Tag Archives: Sub Pop

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New Frankie Cosmos video: Wannago

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Video: Frankie Cosmos – “Wannago”

Directed by Robert Kolodny. From Close it Quietly, September 6 on Sub Pop.

The video is a little distracting but the song has everything you want from this band: sad melodies, earnest vocals, delicate harmonies, and shimmery guitars.

Greta Kline says, “Wannago is an older song that I thought would never come out. Every time we ever tried to arrange it we gave up or lied that we would come back to it later. It felt too hard, and I found some of the lyrics embarrassing. Then Alex encouraged us to give it another shot because he really loved the demo. We ended up all working together to turn this into a song that feels sparkly and distinct; and it’s really fun to play. I’ve accepted the cheesier lyrics as part of the youthful glow of the song, it feels very wide-eyed and is purely about love, distance, and life.”

Frankie Cosmos: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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New Frankie Cosmos video: Windows

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Video: Frankie Cosmos – “Windows”

Directed by Eliza Doyle and Greta Kline. From Close it Quietly, due September 6 on Sub Pop.

Watch Greta Kline and her pal Eliza Doyle frolic around the streets and beaches of New York. Like the music, the video mixes moments of silliness with poignancy.

Slow leak, slow dream
I never noticed you boiling

Kline says, “This song takes place during the waiting period of healing, not knowing how to proceed or how to find the path to forgiveness. The inner versus the outer — learning to see yourself as part of the whole. For me the lyrics cover some of the slow movements of relationships, the shifts that occur in ways of thinking over time.”

I know it’s probably uncool to dwell on but I still can’t get over the fact that Kline’s parents are Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. That blows my mind.

Frankie Cosmos: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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New Marika Hackman video: I’m Not Where You Are

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Video: Marika Hackman – “I’m Not Where You Are”

Directed by Will Hooper. From Any Human Friend, due August 9 on Sub Pop.

Marika Hackman is apparently a lousy girlfriend. Throughout the video for “I’m Not Where You Are” she pisses off a parade of lovers by remaining aloof (or possibly catatonic) despite their remonstrations.

Lately I’ve been trying
to find the point
in human contact.
I get bored like that.

Sounds like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays!

The video’s actually pretty funny in the end, and the song is hauntingly catchy. And I can personally confirm that spilling a bloody mary makes a huge mess.

Marika Hackman: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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New Kyle Craft video: Broken Mirror Pose

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Video: Kyle Craft – “Broken Mirror Pose”

From Showboat Honey, due July 12 on Sub Pop.

I’m not sure what it is about this video that has me all in a bunch, but GOT DAMN if this song isn’t stuck in my head for days on end. Maybe it’s the balance of danger and fun the song elicits? I mean, it has a pretty ominous rhythm part juxtaposed with one of the most sing-song-y choruses of the summer jam season.

Balance, it seems, is a point of order for Craft as his bio says, “This is basically an album centered around bad luck and good fortune hitting at the same time,” Craft explains “Then, out of nowhere, I find love. Everything went to shit except that. I guess that’s how life works.”

The idea of bad luck and good fortune is particularly interesting to me as my closest friends and I just went through a year of a father dying. My friend’s dad, Bill, played a pivotal role in our lives, but one that was as gentle and “hands-off” as you can possibly imagine. He was a quiet presence, but a profound one in our lives. And as he was going through the process of dying, he had a constant refrain: “It is what it is.” He had the bad luck of getting brain cancer, but the good fortune of 75 years of great health and living life to the fullest. That’s a pretty good end result, really.

So this song kinda mystifies me. There are strange qualities that are hard to describe, and it’s driving me crazy. Maybe I should stop trying to figure it out and just accept it for what it is? Maybe I should just let it be? Maybe, after all, it just is what it is?

Kyle Craft: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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New Orville Peck video: Turn To Hate

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Video: Orville Peck – “Turn To Hate”

Directed by Orville Peck and Carlos Santolalla. From Pony, out now on Sub Pop.

There’s been a spate of videos with dudes in masks of late, which I guess makes sense in the era of Trump and Brexit. We all have a little something to be ashamed of and perhaps a compulsion to hide from our responsibilities. Sub Pop crooner Orville Peck takes it one further by also masking his influences and genres, and it works like a charm. And maybe it’s not about hiding at all?

Peck recently told The 405, “Masks actually expose a lot—and in this case—allows people to connect way more with me than If I wasn’t wearing the mask. Wearing it lets me stay honest and not hold anything back, if that makes sense. If anything my masks are actually way more exposing than anything.”

Read any other review of his work and you hear a lot of Outlaw Country acts bandied about as musical references, which I guess is true, but I hear something else entirely. What I hear is a Bret Easton Ellis soundtrack. Not the Huey Lewis variety, but one that would play in an indie production of one of his books. There’s a bit of Big Country and Love and Rockets and The The and a whole heaping of Wall of Voodoo. While mining the 80s is in fashion these days, Peck has tapped a new vein. It’ll be interesting to see what else pans out.

