Lamestains: Grunge, Sub Pop and the Music of the Loser

by Nick Attfield

A surprising history of Seattle’s Sub Pop Records, pioneer of grunge . . . and champion of losers.
 
This book is a critical history of Sub Pop Records, the Seattle independent rock label that launched the careers of countless influential grunge bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It focuses in particular on the languages and personas of the “loser,” a term that encompassed the label’s founders and personnel, its flagship bands (including Mudhoney, TAD, and Nirvana), and the avid vinyl-collecting fans it rapidly amassed. The loser became (and remains) the key Sub Pop identity, but it also grounded the label in the overt masculinity, sexism, and transgression of rock history. Rather than the usual reading of grunge as an alternative to the mainstream, Lamestains reveals a more equivocal and complicated relationship that Sub Pop exploited with great success.

Genres: Music

304 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly can't tell you what this book was trying to say. Read like an academic text on why the contradictory existence and marketing of Sub Pop worked but I don't feel like the author truly got to the point of it. Almost if he too entirely too much glee in pointing out that while Sub Pop was initially based on being against the mainstream and conventional corporatisation it in fact ended up being both of those things? Frankly Attfield comes across as a bit annoyed that these people dared to contradict themselves and remain successful. It's bizarre the way he focuses on the ways in which Sub Pop choose to represent itself without engaging with the strong tone of the gen x society of the time that was all about "irony" and "disaffection".

Maybe it's that he couldn't decide what he wanted this text to be. There's a major focus on the identity of the "loser" (apparently the antithesis to the American mainstream man) but instead of focusing on how the lyrics of Mudhoney, Nirvana and Tad appealed to those who felt outside of the mainstream, the author is too busy picking apart the musical make up of the songs.

Muddled, lacking narrative consistency and frankly boring.

[Grace Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I take partial responsibility because I am very much out of practice in reading academic papers, and this is exactly what this book read like. But also like why do we delve into like a hundred pages of music analysis when it doesn't really support the book's central argument? TLDR: SubPop capitalizes off being firmly anti "the man, pro loser" which by definition makes it "the man." Also the airport store is cool idc what this guy says.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smart four-decades-on take on SubPop, subculture, and grunge that wonders how much was new here. Also with some astute actual music criticism that explores the degree to which sonic elements furthered the label's branded sad-loser perspective. One of the best parts of the book is the degree to which Attfield can unpack SubPop's ironic self-mythologizing: we want all your money for what is at once something new and also the same old white guys with guitars playing aggressive music--reminds me of this Chuck Klosterman piece providing a combined obituary for Ratt co-lead guitarist Robbin Crosby and Dee Dee Ramone, pointing out that one was cool and critically-lauded and one wasn't, but that both were essentially doing the same thing. As he notes, almost from the first, the label grew from your typical anti-corporate 80s punk 'zine to something simply and openly purveying just an alternative form of consumption, complete with all the commodity-fetishizing product diversification one could buy (posters, pins, variant-colored 7" singles and LPs). He supplements this with astute readings of very early Mudhoney, TAD, and Nirvana singles and albums (this is the longest dissection I've read of Bleach, I think, though probably the Charles Cross book does so at greater length and I just don't remember) to explore how they visually, lyrically, and sonically carry through and challenge the label's very traditional celebration of an abject working-class white masculinity. I should probably read that new Velvet Underground book soon to see what connections and comparisons exist. What strikes me as among the most interesting aspects here is the degree to which the underground did not see, or market, itself as that much of an alternative in a bunch of ways.

[Killian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read about the grunge era through the lens of Sub Pop

[Fred Bianco · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was okay, but seemed to heavily focused on marketing Grunge. I think there are other books out there on this topic that would be more rewarding.