Top 7 Sub Pop Albums

I have always had favorite record labels...starting back when my allowance stopped buying baseball cards and started going towards vinyl and tapes. I look back fondly at the days when I would send an order form, and well hidden cash, to Dischord Records...only to repeat that same process and send envelopes to Revelation, Victory, Merge, Tooth & Nail, and Sub Pop. I would hear one band on a label, then pine for more...like a little indie-rock sponge. (I am sure if "scene points" would have counted back then I would have amassed a ton of them.) Many of the albums I ordered have become some of my favorite. Albums by Snapcase, Fugazi, Youth Of Today, Superchunk, SunnyDayRealEstate, and Starflyer 59...all got me through my awkward high school days, and not surprisingly still get my through my awkward 30's. One label that I was particularly fond of was SubPop...mostly for the sheer variety of music they put out. Where Dischord was a little too scene specific (not a bad thing), SubPop seemed to have a little bit of everything...from harder stuff like Soundgarden, to the mellower indie stuff like Jale and The Spinanes. It was that randomness that depleted much of my extra cash...and filled my shelves with hours of musical goodness. Despite me getting older I am still impressed with their output...so without any more fan-boy gushing I give you my top 7 SubPop releases.

- Sunny Day Real Estate - "Diary": It was (and still is) like nothing I had heard before. I could write essays on why this album is amazing...the vocals, the music...where to begin? Everyone who bought this album eventually started a band, myself included.

- The Spinanes - "Strand": This was my first introduction to the rock "duo" ("where's the bass player?" my teen-aged brain wondered). Light-years before Matt & Kim, The Spinanes were dropping indie-pop gems with just one guitar, and one drum kit. To this day Rebecca Gates is still one of my favorite vocalists.

- Velocity Girl - "Simpatico": I got way into indie-pop stuff, and Velocity Girl nailed that sub-genre for me. The guitars jangled, and the melodies were syrupy sweet. This record personified "college" rock, and they reminded me of The Posies with a girl singing...and I love me some Posies.

- The Afghan Whigs - "Gentlemen": I fell for the music...a mixture of post-punk edginess and motown soul. Greg Dulli sounded like a man possessed, writhing over a barrage of big guitars, and even bigger drums. This album had everything...lyrics...music...melody...and rage.

- The Murder City Devils - "Broken Bottles, Empty Hearts": I had soured on most "punk" that had been coming out...until I heard this. It was danceable, it was dark, and it was pissed off. 3 aspects of this record that hooked me. If this had been purchased on cassette I would have easily worn out 4-5 copies of it. Easily...

- Band Of Horses - "Cease To Begin": It was one part Beach Boys, with a little Eagles mixed in (minus the usual "suck" factor that is associated with anything "Eagles".). The songs had an ethereal quality to them...and the arrangements were about as close to perfect as you could get. Hearing this record truly blew my mind...it was inspiring and accessible.

- The Jesus And Mary Chain - "Munki": Maybe the Reid brothers were in the twilight of their career, but this record is still one of my favorites by them. It's fuzzed out pop...fueled by beer, cigarettes, sibling rivalry, and shoe-gazing. TJAMC are hard to top...and I was glad to see SubPop release it.

Buy these records...thank me later.

Note: Narrowing it down to 7 releases by a seminal label like SubPop is difficult. These are MY favorite albums...and I'm still leaving out records by Jale, Red House Painters, The Gutter Twins, Godheadsilo, Jeremy Enigk, Damien Jurado, and The Album Leaf. There will have to be a "part 2"...

Mineral - "End Serenading"

This album was released long before all-ages venues were drawing 400+ kids...long before "independent" record companies had been purchased by Red/Sony...long before the internet truly had an influence in selling, and marketing records. "End Serenading" came with little fanfare in the summer of 1998 on Crank records. No EPK's (that's electronic press kits for those of you living under a rock)...no myspace banner ads (myspace is the not-as-cool step brother of facebook for those of you living under a rock)...none of the modern marketing tools that are crucial to an album "launch. Mineral had already released one full length ("The Power of Failing") and had numerous songs on compilations and 7" singles...but this album, for me, was their masterpiece.

Mineral had been given the "emo" tag long before Spin magazine started referring to Weezer as "emo". The tag...a tag which would become somewhat of an albatross a mere 5 years later, was perfect at the time. Mineral had always blended moving music with gut-wrenching lyrics...a full-blown emotional exorcism that was never lacking in sincerity. It was that sincerity, and honesty, that drew me to them in the first place, and it was that same formula, magnified by 1000 on "End Serenading", that made this album one of my top albums of all time. The music was never "heavy" but always had the perfect mixture of intricate guitars woven into a dynamic swell of changing tempos and loud/soft dynamics. It was that dynamic quality that would lend itself to lyrics about restored faith, love, and loss. The lyrics were honest and simple...and the phrasing slid through music sections in a way that I have yet to hear recreated (outside of other Chris Simpson projects like The Gloria Record and Zookeeper). Simpson (vocals/guitar) would sing "Ivadell I held you in my thoughts that day...And wish that they were arms when you were frail...And passing from this place" on "For Ivadell"...a song that began with a memory of a loved one...and ends with anther memory of their passing. Never too wordy...never a case of "shock and awe" juvenellia...just an honest snapshot of how a person feels. True emotion. "End Serenading" mixed the driving songs like "For Ivadell" and "Serenading", with slow-building epics like "Palisades" and "Sounds Like Sunday". A 10 track passion-rollercoaster full of vivid imagery...10 pictures of a blessed life, regardless of circumstance. It was song after song that I could relate to...song after song that reminded me that life is a series of photos or snapshots... snapshots that Simpson, and Mineral, brought to life.

As I listen to this album while I write this I'm transported back to a time when bands actually had something to say...and conveyed that sentiment with true passion. Bands like Mineral are missed (and in my opinion never received the credit they deserved)...and many bands that were peers of theirs at the time (SunnyDayRealEstate, JimmyEatWorld, Boys Life, Christie Front Drive) did their part to make music like this something special. Call it "emo"...call it "rock"...call it whatever you want. It was music before girls-jeans and neon tshirts were more important than substance. A time when bands like Mineral would pour out loads of feeling in front of 20 kids at an all-ages show and not care about the product in their hair or how many "friends" they had on facebook. Those times are missed...

Buy this record...thank me later.

When I was a boy I saw things
That no one else could see
So why am I so blind at twenty-two
To the hope that is all around me
Filling up this room
("Serending")