superchunk - majesty shredding

new album streaming on npr right now!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129480411

it sounds like SUPERCHUNK!

about halfway thru seems only "ok" but superchunk is a band that for some reason i can never really hate on for just sounding like themselves and being ok...maybe them and cheap trick...

anyway i love superchunk

"learned to surf" is a jam as is "crossed wires"

My Gap Feels Weird

both those songs were released on singles/EPs last year, but yeah, good songs. looking forward to hearing the new new stuff. didn't love "Digging For Something" when the single dropped a couple months ago but maybe it'll grow on me.

xpost

My Gap Feels Weird

really love this album, first one i've love-loved since well before the hiatus. old-school 'chunk songs with really rich production.

yeah i have sorta lost track of the chunk tbh so this is all new to me

after listening to "my gap feels weird" about 900 times, i have come to the assumption that it's about some kinda generation gap feeling -- interviewing them a couple weeks back, they both talked about how it's weird to be releasing your first album in almost 10 years when a big chunk of indie's current audience grew up without superchunk as a going concern -- but every time i hear it i can't help think about mac's orthodontic concerns.

they = mac and laura

Hi,

Could you post a link to the interview please?

Steve Shasta

hi steve,

i don't think it's been posted yet, but i will be happy to once it is.

strongo.

listening to the album now via the NPR link (thanks, btw). i've never heard superchunk before. i assume this new disc isn't the best place to start?

They would make a great candidate for a greatest hits project. But the problem is their discog is really fragmented by: lo-fi, then indie-rock, then maturity maybe 3 greatest hit EPs for each era.

there's a semi-colon missing in that second sentence.

daniel, i would start with tossing seeds probably, or on the mouth

they're on emusic, it turns out. i'll investigate; thanks.

also here's where the strings come in has "detroit has a skyline too" and "hyper enough" which to me are maybe the most superchunk of all superchunk songs

^^^this^^^

exactly an inbetween point between point between indie-era and maturity-era. But these albums are also their spottiest with half great songs, half weak songs.

i'mma go get the papers get the papers

there are no spotty songs on here's where the strings come in. wack ballads carried by high pitched mac straining.

"Driveway to Driveway" = Superchunk apotheosis, for reals

^^this

a 2CD superchunk set, properly curated, would definitely hit all the things they did well.

"driveway to driveway" and "detroit has a skyline" are probably the two to put in the time capsule for me.

superchunk inertia i think is best illustrated by their attempt to get with the late 90s zeitgeist and hiring jim o'rourke to produce come pick me up. somehow instead of sucking all the life out of them and spitting out one of his flaccid colorless production jobs he just recorded a superchunk record, except in one song i think way in the background there is the faint suggestion of a horn part.

strongo can you plz plz plz suggest that properly curated playlist... i want to get to know these guys but don't even know where to start...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

start with their videos!

"basement life" is awesome, i think that was on a dope,guns, and fucking 7 inch?

type superchunk into youtube, click on anything that looks like a produced video. they weren't merely a singles band but they did a better job than most of their peers of using the form to their benefit.

or yeah, you could seek out the obscure 7-inches. whatever's easier!

I've been working on a 2CD best-of for a while, should finish that after the new album comes out. But my selection would probably be a little offbeat since I'm probably a little younger than the average Superchunk fan and look at their catalog differently; for me the best albums are Here's Where The Strings Come In and Come Pick Me Up and they had great songs right up through the end of the original run, and I have a limited enthusiasm for anything earlier than Foolish.

right now youtube gives me "Hyper Enough," "Watery Hands," "Throwing Things," "Precision Auto," "The First Part," "Slack Motherfucker," "Package Thief," "Driveway To Driveway," "Art Class," "Fishing," "Mower" and "Untied" right down in a line, only interrupted by one SXSW 2010 clip. Totally decent intro.

The second singles/odds-and-sods comp Incidental Music is a great place to start: "Shallow End" is such a hot song to start things off. I think it's their best album.

The "watery hands" video is kinda lolz. that song is straight up Dunedin/Flying Nun mode.

i'll check out the videos, too! thanks.

found "basement life" on youtube....starts kinda uncharacteristically grindy, but the chorus is uberchunk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi0yhAxtlpw

incidental music is great

Love the "Package Thief" video. Doing the "Look, marionettes but we're not even actually trying!" thing years before Team America. Also, that song is the bomb.

gotta have "brand new love"

i keep thinking these guys are supergrass

that makes me sad

say mac was a monster, a charlatan, a fake, but he was never english

ok wow this album is way way better than you'd think a superchunk album in 2010 would be

okay, so . . .

• i'm instantly a fan
• tsk tsk for using a hall & oates album to lure away the dimwitted faux-superchunk band member
• funny dentist

I mean like this band slays

http://www.prefixmag.com/media/superchunk/digging-for-something-and-precision-auto-live-on-f/44311/

This album is fantastic, I think I've already listened to it about twelve times since I picked it up on Friday. At first I thought it was just lowered expectations, but now I'm not so sure, this is just a great little record.

this is good! I prefer the slightly less direct, moodier Superchunk of "Foolish" but this is still a great pop-punk album

yeah it's fucking great start to finish, easily one of my favorite from them

dang this is a really addictive album. I listened to it like two-three times yesterday and then had the songs in my head when I was trying to sleep last night so I had to listen to it again this morning.