Orville Peck: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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New J Mascis video: Elastic Days

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Video: J Mascis – “Elastic Days” (ft. Dina Martina)

Directed by: Shane Wahlund & Michael Anderson. From Elastic Days, out now on Sub Pop.

How great is J Mascis? Doesn’t his voice just make you feel like you’re in college? It’s perfect this time of year, too, when the world is hushed by a blanket of snow. His solo stuff that he’s been releasing on Sub Pop since 2011’s Several Shades of Why has been so good. It’s still fun to destroy your eardrums with Dinosaur Jr, but it’s nice to be able to chill out with this mostly acoustic solo material as well.

Then the wheels came off, I don’t know what to say
It all made some sense if you know what to play
But I lost the plot of all elastic, all elastic day

The absurd video features “tragic singer, horrible dancer and surreal raconteur” Dina Martina lip syncing the song.

Mascis said, “I’ve been a big Dina Martina fan for a long time. I’ve seen her perform many times over the years. I’m glad that I got her to do this video before she becomes an untouchable superstar. I am amazed at how the video came out, I’m so psyched.”

Untouchable!

J Mascis: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Shorties

New Luluc video: Kids

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Video: Luluc – “Kids”

Directed by Katie Mitchell. From Sculptor, out now on Sub Pop.

Most songs written by adults about kids are condescending, but Luluc treats their kids with respect.

The teacher who prides:
“Why don’t you come talk to me?
You’ve got such a big chip on your shoulder.”
“No, that’s my armor til I’m older.”

There’s a bit of a “It gets better” message but more important — or at least more visceral — is the “We’re gonna get out of here” message. For me, looking back a few decades, my overwhelming memory of adolescence is the feeling of just wanting to get out: of school, of my dumb hometown, of my house, of my body. Flight.

Luluc gets this.

Luluc: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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New Father John Misty video: Date Night

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Video: Father John Misty – “Date Night”

Directed by Chad VanGaalen. From God’s Favorite Customer, out now on Sub Pop.

This video from Strand of Oaks freaked me the fuck out when we posted it last year. In the best possible way, of course. But freaky just the same. To say animator Chad VanGaalen has a way with imagery is to say it’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide, unless you put one grunch (but the eggplant) over there.

“Date Night” is my favorite track off of Father John Misty’s new album, God’s Favorite Customer. It’s two and a half minutes of free association mumbo jumbo that turns me on. The accompanying video is just as kooky and two times more colorful. There’s a cat licking its butthole.

I love the acoustic guitar tone and the “woo hoos” that make it sound as if this were done in three takes, max. It’s not over-thought. It’s not slick. But it’s such a great little stew of the things I love about FJM that it gives me hope that he hasn’t completely lost his humor. Or his mojo.

Father John Misty: web, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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New Bully video: Guess There

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Video: Bully – “Guess There”

Directed by Aleia Murawski and Samuel Copeland. From Losing, out now on Sub Pop.

On the weekends
I’ve been taking it easy
No, I swear it’s my choice

“Guess There” is a grungy breakup song, but the video is about a happy little snail going about its business, shooting some hoops, playing with its hamster, and enjoying some videogames. That is, at least until the snail starts imagining what life would be like with a snail partner and snail baby.

Well, I guess there could be something I’m missing

And after that the snail is just sad and lonely and depressed. No happy ending for you, bubba.

Bully: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Continue reading New Bully video: Guess There →

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New Father John Misty video: God’s Favorite Customer

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Video: Father John Misty – “God’s Favorite Customer”

Directed by Emma Tillman. From God’s Favorite Customer, out now on Sub Pop.

Another bummer from Papa John Misery.

I’m out here testing the maxim
That all good things have to stop
The bar closes at 5
But the big man is just opening shop

Once again, Tillman’s voice sounds great and the song is pretty but the lyrics are lamenting a period when he was “all bug-eyed and babbling” and separated from the woman he loves. Or, as it’s stated in the press release, “being caught between the vertigo of heartbreak and the manic throes of freedom.”

Of course, he’s reflecting on that experience with disgust. Which is not fun. Why does Tillman fear fun now? He might as well drop the “Misty” persona and resume recording as “J. Tillman” if he’s going to be this humorless and self-lacerating…

Maybe it’s time for a change. Maybe the “Misty” thing has peaked anyway. Look at his first-week sales history:

• Fear Fun: 4,000 sold (May 2012)
• Honeybear: 28,000 sold (February 2015)
• Pure Comedy: 33,000 pure album sales (35,000 equivalent album units) (April 2017)
• Customer: 19,000 sold (22,000 equivalent album units) (June 2018)

Maybe he’s overdue to gobble up some mushrooms, climb a tree, and contemplate the absurdity of his life again. It worked last time. Stop being so serious. Time to drown old Neil down on the beach one more time.

Father John Misty: web, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.