Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman discusses Kurt Cobain's early commercial ambitions relative to the indie label's modest expectations.
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“Kurt would Tell me regularly. We should be selling a million of these. And I'd be going, you don't understand, you know.”
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More from Jonathan Poneman
Insight
Poneman: Running Sub Pop was easier broke than funded
“In some ways it was much easier to run the label with no money than it became when we had some money.”
Jonathan PonemanJun 1, 2020▶ 1:07:17Sub Pop Records: Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman
Disclosure
Poneman: Warner deal proceeds went directly to the founders, not Sub Pop
“Similarly, the deal was done with Bruce and myself, singularly. It was not done with SubPop, so the money went directly to Bruce and myself.”
Jonathan PonemanJun 1, 2020▶ 1:08:37Sub Pop Records: Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman
AssertionContradicted
Poneman: Sub Pop pioneered direct COD retail sales for US indie labels
“And at the time, independent record labels weren't doing this in the United States. We all figured that we needed to have a relationship with a distributor to get our records into the stores. But Bruce and I picked up the phone, and we decided to start selling…”
Jonathan PonemanJun 1, 2020▶ 33:28Sub Pop Records: Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Poneman: Post-Nirvana, we paid $150k for bands that previously cost $2k
“Well, there were bands who, before Nirvana had their explosive success, we would have signed for 2000 dollars. In one particular case, I signed one of those bands for 150,000 dollars.”
Jonathan PonemanJun 1, 2020▶ 1:15:23Sub Pop Records: Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Poneman: 'Grunge' as a cultural gestalt will outlast the era's bands
“There are few things that I think are going to stand the test of time than the word grunge. I think a lot of these bands will long be forgotten, but that word grunge and the Style, and time, and gestalt. You know, everything that it summons will stay.”
Jonathan PonemanJun 1, 2020▶ 37:29Sub Pop Records: Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Poneman: Krist Novoselic demanded a recording contract by banging on Pavitt's windows
“One evening, Chris Novoselic went over to Bruce's house and started banging on the windows, demanding a recording contract.”
Jonathan PonemanJun 1, 2020▶ 46:13Sub Pop Records: Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman
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