I Found My Friends by Nick Soulsby Page B

had it engraved.
    The front cover of the single was a statement of intent foregrounding only two textual elements; the band’s name and Sub Pop’s—all Sub Pop releases enforced this equal billing. The style was so identifiable that Steel Pole Bath Tub and Melvins would eventually put out a parody.
    MIKE MORASKY: The idea to parody the Mudhoney/Sonic Youth split seven-inch was the Melvins’. I think they originally wanted to do it as a split with Nirvana, who I think were uncomfortable with the idea. We were big Sonic Youth fans, so we immediately volunteered. The Sub Pop explosion was just getting rolling and people were taking Sub Pop so seriously that the Melvins, us, and Tom [Flynn] at Boner Records found it funny to take the piss out of them a bit.
    Sub Pop latched onto the old Detroit Motown wisdom of making a label synonymous with a location—ergo Soundgarden’s “Sub Pop Rock City” song. They created a situation where it was hard to mention music from the state of Washington without the label’s name appearing.
    PETER LITWIN: On our show posters we started seeing “Seattle” and “Sub Pop” before our name. We did do one seven-inch record on Sub Pop, so that might be why concert promoters thought they could benefit from associating us with Sub Pop.
    PETER IRVINE: One thing we saw was that at some of our gigs in Europe, the promoters would toss around the “Seattle” adjective in the marketing either as a bold misdirection, or else a geographic misunderstanding.
    SHAMBIE SINGER: They were explicit about trying to marshal a particular sound they could market. I think at one point maybe Danny Bland—a Sub Pop PR guy and member of the band Cat Butt—likened the Sub Pop approach to Motown. He felt like Bruce and Jonathan were pretty proud of that strategy … Jonathan, who I knew the best of the two of them, was very candid about cultivating a certain sound and image for his label as a primary means toward financial success.
    KURT DANIELSON, Tad: Sub Pop was an unbelievably supportive, visionary, fertile, and energetic label, one with a genius for innovative promotion … In a way, they were extensions of the band itself in terms of creative input when it came to things like ideas for album titles, contributing creatively to ideas about promotion and image … We always knew that both Bruce and Jon believed in the band, and this gave us a great sense of self-confidence. This was one of the greatest things about Sub Pop: how supportive they always were, even during the toughest and most tense times. We always felt as if whatever we accomplished ourselves musically, it was for our benefit as well as for theirs. It was a family atmosphere, and there was a sense of family pride, a feeling that whatever we did, we were doing it for the good not only of our own band but also for the other bands as well as the label itself and beyond that for Seattle and its music community.
    Sub Pop’s focus on regional identity wasn’t particularly unique; the label was reproducing a common underground trend of the period.
    TOM DARK: By 1983, cities and record labels everywhere started to put out lots of compilation albums, putting their scenes and bands on the map. For some reason, northeast Ohio didn’t have one, so I decided to put one out myself. While helping out bands, putting on shows and benefits, I raised enough money to put out the New Hope compilation album on my own New Hope Records.
    DAVID YAMMER, Bayou Pigs: Houston was good because of its size and its geographical location. We were sort of a halfway point between Austin and New Orleans for touring bands … Anomie Records was run by Scott Ayers [and Bliss Blood] of the Pain Teens. We recorded a song at Scott’s studio for the Houston Loud compilation that was released in 1988. Actually it was Bliss and Scott who suggested that we change our name to the Bayou Pigs from the