others. She’s an electronic pop artist but has toured with the likes of Death Grips. Jonathan Snipes is an LA-based composer and sound designer for film and theater, occasional sound-design teacher at UCLA, and member of the rap group clipping.
The pair’s Singles Club Vol. 8 release, “All I Need” b/w “Finish Line,” resulted from a collaborative session, about which Winter says: “We made these songs in Jonathan’s studio on a short stay in Los Angeles. His studio is wall-to-wall modular synth and analog drum machines. I’d come straight from a party in downtown where most people were on crystal meth, and so I was inspired by this new culture I’d stumbled upon. Thinking about the basic needs of life and what things reduce to, ultimately.”
Subscribe to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 8 now to get twelve super-limited 7” vinyl records featuring exclusive music by today’s finest musicians! It’s limited to a mere 835 subscriptions, because it’s volume 8, and 2023 is Sub Pop’s 35th birthday! You’ll get 7”s by Thrash Palace, Gaye Su Akyol, Jessica Winter & Jonathan Snipes, along with Margarita Podridas, Brontez Purnell, Vanishing Twin, Suki Waterhouse, and more. And, to top it all off, you’ll get a lavish storage box, with art by @oldsweaty, to keep the records together.
You will get two singles in the mail roughly every other month though February 2024. Computer users: fear not! You will also get digital downloads of the tracks through your Sub Pop Mega Mart account. Hear music from the series via the Singles Club playlist, and subscribe here.
Today, Local Natives release a reimagining of the single “NYE” featuring singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse. The original version of the song premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music and comes off their fifth studio LP Time Will Wait For No One which arrived earlier this month via Loma Vista. The latest version of “NYE” is dreamy, romantic and stripped-down, with Suki’s vocals adding a contemplative bend - turning a song fit for a house party in the hills into a sunset drive to the beach. The release is accompanied by a performance video directed by Joseph Wasilewski that sees the band in the studio with Suki, watch it HERE.
Suki Waterhouse says, “I’ve been a massive fan of Local Natives for a long time and it was such a fun experience to be in the studio with them. I’m so thrilled that I got to sing on this record with them.”
WATCH LOCAL NATIVES AND SUKI PERFORM “NYE” AT THE FORD LA HERE
Time Will Wait For No One showcases the band’s seminal SoCal harmonies and was recorded across historic LA recording studios with Grammy award winning producer John Congleton (Angel Olsen, Death Cab For Cutie, St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten), Michael Harris (Lana Del Rey, Feist), and Danny Reisch (Sun June, Other Lives).
Following two hometown nights at the Ford Theater in LA to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the band’s sophomore LP Hummingbird, the band will embark on the Time Will Wait For No One Tour. The 25-city nationwide tour kicks off in Minneapolis on August 18 and criss-crosses the US all summer, including performances at NYC’s Pier 17 on August 29, two nights at DC’s 9:30 Club on August 24 and 25 and Austin’s Stubbs on September 16.
Today, August 1st, Greek artist Σtella (pronounced Stella) has shared a new standalone single entitled “Girl Supreme.” This song was recorded at Havabanana Studio in Athens, Greece, and produced by Σtella with mixing and additional production work by Edmund Irwin-Singer from the band Glass Animals.
Σtella says of this infectious new bop: “Learning how to use ‘on’ and ‘in’ and ‘at’ got me chasing after ‘Girl Supreme.’ And prepositions got me thinking about propositions – when a casual encounter becomes a fateful affair.”
“Girl Supreme” follows the 2022 release of her Sub Pop debut, Up and Away. An album where the Athens-based painter, visual artist, and performer updated authentic Greek pop - using traditional folk melodies and instruments like the bouzouki and kanun - fed through synths, 80s pop, laid-back psychedelia, and dusty mid-century 45s. Up and Away garnered International support from Paste, Gorilla vs. Bear, Brooklyn Vegan, Mojo, Uncut, Loud & Quiet, and The Line of Best Fit, who said, “Σtella’s honey-rich vocals overlie a crisp, no-frills backing that has echoes of classic ’60s pop.”
