Silver Jubilee Friday
Founded in 1986 (yes, 1986) by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, Seattle's Sub Pop Records are celebrating their 25th anniversary this weekend. It wasn't until 1988 that the company moved into their first office and began the famous Sub Pop Singles Club.
From Michael Azerrad's fantastic must-read Our Band Could Be Your Life:
For $35 a year, subscribers got a single a month -- but the brilliant part was that Singles Club subscribers paid before they got their records, which gave the label a significant financial boost. "On a limited budget, if you have the desire to sell a lot of records," says Pavitt, "you have to figure out a way to scam and manipulate the public." With typical Sub Pop irony, the teaser line was "We're ripping you off big time."
The first single that those early subscribers got in 1988 was a cover of Shocking Blue's 1969 single "Love Buzz" by a little band out of Aberdeen, WA.
Happy birthday, Losers.
Rock on.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Finally Home and a New Album Review
Cold with a Cold
After about ten days straight of travel for business and pleasure, I'm back home in frigid New Jersey. This cold that I acquired along the way is really dampening my happiness at being able to sleep in my own bed, but I'll deal with it like I always do: whine and complain to CoolMom and to anyone else who will listen until it's gone.
I did manage to cobble together a review of the very first solo album by one of my guitar heroes, Johnny Marr, for Speak Into My Good Eye. Check that out if you like.
I feel like I missed out on quite a bit while I was gone, but there are some interesting things happening this week. If you're not like me and you're not planning to bury yourself under a pile made up of your family and your dog until the morning, you should go check out Sink Tapes at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch tonight. They do a nice job of carrying on the tradition of VU-influenced New Jersey acts like The Feelies and Yo La Tengo.
Provided I'm sufficiently recovered, I'm trying to get CoolMom to join me on Friday for a free show at Asbury Park's Berkeley Bar featuring Accidental Seabirds and River City Extension sister band, Thanks. If you make it to that one, come find me and I'll buy you a beverage.
Finally, I almost forgot that it was Kurt Cobain's birthday today.
After about ten days straight of travel for business and pleasure, I'm back home in frigid New Jersey. This cold that I acquired along the way is really dampening my happiness at being able to sleep in my own bed, but I'll deal with it like I always do: whine and complain to CoolMom and to anyone else who will listen until it's gone.
I did manage to cobble together a review of the very first solo album by one of my guitar heroes, Johnny Marr, for Speak Into My Good Eye. Check that out if you like.
I feel like I missed out on quite a bit while I was gone, but there are some interesting things happening this week. If you're not like me and you're not planning to bury yourself under a pile made up of your family and your dog until the morning, you should go check out Sink Tapes at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch tonight. They do a nice job of carrying on the tradition of VU-influenced New Jersey acts like The Feelies and Yo La Tengo.
Provided I'm sufficiently recovered, I'm trying to get CoolMom to join me on Friday for a free show at Asbury Park's Berkeley Bar featuring Accidental Seabirds and River City Extension sister band, Thanks. If you make it to that one, come find me and I'll buy you a beverage.
Finally, I almost forgot that it was Kurt Cobain's birthday today.
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