Artists from the labels’ rosters are covering their favorite Sub Pop/Hardly Art songs.
Sub Pop and Hardly Art are, together, very excited to announce Got You Covered (a cover song series)! Got You Covered will feature Hardly Art and Sub Pop artists covering their favorite songs from the labels’ catalogs. Beginning today, Monday, July 6th at 6 pm PT (and every weekday evening this week), artists like Yuno, Chad VanGaalen, Lala Lala, Whitmer Thomas, and Jenn Champion will offer their takes on songs by Beach House, The Vaselines, Chastity Belt, and Nirvana.
The first installment of Got You Covered, Yuno’s excellent and sweetly affecting rendition of the Beach House song “Zebra,” is available to see/hear right now here.
Second in the series, here now is Jenn Champion’s take on Nirvana’s “Dive.”
Number three from the Big Baby himself: comedian / musician / world-famous actor Whitmer Thomas covers his friends Chastity Belt’s anthemic hit “Different Now” over here.
Please join us here in our appreciation of multi-talented weirdo Chad VanGaalen covering The Vaselines “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.”
Polish singer and producer Perfect Son covers Chad VanGaalen’s “Molten Light” from beloved (and recently repressed to vinyl!) album ’Soft Airplane’ here.
Here’s Lala Lala’s lovely rendition of Beach House’s “Space Song.”
Prepare to be mesmerized here by Morgan Delt covering another mellifluous Beach House classic, “PPP.”
Rounding out this week’s collection of ‘Got You Covered’ tunes, here’s Alicia aka Bully absolutely shredding a cover of Sub Pop alum Orville Peck’s hit song ‘Turn to Hate.”
Including Father John Misty, Man Man, Jon Benjamin: Jazz Daredevil, METZ, Gazebos, The Gotobeds, Omni, Versing, and Frankie Cosmos.
On Friday, June 3rd, (aka Bandcamp Friday) Sub Pop & Hardly Art artists past and present – Jon Benjamin, Father John Misty, Frankie Cosmos (as Franz Charcoal), Gazebos, The Gotobeds, Man Man, Omni, METZ, and Versing – will be offering a variety of special releases, sales, and deals through Bandcamp’s “No Revenue Share Day.” Sub Pop and Hardly Art will be passing through 100% of digital sales revenue on Bandcamp to all of our active artists.
Jon Benjamin: Jazz DaredevilWell I Should Have… – long out-of-print LP now available on a special limited edition Red/White/Blue colored vinyl.
Father John MistyAnthem +3 – a 4-song EP featuring covers of Leonard Cohen, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, and Link Wray. Proceeds to benefit both CARE Action Network and Ground Game LA. Pay-what-you-want $5 minimum for the whole EP, no individual track sales.
Gazebos “Therapy” – Previously unreleased track with all proceeds raised Friday, July 3rd to benefit King County Equity Now. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after
The Gotobeds “Have You Checked the Tapes?” b/w “Blazing Sun of Youth” – Two previously unreleased tracks from their Debt Begins at 30 album sessions. Proceeds from July 3rd will benefit Sisters PGH COVID-19 support. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after Man Man “Dig Deep” – Releases a brand new single with proceeds to benefit both the NAACP and Know Your Rights Campaign. Pay-what-you-want w/ $1 minimum.
METZLive at Ramsgate Music Hall – a 4-song digital EP featuring live versions of METZ’s “Cellophane,” “Acetate,” “Nervous System,” and “Raw Materials” recorded during the band’s date at the UK venue on May 3rd, 2018. Proceeds to help raise funds through Ramsgate Music Hall’s Bandcamp page, while they’re closed due to COVID-19. Pay-what-you-want through July 5, £1.50 per track / £5 for the full EP thereafter.
