Photo by Sasha Morgan | Sub Pop Records

It’s a pretty frigid morning here in Philadelphia, but this is bound to warm you up. Pissed Jeans‘ awesome new full-length Honeys, out next Tuesday on Sub Pop Records, is streaming via Spin.com. It’s eleven tracks and forty-ish minutes of the Philly crew do what it does so freaking well- high-energy, cathartic protopunk-styled jams, peppered with social criticism and self-effacing introspection. Listen to it here, and get stoked to thrash out to this in a week and a half when Pissed Jeans headlines Underground Arts on February 15. (Details at the XPN Concert Calendar.)

There is an opening reception for the exhibit on August 3rd from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. Afterwards, the exhibit will be open to the public throughout the month of August until the 24th at Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction during their store hours, which are listed on their website.

Seattle, WA – On October 24, 2010, Sub Pop Records’ VP of Sales, Director of Marketing, and remarkable friend Andy Kotowicz died as a result of injuries he suffered in a terrible car accident three nights previous. He was 37 years old and he is dearly, profoundly missed. The Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation was established in an effort to help provide for Andy’s wife Jocelyn and his young daughter Anna. An auction on CharityBuzz.com featuring items from Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Muse, The Simpsons and more is open for bidding now until December 14th. In addition to the auction a concert is scheduled for December 4th at Seattle’s Showbox at the Market with performances by many of the bands Andy worked with at Sub Pop as an A&R representative. Finally, there will be a benefit show held on December 8th, Andy’s birthday, in his hometown of Ann Arbor/Ypsi.

These shows and events, the wide array of auction items collected below, all are partial testament to the very full life lived by our friend. On behalf of Andy’s family and as part of it, we at Sub Pop Records are deeply grateful for all of the items donated here, for all of the artists, venues, vendors and assorted sponsors who have donated their time and/or something arguably more palpable. Please consider bidding on these items and or donating to or otherwise supporting the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation.

You can find the list of auction items here; info for the December 4th show at Showbox At The Market (featuring Pissed Jeans) and the December 8th show at The Savoy are available on the venues’ sites.

Sub Pop Bands Play Seattle Benefit Show for Family of Late Label Vice President Andy Kotowicz “On October 24, Sub Pop Records Vice President of Sales and Director of Marketing Andy Kotowicz died in a car accident, leaving behind a wife and baby daughter. On December 4, several Sub Pop bands will play a benefit for the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation, which raises money for Kotowicz’s family, at the Showbox at the Market in Seattle. The bill includes Mudhoney, Shabazz Palaces, Wolf Eyes, Vetiver, Pissed Jeans, Fruit Bats, A-Frames/AFCGT, and Michael Yonkers.” (Pitchfork)

Sufjan Stevens brings “Age of Adz” to life “Wednesday night at the Academy of Music, Stevens brought Adz to life, inspiring a sold-out crowd with creative tunes about, as he put it: ‘love, death, heartbreak, the apocalypse, the beginning of the world, the end of the world, and the middle of the world.’” (Phrequency)

‘tine-‘tine Is Back at JR’s Nov. 11 “Philly’s lo-fi queen of mean is back on the scene. Nah, we know that Christine Griffis is an absolute sweetheart, but her stage persona ‘tine-‘tine will cut any bitch that crosses her and make ex-lovers rue the day they hit that shit with a drop of a verse! ” (The Deli)

Bands: How to do band reunions “When bands split now they enter the revolving-door afterlife familiar to superheroes and soap villians – it’s only a matter of time before they’re back.” (The Guardian)

Our ’20s guitar man “From Django Reinhardt to Jimi Hendrix, the names that commonly appear on argument-starting lists of the greatest and most influential guitarists of the 20th century are familiar. But there’s one flat-picking virtuoso from South Philadelphia typically left out of the conversation, whose music has receded into obscurity despite a trailblazing career cut short by his tragic death in 1933: Eddie Lang.” (In The Mix)

R.I.P. Andy Kotowicz “Just wanted to take a sec to note the passing of Andy Kotowicz — head of sales and marketing at Sub Pop Records — who died over the weekend following injuries sustained in a car accident. He was 37. In addition to a long, esteemed career in the music industry and just generally being a great guy, he’s the one who brought Philly’s own Pissed Jeans into the Sub Pop fold a few years ago. We spoke with Andy for a Pissed Jeans piece we wrote up for PW last year.” (Make Major Moves)

Phoenix get creative at Tower Theatre “At this point in their career, it’s hard to argue that Phoenix—the charming, accessible, French chanteurs—are anything less than a force to be reckoned with. Their fourth studio album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, won the 2010 Grammy for “Best alternative music album”—not to mention the attention of thousands of fans seeking fun, danceable pop.” (Phrequency)

Plans For South Philly Walmart Renovation Sadly Do Not Include Total Destruction And Scorching Of Earth “On this much we can all agree: The South Philly Walmart is perhaps the darkest emotional corner of the entire city of Philadelphia. Sure, there are plenty of places that are in greater disrepair, more riddled with crimes both petty and capital, but no place we can think of locally will inspire more instant despair, more across-the-board automatic dread, more sympathy with all evildoers who hate America. For they do not hate us for our freedom; they hate us because of places like the South Philly Walmart.” (Philebrity)