This week we were pretty jazzed about the 20th anniversary of Sub Pop, an influential record label with a roster that ranges from grunge legends Nirvana and Soundgarden to indie chart-toppers the Shins and the Postal Service. We celebrated by listening to Executive Vice President Megan Jasper's 21 favorite releases, then told you about a few of our own. We talked to Fleet Foxes about what being on the label means to them, and we even went straight to the source with a VIP tour of Sub Pop HQ. In case you're still fuzzy on what makes the label a musical treasure, get caught up with this quick three-minute history.

After a certain airplane manufacturer and purveyor of java, Sub Pop Records just may be Seattle's most famous brand. And while they may not have given us the 747 or the Frappuccino, Sub Pop has delivered — and continues to deliver — great music. (Take a tour of the label's offices here.)

In fact, maybe the coolest aspect of the 20-year milestone that the label is marking with a two-day celebration in Redmond, Washington, this weekend is that its 2008 roster is one of its strongest ever. And no Sub Pop newbie has been talked about more in the past couple of months than Fleet Foxes. They are locals with a love of vocals — pastoral melodies and four-part harmonies — backwoods Beach Boys from the Pacific Northwest.

"I grew up in Seattle," explained Fleet Foxes' frontman Robin Pecknold, who was all of 2 years old when the label was born, "and for me growing up and listening to Sub Pop, it was Ugly Casanova and Beachwood Sparks, and the first Shins record. That was when I was, like, 14 or 15. But the earlier stuff, my knowledge of it I inherited through my older siblings, you know. And, I mean, Sub Pop's a total legend."

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Sub Pop's Seattle office is plenty nondescript. It's located above a restaurant in a swank part of the city. There's no sign on the door. The concierge of my hotel didn't even know where it was located, and it was directly across the street.

But once inside — up a single elevator to the third floor — you sort of understand why they've got to be discreet. If they flew a flag out front, the place would be inundated by excited music geeks like me.

As the label celebrates its 20th (official) year in business, there's so much history on display here, it's simply mind-boggling. (For a look back at the label's history and a list of 21 quintessential Sub Pop albums, check out this week's Bigger Than the Sound column.) The walls are lined with original mockups for album covers (like Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff EP and the banned artwork for Tad's 8-Way Santa), early design concepts for Sub Pop's iconic "Loser" T-shirt (complete with handwritten instructions from founder Bruce Pavitt that read, simply, "Make it BIG") and original Charles Peterson photographs of young bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. There are Polaroids of Beck, Greg Dulli and Stephen Malkmus clowning around at the old Sub Pop store. And there are gold and platinum records in the bathrooms.

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