Founded in the late 1980s by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman,
Seattle-based Sub Pop Records released early recordings by then-upstart
regional bands such as Green River, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Tad, Nirvana,
Flaming Lips, Afghan Whigs, and Screaming Trees.
When the world went grunge crazy in the 1990s, Sub Pop was suddenly the
epicenter of Seattle cool. Emerging organically from Bruce Pavitt's
Subterranean Pop fanzine, the story of Sub Pop Records is the story of
a couple of irreverent music lovers who stumbled into the record
business because they simply loved working with bands they wanted to
listen to themselves. From barely paying the bills to the trappings of
major music industry success to the inevitable fallout, this is the
inside story of the musicians, producers, staffers, and stars who built
Sub Pop into an independent powerhouse.
World Domination takes you deep inside the chaotic early days of the
label's founding, all the way to the present. It's a fascinating
snapshot of a label that has promoted Death Cab for Cutie, the White
Stripes, the Shins, Iron & Wine, the Postal Service, Sleater-Kinney,
Band of Horses, Flight of the Conchords, Fleet Foxes, Sunny Day Real
Estate, Shabazz Palaces, the Head and the Heart, Father John Misty, and
many others. Author Gillian G. Gaar, a longtime Seattle-based writer,
draws on firsthand interviews, deep research, and her years of covering
the Seattle scene as a local music journalist to bring together the
first in-depth historical narrative of one of America's more influential
independent record labels.
