Sub Pop

Sub Pop is an American record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt. In 1988, Sub Pop Records LLC was formed by Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle alternative rock scene. They are often credited with taking the first steps toward popularizing grunge music, and have continued to achieve critical and commercial success in the new millennium, with bands such as Fleet Foxes, Foals, Beach House, The Postal Service, Flight of the Conchords, Sleater-Kinney, Blitzen Trapper, No Age, Wolf Parade and The Shins on their roster. In 1995 the owners of Sub Pop sold a 49% stake of the label to the Warner Music Group.

Links To Peel
In January 1989, Peel wrote a piece on The Observer (later republished in the Olivetti Chronicles) on the phenomenon Seattle sound coming from the Sub Pop label. He described how the name Sub Pop popped up in the last 18 months.

"'Yet in the past eighteen months the name of Seattle has popped up whenever two or three have gathered together to speak of non-chart pop - and as often as these folk have said 'Seattle' they have said 'Sub Pop'. '"

In 1991, Sub Pop became achieved their first platinum record through the success of Nirvana's Nevermind album, which Peel considered in 1997 on the Guardian newspaper as one of his Top 20 Albums.

Sub Pop allowed Peel and his son William to choose session tracks for a compilation album called The John Peel Sub-Pop Sessions, which was released in March 1994. All the sessions came from Peel's shows that featured Sub Pop musicians.

Peel continued supporting artists from Sub Pop even after the end of the Seattle alternative rock scene, whose era finished when Kurt Cobain of Nirvana committed suicide in April 1994.