On March 1st, 2024, Pissed Jeans will release Half Divorced, their incredible 6th album, on CD/LP/DSPs worldwide from Sub Pop. The band is sharing the official video for indelible lead single “Moving On” from director and frequent collaborator Joe Stakun (“The Bar Is Low,” “Bathroom Laughter,” “Romanticize Me”).
Pissed Jeans’ Half Divorced is the follow-up to 2017’s Why Love Now, an album that took aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life. The album and its singles received praise from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Uncut, Stereogum, and more.
The twelve songs of Half Divorced skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood. Pissed Jeans’ – Matt Korvette (vocals), Bradley Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass), and Sean McGuinness (drums) – notorious acerbic sense of humor remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer.
Half Divorced includes the previously mentioned “Moving On,” the omnidirectional piss-take “Everywhere Is Bad” (Spoiler alert: “Seattle is soaking wet”), shrinking debt-to-credit ratios in the bracing “Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt,” and the harsh truth-telling in the bruising “Cling to a Poisoned Dream.”
Half Divorced was produced and mixed by Pissed Jeans and Don Godwin and engineered by Mike Petillo at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland, and mastered by Arthur Rizk (co-producer and mixer for Why Love Now).
Pissed Jeans’ previously announced international tour dates in support of Half Divorced span Friday, February 29th through Thursday, April 4th. New shows include Friday, March 15th in Philadelphia, with a hometown release show at Underground Arts; Saturday, March 16th in Brooklyn at St. Vitus; And Friday, March 29th in Schijndel, NL at the Paaspop Festival. Additional live dates will be announced soon.
Thu. Feb. 29 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios Fri. Mar. 01 - Seattle, WA - Madame Lou’s Sat. Mar. 02 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo Fri. Mar. 15 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts Sat. Mar. 16 - Brooklyn, NY - St. Vitus Fri. Mar. 29 - Schijndel, NL - Paaspop Festival Sat. Mar. 30 - London, UK - EartH (aka Hackney Arts Centre) Sun. Mar. 31 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Punk Fest Tue. Apr. 02 - Glasgow, UK - Stereo Wed. Apr. 03 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s Thu. Apr. 04 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
Half Divorced is available to preorder now from Sub Pop. Preorders in North America from megamart.subpop.com and select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser Edition on Spotify-Colored vinyl (otherwise known as an opaque lime green…). In the UK and Europe, LP orders from independent retail stores will receive the Loser Edition on Coke Bottle Green vinyl. A UK-only Magenta vinyl edition will also be available to preorder through Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) and Rough Trade Shops. All colored vinyl versions are available while stock lasts.
More on Pissed Jeans Half Divorced by Chelsea Hodson: Pissed Jeans has never been a band that goes halfway—they’re known for their feral vocals, biting lyrics, buzzsaw guitars, and unhinged live shows, and their sixth album, Half Divorced is no exception. These songs skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood, and when viewed through frontman Matt Korvette’s scowl, everything takes on a level of violent absurdity.
Pissed Jeans’ notorious acerbic sense of humor remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer, from helicopter parents to stolen catalytic converters to being $62,000 in debt. On “Seatbelt Alarm Silencer,” Korvette growls, “Call it a death drive but that ain’t fair / Drive implies I’m headed somewhere.”
So where does a band like Pissed Jeans go after nearly twenty years of making music, after becoming fathers, after marriages, and after divorces? Existence has festered to a boiling point. Korvette said, “Half Divorced has an aggression within it, in terms of saying, I don’t want this reality. There’s a power in being able to say, I realize you want me to pay attention to these things, but I’m telling you that they don’t matter. I’m already looking elsewhere.”
Even within the brutality that Korvette conjures on songs like “Killing All the Wrong People” (“If violence is now their form of play / Let’s aim ‘em towards those who made ‘em that way”), the energy on some of these songs is inadvertently, well, fun. Listening to this album will give even the most jaded nine-to-fiver the sense that unrestrained freedom is still possible. And who else is going to rhyme “colonizer” with “moisturizer” anyway?
