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/iTj_ definitely was strange," says Superchunk bassist Laura
i. L Ballance of her band's stint opening for the Get-Up Kids in
the summer of 2002. "There were certainly times where it felt like
people were not there to see us at all. These kids just wanted us to
get the fuck off the stage so they could see their favorite band. One
night there was this or.e kid who just leaned against the barrier flip
ping us the bird."
That's right, let's go ahead and get it out of thi way; the last
time Superchunk was on the road, they were opening for The Get-Up
Kids, a band five years their junior and with five fewer albums. For
some it was an unforgivable sin (Spin suggested it was time for the
band to throw in the towel), and very few Superchunk fans made it
to the shows. It was a brave, brave move by a band that has never
once bowed to the bile-soaked, fire-breathing crybaby that is the
world of corporate music.
"Ninety percent of the bands that started when we did are
gone," says drummer Jon Wurster, who joined the band in 1992 for
On the Mouth. "They were relying on other people and signing to
major labels."
Along with contemporaries Pavement, Polvo, Archers of Loaf, and
Yo La Tengo, Superchunk helped to define the much-maligned "indie
rock" genre—it was a lot like punk rock, in that it seemed anyone
could do it, but piercings were discouraged and tattoos were
optional. Superchunk (Mac McCaughan on guitar and vocals, Jim
Wilbur on guitar, along with Ballance and Wurster) started on
Matador Records. After three albums, they moved to Merge Records,
the indie owned by Superchunk founders Ballance and
guitarist/vocalist McCaughan, a success story in itself with artists
like The Magnetic Fields, Lampchop and Spoon. Their history is full
of good-natured music making, free of trashed hotel rooms and coke
snorted off of strippers’ asses (though, if these things did happen,
it was surely not without a detached sense of irony). They are, for
lack of a better term, a true DIY success story; Fugazi, but with
their hearts on their sleeves.
As with fans of many bands from the '80s and '90s underground,
Superchunk fans are divided by those who feel the band began
sucking after their early days, and those who continue to marvel at
the band's uncanny maturation. Some actually feel the band peaked
with "Slack Motherfucker," their second single; others will at least
cut them some slack through their second album, No Pocky For Kitty.
Who knows what sort of self-hatred-fueled elitism is behind such
opinions, but these listeners have missed out on several great
albums, particularly Superchunk's two most recent records, 1999's
Come Pick Me Up and 2001's Here's to Shutting Up, the best of the
band's career. Wurster says it's sometimes hard to stomach the-criti
cism. "I'm trying to overcome [reviews], trying not to take it per
sonally. It's hard when you work on a record for a year and then get
'three stars,' or 'two-and-a-half stars' or 'sounds like the old stuff.'"
Both records actually received more cheers than jeers, but Here's
to Shutting Up was sadly lost in the shuffle of much Digger affairs.
"The timing of Here's to Shutting Up was awkward," says Ballance.
"It came out around 9/11, and everything was weird. No one was
thinking about buying records. There was a weird vibe." There were
those who turned to record buying to numb the fear (like yours
truly), and they were rewarded by the record's off-kilter string
arrangements, organ lines, pedal steel, and some of Superchunk's
most spacious arrangements to date.
In trying to turn me onto Superchunk, someone once told me,
"It's like, Mac's screamin' as loud as he can, and you still can't hear
him!" The noisy, lo-fi production is gone, but the band is still
refreshingly loose, and personality always shines through the quirks.
Wurster sees this side of Superchunk (and many indie rock bands)
starting to die out in newer bands, especially after seeing some of
folks from The Get-Up Kids perform with their side project Reggie
and the Full Effect with some other younger bands. "I'm amazed at
how incredibly pro those bands are," he says. "These are kids making
records who grew up on mid- to late-'8fis metal and hard rock. A
slick record is not a bad thing to them."
Though Wurster and Ballance feel more positively about The Get-
Up Kids tour than some of their fans, they both admit that it was a
bit rough at times. "That tour was interesting, and a lot of those
tours look great on paper," says Wurster. "Here's a band that has
cited us as an influence, and here's a chance to try to find some new
fans, because I was getting frustrated playing the same clubs to the
same size crowds." He later adds, "Not until then did I realize how
few people had heard of us." Though the decision wasn't a direct
result of the tour, the band started a hiatus once they returned
home from the tour in the summer of 2002. The hiatus was origi
nally Balance's idea.
"I wanted to have time do other things that I didn't have time
for," says Ballance. "I didn't feel like I'd had spare time since 1989.
I think it's been good for all of us." Ballance tried to find time to
paint while dealing with home flooding and her job running Merge
Records with McCaughan. "I'm very bad abgut getting [into the
Merge office] at a certain time," she admits. "But we do have office
hours, and I do expect everyone else to adhere to them." Wurster
stayed busy playing with Caitlin Cary, Chris Stamey, Jay Farrar, and
even a one-off session with R.E.M. As a result of his comedy record
ings with WFMU DJ Tom Scharpling, Wurster has had a few doors
opened for writing jobs. He wrote the promos for the MTV Movie
Awards this year, which meant he got to work with Justin
Timberlake and attend the awards. "It was an experience, but it
was actually kind of boring," he says. "They stock the theater with
good looking actors and actresses, and they all have the same
haircut and the same shirt." McCaughan released another solo
album under his Portastatic moniker, and is about to release an EP
of covers and live songs.
Current Superchunk activity is the result of the recently released
Cup of Sand, their third collection of b-sides and other stray tracks.
To celebrate, they're attempting to play some of these tunes—many
of which they had forgotten until the prepping of this release—on
their current tour. They'll also be playing a couple of new ones,
titled "Smith's on Steroids" and "Blue Oyster Cult," which Wurster
describes as a little more rocking than recent songs. A DVD titled
Crowding Up Your Visual Field is slated for November; it'll feature
videos, live footage, band commentaries, and a documentan/ of the
band's tour for Here’s to Shutting Up titled "Quest for Sleep."
Both Wurster and Ballance agree that the band is not at the
center of everyone's lives anymore, and that neither was itching to
get back .into it. "It was getting more to the point where I was used
to not doing it," says Ballance. Wurster, who spent half of last year
on the road, says, "I never thought I wouldn't miss it—but I
didn't" Still, they are enjoying playing together again, and though
they've made no plans for Superchunk after the current tour, rest
assured any future releases will simply add more classics to one of
the most enviable, earnest song catalogs in underground rock. "We
all kind of arrive at the same idea," says Wurster. "We have never
really had a plan, which I think has kept us going."
r
L
Sam Gunn
WHO: Superchunk, fJatt Suggs
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, October 10
HOW MUCH: $10
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