Eugene Mirman has been in St. Paul, MN this past week covering the Republican National Convention. We’ve really enjoyed Eugene’s work and perhaps you will too!

RNC 08: Who Is Sarah Palin?

RNC 08: What’s a Republican?

Eugene’s pants catch on fire.

One of the ways our friends at KEXP raise money to keep on keepin’ on is through the sale of their series of Live at KEXP compilations. These CDs feature KEXP’s exclusive, live in-studio recordings and recordings from live remote broadcasts across the country. And, Volume 4 is coming out on September 16th! This new installment includes several artists whose recordings are generally available on the Sub Pop label. Specifically, these artists…

The Helio Sequence, who perform the song “Can’t Say No” from their album Keep Your Eyes Ahead and Fleet Foxes with the song “Oliver James” from their self-titled album.

Plus! This volume also includes the song “Lion’s Mouth” from Hardly Artists Arthur & Yu.

Live at KEXP - Volume 4 is evidently available exclusively through Insound and you can (and should) pre-order it now!

Today the folks at Q Magazine announced the nominees for their 2008 Q Awards and Fleet Foxes got TWO! So far as we know, Fleet Foxes are the first band on the label to be nominated since the Q Awards began in 1990! They were nominated in the “Best New Act” and “Best Album” categories and we are confident that they are deserving of both. If you are similarly bullish on Fleet Foxes and their super-fantastic self-titled debut full-length why not vote for them?!

Congratulations, fellas! You are already winners in our book (though such an “honor” should come as no surprise and comes with considerably less statuary/prizes…).

In the meantime, Fleet Foxes continue touring, and touring, and touring. Read all about that here.

Vote for Fleet Foxes in the 2008 Q Awards!

Following their full-length, debut record, Saturnalia, The Gutter Twins have a new 8-song EP available called Adorata. The EP is available exclusively through the iTunes Music Store here. Adorata features two previously unreleased originals and also contains cover songs by José González, Primal Scream, Scott Walker, Vetiver, and Eleven

A portion of Adorata’s proceeds will go to the Natasha Shneider Memorial Fund. Natasha Shneider was a friend of the band and the late lead singer of Eleven.

While it’s likely that we have already tipped our hand with their appearance at our 20th anniversary festival (and also with bits of press coverage like this Seattle Weekly piece), we are exceedingly thrilled to announce that we are now working with the band Obits!

Let’s meet the men of Obits!

Rick Froberg—-guitar, vocals Sohrab Habibion—-guitar, vocals Greg Simpson—-bass Scott Gursky—-drums

Rick was in Pitchfork , Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes. Sohrab was in Edsel. Scott was (and is, for about another week, apparently) in Shortstack. And, according to that Seattle Weekly article linked above Greg Simpson is easily the best musician in the band—no small feat in the company he’s keeping here.

They are an amazing band, an excellent group of people and we are very excited to be working with them.

The plan is to release the first Obits full-length record album sometime in the first few months of 2009.

Popular Seattle combo Fleet Foxes were interviewed by legendary broadcaster John Norris. Filmers filmed said interview and put it into the internet. You can take it out of the internet and into your life using the links below.

Interview part one

Interview part two

White Winter Hymnal

You can buy Fleet Foxes music here. I recommend buying the vinyl version of Fleet Foxes as it includes the magnificent Sub Giant EP and a download code to get all the music digitally.

You can buy the brand spanking new premium cotton Fleet Foxes shirts here.

Attention Minnesotians,

This coming Sunday August 10 at 4pm, Sera Cahoone is playing an in store at Minneapolis’ legendary Electric Fetus record store. In addition, the great people at the ‘Fetus will be offering 20% off ALL SUB POP TITLES and Sub Pop and Electric Fetus prizes to giveaway on Sunday.

Sera is also playing that night at the 7th Street Entry

Go get it.

New news from The Go! Team!

The Go! Team’s free digital stuff site is live today here.

You’ll find a new recording of “Milk Crisis,” the 4 track EP of “Get It Together,” their first release, some remixes they’ve done of others and others have done of them and some song parts for you to monkey around with—”Ladyflash” and the Chuck D-featuring “Flashlight Fight.” Feel free to send yr remixes to remix@thegoteam.co.uk.

The Team will be adding more downloads to this site from time to time, old demos, live versions and stuff…

Go here to register and download.

PLUS! The Go! Team are touring in the US this summer! And, they’re doing much of this touring with CSS! Take a look at the dates here.

Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt and his daughter Iris will be selling rare punk and Sub Pop discs at the Punk Rock Flea Market, this Saturday (July 26th) in Seattle from 10 – 6. The address of the event is 2407 1st Ave. in Belltown.

As reported earlier today on Pitchfork, after their van broke down, Fleet Foxes were forced to cancel their Salt Lake City show scheduled for tonight, July 23rd. Luckily, they will be back in SLC on August 18th, opening for Wilco (details).

Not so luckily, this same non-functioning van will also cause the band to miss the in-store performance they have scheduled for 6:00 pm on Friday July 25th at Portland’s excellent Music Millennium . We are truly sorry to be the bearers of this piece of bad news: Friday’s Fleet Foxes in-store at Music Millennium is hereby canceled. We are trying to reschedule something at Music Millennium in September and will keep you posted on any progress on that front.