Korvette, Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums) weren’t in any rush to finish Half Divorced, which was recorded by Don Godwin at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland. “We’re not the kind of band that bangs out a new record every two years,” Korvette said. “Pissed Jeans is truly like an art project for us, which is what makes it so fun.” This lack of restraint rages within the songs that unexpectedly veer into classic hardcore punk territory—often coming in at under two minutes long and erupting like the “butane tank explosion” Korvette sings about in “Junktime.”
This distilled energy makes Half Divorced sound menacing and dangerous. Korvette said, “We realized we’d never really fucked with pop punk, and we thought, this is something that isn’t going to be immediately recognizable as cool. So let’s challenge ourselves to make it feel cool to us.”
There’s also a Pink Lincolns cover, “Monsters,” on which Korvette sings, “People are more hideous than monsters.” And in the last song, “Moving On,” Korvette sneers, “Cheesing into my cameraphone / Pretending that I’m not alone / Life’s the first thing that we all postpone.” One gets the sense that Pissed Jeans refuses to “postpone” life in quite the same way—life, like art, is something that happens now, not later.
The word “divorce” falls in line with the moments of humiliation and shame that are held up for all to see on this album. Korvette said, “If you say something enough or if you just allow it to exist publicly, then it loses its evil monster-in-the-closet thing.” There is clarity to be found within both the light and the dark, in both the marriage and the divorce. As the chorus of the last song calls out: “I’m moving on, I’m moving on, I’m moving on.”
Pissed Jeans Half Divorced
Tracklisting: 1. Killing All the Wrong People 2. Anti-Sapio 3. Helicopter Parent 4. Cling to a Poisoned Dream 5. Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt 6. Everywhere Is Bad 7. Junktime 8. Alive With Hate 9. Seatbelt Alarm Silencer 10. (Stolen) Catalytic Converter 11. Monsters 12. Moving On
On January 19th, French psychedelic rock outfit SLIFT will release their Sub Pop debut,ILION, on CD/LP/DSP. Formed in 2016, SLIFT quickly made an impression on rockers worldwide with their 2017 debut EP, Space Is the Key, the following year’s full-length La Planète Inexplorée, and their acclaimed 2020 album UMMON.
Now, on the heels of the previously released singles “Ilion” and “Nimh,” comes an official video by Guthio and Alexis Regidor with visuals by Dimitri Thouzery for the album’s centerpiece, “Weavers’ Weft.”
The band shares this about the song: “‘Weavers’ Weft’ is the song that opens the album’s second half. There was a tipping point in the narrative at the end of the first half of the album. The second half of the record is no longer situated in the linear flow of time that serves as a backdrop for many stories. From ‘Weaver’s Weft’ onwards, time goes both into the past and into the future. The piece talks about weavers of the fabric of time, entities who continually create space-times, each containing its share of universes. Everything that exists is written there, and it is possible to travel between frames. Everything is cyclical and infinite. To illustrate this (or maybe it’s the other way around?), we wanted something monolithic and timeless. It is as if this song has been sung for millennia (time goes back to the past!). The heavier parts are inspired by bands like Part Chimp and Gnod.”
SLIFT will embark on a mammoth UK & EU tour beginning February 23rd in Brighton, UK, and ending April 6th in Marseille, France. The band’s 2023 KEXP performance is a tantalizing taste of the band’s live powers, which merge earth-rattling volume, cosmic soundscapes, and psychedelic visuals into a mind-bending, glorious experience. See below for a complete list of dates.
