Superchunk Song Review Project 9: "Breadman"

When I first heard this song I was convinced it was "the best Superchunk song." After 18 years I no longer think this is the case, but I can tell you exactly why it hit me so powerfully then: the total pop-punk harmonization in the chorus. ``YOU ARE THE BREAAAADDDMAAANNNN!" Who knows/cares what the hell that means, but it sounds great! The warbly high pitched off key harmonies are just so perfect, it kills me still.

The song over all is a pretty good example of them putting the sort of grungy/hard corey type stuff they were doing behind them and going in the pop direction which ultimately wound up defining them. The whole thing is super catchy. The verse is basically just two chords with the guitars coming in and out over top...of course when they're "out" they're feeding back! I think there's an acoustic guitar in the mix there too, another trick they used later on on a bunch of recordings. A cool thing in this song is that I don't think the (electric) guitars ever play chords during the verse and chorus, but instead play some punchy/noodly riffs over top of everything.

After the second chorus they just stop and the tempo sort of changes while one guitar plays a riff, then a drum roll, some more instruments come in, PICK SLIDES (seriously, every Superchunk song in this era had pick slides!!!) and then after like five seconds of this we've got a classic ANTHEMIC SUPERCHUNK BRIDGE situation on our hands. Some incomprehensible but melodic stuff is getting belted out and its power chord city. I have no idea what the lyrics but I bet I'd feel uplifted if I knew!!! After that its back to the verse and another chorus. Really classic Superchunk song structure up to this point...and the coup de grace: the two chord outro. DUG DUG...DUUUUUU, DUG DUG...DUUUUUU and so on. Why is this there?!?!?! It gets faded out super fast! But its so cool! I think they just wanted some grindy grunge to keep things real.

Song structure: ABABCABx2D

PS The verse is two chords, the chorus is a descending riff and the bridge is an ascending riff, and so basically each switch changes up the "feel" of the song quite a bit, particularly at the chorus. The rising power chords (as opposed to the noodly stuff) are why it feels so dang triumphant.

PPS At 0:53 Chuck the drummer misses a beat, I think. I love songs with errors.

Superchunk Song Review Project 8: "Cool"

Another one that makes heavy use of the "Superchunk chord" which (I think!) first appeared in "Slack". This is a great freaking song, totally in the Pantheon. It's a d/Q song, mid-tempo, and is way more "indie" rock than most of their earlier songs.

The verse basically is the same three chords played over and over, but they play it in three different ways. They get A LOT of mileage out of these three chords! First there's the part which kicks off the song in which there're two guitars playing two separate non-power chordy bits over top each other, giving it a real laid back feel. The bulk of the singing goes over this part and then it gets loud and they play the same stuff but in power chord form while Mac yells out the song's title a few times. After that it backs WAY off and its just one of the guitars playing the line from the beginning and the drums. GREAT bit of subtraction there, T/l parts being as awesome in their own way as d/Q parts. Then the band kicks in and holds an 8 count before the SUPER POPPY INDIE ROCK CHORUS. This is probably the first of these to appear in a Superchunk song.

Then the song repeats all of this with different words...and the words are totally awesome the second time. "I know its LAME, and it breaks my heart. IT BREAKS MY, IT BREAKS MY HEART!!!" Mac's self-harmonizing on this song is a total masterpiece, its kind of hard to decide which of the vocal lines is the melody and which the counterpoint. So cool. I also think there are REALLY REALLY buried third vocal lines throughout. I feel like I can hear them sometimes, like right at the beginning before the main vox start, and at the end of the second chorus? Am I imagining this? (This song is about having no new ideas when writing songs, which is hilarious given how good Superchunk is at coming up with great new twists in their songwriting!!!)

