Sub Pop Singles Club Gets Rebooted

Join the throngs of assholes selling their collectibles on eBay for ridiculous sums!

By Fred Mills

Along with the big Sub Pop 20^th anniversary celebration happening this week in Seattle — check out our preview info HERE — the indie label is also announcing the resurrection of its legendary Singles Club. Those of you with long memories (or good record collections) will recall that Sub Pop started the Club way back in the day as an ingenious marketing tool for the label and its acts, pressing up 45s for the likes of Nirvana, Tad, Mudhoney, etc., in limited quantities that ensured the platters became collectors’ items when the Seattle scene took off. (How limited? How collectible? Let’s just say that when yours truly was putting in some much-needed home repairs a few years ago, the first Nirvana 45, duly eBayed in a fit of financial need, “single”handedly paid for the new flooring in the living room and hallway.)

Later the Singles Club featured non-label artists (e.g., Sonic Youth) in addition to showcasing up-and-coming Sub Poppers, and the whole concept of fans buying a subscription that brought an exclusive 45 to their mailbox each month subsequently was adopted as a model by a number of other labels.

Oft-imitated, never bested, however, the Sub Pop Singles Club was the real deal — and a good deal, too.  Inflation means that a subscription now costs $75 for a year ($90 outside North America), but that’s basically six bucks a record, including shipping and postage, so what ya complaining about? As Sub Pop puts it, “Here’s your chance to join the throngs of assholes selling their collectibles on eBay for ridiculous sums! All you have to do is: SEND US YOUR MONEY!”

Here’s the “deal” from the label:

The Sub Pop Singles Club is back, all tan and rested after a shockingly long sabbatical. It is a somewhat louche, world-weary thing with its eye on your wallet. This run of The Sub Pop Singles Club will run for 1 year only, include records (of the 7” variety) with music from such artists as Om, Unnatural Helpers, Tyvek, Black Mountain, Black Lips, Arthur & Yu, Mika Miko, Blues Control, Notwist, plus some stuff we’re not yet at liberty to divulge.

In addition to the singles themselves, each subscriber will receive a coupon enabling the download of high-quality MP3s of each record. No need to worry about how you’ll jam that 7” into your disk drive, we’ve got all you technophiliacs with your new-fangled gadgets covered.

We will mail subscribers 1 record per month, every month for an entire year beginning on August 15th with a fantastic pair of songs from Om. We will be pressing 1,500 copies of each single and so the number of subscriptions available for sale will be correspondingly limited. When these subscriptions are gone, that’s it! If you want in, better go here now:

http://www.subpop.com/releases/sub_pop/misc/sub_pop_singles_club_3_0