Sub Pop Records Company

Some highlights of a Friday-morning walking tour of Sub Pop's spacious third-floor office in downtown Seattle: A "wood record" award for the Shins, commemorating sales of 100,000 copies of "Chutes Too Narrow. " A soda machine in the lunch room stocked with Rainier beer. A framed chunk of plaster from Sub Pop's first office where Kurt Cobain wrote his name and address on the wall so the record label would always know where to send his checks. Sub Pop was founded 23 years ago by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman with the goal of documenting the blossoming Seattle rock scene.

Some highlights of a Friday-morning walking tour of Sub Pop's spacious third-floor office in downtown Seattle: A "wood record" award for the Shins, commemorating sales of 100,000 copies of "Chutes Too Narrow. " A soda machine in the lunch room stocked with Rainier beer. A framed chunk of plaster from Sub Pop's first office where Kurt Cobain wrote his name and address on the wall so the record label would always know where to send his checks. Sub Pop was founded 23 years ago by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman with the goal of documenting the blossoming Seattle rock scene.

Record Label in Lawsuit: Sub Pop, the Seattle-based record label that launched the careers of such famous grunge rock acts as Nirvana and Soundgarden, filed a $12-million fraud lawsuit against Caroline Records in U.S. District Court in New York.

Record Label in Lawsuit: Sub Pop, the Seattle-based record label that launched the careers of such famous grunge rock acts as Nirvana and Soundgarden, filed a $12-million fraud lawsuit against Caroline Records in U.S. District Court in New York.

Long hair . . . riffs copped from Led Zeppelin and the Stooges . . . greasy, fuzzed-out guitar solos that seem mailed in from Mars . . . unintelligible, bellowed lyrics. So far, most of the groups from the Sub Pop grunge factory share certain similarities. Then again, so did groups from the Motown stable.

The headline on Sub Pop Records' ads in the rockzines reads, "Hey Loser." And when the owners of the small, Seattle-based company come to Los Angeles, they walk the two miles from a budget motel to their attorney's office in Century City. Why waste money on a cab or car rental? Likewise, you wouldn't confuse Sub Pop's roster of recording artists with anything found on major labels: a squadron of former Muzak employees, lumberjacks and a 300-pound butcher from Idaho.

Long hair . . . riffs copped from Led Zeppelin and the Stooges . . . greasy, fuzzed-out guitar solos that seem mailed in from Mars . . . unintelligible, bellowed lyrics. So far, most of the groups from the Sub Pop grunge factory share certain similarities. Then again, so did groups from the Motown stable.

The headline on Sub Pop Records' ads in the rockzines reads, "Hey Loser." And when the owners of the small, Seattle-based company come to Los Angeles, they walk the two miles from a budget motel to their attorney's office in Century City. Why waste money on a cab or car rental? Likewise, you wouldn't confuse Sub Pop's roster of recording artists with anything found on major labels: a squadron of former Muzak employees, lumberjacks and a 300-pound butcher from Idaho.