kleph
06-03-2006, 08:07 AM
I'm workin'
But I'm not workin' for you.
Slack motherfucker!
- Superchunk, "Slack Motherfucker"
Everyone has a band they feel they have possession of. A band whose music they feel is uniquely theirs. The band they would want to have play the soundtrack of the film made for their life.
For me, that band is Superchunk.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/chunk002.jpgI have a lot of favorite bands whose music is an intimate and essential part of my life but none come as close to that secret thrum of my heart the way Superchunk does. Something about these guys simply makes me happy to hear them. Every time I hear them.
And, likely, that happened because they are a lot like me. They started out as dead broke college kids in Chapel Hill, North Carolina that just loved their music. Forming in 1988 they played opening gigs around town while taking classes and working classic dead end jobs – almost as the same time I was doing the same damn thing.
Mac McCaughan wrote their first big song, “Slack Motherfucker,” while working at Kinko’s. (A song once described by the revered Trouser Press as " an insurgent chorus tethered to a trebly guitar hook powerful enough to pierce the cerebrum at a hundred paces.") At that exact same time I was working as a dishwasher at The Magnolia Grill who tossed aside the apron after my shift and raced to the college radio station WXDU (http://www.wxdu.duke.edu/) to play music just like his all night.
It is tough to describe the band as punk since they lack the vitriol and affinity for anarchy the medium seems to require (and, many would say, maturity). As the eighties progressed, lots of bands ebbed from the extreme reaches of punk and gravitated to that indefinite region known as "indie rock" that can carry the most approving and dismissive of meanings. They wear pullovers on stage, for chrissakes.
But they thrived there. Partly because of their geographic location. Being centered in Chapel Hill, they were at the nexus of a great college music scene. The triangle region has three great university towns within an hour’s drive and the accompanying radio stations and live venues to match it.
This not only gave them the financial wherewithal to keep on the path they had chosen but the artistic courage to do so as well. Why give up a good thing for something you are by no means sure is going to be any better? That's not artistic idealism, that southern practicality, my friend.
As their first self titled offering began to get some notice they became the focus of a major label bidding war. Remember, Nirvana had just burst out of nowhere to make Sire records huge mountains of cash and everyone was looking for "the next big thing."
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/mtvagain.jpgInstead, Superchunk stuck with Matador Records and went decidedly the other direction choosing bare bones producer Steve Albini to take the producing reigns for their second album, No Pocky for Kitty. (The Big Black alumni would later helm the Pixies first full length effort Surfer Rosa and Nirvana's sophomore offering, In Utero). They may not have ended up as militantly independent as Albini is famous for, but they have successfully carried his demanding adherence to the integrity of what do throughout the whole of their career.
And they have done it without becoming irritatingly pretentious as you might expect. And, when you see them live, you get the feeling they just really enjoy what they do. There ain't the usual angry and pissed off posturing. Just good sweat-your-ass off moshin' fun. For a good example check out this little film (http://www.fortension.com/slackmofo.html) of them performing "Slack Motherfucker."
This wonderful buoyant energy works because long ago they figured out the real secret for "keeping it real" and that is "don't take yourself too fucking seriously."
They stuck with Matador Records until they finally figured it would best to simply do it themselves. McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance formed Merge Records (http://www.mergerecords.com/) which is now a haven for like minded bands who have a unique sound that really doesn't fit in the corporate rock scheme and doesn't really want to.
Their 1994 effort Foolish is still, in my estimation, their best work. There is a brooding nature to a lot of this album but McCaughan was smart (or lucky) enough to wait until he knew what he was doing as a songwriter before he made a record fueled by the pain of a broken relationship. There is no self-pity here, just honest introspection on a well-textured sonic tapestry. But while the DIY rawness of the early years of “the chunk” may be gone, the intensity this band was born from is very much alive and fueling the fires.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/superchunk1.jpgI also dig Incidental Music. This is the best of the best of Superchunk but it's sold as a grab bag of B-sides and rarities. Somehow this eclectic collection gives one of the clearest pictures of how damn talented this band really is. The steady march of "Foolish," the hopping energy of "On the Mouth," the subtle glory of "Throwing Things" and the staggering brilliance of "Cadmium." There just ain't a bad song on the record (and the hidden alternative version of "Precision Auto" is fucking awesome too)
The ultimate testament to this band's greatness is the powerful cover of The Magnetic Field's "100,000 Fireflies." The original is a pristine song of longing but the chunk makes it a powerful howl of agony and frustration. I cannot play this in my car and not scream the lyrics at the top of my lungs. Buy this record. Listen to it daily. Make it religion.
