Sub Pop, the iconic Seattle-based independent label who almost single-handedly launched grunge and then somehow remained great even when the scene burned out, is turning 30 this year. To celebrate the milestone, local radio station KEXP will play every Sub Pop release in order in the run-up to the label’s birthday party at Alki Beach in August.
KEXP host John Richards already sounds giddily terrified at the prospect. “This is going to be a really fun pain in the ass!” he said in a statement. “We’ll have DJs playing Sub Pop songs an average of 8.3 times a day, 24-7 for the next 4 and a half months—each and every Sub Pop release in the original format whenever possible. Cassette, LP, 7-inch, you name it. It’s going to be a total hassle, and totally worth it to celebrate our friends at Sub Pop.”
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Sub Pop and KEXP are inseparable. The label’s co-founders, Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, both had shows on KEXP’s predecessor, KCMU, in the early-to-mid-’80s. The two championed the local scene on-air for years, and—according to this cool little piece of history—they wouldn’t have come across Nirvana had it not been for their KCMU DJs playing out “Floyd the Barber.”
“Bruce Pavitt and I both had air shifts at the former KCMU,” Poneman said in the same press release. “KEXP is sort of KCMU unchained, except that the present KEXP air staff have been trained, get paid and drink fancier coffee. KCMU and Sub Pop Records both began as a pastime for music hobbyists who liked to stay indoors and play records. It’s been our good fortune to have successfully nurtured a reciprocal relationship with our hometown, Seattle: by providing great music to our community, people support it and listen.”
Anyway, here’s that awesome video of Mudhoney’s KEXP set on top of the Space Needle for Sub Pop’s Silver Jubilee five years ago. You’re welcome.
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