And with Wincing the Night Away, all the pegs are in place for a monster hit.
"This record is coming at an amazing time in the arc of my company," says Poneman. "A lot of the people employed there have been doing their jobs for a long time now, and they're really, really good at them. Some people think that setting up a record like this would be easy because it's a good record and the band has a supposedly high profile. But being able to corral everybody and keep their minds on the record takes a lot of planning, a lot of talking, a lot of improvisation."
David Belisle
The Shins main man, James Mercer.
Details
The Shins at Bumbershoot 2007
When: 2:30 p.m,Saturday, Sept. 1
Where: Samsung Mainstage, Memorial Stadium
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All of which puts the Shins at the jumping-off point for commercial stardom, a place Sub Pop has always wanted to see them, a place any band would love to be. From there, there would seem to be only one natural step: jumping to a major label. And Jasper notes that for years, in big cities like New York and L.A., it's been impossible to see the band without there being a swarm of major- label A&R reps on-site.
"We've been taken out to some fancy dinners," says Mercer. "But to be honest, [major-label reps have] always kinda creeped me out."
The suits at Epic, for instance, tried to lure the Shins via Mercer's friend and Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock.
"One time we were in Arizona with Modest Mouse, and Epic had flown a representative out from New York just to check on the band. But the girl was obviously fresh out of college and had no idea who Modest Mouse was. She came up to me and thought I was Isaac. I mean, that's who's taking care of your band? Someone who doesn't even know you? I consider a lot of these people at Sub Pop good friends. Some of them were at my wedding last year. You just don't find that very often."
If the Shins left Sub Pop, it would hurt. But free-agent bands leaving for greener pastures is something Sub Pop has grown accustomed to. Back in the early '90s, Nirvana and Soundgarden jumped ship, and even Mudhoney—widely considered to be the quintessential Sub Pop band— spent a seven-year interlude at Reprise before returning to Sub Pop in 2002. But, as Jasper notes, that was at a time when the majors really did have something to offer that Sub Pop didn't, such as good distribution, clout with MTV, and, of course, access to late-night television.
"Back then," she says, "we hadn't quite figured out how to make it work. At that time, the lesson we learned was that we were a company that had some limitations and were operating in a somewhat delusional manner. It made sense, at the time, to think that if a band had outgrown our services, that meant we had done our jobs well. If one of our bands was offered a contract with a major label, that was something we were proud of."
But nowadays, it seems even the smallest label can swing for the fences. Barsuk's Rosenfeld admits pondering where his label might have come up short in supporting Death Cab had they released Plans rather than Atlantic.
"I honestly think Barsuk could have supported Plans," says Rosenfeld. "It would have required some investment on our part, and the major labels' clout in the American marketplace is enormous, especially when it comes to commercial radio. So maybe we wouldn't have sold as many records as Atlantic, but I think we could have come close."
With this in mind, Sub Pop is hoping not to be relegated to the "what if" bin when it comes to future Shins releases.
"I would love, all things being equal, to continue working with the Shins," says Poneman. "But we are at a place where our agreement called for three records, and this is the third record. It'll be interesting to see how the relationship grows from here, because it has been incredibly symbiotic. And though it's never been articulated, we've all been working toward this point, this desire to make the Shins as popular as possible. So, reaching that point, it'll be interesting to see where it goes because, in many ways, this is uncharted territory for Sub Pop.
"They could have left and figured out a way to buy out of the contract, but the fact that they stayed is something for which I owe them a debt of gratitude," adds Poneman. "I think it makes us all try that much harder with this record. I predict that if the Shins do decide to leave, we'll have a few down years. [But] there are always down years."
Jasper adds: "The Shins do allow us to take risks on bands that would only sell a few thousand copies, but we don't rely on the Shins to survive anymore. If we were to do that, we would turn into Sub Pop [of] 10 or 12 years ago. That's a lesson we've learned. Don't get me wrong: To lose an artist like the Shins is a big deal. But our label is always looking out for something new and exciting."
"That's what we do," adds Poneman. "I'm always looking for the next big thing—the next Shins."
bbarr@seattleweekly.com