Of the “new” Superchunk sound, Come Pick Me Up is probably the best. When I first got this CD I was very let down. It wasn't the crunchy Superchunk I grew up with and loved. I shelved it and threw in an older album and went my merry way but I was driving to Phoenix once and this was all I had in my car. It took me three months to get it out of the CD player. There is a maturity to the songwriting that doesn't come out in the first listen and the music is crafted very much to the topic of each song. Overall this is the band's most complete work and probably the one their career will be judged by.
Their last studio album was 2001's Here's to Shutting Up, (which I personally found a bit uneven), and their most recent tour was in support of the 2003 compilation Cup of Sand. (They did put on a show last year in their “home venue” the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill.) Merge Records has taken up a lot of their time and McCaughan has become more and more preoccupied with his excellent side project, Portastatic.
But there are still lots of Superchunk out there for you aural enjoyment. In keeping with their indie ethos, there are a number of websites chock full of photos, interviews, lyrics, MP3's and videos. This includes the band's own site called, aptly enough, superchunk.com (http://www.superchunk.com/). This site is worth visiting if for no other reason than Jon Wurster's tour diaries (http://www.superchunk.com/tours.html). They are chock full of wonderful anecdotes like when he caught a drunk before a gig rubbing one of the PA speakers beseeching it - "Play some great songs little friend."
Some dude in Durham named Matt set up the first, and probably still best, fan site (http://www.monkey.org/~chunk/superchunk/home.html) in 1995. He let it lapse at the turn of the millennium due to grad school efforts but it remains a great resource for folks interested in the band.
Cam Carrithers has set up a nifty little site (http://www.fortension.com/) that is a is a multimedia documentary covering Superchunk over their first 12 years of existence. It is a great place to find out just where these guys are coming from, musically and artistically.
©2006 C.J. Schexnayder
But I'm not workin' for you.
Slack motherfucker!
- Superchunk, "Slack Motherfucker"
Everyone has a band they feel they have possession of. A band whose music they feel is uniquely theirs. The band they would want to have play the soundtrack of the film made for their life.
For me, that band is Superchunk.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/chunk002.jpgI have a lot of favorite bands whose music is an intimate and essential part of my life but none come as close to that secret thrum of my heart the way Superchunk does. Something about these guys simply makes me happy to hear them. Every time I hear them.
And, likely, that happened because they are a lot like me. They started out as dead broke college kids in Chapel Hill, North Carolina that just loved their music. Forming in 1988 they played opening gigs around town while taking classes and working classic dead end jobs – almost as the same time I was doing the same damn thing.
Mac McCaughan wrote their first big song, “Slack Motherfucker,” while working at Kinko’s. (A song once described by the revered Trouser Press as " an insurgent chorus tethered to a trebly guitar hook powerful enough to pierce the cerebrum at a hundred paces.") At that exact same time I was working as a dishwasher at The Magnolia Grill who tossed aside the apron after my shift and raced to the college radio station WXDU (http://www.wxdu.duke.edu/) to play music just like his all night.
It is tough to describe the band as punk since they lack the vitriol and affinity for anarchy the medium seems to require (and, many would say, maturity). As the eighties progressed, lots of bands ebbed from the extreme reaches of punk and gravitated to that indefinite region known as "indie rock" that can carry the most approving and dismissive of meanings. They wear pullovers on stage, for chrissakes.
But they thrived there. Partly because of their geographic location. Being centered in Chapel Hill, they were at the nexus of a great college music scene. The triangle region has three great university towns within an hour’s drive and the accompanying radio stations and live venues to match it.
This not only gave them the financial wherewithal to keep on the path they had chosen but the artistic courage to do so as well. Why give up a good thing for something you are by no means sure is going to be any better? That's not artistic idealism, that southern practicality, my friend.
As their first self titled offering began to get some notice they became the focus of a major label bidding war. Remember, Nirvana had just burst out of nowhere to make Sire records huge mountains of cash and everyone was looking for "the next big thing."