Omni “The Stranger” b/w “Art for Art’s Sake” – Covers of Billy Joel’s The Stranger,” and 10cc’s “Art for Arts Sake,” originally recorded for Aquarium Drunkard Lagniappe sessions. Proceeds raised July 3rd to benefit Georgia NAACP. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after
Versing “Red Wave” b/w “Once Bitten” – Previously unreleased single with all proceeds raised Friday, July 3rd to benefit Northwest Community Bail Fund. Pay-what-you-want on July 3rd, $1/per track after
Sub Pop has signed Flock of Dimes, the solo outlet for songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jenn Wasner, to release her music throughout the world. We are also announcing today the release of Like So Much Desire, her excellent five-song effort and label debut (and first new Flock of Dimes material since 2016’s If You See Me, Say Yes), which is available now through all DSPs.
Like So Much Desire, the new EP from Jenn Wasner’s Flock of Dimes, is about the inseparable nature of desire and grief. It’s a collection of songs about finding peace amidst personal hardships, an offering of both comfort and personal reflection, reaching out across the unknown in search of connection. Moving and strikingly intimate, Like So Much Desire is Wasner’s most personal work yet.
Also of note: Flock of Dimes has scheduled a live concert stream via NoonChorus on Tuesday, June 30th at 7 pm ET.
Flock of Dimes Like So Much Desire Tracklisting: 1. Spring in Water 2. Like So Much Desire 3. Again (For the First Time) 4. When the Body Does Not 5. Thank You Friends and Strangers
Like So Much Desire, which includes standouts like the slow-burn title track, “Spring In Winter” and “Again (For the First Time),” was written and produced by Wasner, mixed by Ari Picker and mastered by Ryan Pickett.
The EP’s title track is a masterclass in slow burn, a song that deals directly with how you have to lose to gain, an acoustic beginning growing into a tangle of whirring gadgetry. The subdued, mellow prettiness of “Again (For the First Time)” offers reassurance, the sonic equivalent of leaning on someone’s shoulder. The piano-based “Spring in Winter” sounds near-hymnal, warmed by strings, dealing with the fleeting beauty of North Carolina’s unexpected springtime popping up in the cold, while “Thank You Friends and Strangers” opens on chirping birds and outside sounds – the sounds of nature and normalcy. Like So Much Desire blends all of these worlds seamlessly.
In many ways, Like So Much Desire feels like postcards sent from a strange new world. And fittingly, the work came together at a distance. The bulk of the songs were recorded by Wasner in her home in isolation, with other pieces coming from across the country; drummer JT Bates recorded his parts from Minneapolis, while the subtly-cinematic, swelling strings came via New York’s Paul Wiancko, Michi Wiancko, and Ayane Kozasa. The final product balances sparseness and fullness. Strange, glitchy synths flit in and out, an echo of distant playfulness, but the main instrument is the depth of Wasner’s voice and how she uses space around it.
As a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Wasner has been a longtime omnipresent force in modern music. As half of beloved duo Wye Oak she’s worked with everyone from Metropolis Ensemble to the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and more recently she’s been a member of both Bon Iver and Sylvan Esso. But for all her collaborative expertise, it’s Wasner’s solo work as Flock of Dimes that is most salient, her songwriting at the forefront, strange, beautiful, and dazzling at the same time.
For Wasner, the making of this EP had to do with rediscovering the powerful, healing connection of making music, the peace it offers, the way it makes it possible to bridge a gap – and as such, Like So Much Desire strives to offer comfort during upheaval and uncertainty. Both sorrow and joy all at once, it looks at halves of a whole, the broken-up spectrum of human experience distilled into just five tracks.
Now is the perfect time to follow Flock of Dimes in all the places:
Following on from the release of their critically acclaimed second album, Sideways To New Italy, earlier this month on Sub Pop, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever return today with the video for recent single ‘Cameo.’ One of the record’s anthemic high points, ‘Cameo’ begins with open guitar strums and Fran Keaney’s lone voice before building to a swirling roar, showcasing a band at the peak of their powers both instrumentally and lyrically.
“This is a love song. It’s about reaching through time portals,” says Keaney. “The lyrics were pieced together over about a year like a little puzzle. I found the first pieces in Rushworth, and the last pieces in Darwin.”
