Subpop singles again

The Subpop singles club - of course, you never got to see any of their records, but it always brightened up a corner of the Peel show when he got to announce "this, then is the latest from the SubPop Singles Club..."

Obviously, we won't be hearing those words again, but the SubPop singles club is back. And it's signed up Black Lips, Black Mountain, the Notwist, Mika Miko and... you know the deal. Bands who you suspect will still be cool by the time the 40th anniversary of SubPop comes round.

Beggar my neighbours: 4AD swallows sister labels

As part of the crazy, new-frontier world of music labels, Beggars Group have decided to thin out the number of imprints they operate under, shuttering the venerable Too Pure and Beggars Banquest labels and transferring across artists under those banners to 4AD.

It used to be quite hard to get onto 4AD; now it turns out all you had to do was sign to Beggars and wait.

The Too Pure singles club, it seems, is going to continue, though, as they sent out a press release after the announcement of the mothballing of Too Pure. This Spring, they'll be launching limited-edition singles featuring Kaputt, Electricity In Our Homes, Die! Die! Die!.

KMFDM - doing it 24/7

To mark the, erm, all-important 24th anniversary of KMFDM, the band have announced a series of (of course) 24 seven inch singles: 24/7, you see. The singles will be released, one at a time, at the start of each month, meaning the 24th birthday anniversary will stretch out into 2010. The release is limited to 250 copies each. Which doesn't have 24 in it.

Great news

Much-beloved of the Marc Riley show on 6Music, Emmy The Great has announced a new single, due the start of December. It's seven inch vinyl, of course, and called Gabriel.

To tide you over until then, this is the great The Great from the Black Cab Sessions:



She's not wearing a seatbelt. Saville would be outraged.

Something old, something new...

ATP records has come up with a new spin on the Singles Club, cooking up the Custom Made idea where bands will be invited to contribute something old (an old song), something new (a taste of their latest record), something borrowed (a cover) and something blue (a recording of the drummer having sex with a groupie... or, rather "open to interpretation) to make a double seven inch single pack.

First up is The Drones:

Side A. Something old – Cockeyed Lowlife of the Highlands (New recording of this old song)
Side B. Something new – I Don’t Ever Want to Change (taken from the album Gala Mill)
Side C. Something borrowed – I Drink (originally by Charles Aznavour)
Side D. Something blue – Shark Fin Blues (taken from the album Wait Long By the River…)

The singles will be in a limited run of 1,000, with the first 100 being in a silkscreen package; if you can't get physical there's the option of a download edition.

Pure delight

The lovely people at Too Pure - and we still think of them as being Th' Faith Healers label - are launching a singles club. Thirty quid will get you a year of seven inch singles, delivered to your door, still hot from the oven. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? There's a download option, too, but we suspect that might not come in a limited edition of 500.