Sub Pop Records
Founded by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in 1988, Sub Pop Records is a medium-sized independent record label based in Seattle, WA. Sub Pop Records employs somewhere between 45 and 50 people, most of whom work in our World Headquarters in Seattle. It is our intent to market and sell the recorded music (and related merchandise) of artists whose music some shifting definition of “we” really and truly love. We mean to represent these artists as faithfully and diligently as possible and hold out hope that this is enough for us to remain solvent in the face of the well-documented collapse of the music industry at large. We also enjoy laughter, good times and the company of friends.www.subpop.com
198
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87
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75
PODCASTS
Search complete. 198 mentions across 87 episodes found for "Sub Pop Records".
Oct 30, 2026
Joe SibGUEST
And the blueprint for the labels that we were...
Joe SibGUEST
in the shadow of epitaph fat sst they had definitely set the bar for like what it meant to be a great label and we wanted to be included in that in that circle at some point it sounds crazy to say at that time because we're just look we're two kids in our 20s with a fax machine and two phones and we're like we wanna we wanna we wanna have the we wanna have the rock value that these labels sst and and epitaph and sub pop have had and you know and you're literally like okay so what's what's your first move i don't know let's sign this band from baltimore called smooths okay you know like that was our attitude but i'll tell you we love the smooths swinging utters released their you know seven inch and ep and we love that any record we put out we loved Any band we work with, we were so honored that they would allow us to put their music out.
Joe SibGUEST
Bill used to always say that.
Joe SibGUEST
He said, man, we're just two guys that like good music.
20 MINS LATER
Joe SibGUEST
And I think, I don't want to speak for Bill.
Joe SibGUEST
We just wanted to- We wanted to be as great as the labels we loved.
Joe SibGUEST
And the labels that we loved were Sub Pop, SST, Epitaph, and Phat.
Joe SibGUEST
It's the same thing when I started doing stand-up comedy.
Adam KamisHOST
That'd be the Twisted Teens.
Adam KamisHOST
And they just got signed to Sub Pop, dropped a great new record.
Adam KamisHOST
But we're going to hear a track that came from their album that came out late last year, Blame the Clown, which is going to be featured on my failed pilot mix, which you can get for more than a $35 donation or more.
Adam KamisHOST
This is a song that actually hits as real as a heart attack.
Patrick BoyleHOST
To add to his cachet, Gicchettio had formed a separate $100 million venture capital partnership with Chase Manhattan Bank, a Wall Street credential guaranteed to impress his glittering investors.
Patrick BoyleHOST
Before things went wrong, he was involved in legitimate deals, including brokering the sale of 49% of the record label Sub Pop, which was Nirvana's original record label.
Patrick BoyleHOST
He sold that to Warner Music Group for $20 million.
Patrick BoyleHOST
Cassandra turned out to be running an elaborate Ponzi scheme, taking the money new clients invested and putting it into deals gone bad in order to bail out older investors.
Scott KannbergGUEST
And, uh, um, It was kind of at a time when bands were putting out their own singles.
Scott KannbergGUEST
K Records is around, Sub Pop.
Scott KannbergGUEST
But I remember, speaking of Henry from Black Flag, I wrote to SST.
Scott KannbergGUEST
I wrote to SST, I wrote to Twin Tone, and I think I wrote to maybe Maximum Rock and Roll.
Tony KiewelSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I was like the electronic mini wizard part of the postal service.
Tony KiewelSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Ben became one of my first friends who didn't work at Sub Pop when I moved to Seattle because he was just one of the only people whose phone numbers I had.
Bethany CosentinoHOST
This band ended up blowing up.
Bethany CosentinoHOST
The Postal Service released the second best-selling album in the history of sub-pop records, behind only Nirvana.
Bethany CosentinoHOST
It was the ultimate gatekeeper.
Bethany CosentinoHOST
Local programmers actually had the power to blow up an indie band and put them in the mainstream.
Bethany CosentinoHOST
Back to Tony from Sub Pop.
Tony KiewelSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So there was still this tiny chance that there'd be somebody who actually lived in this city that the band came from, would have some real connection with them.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
It finds Butler condensing and sharing the lessons he has learned over the years.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
The record is out now on Sub Pop, and it was such a joy to welcome Butler on to discuss basketball and how his experience as a young person playing the sport shaped his artistic outlook.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
We also talk about his afro-fractal approach, talk about sun-raw and afro-futurism, and we talk about the influence of artists like the Cocteau Twins.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
And, of course, we dig into that goofy old cliché Can a middle-aged guy be a rapper? We get into all of that and so much more.
31 MINS LATER
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
So it flips for you and you start to like, you know, pursue something that only you can, something instinctive, basically.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
Yeah.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
Is that something that, because you work with Sub Pop as well, you know, doing A&R, you work with other artists, is that something you sense in other artists? Like, usually, before you want to sign them, a sense that they're already...
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
being them as opposed to sort of imitating something? Or have you had cases where you've heard raw potential and you're like, I can tell that they're sort of imitating this thing, but I'm still interested.
Barry VailGUEST
You know what I mean? Like, because there'll be times where I'm like, I'm at home and I've got my records that I just got.
Barry VailGUEST
You know, I paid my tithe to our man Travis at Sub Pop.
Barry VailGUEST
Yeah.
Barry VailGUEST
Or to Hans over at Royal Records.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
It finds Butler condensing and sharing the lessons he has learned over the years.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
The record is out now on Sub Pop, and it was such a joy to welcome Butler on to discuss basketball and how his experience as a young person playing the sport shaped his artistic outlook.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
We also talk about his afro-fractal approach, talk about sun-raw and afro-futurism, and we talk about the influence of artists like the Cocteau Twins.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
And of course, we dig into that goofy old cliche, Can a middle-aged guy be a rapper? We get into all of that and so much more.
30 MINS LATER
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
And my goal is to try to get those characteristics out of myself and not to copy somebody else's.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
So it flips for you and you start to like, you know, pursue something that only you can, something instinctive, basically.
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
Is that something that, because you work with Sub Pop as well, you know, doing A&R, you work with other artists, is that something you sense in other artists? Like, usually, before you want to sign them, a sense that they're already...
Jason P. WoodburyHOST
being them as opposed to sort of imitating something or have you had cases where you've heard raw potential and you're like i can tell that they're sort of imitating this thing but i'm still interested i'm curious for you like what that as a listener as a professional listener as it were you know what you're kind of listening for in terms of that sort of thing
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
Yeah, I still A&R.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
So it's like at Sub Pop Records up in Seattle, there's an A&R staff.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
And it's like for a while I was going in every day and having the meetings and stuff like that.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
Now I still do it, but I kind of like, I'm more like a talent scout because I'm always on the road playing different stuff, seeing different openers and stuff like that.
42 MINS LATER
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
But it wasn't until I took the independent route, pressed up a thousand copies of these two EPs that I did, which was the original Shabazz Palaces.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
Shit, me and my daughter like putting the CDs together, boom, boom, taking them, selling them at the local stores and they took off at the local stores.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
And that's how Sub Pop found out about me because I was in the local mag, newspaper and stuff, you know, like LA Weekly.
Ishmael ButlerGUEST
Yeah.
Eric WeinerGUEST
You'll notice I didn't say label because I don't think it is mandatory anymore that you do have a label.
Eric WeinerGUEST
Although there are great labels like Sub Pop and Secretly Canadian that do artist development.
Eric WeinerGUEST
A lot of labels are really just looking to see if you have an audience on TikTok before they sign you.
Eric WeinerGUEST
But the live show is going to carry you through your career.
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