Σtella has confirmed a 5-date EU/UK run in August. This string of dates begins on Aug. 14th in Winterthur, Switzerland, with additional club dates in Germany & the UK, ending on Aug. 18th at the Green Man Festival in Brecon Beacons. See below for a complete list of shows.
Mon. Aug. 14 - Winterthur, CH - Winterthurer Musikfestwochen Tue. Aug. 15 - Nuremberg, DE - Z-Bau Wed. Aug. 16 - Frankfurt, DE - Tanzhaus West Thu. Aug. 17 - London, UK - Moth Club Fri. Aug. 18 - Brecon Beacons, UK - Green Man Festival
What people have also said about Σtella:
“Σtella hooks up with London producer Redinho here to conjure an elegant and sophisticated union of vintage Greek music…and sleek modern pop.” - [“Up and Away”] Gorilla vs Bear
“It’s a blending of classic songwriting, aligned with familiar instrumentation, and fueled with modern vocals and strangely somber ambiance. The bass and guitar riffs are captivating and keep the ears plastered for more. Her somber vocals sway into a soft gale that transports the listener to a ruminating landscape.” - [“Charmed”] Impose
“This is the pop we need; considered, vital, comforting, spiritual.” - The Quietus
“Future-retro pop perfection” - DJ
“simply irresistible” - Electronic Sound
“seductively melodic blend of Hellenic pop and hazy, shimmering Eastern Mediterranean vibes” - Shindig
“…gorgeous fourth album.” - (4/5) MOJO
“…Infectious disco-infused art-pop.” - I-D
“Bold, streamlined pop” - PASTE
“Intoxicating Greek pop.” - UNCUT
“There is an enchantingly vintage pop sparkle to Σtella’s music, epitomised by the new album’s superlative title track, its spritely, 1960s chanson airiness evoking the spirit of France Gall or Francoise Hardy, while the bouzouki-led backing arrangement lends the unmistakable flavour of Σtella’s home country ” - LOUD & QUIET
On October 20th, 2023, Sub Pop will release a 20th Anniversary edition of The Shins’ beloved second album, Chutes Too Narrow.
Remastered by Adam Ayan, under the watchful eye of the band’s prime mover/singer-songwriter James Mercer, this special release features a lovely new, custom die-cut cover for the CD and vinyl formats of the album.
Chutes Too Narrow, the heavily anticipated follow-up to The Shins’ beloved debut, Oh, Inverted World, was recorded in James Mercer’s basement home studio, with later mixing at Seattle’s Avast! Recording Co. with assistance from Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, David Cross, Les Savy Fav, etc.). With ten songs clocking in at just over 30 minutes, the record is a brief yet scintillating glimpse at chiming, reflective, and perfectly skewed pop innovation.
Chutes Too Narrow was released to widespread acclaim in 2003, garnering Pitchfork’s “Best New Music,” four stars from RollingStone, and raves from the New York Times, MOJO, the Village Voice, and SPIN. It subsequently made best-of-the-decade lists from The AV Club, NME, Paste, Pitchfork, and Uncut.
The 20th Anniversary remastered reissue of Chutes Too Narrow can now be pre-ordered worldwide from Sub Pop and The Shins merch store. LP pre-orders in North America at the Sub Pop Mega Mart will receive the limited “Loser Edition” on transparent orange vinyl. In the UK and Europe, pre-orders from Mega Mart 2 (the brand new and first-ever sibling site to the Sub Pop Mega Mart!) will receive the Loser Edition on transparent sun yellow vinyl (both Loser Editions are available while supplies last).
Mercer says of Chutes Too Narrow, “I was very aware at the time that I had struck gold with the first record, and it was unlikely to happen again. “Sophomore slump” and all that. The pressure to prove myself as a viable writer had never been so pronounced. Midway through the mixing process, I realized one of the songs would not work, so I stayed up after everyone went to bed and wrote ‘Young Pilgrims.’ And with Ek’s help, it worked! Such a stressful but beautiful experience!”
The Shins Chutes Too Narrow (20th Anniversary Remaster) 1. Kissing the Lipless 2. Mine’s Not a High Horse 3. So Says I 4. Young Pilgrims 5. Saint Simon 6. Fighting in a Sack 7. Pink Bullets 8. Turn a Square 9. Gone for Good 10. Those to Come
