Getting to Know Us

With less than a month left until Seattleites, Washingtonians, fellow Northwesterners, national and international travelers, and the great unwashed (Sub Pop employees) arrive en masse in Seattle’s historic Georgetown neighborhood for the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee, we’re running out of time to tell you all about ourselves in an effort to coerce you into thinking to yourself, “This free, all day concert-going experience, featuring many of my favorite artists and musicians, and possibly introducing me to additional favorite artists and musicians, is how I will spend Saturday, July 13th. I should tell all of my friends about this now”. And you know what, you’re right, you should tell your friends about this; it’s going to be the best G-D day of all. This week’s Getting to Know Us, the feature intended to acquaint/reacquaint you with the artists playing the Jubilee, features King Tuff and Chad VanGaalen, two overwhelming creative hubs of music and art and wonderful weirdness of all kinds. Here, let me show you about them:

Led by long-haired, self-taught Bedazzler virtuoso and all around natural creative force, Kyle Thomas, King Tuff came to Sub Pop on the heels of their near-perfect debut, King Tuff Was Dead, (which, if you’re a connoisseur of good times, you should own (lucky for you, it just got reissued on the vinyl formatway)). Instead of releasing the King Tuff follow-up, Thomas reengineered his formula for his next project and came up with the KT bridge project, Happy Birthday, and we released their brilliant self-titled, laid-back pop anthem-laden debut in 2010 to much hoo-ha from the press. In 2012, Thomas refocused on King Tuff and gave the world King Tuff, pleasing virtually all who chose to gaze their ears upon its fuzzy glory. Watch the embedded video for KT’s “Bad Thing” to get an earful of what we’re clumsily trying to tell you about. OH! It’s always worth noting that AllMusic.com decreed upon King Tuff the musical theme: “TGIF”; those guys clearly get it.

Sub Pop has had the privilege of putting out four of Chad VanGaalen’s records in just eight years. They’ve each been haunting, beautiful and weird—a sort of weird beauty. In addition to being a uniquely gifted and prolific musician/songwriter, Chad is also a visual artist with an output similar to his musical output, which is to say, he’s like a nuclear reactor of creative energy. He has illustrated and animated most of his own music videos, adding an additional sensory dimension through which his haunting songs can are conveyed. Watch the accompanying “Molten Light” to get the eerie and enthralling CvG experience. Chad has also illustrated and animated music videos for Sub Pop labelmates like J Mascis (also playing the Jubilee), as you can see here.

Chad and Kyle are just two of Sub Pop’s many creative weirdos, and two more very convincing reasons why the July 13th Sub Pop Silver Jubilee is going to be a wonderfully absurd place to park yourself for the day—we hope to see you there. Thanks again for getting to know us.

This is the link to clicl for complete Silver Jubilee details.