Sub Pop Records Vinyl, CDs & Cassettes

Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman started Sub Pop in Seattle in 1988 with a motto they've been using ever since: "Going out of business since 1988." The self-deprecation is earned. The label nearly went under more than once in the early years, scrambling to pay pressing costs while releasing records by bands that were doing something genuinely new in the Pacific Northwest, a heavy, emotionally raw sound that nobody had quite named yet.

What they were sitting on turned out to be the center of gravity for an entire cultural moment. Nirvana recorded their first album here. Soundgarden's early work. Mudhoney, who in many ways defined what the label sounded like at its most foundational. TAD. When Nevermind broke through in 1991, and the whole world turned its attention to Seattle, Sub Pop had been there for three years already, grinding it out.

The label's second act is just as interesting as the first. After the grunge wave crested, Sub Pop quietly rebuilt around a completely different sound, signing Fleet Foxes, whose baroque folk debut became one of the most acclaimed records of the late 2000s. The Shins. Iron and Wine. The Postal Service. Beach House. Father John Misty. Sleater-Kinney's return. The label followed its ear wherever it went, which is the only real through-line across thirty-plus years.

Still independently minded, still Seattle-based, still finding artists worth caring about before most people know their names.