Superchunk - Superchunk - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

From Mac McCaughan of Superchunk To write the songs for Here's to Shutting Up, we gathered in Jim's garage (he lived way out in the woods) a couple times a week for what seemed like months. We started from actual scratch with no demos or concepts, just playing instrumental music with our usual gear plus a Casio. We recorded the album in the Cabbagetown neighborhood of Atlanta at Zero Return, the studio built by Brian and Rob (aka Birdstuff and Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard) of Man or Astro-man? Brian Paulson came with us to produce it.Here's to Shutting Up was meant to be released on September 18, 2001. On September 11, the world changed. Our date moved a couple weeks, but our tour dates remained and we flew to Japan in October. It was a WILD time to be traveling the world. Receptions ranged from Inchthank you for giving us something else to think aboutInch to Inchwhy are you here?Inch We flew home from Japan and left for the UK the day the US started bombing Afghanistan. This was the climate, and the climate was not great for playing rock music. Album Tracks 1. Late-Century Dream 2. Rainy Streets 3. Phone S*x 4. Florida's on Fire 5. Out on the Wing 6. The Animal Has Left It's Shell 7. Act Surprised 8. Art Class (Song for Yayoi Kusama) 9. What Do You Look Forward To? 10. Drool Collection 1. Late-Century Dream 2. Rainy Streets 3. The Hot Break 4. Florida's on Fire 5. Act Surprised 6. A Collection of Accounts 7. Art Class (Song for Yayoi Kusama) 8. Flying Aka Out on the Wing 9. Becoming a Speck 10. Frank's Bath Aka Phone S*x 11. The Animal Has Left It's Shell 12. Corp Song Aka What Do You Look Forward To? 13. Drool Collection

In March of 1999, Superchunk traveled to Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago to record the tracks that would become Come Pick Me Up. The addition of producer Jim O'Rourke allowed Superchunk to advance their sound with more experimentation, including horn and string accompaniments. Ken Vandermark, Jeb Bishop, and Bob Weston provided the horn section (saxophone, trombone, and trumpet, respectively) while Fred Longberg-Holm and Suzanne Roberts contributed on cello and violin. InchIt was exciting to work in the big room downstairs at Electrical. For part of our visit we also slept there, in the dark except for lights on all the gear blinking. It snowed a ton the day we got there, and I didn't go outside for the first five or six days we were there,Inch Mac recalls. InchI read an interview where O'Rourke said we tried to make a two-month record in two weeks or something. I'm sure he's right - we never wanted to spend the time or money making records the 'proper' way, but I like how this record came out, and it has some of my favorite songs of ours on it.Inch Album Tracks 1. So Convinced 2. Hello Hawk 3. Cursed Mirror 4. 1000 Pounds 5. Good Dreams 6. Low Branches 7. Pink Clouds 8. Smarter Hearts 9. Honey Bee 10. June Showers 11. Pulled Muscle 12. Tiny Bombs 13. You Can Always Count on Me (In the Worst Way)

Bruised Lung. InchNo Hope.Inch InchCare Less.Inch InchClimb the Walls.Inch InchEverybody Dies.Inch Scanning the tracklist of Songs in the Key of Yikes, one is given to wonder Is Superchunk okay? In a world that's arguably darker than the one that greeted Wild Loneliness in 2022 or What a Time to Be Alive in 2018, are any of us okay? InchIt's always been the case that everyone is going through something that you may not be aware of,Inch notes Mac McCaughan. InchThis is currently more true than ever-but also the case that we are all going through some things together. In the face of that, what good is art and where is happiness found? (Spoiler alert I don't know.)Inch In seeking an answer, Songs in the Key of Yikes unleashes a sound that is triumphant and bright in the darkness, Majesty Shredding in overdrive. Lead single InchIs It Making You Feel SomethingInch sets the tone early with the band-McCaughan, Laura Ballance, Jim Wilbur, and Laura King-building an anthem out of the potential for joy, diving into slop-polluted waters (Inchnow fakes are faking everything / that once made your poor heart singInch) and emerging with a pearl. InchNo HopeInch is similarly resilient, McCaughan's lyrics painting a crushing scene before entering it's titular refrain. He repeats the phrase nine times, pauses a beat, and transforms it's sentiment entirely, breaking the chant with the line Inchand here we are singing.Inch The lyric is sharp, at once a simple observation and a profound statement of being, the song's crushing nights and endless days no less so on it's account, but McCaughan's voice finds a certain sweetness in having endured, and continuing to do so. Paradoxically, the energy of Songs in the Key of Yikes borders on and sometimes spills into euphoria, as in InchStuck in a DreamInch which emerges like a mirage-born oasis between InchEverybody DiesInch and InchTrain on Fir