I wonder if they had put out this album in like 1995 if it would have been seen as a "sell-out album." It's so direct and catchy and produced. I kind of like that we don't have to have that discussion now.

in some ways this feels more like an extension of the past couple portastatic albums due to how jammed with pop hooks it is. 'white wave' or 'center of the world' from Bright Ideas wouldn't be out of place on this one

yeah the midtempo stuff with Mac's 'gruff' voice like "Fractures In Plaster" definitely reminds me a lot of Be Still Please too. their show in D.C. on Friday was great fun and I like this album but i dunno if I'm into it as much as a lot of the other people on the thread. new version of "Learned To Surf" is awesome but it was already one of my favorite songs of 2009, y'know? i'd kinda rank Majesty Shredding among middling later albums like Indoor Living.

tbh I don't think I've heard any Superchunk or Portastatic albums since "Here's Where the Strings Come In"

Bright Ideas and Be Still Please are fantastic little guitar pop albums imo

Listening to this on a sunny beach probably swayed my judgement, but god this album is great. Seriously...wow. If this isn't a power-pop aficionado's wet dream, then I don't know what is. This is the only thing I've heard by Superchunk and it's hard to believe they've made anything better. It's like some of my favourite bands (Apples in stereo, teenage fanclub, Lemonheads etc) in one perfect spring/summer incarnation. Not a single dud track either. One of the albums of the year.....and no, I'm not part of their street team or anything. Majesty Shredding just rules.

^ in the band imo

Afraid I'm stuck in Sydney, but if I had it my way, I'd be in the states pretending to be in Superchunk. Sorry to disappoint markers.

;_;

damn I guess I need to hear this. they were one of my favorite bands in college (No Pocky / Tossing Seeds / On the Mouth era) but I fell off after that. my roommate had Foolish but I never bought it ... not sure I've even heard Here's Where the Strings Come in ...

here's my stab at Superchunk's Greatest Hits in rough chronological (given the caveats above re: what albums I've heard)

My Noise
Train From Kansas City
Slack Motherfucker
Cool
Skip Steps 1 & 3
Seed Toss
Tie a Rope to the Back of the Bus
Brand New Love
Precision Auto
New Low
The Question Is How Fast <-- candidate for uber-superchunk mission statement
Driveway to Driveway

to me Tossing Seeds is the best place to start but I guess it's a question of whether you want the lower-fi 7-inch jams or the better produced stuff

This album isn't bad, but Come Pick Me Up will probably always be my favorite Superchunk record. (NB: I've only heard like three of them.)

what other ones have you heard? cuz i think come pick me up as the best is a rare opinion

jaymc is not big on the noisy rock music in general, I'm guessing Come Pick Me Up is one of the quieter prettier Superchunk albums?

Besides this new one, I don't remember. It's possible I haven't heard a full album, but I feel like I've dipped into No Pocky for Kitty, Foolish and/or Here's Where the Strings Come In. Feel like I might like Here's to Shutting Up.

They would make a great candidate for a greatest hits project. But the problem is their discog is really fragmented by: lo-fi, then indie-rock, then maturity; maybe 3 greatest hit EPs for each era.

― Fartbritz Sootzveti (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, September 8, 2010 9:05 AM (2 weeks ago)

I don't think of Come Pick Me Up as being that quiet, but it does have some interesting textures on it. My favorite song on it is probably "June Showers," with that great bass line.

But the problem is their discog is really fragmented by: lo-fi, then indie-rock, then maturity; maybe 3 greatest hit EPs for each era.

that tracklist would be like my EP-and-a-half of lo-fi into the first part of indie era

I don't think of Come Pick Me Up as being that quiet, but it does have some interesting textures on it. My favorite song on it is probably "June Showers," with that great bass line.

it's quiet compared to the other Superchunk records

Come Pick Me Up is my 2nd favorite and is a pretty uptempo record (not nearly as quiet as Here's To Shutting Up, anyway), but it's definitely 'lighter' than their early stuff and has a lot of strings and horns and weird drum sounds, still pretty fast and aggressive when you really listen to it, though.

this is my POX of later Superchunk (i.e. post-Here's Where The Strings Come In and not counting the new album):

European Medicine
The Majestic
Out On The Wing
Pink Clouds
Does Your Hometown Care?
Watery Hands
Cursed Mirror
1000 Pounds
Becoming A Speck
Marquee

Here's my POX, though I could easily double or triple it:

Slack Motherfucker
Throwing Things
Why Do You Have To Put A Date On Everything
Baxter
Home At Dawn
Package Thief
Detroit Has A Skyline
The Popular Music
Rainy Streets
My Gap Feels Weird

i'll have to check this, but second the comment above about how nice portastatic's be still please and bright ideas are.

By the way, is it just me or does anyone else think of Blue Oyster Cult's "Burning For You" during the little instrumental break at 2:30 on "Digging for Something"?

xp if you're with me on portastatic, you'll probably love this album

i've put off listening this for far too long but am really enjoying it! love "fractures in plaster"

Saw them last Friday. Great show. Unfortunately they did not play Detroit Has A Skyline.

hard to get past the first two songs 'cause i like them so much.

are you guys for real? i find this kind of praise "effusive". is there any fair and balanced opinions out there?

FOX news doesn't like the album.

hmm, an unfiltered opinion that i can trust.

i think this is a real solid album. if you like the chunk you will probably enjoy it but it will not make you forget your favorite superchunk albums from the daze of yore, mr. shasta

just got this the other day and it really is fantastic. maybe i slept on it because i was not that impressed by come pick me up.

i have only some of superchunk's other work, and some of portastatic's, but i think i like album best. i'll have to revisit superchunk, but really the songwriting and arrangements on songs like fractures in plaster sound more like portastatic to me.

"this album best"

pretty funny video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHcxZz5P130&feature=related

half of fractures in plaster sounds like a sped-up version of big star's nighttime.