SUB POP LIVES?

MEMORANDUM
TO: Everyone
FROM: Sub Pop Records
SUBJECT: World Domination
JP/cmn
"Mission Complete"

"Uh. OK. Well, maybe that’s overstating the case. (Sub Pop has, ahem, been known to do that.) But really, did anyone expect a little label like Sub Pop to see its 20th birthday?"

Well, they did, as you've no doubt gathered from the "Memorandum," and you can read more from "The Sub Pop Story" here. No longer known as home to the Grunge elite, the little label that could (and did) still releases some solid music from such bands as The Shins and Iron and Wine.

I've been thinking about Halloween, my favorite holiday, and with only a month to go, decided to raid the SubPop.com collection in order to have some links for your digital goodies bag. Trick or treat!

Hmmm. I think I'll start with some stuff from The Shins (incidentally, this is their Sub Pop page). Here are five MP3 downloads for your consideration, and although these songs might not change your life, what the [censored by Blogger] are you on about? It's free! ;}

Phantom Limb
Know Your Onion!
So Says I
Kissing the Lipless
Australia

I hope that you've cleaned your HD recently, BTW, because there's more SUB POP in your future, and my 8-Ball confirms it (although it's notoriously wrong, I must admit -- it once told me that I'd be a finalist on American Idol, and that would most certainly bring about the Apocalypse! Not to worry. I can't sing, and I have never watched American Idol! ;) Too early for that sort of Samhain-inspired chaos anyway! Right.

How about some Iron and Wine?

Southern Anthem
Lions Mane
Jesus the Mexican Boy
Naked As We Come
Woman King
Boy With A Coin
Innocent Bones

A reasonably generous contribution of treats for your e-bag, but now for a performer that is, in some ways, my personal fave, and yet there's only 1 bloody MP3 available! D'OH.

Does this that I might actually have to pay for music? ;) In this case, I probably wouldn't mind. Nonetheless, here is some Sera Cahoone, courtesy the fine folks at Sub Pop:
Only as the Day Is Long

Other odd songs that seized my attention:
Going Back Song by The Baptist Generals
On Your Way by The Album Leaf
Furr by Blitzen Trapper
Eraser by No Age
The Birthday Wars by Oxford Collapse
Small Town Crew by The Brunettes
Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
Dumb Luck by Dntel
The Funeral by Band of Horses
Balloons by Foals

Additionally, from the NEW TO US section of SubPop.com, here's a couple more tricks/treats:
Soft Airplane by Chad VanGaalen
Stray Age by Daniel Martin Moore
Santa's Coming Over by Low

Wait! Intentional comedy! Ah, I almost forgot. In looking through today's NON-Nirvana Sub Pop catalog, I was struck with the presence of a couple of comedians, or "funny fellers" as my Mom is fond of saying. Patton Oswalt, for instance, with his track The Dukes of Hazzard. I was also rather pleased to find David Cross, a personal fave, and one of several public figures who helped to keep individuals like myself (well, I sincerely hope there are no others like moi, really) somewhat sane during the past eight years of what can only be called, from a fairly imbalanced perspective, bliss at home -- and abroad. Thankfully, Sub Pop dropped a couple of free Cross MP3's on us, too: My Wifes Crazy! (Unedited); and Certain Leaders in Government Look or Act Like Certain Pop Culture References.

Ok. Hearing the name Sub Pop mentioned a few too many times could have a creeping (creepy?) sense of nostalgia as a side effect. Well, even though there aren't digital offerings from the "inactive" artists -- i.e. Cobain & Co. -- I might have found something for you. Mudhoney might have left Sub Pop, but they're back, and continuing to write and record music. Here's a sort of free 5-song sampler to perhaps reconnect to the Halcyon daze of grunge:

Sonic Infusion
The Straight Life
Blindspots
I'm Now
In 'n' Out of Grace (Live in Berlin, 1988)


"So when they tap our Sunday heads
Two zombies walk in our stead
This town seems hardly worth our time
And we'll no longer memorize or rhyme,
Too far along in our crime,
Stepping over what now towers to the sky,
With no connection

Oooh waooooooo waooooooo ..."