So, anyway, after the second chorus the song really gets to the part that makes it amazing, the bridge. The bridge is just a great stupid four chord rising riff with one guitar just holding on one note...since it goes up makes it sound really anthemic, hopeful, majestic and the single note lead thing gives it great tension. And the melody! "Its nothing new, its nothing NEW, everything's borrowed, everything's USED!" The song seems neat and fun and good up to the bridge and then this bit just knocks you on your butt. So good. They round the song out with a final stab at the chorus, because, you know, why not?

Song structure: ABABCB.

"WE'RE COOLER THAN YOU!!!! AND YOU KNOW ITS TRUE!!!!"

Superchunk Song Review Project 7: "Fishing"

This is almost certainly the angriest Superchunk song. The main riff is nearly Danzig-esque in its simple minor "E-chord" evil-ness. Superchunk frequently make use of the "I'm striding briskly towards my destination and I'm pretty agitated" drumbeat, and I think this is the earliest instance of it. The whole verse part is just so solidly mean sounding, its hard not to respond to it. Its the sort of song that makes you want to put on an angry face and jump in the mosh pit!

There're a lot of overdubbed feeding back guitars on this recording. I particularly like the one that lasts most of the way through the first verse and chorus. It surrounds you and makes you feel like the song is inescapable! LOVE IT. This song also has a dueling guitar solo. In this case its that sort of solo where its not particularly fast or melodic, but you can tell the players are just strangling the neck of the guitar, trying to to kill the damn thing! Also: pick slides! Also also: they count off "1-2-3-4" before going into the final chorus. This song is so punk.

Like a lot of their other early songs, the vox are done in a really great faux-punk rock sneer and in this case the effect is particularly good. The nerd rage comes across as being really legit. Not tough but pissed, you know? What the hell he's singing about escapes me even though I've heard this song about 1000 times.

Song structure: ABABAB

A=verse, B=chorus.

If you haven't seen the video, I strongly recommend taking a look, as it's totally preposterous: it involves the band drinking milk during a very intense looking hayride.

Superchunk Song Review Project 6: "Garlic"

My wife has an aversion to songs about food, or which have food related titles. So I guess she'd be averse to this song. And judging from what I can decipher of the lyrics of this song combined with its title, this one's about eating too much garlic and consequently having some serious body odor and halitosis. Which, honestly, isn't the most compelling subject matter. In fact it's downright grody.

This song, like "What Do I?", is kind of grungy. Its slow, repetitive and there're seemingly 100 tracks of grubby grubby guitars. I really like the overall sound. I don't think the verse and chorus are any great shakes, but the instrumental/yelling/solo part is a great example of Superchunk's ability to put together compelling breaks in their songs. Basically this part is just the verse with tons of noisy guitar solos, but it comes out very chaotic and messy. Hence grunge. You can bet when they played this song live there were some serious rocking guitar faces being made during this part! Its pretty jammy!

I also like the beginning of this song quite a bit: it starts with a guitar playing some boring chord and then the bass and other guitar come in playing a sort of minor chord instead of playing in unison. Start it out dissonant! Which is reasonable, I guess, for a song about bad breath.

Another cool thing in the song is that the instrumental parts of the verse are consistent all the way through each time, but he switches up the singing about halfway through each time ("and you sweat it out!") so it gives the illusion that there's more going on. There's some great backing vox in here too. Quiet but screaming!

Song structure: IntroABABBAIntroA'BB

A=verse, B=chorus, A'=soloey verse.

Superchunk Song Review Project 5: "Night Creatures"

Why Superchunk covered this song is kind of mysterious to me. I mean, I don't think the original is particularly good, though maybe there's something about the Flys I'm missing. And Superchunk's version is pretty true to the original. More or less I always hate these syncopated pop beats, and this is one of the few Superchunk songs to feature it. I think the solo is pretty great, and it seems to me its a dueling guitar solo which is one of my favorite things ever. And the vocals are great, really belted out. Like when he sings "Follow you AROWOUND" right at the beginning, its that same sort of faux-tough guy voice Mac uses all over the place in the early recordings. LOVE IT. But overall, I feel this is a kind of weak song.