Superchunk Song Review Project 4: "Slack Motherfucker"

This is probably THE Superchunk song. The Zeus in their Pantheon. Their "Stairway." Their "Wrath of Khan." Their "The Stand." Their "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective."

And there a few reasons for this. Obviously a song where someone shouts "I'm not working for you! Slack Motherfucker!" in the middle of it is pretty bad ass. But the song title and anthemic chorus are the cherry on the top of this amazing song. The real innovation in songwriting here, the thing that really makes you take notice, occurs within the first second of the song. This song is is all built around the "SUPERCHUNK CHORD": a conventional power chord where you drop yr index finger a fret to get that cool dissonant sound. I'm sure someone else in the history of music played this sort of chord sometime before this song, but no one had ever really showed off its TOTAL AWESOMENESS. This chord is all over lates 90s/early 00s emo, and its all because of this song.

Here's a list of other great things in this song: the bass/snare hit to start things off; the ringing out E chord during the verses combined with the COMPLETELY UNINTELLIGIBLE LYRICS; the droney notes in the "I'm working part" and the way the song goes from being loud to QUIET without ever slowing down or losing its intensity; the guitar solo, I think, switches between the two guitar players with one of them playing the first part (which is TERRIBLE and really SKRONKY and totally great) and the other one taking over for the second part (which sounds more like a typical Superchunk solo to me)---in fact, the chord progression REVERSES itself halfway through the solo when the switch (maybe) takes place. I dunno if there's a switch or not, really, but I kind like the pretend there is because it makes me think of Slayer; the pickslide going into the final chorus!

Song structure: ABACDABACDEFCDCD

(A=Intro, B=Verse, C="I'm workin...", D="Slack Motherfucker!",E=Solo1,F=Solo2)

It seems really complicated for a three minute punk song!

Superchunk Song Review Project 3: "Train from Kansas City"

Superchunk is a band that covers a lot of songs and this is one of the first. They do a great job of turning their covers into Superchunk songs, if you know what I mean. It's not like Michael Morales' cover of ``What I Like About You."

It's not really worthwhile to talk about the song writing, since they didn't write the song! But we can talk about the Superchunk sound, which is totally on display. Grubby guitar sounds, feedback, doubled Mac vocals sung off key, the whole package. It sounds exactly like the Shangri-Las version, except, you know, totally loud and chaotic. The thing I always loved about this cover was that Mac sings the lyrics exactly as they were in the original, he doesn't change the gender of the lyrics. (Not like Celine Dion's incredibly lame AC/DC cover.) When I first heard this song, like in 1993, I was like "woah! this band is totally gay!" It turns out I was wrong about that, but the 18 year old me felt challenged by it. I mean, it was 1993! People were way more openly homophobic back then than now. It seemed so subversive and punk rock to me, way more "in your face" somehow, than other popular punk rock/heavy music of the time period (stuff like Nirvana or Bad Religion, both of whom I loved). It seemed like it was made by weirdos, nerds, freaks. But, at the same time, by weirdos who were kind of funny and seemed nice! And at that time I felt like a pretty big freak!

I also love that the playing on this song is SO bad. There are so many flubbed notes, clearly missed guitar parts and stuff. And the feedback swells during the bridge are just killer!!!! Superchunk were just so freaking punk back then!!!

Superchunk Song Review Project 2: "My Noise"

This is a great one. Undoubtedly a song in the pantheon of Superchunk hits. Its a simple song, really, just a few chords not played very fast. The guitar lead is cute at the outset: catchy, easy to get into, hypnotic. But what makes the song great is when the singing starts, at about (0:15), because all the loudness drops away leaving just the bare sketch of the lead guitar part from the beginning, some tappy tap on the drums and HOWLING on the vocals. And the lyrics are totally moving, even if I don't know exactly what they are. He spits out the last few lines and its awesome: punk rock without the sort of affected toughness of "What Do I?" Its chilling, somehow, this thin frustrated voice yelling out "IT IS STUPID, IT IS..." and then back into the rocking guitar parts. Its a good d/Q part for sure. Then it returns into the singing, basically the same as before but with some little changes: more feedback squeals in the guitar, some more cracks in Mac's voice as he sings, and the bass is in there the second time around too. These additional little things are subtle, but they definitely increase the intensity in a kind of invisible way.

Then its back to the intro part, with some more singing and then the BIG FINISH. The BIG FINISH is one of the principal components of Superchunk songwriting. In this case its a different guitar riff, a VOCAL solo, a GUITAR solo and general rocking out. GREAT ENDING. The guitar solo also deserves some props because its all over the place and then settles into the these great staccato stabs during the fadeout...this song has a fadeout! How funny is that!

Song structure is: ABABAC. This is a great example of a song that covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time without doing anything that seems really crazy. One of my faves!

BTW, this is about the Tossing Seeds version of the song!

Superchunk Song Review Project 1: "What Do I?"

"What Do I?" is probably one of the first songs Superchunk ever wrote and its kind of more grungy than what they really get good at later on. Its got lots of palm muted guitars and bendy note lead riffs thrown in here and there. The singing (which is nearly inaudible and put through a low grade distortion) is pretty seriously punk rock, complete with affected snottiness in the verse. "I preTEND I don't KNOW about the comPLICation!" I imagine Mac was making some screwed up bad-ass Henry Rollins type fierce-face as he recorded the vocals.

The chorus gets choppy and insistent and ends on the dirgy "YOOOOOOOOU" descending note thing, which is what gives it that grunge feeling. Then its back to the start of the song and now he's singing about breaking his back! That's so tough!!! He may have even said something about drugs! (or not!?!)

The song structure is really elementary. It goes:

AB(no singing)B(singing)CAB(no singing)B(singing)CA.

So, yeah, thats ABBCABBCA.

The song has some of the hallmarks of later Superchunk songs: squealy feedbacky guitar solos, Mac harmonizing with himself in the recording, pick slides and (most importantly) NERD RAGE.

Superchunk Song Review Project.

File the following under "REALLY TERRIBLE IDEAS": writing a review of every single Superchunk song. That's a terrible idea! Can I do it? It looks to me like there are well over 100 songs. But for some reason this appeals to me. Wish me luck. First up, "What do I?"

Rockpourri

Some things that're going on.

1. Saw the Superchunk show here in Philly. Amazing show. Raged all the way through, so much pogoing. Even their sissy songs sound like intense monster rock in the live setting. Mac's like a weird little doll flying through the air as if blown by hurrican force winds. Best I've seen them since a show at PSU in 1994. LOVED. IT. Versus, the opener on the other hand, were lame. They are old too, and it seems like they thought rock music was forever for them and then decided that maybe rock music was merely temporary. It seemed to me like they thought their reunion was a bad idea...

2. As mentioned before, I am in two bands. Animals and Insects, the band in which I play bass, did some recording. We did it mostly live at my buddy Sam's (his band here!) house. As it turns out (and none of us knew this), this band is basically a hard rock band! It sounds pretty freaking good!!!

3. I got a new guitar. Its an MIJ Fender Telecaster Custom, 1986 (or maybe '85). Its black and its really cool.