Sub Pop Oral History: "Going Out of Business Since 1988!"

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“WE PULLED A RABBIT OUT OF A HAT”
When “the coup” went down, Sub Pop was in the midst of what are commonly referred to as the “dark years.”

Jasper People were afraid of getting fired. And, with Sub Pop trying to define itself post-grunge, the roster was all over the map—from Plexi, who were glam, to the Blue Rags, who were blues.

Poneman The coup was a wake-up call. It set us on a course of shrinking and becoming more efficient, which a lot of record companies are now doing.

Jasper I came back to the label in 1998. The years 1999 to 2000 were all about Sub Pop finding stability. Bruce once said, “The amazing thing about Sub Pop is that this label has a knack for always pulling a rabbit out of a hat.” The big rabbit was the Shins.

Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse frontman; A&R, 2003–2005) I was an A&R person there before I actually had my job as an A&R person there, just from being around the office. I played the new Shins single for Jonathan. He said, “Get a hold of them. Sign them.”

Tony Kiewel (head of A&R) That’s not how I remember it. Zeke Howard, the drummer from Love as Laughter, had brought us the Shins demo after playing a show in Albuquerque.

Poneman Who cares? They both found them.

Jasper The Shins gave Sub Pop a record [Oh, Inverted World] that sold a ton and then gave us two more. But they did something ­greater than that. In 1998, I never saw anyone at work wear a Sub Pop T-shirt. Once we had Oh, Inverted World, a record everyone felt they could stand behind, people started wearing Sub Pop shirts again.

Even with most of the industry in free-fall, Sub Pop has managed to post profits every year since 2003. Electro-pop duo the Postal Service’s 2003 disc Give Up became Sub Pop’s second-best-selling album after the platinum Bleach, moving 920,000 units to date, and last year the Shins’  Wincing the Night Away entered the Billboard charts at No. 2, the highest-ever debut for a Sub Pop release.

James Mercer (Shins frontman) Our debuting at No. 2 showed how utterly the industry had changed. Sub Pop was in a strong position because everyone else had their heels cut.

Jasper We’ve done well by responding to industry shifts—we’re not just a machine that just cranks out records and markets everything the same way—but we’ll continue to have big challenges surviving.

Poneman Sub Pop’s legacy? It’s one of the greatest indie labels out of the Pacific Northwest. World domination is an afterthought.

Pavitt My relationship with the label now is good; they’ve asked me to sit on a new board of advisors. Sub Pop has become huge—much larger than I could have ever imagined back when I was coloring in those fanzines with crayons.

Arm Mudhoney came back to the label in the late ’90s. It feels more professional now. Sub Pop was fuckin’ winging it 20 years ago. No one knew how royalties worked, no one had a contract—it was just, “You wanna put our record out? Sure, let’s do it.”

Thayil I’m looking forward to the 20th-anniversary show. I’ll be wearing flannel. Not really, but I imagine somebody will be.