Music

20 Canadian bands who released music on Sub Pop

by Mark Teo

While Sub Pop came of age in the Seattle grunge scene of the ’90s, they’ve maintained their relevance—and they’ve always been relevant—by branching outside of their West Coast home. Indeed, the label has always been excellent at identifying new movements, sounds, and locales: They’ve cut grunge, punk, indie-pop, post-hardcore, and even comedy releases, and in the process, have captured slices of the emergent music scenes in Halifax, Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and even Guelph.

Indeed, some of Sub Pop’s best releases have been Canadian and some of the best-ever Canadian releases have come via Sub Pop—lest we forget, Eric’s Trip, the Constantines, and METZ have all cut albums of the Emerald City label. We’ve listed 17 other Northernly acts who’ve been part of the Sub Pop family, and yes, they’re all worth exploring.