Fri. Feb. 23 - Brighton, UK - Chalk Sat. Feb. 24 - Manchester, UK - Gorilla Sun. Feb. 25 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s Mon. Feb. 27 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Wed. Feb. 28 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom Thu. Feb. 29 - Lille, FR - Aéronef Fri. Mar. 01 - Paris, FR - La Cigale Sat. Mar. 02 - Saint Malo, FR - Route du Rock Hiver Wed. Mar. 13 - Toulouse, FR - Bikini Fri. Mar. 15 - Nantes, FR- Stereolux Sat. Mar. 16 - Rouen, FR - 106 Mon. Mar. 18 - Bruxelles, FR - Ancienne Belgique Tue. Mar. 19 - Utrecht, NL - Tivoli Vredenburg Wed. Mar. 20 - Cologne, DE- Club Volta Thu. Mar. 21 - Groningen, NL - Vera Fri. Mar. 22 - Hamburg, DE - Gruenspan Sun. Mar. 24 - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen Mon. Mar. 25 - Gothenburg, SE - Pustervik Tue. Mar. 26 - Oslo, NO- John Dee Wed. Mar. 27 - Stockholm, SE - Hus 7 Sat. Mar. 30 - Berlin, DE - Lido Mon. Apr. 01 - Leipzig, DE- UT Connewitz Mon. Apr. 02 - Stuttgart, DE - Wisemann Club Tue. Apr. 03 - Esch Sur Alzette, LU - Kulturfabrik Wed. Apr. 04 - Zurich, CH - Mascotte Thu. Apr. 05 - Lyon, FR - Epicerie Moderne Fri. Apr. 06 - Marseille, FR - Espace Julien
1. Ilion 2. Nimh 3. The Words That Have Never Been Heard 4. Confluence 5. Weavers’ Weft 6. Uruk 7. The Story That Has Never Been Told 8. Enter The Loop
In February, the world-famous stoic maestro J Mascis will release his fifth solo studio album, What Do We Do Now, worldwide on Sub Pop Records. On the heels of the friend-studded video for “Can’t Believe We’re Here” come the beguiling and electrifying “Set Me Down.”
J has scheduled two solo headline shows for 2024 in Australia, which coincidentally happens during a run with his other band, Dinosaur Jr. The dates include Sydney’s Liberty Hall on Tuesday, February 20th, and in Brisbane at The Triffid on Saturday, February 24th. Additional solo dates will be announced soon.
Mascis is currently on the road with Dinosaur Jr., who are touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their sixth studio album, Where You Been.
What Do We Do Now can be pre-ordered now from Sub Pop. North American orders from the Sub Pop Mega Mart will receive the limited Loser Edition on clear purple vinyl. In the UK and Europe, LP orders from Mega Mart 2 (the new, UK-based sibling site to the world-famous Sub Pop Mega Mart) will get neon pink Losers or a strictly limited edition run on Blue Curacao Vinyl available from this wonderful emporium – all whilst stock lasts!
Tracklisting: 1. Can’t Believe We’re Here 2. What Do We Do Now 3. Right Behind You 4. You Don’t Understand Me 5. I Can’t Find You 6. Old Friends 7. It’s True 8. Set Me Down 9. Hangin Out 10. End Is Gettin Shaky
Sub Pop will release SLIFT’s ILION, the third full-length album by the French psychedelic rock outfit, on January 19th, 2024. Today, the band shares the new song “Nimh” with a visualizer by Dimitri Thouzery & Guthio.
“Nimh” is a 9+ minute prog-infused journey filled with jazzy rhythms, deft guitar/bass/drum interplay, and layered textures, all anchored by a massive Black Sabbath-esque riff that eventually crumbles into a thundering doom-metal coda. It’s a fitting sample of the forthcoming album, which launches SLIFT even deeper into the cosmos, merging the furious intensity of metal and the wigged-out guitar heroics of psych-rock with post-rock’s epic sense of scale.
The band said of the song/video: “‘Nimh’ is the second track on the record; it follows ‘Ilion.’ It’s a piece that talks about men’s slow but certain descent towards total madness. To illustrate this, the song tells the story of the drift through space of a ship, the ‘Nimh,’ and its crew, which is made up of leaders of huge corporations and anyone who has accumulated a lot of money on Earth. They set off for what they think will be a new world but never arrive at their destination. The gods of Time are facetious. The song is sung by the people left on Earth, prophesying this failure, abandoned to live on this barren planet entering the last millennia of its existence. As surprising as it may seem, we had Nina Simone in mind when writing a good part of the piece, especially the second part. To support the song’s subject, we also pushed our psych-rock towards bands like Converge.”