The accompanying video - directed by Nick Mckk - finds the band in a particularly playful mood as they perform in a dimly lit club, sporting turtlenecks in the glare of spotlights and bursting through walls on office chairs. Look beyond the hi-jinx, however, and there’s romance afoot here, perfectly in keeping with the glistening love song at ‘Cameo”s core.
“We made this video with Nick Mckk, who shares our vision for the earnest and the absurd,” explains Keaney. “This is our first video to feature skivvies, a wall of cardboard boxes and a human-powered rotating stage.”
“Fran had the idea to separate each body part playing, disembodied like the famous Queen artwork,” says Mckk. “I think it was Tom who really wanted to dress like Molloy, the cat burglar from The Simpsons. White sneakers, black pants and a turtleneck. I was very for this.
“Because I’m a fool and I don’t know how to work a gimbal (stabiliser), I ended up shooting a lot of the clip on rollerblades, which let me zoom around the spinning stage. Set Designer Grace Goodwin and I created the big bricks that the band could smash through, representing the disintegration of memory and the rebuilding of recollection. I mean, it was that for me, I can’t speak for the band!”
Earlier this month, the band announced a big run of UK and Ireland tour dates for March 2021, including their biggest ever headline UK show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on March 5th. Main support on all dates [excluding Dublin] comes from the hotly-tipped Dutch quartet Pip Blom.
UK/IE Tour Dates:
Mar 4th | Brighton, UK - Concorde 2* Mar 5th | London, UK - O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire* Mar 6th | Birmingham, UK - O2 Institute* Mar 7th | Oxford, UK - O2 Academy Oxford* Mar 9th | Bristol, UK - SWX* Mar 10th | Leeds, UK - Leeds Irish Centre* Mar 11th | Manchester, UK - O2 Ritz Manchester* Mar 12th | Edinburgh, UK - The Liquid Room* Mar 13th | Glasgow, UK - Queen Margaret Union (QMU)* Mar 15th | Dublin, IE - Vicar Street Mar 17th | Cardiff, UK - Tramshed* Mar 18th | Nottingham, UK - The Level* Mar 19th | Sheffield, UK - The Foundry*
This exclusive limited edition T-shirt was designed by Seattle artist, Arel Watson. All net proceeds from the sale of this shirt will benefit The Seattle Artist Relief Fund organized by Ijeoma Oluo and LANGSTON, and will be directed specifically to Black artists who have applied for relief. If you’d like to learn more about the fund or make an additional donation please contact LANGSTON directly or visitwww.gofundme.com/f/for-artists.
This shirt will only be available for purchase via Bandcamp and Sub Pop Mega Mart through July 3rd and will not start printing until the sale has concluded. We expect to start shipping roughly July 22nd.
While this donation will be specifically directed to Black artists, this fund is generally aimed at helping those artists in the greater Seattle arts community who have been financially impacted by cancellations due to COVID-19.
Where your funds go: 100% of these funds will go to Black artists who have lost income due to cancellations and work stoppage due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is emergency funding to help artists in need with rent, food, utilities, and medical needs.
Clarke and the Himselfs and Guerilla Toss’s contributions to the Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 5 are available now for the first time at all DSPs.
NYC (via Boston) band Guerilla Toss present “Human Girl” and “Own Zone,” two new, exclusive tracks that perfectly capture the exuberant, danceable fusion of post-punk, funk, and experimental rock that Guerilla Toss have been serving up since 2012.
LA’s Clarke and the Himselfs has been releasing compelling, catchy, heart-warming rock and roll since starting as a solo project in Boise in 2011. “Mary Rae Says” and “Crystal Blue” are new, exclusive tracks produced by Don Bolles (Germs, 45 Grave), who also contributed drums, bass, and vocals to “Crystal Blue.”
Both singles will also be released as limited-edition 7”s only available to Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 5 subscribers. The series will also include singles by Father John Misty, Moor Mother, Ohmme, Julia Jacklin, Sumac, TEKE::TEKE, Redd Kross, and more. Subscribe to Single Club Vol. 5 right here.
