You remember Sub Pop, don’t you? They were the label that helped “break” grunge, hardly ever paid their artists, and had Charles Peterson document the whole damn thing with his quirky black-and-white photography.
Well, as many of you know, Sub Pop now puts out a wide range of music, and probably skews more toward folk and punk than heavy rock today. Never fear, however, as the label has just released Sub Pop Video Network: Program One, which features a baker’s dozen classic Sub Pop videos from back in the days when “grunge” was just another money-making twinkle in Isaac Mizrahi’s eye (it’s actually the DVD reissue of a VHS “classic”). There’s two Mudhoney tracks, “This Gift” and “Here Comes Sickness,” a token Nirvana track, “In Bloom,” two Tad tracks, “Stumblin Man” and “Wood Goblin,” as well as stellar offerings from the Dwarves, Seaweed, Fluid, Beat Happening and other forgotten favorites from the flannel era.
Also at your local music stockist: Sub Pop’s David Cross: Let America Laugh, wherein the sarcastic comedian travels the country with the Georgia-based band Ultrababyfat, and relentlessly lets people skewer themselves in front of the cameras. Not to be upstaged, Cross does a bit of spit-roasting himself, including one poor sap at Charlotte’s own Tremont Music Hall…Paul Van Dyk, world-traveling DJ nonpareil, spins the wheels of steel backed by video shot in the cities hosting him (Toyko, NYC, Ibiza, Berlin, et al.) on the new release Global…Paul McCartney proves he’s here to stay once and for all on Rounder’s Paul Is Live, shot on his New World Tour from a couple years back…Zoe has released Rush in Rio, a look at the pill-popping conservative talk show host getting his freak on in the jungle paradise (OK, so it’s actually the Canuck band of the same name)…Lastly, but not leastly, Rhino has released a must-have combo DVD/CD package called Live and Swingin’: The Ultimate Rat Pack Collection, all of which is hosted by a super-young (and singing!) Johnny Carson. Wild and wacky stuff, indeed.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2003.