Formed in 2016, SLIFT quickly made an impression on rockers worldwide with their 2017 debut EP, Space Is the Key, the following year’s full-length La Planeté Inexplorée, and their acclaimed 2020 album UMMON.
SLIFT will embark on a mammoth UK & EU tour beginning February 23rd in Brighton, UK, and ending April 6th in Marseille, France. The band’s 2023 KEXP performance is a tantalizing taste of the band’s live powers, which merge earth-rattling volume, cosmic soundscapes, and psychedelic visuals into a mind-bending, glorious experience. See below for a complete list of dates.
Fri. Feb. 23 - Brighton, UK - Chalk Sat. Feb. 24 - Manchester, UK - Gorilla Sun. Feb. 25 - Dublin, IE - Whelan’s Mon. Feb. 27 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Wed. Feb. 28 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom Thu. Feb. 29 - Lille, FR - Aéronef Fri. Mar. 01 - Paris, FR - La Cigale Sat. Mar. 02 - Saint Malo, FR - Route du Rock Hiver Wed. Mar. 13 - Toulouse, FR - Bikini Fri. Mar. 15 - Nantes, FR- Stereolux Sat. Mar. 16 - Rouen, FR - 106 Mon. Mar. 18 - Bruxelles, FR - Ancienne Belgique Tue. Mar. 19 - Utrecht, NL - Tivoli Vredenburg Wed. Mar. 20 - Cologne, DE- Club Volta Thu. Mar. 21 - Groningen, NL - Vera Fri. Mar. 22 - Hamburg, DE - Gruenspan Sun. Mar. 24 - Copenhagen, DK - Loppen Mon. Mar. 25 - Gothenburg, SE - Pustervik Tue. Mar. 26 - Oslo, NO- John Dee Wed. Mar. 27 - Stockholm, SE - Hus 7 Sat. Mar. 30 - Berlin, DE - Lido Mon. Apr. 01 - Leipzig, DE- UT Connewitz Mon. Apr. 02 - Stuttgart, DE - Wisemann Club Tue. Apr. 03 - Esch Sur Alzette, LU - Kulturfabrik Wed. Apr. 04 - Zurich, CH - Mascotte Thu. Apr. 05 - Lyon, FR - Epicerie Moderne Fri. Apr. 06 - Marseille, FR - Espace Julien
SLIFT
ILION
1. Ilion 2. Nimh 3. The Words That Have Never Been Heard 4. Confluence 5. Weavers’ Weft 6. Uruk 7. The Story That Has Never Been Told 8. Enter The Loop
Today, Friday, December 1st, Suki Waterhouse brings the holiday cheer with a cover of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” which will be available as a one-month-only stream and download through Bandcamp. This driving, moody, and fuzzy new take on the holiday classic was produced by Medasin and Boy Deco and mixed and mastered by Medasin, all in Los Angeles.
A portion of the “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” single proceeds will go to A Sense of Home, the Los Angeles nonprofit organization.
A Sense of Home’s core belief is that a home full of hope, dignity, and love is the first step to forging a successful life. Their mission is to create first-ever homes for former foster youth to stop the cycle of homelessness.
Suki says, “Celebrating the holidays by creating this cover of ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ was an absolute joy, and I’m thrilled to support A Sense of Home, a cause that’s been close to my heart since 2019.”
Georgie Smith, A Sense of Home’s founder and CEO, says, “We are so moved by Suki’s humanitarianism and dedication. In 2019, she created a home for a young mother, Liz, and her daughter, Naomi. Both of whom are thriving today, thanks to Suki. We are thrilled to share in the joy of Suki’s new beautiful song, which will enable us to create more homes for deserving young people exiting foster care.
Suki Waterhouse has been winning over audiences across the globe touring in support of the Milk Teeth EP (featuring the hit single “Good Looking,” which went viral on TikTok and peaked at #1 on Spotify’s Viral USA Chart) and her Brad Cook-produced (The War On Drugs, Bon Iver) debut album, I Can’t Let Go, both released in 2022 via Sub Pop.
