Superchunk

Superchunk established themselves as the Cheap Trick of North Carolina, the most accessible and jovial of the new wave, even managing to recover the “anthemic” drive that punk-rock had lost after 1977. Few groups have represented a beacon (musical and moral) for their generation like them.

Mac McCaughan (vocals and guitar) and Laura Ballance (bass) formed Superchunk in Chapel Hill (North Carolina). In December 1989 the first single came out, with the psychedelic melody of What Do I (Merge) and the epic, driving and abrasive My Noise (their first masterpiece). In May of the following year the new single Slack Motherfucker instead rediscovered, to everyone’s surprise, the galvanizing impulse of early punk rock.

The songs of Superchunk (Matador, 1990) constitute a continuous tribute to adolescent vital energy, but are tainted by the nervousness of their era. The prepubescent vocal delivery and somewhat rough instrumental backing make them the antithesis of chart-friendly melodic rock. The solemnly off-time and out-of-tune instrumental interludes add to the pleasure of the catchy choruses of Sick To Move and Swinging the raw charm of approximation. Hard-rock sounds, piercing and tectonic, worthy of their earliest singles, return in Let It Go and in the boogie finale of Not Tomorrow.

The Buzzcocks are the moral inspiration behind the single Cool and its B-side Fishing, as well as later songs such as Breadman (Matador), its B-side Cast Iron, and Seed Toss (Merge).

The artistic growth of the band culminates with No Pocky For Kitty (Matador, 1991). Heavy rhythms and guitar noise cannot conceal the melodic qualities of Skip Steps 1 & 3 and Tie A Rope To The Back Of The Bus. The chorus is blatantly foregrounded in Cast Iron and Punch Me Harder. On the margins of these two directions are the dizzying, almost grunge-like riffs of Tower and a hint of Replacements-style pathos in Throwing Things.
The Merseybeat chorus of Mower, the fiery electricity of the ballad On The Mouth, the solemn chaos of Cadmium (with a naïve guitar nursery-rhyme and a cadenced racket creating a psychotic atmosphere), of The Question Is How Fast and Forged It continue the series of singles that made them a small college myth.

On The Mouth (Matador, 1992) is the best-produced album up to that point. Despite the more professional sound, the songs are not always up to their past standards (Precision Auto and Package Thief). Too noisy New Low, too whiny From The Curve: Superchunk end up retreating into the long Swallow That, somewhere between Tom Petty and the Stooges of I Will Fall. Even the 1993 single Ribbon and the 1994 First Part are somewhat disappointing. McCaughan is growing as a man and can no longer be the same adolescent musician.

Foolish (Merge, 1994), his melodramatic peak (essentially an autobiographical concept album following his breakup), definitively says goodbye to Ramones-style punk-pop (Why Do You Have To Put A Date On Everything) and Who-style mod-rock (Without Blinking, modeled after Substitute), and announces the arrival of a new proletarian songwriter (Driveway To Driveway and Keeping Track) in a fatalistic tone that increasingly recalls Petty. Like A Fool, slow and anemic in the style of Codeine, and Water Wings, tinged with acid-rock, open new directions, but the band’s strength, upon closer inspection, has never been a specific genre but rather the way they interpret it, the way they play rough, ragged, juvenile rock-and-roll structures; as demonstrated by all their instrumental codas and the entire Saving My Ticket.

Incidental Music (Merge, 1995) collects some singles, a few tracks from compilations (Baxter, Invitation, Night Of Chill Blue) and some unreleased covers. It essentially complements the earlier anthology, Tossing Seeds. The album opens with the song Superchunk contributed to the soundtrack of the Jerky Boys film, Shallow End, a sign of their maturity (some Sonic Youth-like guitar dissonance amid folk-rock chimes and a shouted chorus in their standard style). The bulk (qualitatively speaking) consists of the 1992 singles, from the most expansive period (from Mower to Ribbon).