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/mtvagain.jpgInstead, Superchunk stuck with Matador Records and went decidedly the other direction choosing bare bones producer Steve Albini to take the producing reigns for their second album, No Pocky for Kitty. (The Big Black alumni would later helm the Pixies first full length effort Surfer Rosa and Nirvana's sophomore offering, In Utero). They may not have ended up as militantly independent as Albini is famous for, but they have successfully carried his demanding adherence to the integrity of what do throughout the whole of their career.
And they have done it without becoming irritatingly pretentious as you might expect. And, when you see them live, you get the feeling they just really enjoy what they do. There ain't the usual angry and pissed off posturing. Just good sweat-your-ass off moshin' fun. For a good example check out this little film (http://www.fortension.com/slackmofo.html) of them performing "Slack Motherfucker."
This wonderful buoyant energy works because long ago they figured out the real secret for "keeping it real" and that is "don't take yourself too fucking seriously."
They stuck with Matador Records until they finally figured it would best to simply do it themselves. McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance formed Merge Records (http://www.mergerecords.com/) which is now a haven for like minded bands who have a unique sound that really doesn't fit in the corporate rock scheme and doesn't really want to.
Their 1994 effort Foolish is still, in my estimation, their best work. There is a brooding nature to a lot of this album but McCaughan was smart (or lucky) enough to wait until he knew what he was doing as a songwriter before he made a record fueled by the pain of a broken relationship. There is no self-pity here, just honest introspection on a well-textured sonic tapestry. But while the DIY rawness of the early years of “the chunk” may be gone, the intensity this band was born from is very much alive and fueling the fires.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/superchunk1.jpgI also dig Incidental Music. This is the best of the best of Superchunk but it's sold as a grab bag of B-sides and rarities. Somehow this eclectic collection gives one of the clearest pictures of how damn talented this band really is. The steady march of "Foolish," the hopping energy of "On the Mouth," the subtle glory of "Throwing Things" and the staggering brilliance of "Cadmium." There just ain't a bad song on the record (and the hidden alternative version of "Precision Auto" is fucking awesome too)
The ultimate testament to this band's greatness is the powerful cover of The Magnetic Field's "100,000 Fireflies." The original is a pristine song of longing but the chunk makes it a powerful howl of agony and frustration. I cannot play this in my car and not scream the lyrics at the top of my lungs. Buy this record. Listen to it daily. Make it religion.
Of the “new” Superchunk sound, Come Pick Me Up is probably the best. When I first got this CD I was very let down. It wasn't the crunchy Superchunk I grew up with and loved. I shelved it and threw in an older album and went my merry way but I was driving to Phoenix once and this was all I had in my car. It took me three months to get it out of the CD player. There is a maturity to the songwriting that doesn't come out in the first listen and the music is crafted very much to the topic of each song. Overall this is the band's most complete work and probably the one their career will be judged by.
Their last studio album was 2001's Here's to Shutting Up, (which I personally found a bit uneven), and their most recent tour was in support of the 2003 compilation Cup of Sand. (They did put on a show last year in their “home venue” the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill.) Merge Records has taken up a lot of their time and McCaughan has become more and more preoccupied with his excellent side project, Portastatic.
But there are still lots of Superchunk out there for you aural enjoyment. In keeping with their indie ethos, there are a number of websites chock full of photos, interviews, lyrics, MP3's and videos. This includes the band's own site called, aptly enough, superchunk.com (http://www.superchunk.com/). This site is worth visiting if for no other reason than Jon Wurster's tour diaries (http://www.superchunk.com/tours.html). They are chock full of wonderful anecdotes like when he caught a drunk before a gig rubbing one of the PA speakers beseeching it - "Play some great songs little friend."
Some dude in Durham named Matt set up the first, and probably still best, fan site (http://www.monkey.org/~chunk/superchunk/home.html) in 1995. He let it lapse at the turn of the millennium due to grad school efforts but it remains a great resource for folks interested in the band.
Cam Carrithers has set up a nifty little site (http://www.fortension.com/) that is a is a multimedia documentary covering Superchunk over their first 12 years of existence. It is a great place to find out just where these guys are coming from, musically and artistically.
©2006 C.J. Schexnayder