In 2023, Suki wrapped the “Coolest Place in the World Tour,” her sold-out North American headline run with stops in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. That spring, she released the single and official video for “To Love.” In June, Suki followed it by releasing “Everyday’s A Lesson in Humility,” a summery collaboration with Belle and Sebastian, and in August, joined Local Natives on a reimagining of their single, “NYE.”
Suki also played to some of the largest crowds of her career in South America (Lollapalooza in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), the US (Governor’s Ball, Ohana, and Austin City Limits Festivals), and most recently, in Mexico (at Corona Capital). Suki also starred as Karen Sirko in “Daisy Jones & The Six,” the Emmy-nominated Amazon television miniseries based on the popular book by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
About A Sense of Home: A Sense of Home’s mission is to prevent homelessness by creating first-ever homes and a community of care for youth aging out of the foster care system. Kids who are removed from their family are placed in foster care and are moved from place to place, never having a home where they belong. Once they age out of foster care, these young people are alone in the world, and home becomes ever more elusive. 50% of the homeless population spent time in foster care.
The average American child is completely financially dependent on their parents until age 24, and almost 60% are dependent on their parents until age 29. 50% of this is spent on housing. For a foster youth with no family support — it is understandable why so many are confronted with homelessness.
A Sense of Home began as a random act of kindness and has become a movement — emboldening the community to become family to foster youth — the family that they’ve never had. In only 90 minutes, volunteers create a dream home, and lives are instantly changed. Watch how it is done here.
85% of those ASOH serve are young women, and 65% have children of their own. ASOH is also preventing another generation from being placed in foster care.
The model has been so successful in LA — creating 900 homes in 8 short years — that it will soon scale to NYC and other cities.
Sub Pop is getting into the AI biz! We keep “reading” all of these articles about Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and have decided it’s high time to give it a whirl. How hard can it be?
Our new PunkyGPT is smarter, funnier, and more helpful than we have ever beeen (the
bar is low…) We’ll let PunkyGPT take it from here…
Sub Pop’s Holiday Holid.AI Sale Now On!
Holidays (like everything) are improved by the addition of AI! Why settle for a fuddyduddy, ordinary holiday when you can have a new and improved holid.AI? There is no
legitimate reason!
And so, to celebrate the 2023 holid-AI season, we are offering our high-ish quality music
and merchandise at a discounted rate which is now available to you for discounted
purchase now. You are welcome for and to this gift of ours to you! Your trust and loyalty
have filled our hearts pockets with warmth cash, and we couldn’t be all that much more
thankful, we don’t think. This 2023 holid.AI sale is our way of giving you back deals for
you today.
Get holid.AI harmonies for less! Between 12:01am (PST) November 20th and 11:59 PM
(PST) January 1, 2024, buy $30 or more worth of stuff (not including shipping and tax)
from the Sub Pop Mega Mart and get 20% off all eligible items. Buy $75 worth of stuff
and you’ll also receive free domestic shipping!
What items qualify for Sub Pop’s Tuneful Melody of Holid.AI Savings? Everything in the
whole wide Mega Mart is eligible for this 20% off limited time deal now for a limited time,
except gift cards and Singles Club Vol. 8 subscriptions.
What items in particular would we recommend? PunkyGPT sez… the top
recommendations for your listening pleasure and best-in-class audio experience are new
music releases from Bully, Quasi, CHAI, Hannah Jadagu, Mudhoney, and additionally so
many more. We’re also pleased with our new Sub Fuzz Sweatshirt and also Flannels.
Please note! If there are any pre-order items in your cart at checkout, your entire order
will not ship until the shipping date of the furthest out pre-order. That could mean your
order will not ship until after the first of the year, and you will not receive any part of your
order in time for the holidays. The solution to this is: place multiple orders.
All orders placed by/on December 16th are guaranteed to ship out before we close
up shop for the year, so get your orders in early and often. Related to this
impending warehouse closure, any orders placed between December 17th and
January 1st will not ship out until after we are back in operation on January 2nd.
‘Tis the season for reflection, gratitude and pretending to know how to use AI, and we’re
so thankful for your support during the holid.AIs. May the end of your year be filled with
happiness and also Sub Pop merchandise!
With love,
Sub Pop Records: Artificially Intelligent Since 1988