Meanwhile McCaughan has launched a parallel career under the pseudonym Portastatic, essentially a solo project where he is accompanied by friends from other local bands. The single Starter (18 Wheeler), the EP Naked Pilseners (Matador) and the album I Hope Your Heart Is Not Brittle (Merge, 1994) try to mask his convoluted personality behind the carefree power-pop of Polaroid and Silver Screw. His plaintive instinct still surfaces in Gutter, or when he chants the consumerist ode Beer And Chocolate Bars, or in the hypnotic tapestry of Naked Pilseners.

Portastatic is by no means inferior to the main project. After San Andreas (Esther) and Guessing (18 Wheeler) came the EP Scrapbook (Merge, 1995), with two much better arranged songs such as Why Pinch Yourself and A Bear That Chokes.

On the album Slow Note From A Sinking Ship (Merge, 1995) the singer’s solemn and optimistic alter ego fully emerges, as if seeking a cathartic outlet away from the frenetic depression of Superchunk. The synthesizer adds a noir touch to When You Crashed. Slow Note has all the strengths and weaknesses of very personal works: it overflows with sincerity and passion, but loses much in punch and cohesion. Occasional collaborators rarely achieve the tightness of a regular band. The arrangement is nevertheless much more professional than on the previous album, which may have been a bit too “lo-fi.” Confessional works of this kind (restrained tone, sparse arrangements, slightly wild spirit) rarely manage to sustain themselves over an entire record, and Slow Note is no exception: the best material is all within the first twenty minutes. The singer chants in a vaguely psychedelic-country style in the elegy When You Crashed, paints a Jonathan Richman-like adolescent vignette (but with his characteristic Merseybeat melodicism) such as Skinny Glasses Girl, and intones a religious hymn with Dylan-like solemnity (complete with organ) such as Taking You With Me. San Andreas is the most punk-pop track, closest to Superchunk. The bonus track is a ten-minute piece of pure electronic avant-garde in the rhythm of a fairground ride. Some will prefer that to the rest.

It is immediately followed by Superchunk’s fifth album: Here Where The Strings Come In (Merge, 1995). If the previous one, Foolish, had changed the rules of the game by presenting a mature band capable of sustaining a full album rather than relying on individual gems, the new album delivers even fewer memorable moments (certainly the single Hyper Enough, one of their most popular in college circles, and Yeah It's Beautiful Here Too, in the exuberant style that made them famous), but an even higher consistency. The problem is that when the band takes itself seriously it often (see Sunshine State) becomes simply boring, and for Superchunk that should be anathema. The only exception is Certain Stars, a great finale half thrash and half psychedelic. A warning: the adult songwriter feels constrained in Mac’s adolescent falsetto.

Indoor Living (Merge, 1997) marks Superchunk’s definitive embrace of melodic rock standards. Mac McCaughan must have decided that the era of independent creativity was over. And if the “slow” tracks (from Unbelievable Things to Song For Marion Brown) are somewhat boring, the more lively ones (Burn Last Sunday and Popular Music) would have more to offer if only they were properly arranged. The skewed harmony of No Bruises and the syncopated cadence of European Medicine, and perhaps even more the closing fun of Martinis On The Roof, a strange blend of Rolling Stones and David Bowie, somewhat redeem the overall mediocrity. Watery Hands is the single.

The myth of Superchunk is largely the myth of a stubbornly independent artist. The quality of his art leaves something to be desired (McCaughan’s voice and guitar are extremely limited, so all the songs sound alike), but the influence exerted by his work on a generation of independent musicians is enormous. None of his records will stand the test of time, not even No Pocky For Kitty, considered by many his masterpiece. The sounds were deliberately distorted and deformed, but unfortunately behind the “poses” there was very little music.

Portastatic's The Nature Of Sap (Merge, 1997) boasted the most straightforward and relaxed ballads of McCaughan's career yet (Hurrican Warning, Spying On The Spys, You Know Where To Find Me) but left the impression of a record cut during a vacation from his usually frantic and neurotic job.

