Despite the fact that Sub Pop has been declared dead twice in its 20 years on Earth, the venerable indie label that has taken its lickings kept on ticking, right up to the present day. Co founder/label president Jonathan Poneman says he started the label as "a blindly ignorant music fan." And after breaking Nirvana, helping birth emo with Sunny Day Real Estate and changing lives with the Shins, Poneman is a savvier businessman but not a cynic. "Fandom always drives what we do," he says. "When you get down to it, we're all a bunch of music nerds."
 
20. Sub Pop Turns 20
The label that began life as a cassette supplement to Bruce Pavitt's column about independent music in the 80's grew into an influential American music brand in the 90s with a unique sans serif, black and white visual style and a stable of bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney that defined the Seattle scene. Since then, Sub Pop has weathered financial storms, corporate buy-in and shifting musical tastes to arrive at its 20th birthday with Grammy winners and platinum albums on its resume. How to celebrate? They've gathered the alumni for two days of "utterly overwrought" Seattle gigs (July 12-13). The Sub Pop Festival, July 12-13, features the reunion of Green River (wherein Pearl Jam and Mudhoney members revisit their Stooge-y past), as well as the Vaselines (playing the U.S. for the first time) sharing a bill with Flight of the Conchords, Iron & Wine and Fleet Foxes. Meanwhile, on other stages, the modern incarnations of veteran Sub Pop acts will play: Greg Dulli, who fronted Afghan Whigs in the early/mid 90s, plays the Showbox with Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, led by 80's Tad frontman Tad Doyle.
 
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