Sub Pop 20: That loud-soft-loud formula still works

Back in the so-called grunge era, rock songs often followed a pattern: soft verse, loud chorus, soft verse, repeat. It couldn’t have been a coincidence, then, that the first day of the weekend festival in Seattle celebrating 20 years of Sub Pop -- the record label that helped define that moment, and American indie rock in general -- was structured like a giant version of one of those pulse-quickening anthems. Quiet sets gave way to torrential bouts of noise, then settled back into peace and melodicism before exploding again.

The formula not only beautifully organized 10 hours of music by 13 acts, but it also added up to a revelation about Sub Pop’s remarkable run on the indie scene. As the day unfolded, two streams of music formed, complementing each other like two parts of the same song.

Here’s how it flowed: the chorus part was punk rock, in the classic, sweaty, self-deprecatingly macho tradition. The verses were more varied, but the bands in that role were generally lush, as defiantly expansive as the harder music was concentrated.

Set up on two stages in a grassy grove in Marymoor Park, just outside Seattle, SP20 (as the fest is labeled) debuted under a speckless blue sky; the gorgeous weather contributed to the day’s family-picnic atmosphere. Sub Pop may have been key in the rise of indie acts from Nirvana to the Shins, but here it’s a local business, part of a very entrepreneurial Northwest scene. One function of this festival is to celebrate the many artists and music-biz worker bees who’ve built Sub Pop into a cultural institution -- and a brand.

Employees, from label co-founders Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt on down, greeted each other with shouts and hugs on Marymoor’s big lawn as the capacity crowd filtered in and set down picnic blankets. The music started at noon with New York band Obits and Canadians the Constantines, plus a hair-twirling set by the underrated early '90s fuzz-rock band Eric’s Trip.

Those groups played on This Stage, the bigger of two set side by side. The day really took shape, though, when That Stage exploded into action with a set of hearty, tuneful fight songs from Seaweed, a salt-of-the-earth outfit from Tacoma, Seattle’s neighboring city.

“Thanks for putting us on the old people stage,” said one of Seaweed’s guitarists as they ended their set. It’s true -- the groups repping for that vintage Sub Pop sound were considerably older than their more songful counterparts.

In fact, the stars of each style stand at opposite ends of Sub Pop’s trajectory. Mudhoney was one of the label’s earlier signings and had members who’d been around (in other bands) since the beginning. Fleet Foxes is its hottest new band, a barely post-adolescent quintet. Mudhoney’s lead singer, Mark Arm, is 46; Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes is 21.

So does it surprise you that Arm was the one who flung himself around onstage like a psychotic Gumby, screaming out songs like “Touch Me I’m Sick”? Or that Pecknold sat for his performance, nursing an acoustic guitar and leading his mates in elaborate harmonies? In indie rock these days, excess and release have transformed into something quite high-minded.

Yet Fleet Foxes is, in its own way, a risk-taking outfit. During a set that hushed the whole meadow, Pecknold unfolded his elaborate songs, with their prog-folk arrangements and fairy-tale lyrics. Courting prissiness, Fleet Foxes accomplished something extraordinary: it caused a sun-soaked festival crowd to focus and listen.

Mudhoney had a different effect. The rockers didn’t have to work for attention; sentimental favorites, they had everyone shouting along from the get-go. A palpable energy surge moved through the mosh pit when Mudhoney bashed through old favorites like the sacreligious “In ‘n’ Out of Grace”; grown men even crowd-surfed. And backstage, a host of local stars (from Kim Thayil of Soundgarden to Kim Warnick of the Fastbacks) watched with huge grins on their faces.

So much more happened on this first day of SP20. On the loud side, the reunited Denver band the Fluid almost matched Mudhoney’s high; on the soft side, gothic “slow-core” band Low rivaled Fleet Foxes for beauty. Fine sets from neo-shoegazers the Helio Sequence, neo-punks Pissed Jeans, neo-folkie Iron and Wine (in solo form, with sole permanent member Sam Beam strumming an acoustic guitar and singing his own songs, plus “Such Great Heights” by the Postal Service, another Sub Pop band, absent today) and neo-hilarious duo Flight of the Conchords kept the crowd’s mood bright.

The Conchords have been Northwest favorites for years, having toured here before their HBO series made them marginally famous. The crowd roared at every silly song during their closing set.

And then there was one band that managed to be loud and soft at the same time. Scottish group the Vaselines made a major impression on artists such as Kurt Cobain (Nirvana covered a few of their songs) two decades ago by making sunny, childlike pop with sexually forthright, sometimes broken-hearted lyrics. The salt-and-pepper chemistry of singer-songwriters Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, and the rough corners they left on their boy-girl dialogue, opened up a new avenue for indie rock, one that allowed for both aggression and sweetness.

Playing their third-ever show in the U.S., the Vaselines were loose and cheeky. McKee and Kelly bantered like a potty-mouthed Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant and sang favorites like “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” and “Dying for It.” Fresh from their rowdy set, Arm and Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner sat cross-legged on the side of the stage and watched; Turner’s toddler son danced in his dad’s arms.

“This is not what people think,” McKee said before the Vaselines began “Molly’s Lips,” a song with a typically winsome tune and possibly dirty lyric. What is this little story about a girl who’ll “take me anywhere, as long as I stay clean,” then -- an invitation to kinkiness? An incentive for sobriety? Pulling a switcheroo on categories, the Vaselines showed the way to a new kind of musical release. And they still sounded new, 20 years after they first messed with the formula.

-- Ann Powers

Read Ann Powers' wrap-up on SP20 here. 

Photos of festival crowd, Fleet Foxes and Mudhoney by Kevin Casey

Comments

[kuma]

Man, did Hazel play? I tell you, talk about under-rated bands! They shuld have been huge, but i'm glad they weren't!

[Paul Rock]

I'm a huge fan of everything that Eugene Kelly has done!!! How could he not play LA when he was over here!!!!!

[Chuckles]

I used to walk by KCMU and Sub Pop on my way to the Croc, Sit N Spin and Nite Lite every Thursday and Friday. Both the station and label are gods in Seattle and pretty much sum up a typical Seattlites attitude on life: You don't have to be good looking to be good.