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Sub Pop: Rock City, The Return of Seattle's Best Record Company

By Patrick Grossi

Washington-based record label Sub-Pop, once home for such early 90s rock luminaries as Nirvana and Soundgarden, have been receiving critical accolades for a new lineup that includes quiet country and pop savvy artists. Most notably featured in the past two years were The Shins, Beachwood Sparks, Damien Jurado and Hot Hot Heat, all of whom apply a sensibility new and old to the label's near twenty-year history.

The Shins hail from Albuquerque, NM and their debut album Oh, Inverted World (released June 19, 2001) was met with warm response nation-wide. Many are probably already familiar with principal songwriter James Mercer's lull pop. A recent Gap advertisement ("Down on Khaki Street"-Ashton Kucher and others ride bikes down an empty street) features an instrumental track Mercer penned exclusively for the ad (further testament to Volkswagen and Gap Inc.'s vampiring of the independent music scene). And some may have caught a briefly-aired McDonald's commercial (!?) during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games that showcased a few bars from Oh, Inverted World's "New Slang", arguably one of the most mature and heartfelt break up songs of the last ten years (rivaling even Wilco's "Box Full of Letters"). Mercer's rolling pop and restrained vocals have many calling Oh, Inverted World one of the very best of 2001 and hopefully offers an exciting glimpse of more to come.

Los Angeles, California's Beachwood Sparks pick up where The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Flying Burrito Brothers left listeners 30 years ago. Beachwood Sparks takes the rural California aesthetic of the late 60s/early 70s and just sort of runs with it. The LA four-piece offers little beyond what their obvious influences already have masterfully. The boys in the band wear their influences on their sleeves, quite literally, from their haircuts to their album design layout (the butterfly and rainbow cutouts that grace the cover of Beachwood Sparks playfully mirror the collage from Buffalo Springfield Again). Their self-titled debut (2000) and 2001's Once We Were Trees simply offers a glimpse of things past, a psychedelic road map that celebrates the outdoors, recreational drugs, and hipster nihilism. Once We Were Trees marks a slight transition, cutting back on the 4/4 time and pedal steel omnipresent in their debut and opting for more quiet open spaces (It also features a wonderful rendition of Sade's "By Your Side"). Nothing new but a warm reminder of themes central to some of the most exciting and distinctly American rock n roll.
Damien Jurado is one of the few featured artists who still calls Seattle, WA home. His somber "urban folk" (as described by the Sub-Pop website) perhaps offers a reflection on the state of affairs in the once burgeoning capital of important rock music. Often likened to fellow sad-song-architects TW Walsh and Pedro the Lion (all three toured together last spring) Jurado is comparatively subtle offering songs that feel worn and enlivened in the same breath. And all three seem to have a gross fixation with pretty girls, emotional decay, and white-collar disillusionment (for further listening see Walsh's Blue Laws and PTL's Control).

Ghost of David (2000) starts slow and deviates little. Some would call him the closest thing emo will ever have to a Bob Dylan but that would be too cheap a comparison (Omaha, Nebraska's Conner Oberst aka Bright Eyes seems to be staking that claim for himself anyway). Damien Jurado does not fall into that ever-expansive genre seemingly on its last legs, however he accomplishes beautifully what scores of bands have been failing at under the guise of an "emotional" musical sensibility. His latest I Break Chairs (released February 2, 2002) applies the downtrodden folk sentimentality to a full band lineup (appropriately named Gathered in Song). With songs like "Paperwings" I Break Chairs does for Jurado's repertoire what The Byrds did for Dylan -enlivens his songs with guitars and rock spectacle, yet all in the name of recognizing and celebrating the subdued and direct poignancy of the original.

Hot Hot Heat comes to the Sub-Pop family from Victoria, British Columbia with a sound a few thousand miles removed. Compared to everyone from Led Zeppelin to the Cure they more appropriately fit into the dance-punk lot emerging in and around New York City (i.e. Ex-Models, The Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). The Canadian-bred rockers EP Knock Knock Knock quickly made waves and established buzz for their full-length Sub-Pop debut Make Up The Breakdown (just released this past October). Like the aforementioned groups Hot Hot Heat combines garage/punk aesthetics with dance beats and jangled melody. It's a music heavily dependent on loose guitar and vocal work and rigid percussion. Coming off the commercial successes of The Strokes and The White Stripes this reapplication of the garage aesthetic is fast gaining public appeal; Hot Hot Heat are a testament to Sub-Pop's rediscovered chic and in fact all four of the aforementioned Sub-Pop artists have brought a once forgotten rock institution out from under the radar.

Patrick is a senior communications major and all-around swell guy. pgrossi1@ithaca.edu