Mid-tempo rhythm, falsetto singing and orchestral arrangements turn Superchunk upside down on Come Pick Me Up (Merge, 1999), a varied and refined collection that boasts old-style numbers (June Showers, Good Dreams), as well as new-style rockers (Pink Coulds, Honey Bee) and new new melodic gems (Hello Hawk and the following single Majestic). The singer has finally overcome his flaws, but the problem now is that he doesn't have adequate material to sing. Songs vary by a split hair. Mostly, the band repeats the same song over and over again. At the end, it is difficult to remember which one was which.

Portastatic's next venture is into Brazilian music, the EP De Mel De Melao (Merge, 2000).

Portastatic's Looking For Leonard (Merge, 2001) is an all-instrumental film soundtrack that is nothing more than background muzak, but then kitsch seems to be one art in which the guitarist can make a difference: Looking For Leonard, Sweethearts Organ Mix and Only Good People Wonder If They Are Bad are alternative muzak for alternative rockers.

Superchunk's Here's To Shutting Up (Merge, 2001) is equally disappointing. The distance between lo-fi pop and mainstream pop is getting shorter and shorter, and one begins to wonder why in heaven Mariah Carey is junk if Superchunk's Art Class, Late-Century Dream, Phone Sex are cool.

Go Back Snowball's Calling Zero (Fading Captain, 2002) is a collaboration between Mac McCaughan and Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard.

Portastatic's The Summer of the Shark (Merge, 2003) features Oh Come Down and little else. The accompanying EP Autumn was a Lark (Merge, 2004) recycles second-rate material and adds the new Autumn Got Dark.

Cup of Sand (Merge, 2003) is a two-disc anthology of Superchunk's singles and (too many) rarities.

The catchy, exuberant power-pop of Portastatic's Bright Ideas (Merge, 2005) marked the merging of McCaughan's two alter-egos. Some of the songs (White Waves, The Soft Rewind, I Wanna Know Girls, Through with People, Center of the World) were unquestionably among the most lilting and infectious of his career. But it was a bit depressing to see that 15 years of music led to this: the kind of melodic popular music that had existed for centuries. Not quite the mission that justifies a career (or a life). However, one must admit that, in terms of hooks and riffs, this might represent McCaughan's apex, or what Superchunk's Indoor Living wanted to be. His maturation as vocalist helped.

Portastatic's Who Loves The Sun (Merge, 2006) was an orchestral soundtrack for a film. Portastatic's Be Still Please (Merge, 2006) included at least two of Mac McCaughan's trademark pop ditties, Sour Shores and I'm In Love With Arthur Dove. The double-disc Some Small History (Merge, 2008) compiles Portastatic singles, demos and covers.

Superchunk's Majesty Shredding (2010), the first album in nine years, displayed the old class and cute refrains, and it did not sound too old-fashioned in the age of Arcade Fire. Both the energetic songs (Digging for Something, My Gap Feels Weird) and the catchy songs (Crossed Wires, Learned to Surf, Winter Games) stood up quite well to any competition of 2010.

Superchunk's I Hate Music (Merge, 2013), their worst album yet, exhibits the typical problem of rock musicians who take themselves seriously as writers: they end up making both bad music and bad poetry. Lyrically, this is boring, and that's enough said. Musically, this used to be called power-pop. When they forget trying to sound intelligent and just focus on playing their instruments, bassist Laura Ballance, drummer Jon Wurster and guitarist Jim Wilbur can still pack a punch, as they do in Void, Unfortunately we also have to listen to McCaughan (not exactly a terrific singer) tell us about baseball, travel, and utter such revealing philosophical statements such as "I hate music / What is it worth?" Too bad that the hyperkinetic slam-dance of Staying Home lasts only one minute (then, again, Husker Du had been doing this 30 years earlier). Me & You & Jackie Mitoo is the cheesy single.

What a Time to Be Alive (2018) was a collection of angry rants against the era of Donald Trump, but, musically, not any better than I Hate Music.

Wild Loneliness (2022) is possibly their most relaxed album ever, power-pop of the 1970s inspired by the Byrds and the Eagles (especially the singles Endless Summer and This Night). Wild Loneliness even boasts a sax solo worthy of pop-jazz muzak.