Superchunk Song Review Project 11: "Seed Toss"

This song has a great chill out, get your legs back under you, sway a little, close your eyes and JUST BE instrumental bridge. Complete with little tappy cymbal flourishes! This sort of thing entirely commonplace in macho melodic hardcore, like in songs by Hot Water Music or something, but no one has every done it quite as well as it is done here. Because the JUST BE instrumental break needs to come after some serious rocking out rock, and that's what this song offers!

"Seed Toss" has so many great riffs in it. At the beginning its that plinky "plink plink plink plink" played over a slightly sad sounding (but totally rocking!) riff. And the chorus has the same power chord based chunky pop clunk that the verses of "Cast Iron" have (and shows up a lot on "No Pocky for Kitty" as a rule). DUNK DUNKA DUNK DUNKA DUNK DUNKA DUNK DUNKA DAAAH DA DA DA DAAAH! The move from the moody verse to the really really popped out chorus is a great bit of tension building and release, which you know is, like, cool. Also: totally awesome drums on the chorus here.

Lets talk about the plinky plinky for a second: the notes of the plinky plinky are a kind of inverted version of the Superchunk chord featured in "Cool" and "Slack". That chord's made by dropping the root note of a power chord by a fret. The plinky plinky is basically the same power chord but with the HIGH octave dropped a fret. It's got the same sort of marginally dissonant feel as the Superchunk chord, but is more up front here. SLIGHTLY SCREWY CHORDS are one of Superchunk's big songwriting techniques and I like to make note of them when I can!

Generally I don't really like analyzing lyrics to these songs in detail, because I feel like that's done a lot ("Laughter Guns!"). But this song is sort of an exception! The lyrics in this song are (largely) comprehensible and aggressive in an hilariously lame way! It starts with a threat! And such a threat it is! "I'll put a stick in your spokes!" So great: he's pissed, but he's a wimp, but he'll show you AND your bike! Its all "you better" this and "you better" that. He's really telling someone off. That's the verse, right? And then in the chorus the target of his animosity gets pissed and their mood ring registers disapproval or something and some seeds get thrown! What!?!? Who knows? I particularly love how the second verse begins with "You better memorize this face!" which is like the third line in the first verse...like he's picking up where he left off. He says "this coffee's a little too strong" and overall that's what the lyrics make me think of, a highly caffeinated nerd spouting off at someone but without any real ability to show anger. Like, he starts off the second verse still with the "you betters" stuff and gets off track talking about all sorts of other stuff...which he openly admits! He guesses he's running! Also: I do like how the line "here you come on your broom" tells you that he really thinks the target is a witch! Spooky! This is one of my favorite songs ever and I've listened to it like 10000000 times and I still don't know what the line immediately before "the picture's already drawn!" is!

Okay, let me also point out another two AMAZING things in this song that really elevate it. The first occurs in the second verse: the guitar solo over the lyrics, in addition to the rhythm part and the plinky plink. The narrator of the song is getter more and more agitated in the lyrics and this little buzzing bee of a guitar line start floating around in the background and the whole gestalt gives a pretty wound up frustrated feel. Such a detail! Likewise, after the chill out and JUST BE bridge, in the third chorus there's another guitar or two thrown in, one playing a busy bee guitar part like in the verse and the other playing really fast rising octave thingys. You know, like the JUST BE part didn't really help get the band chilled out and they come back at you even harder than before! Strangely, both extra guitars in the last verse drop out halfway through! Why? Who knows!

Song structure: ABABCBD

(D is the "tag" at the end of the chorus" played kind of over and over!)

Superchunk Song Review Project 10: "Cast Iron"

"The man in the airplane is looking for you!" What does it MEAN? I love how ambiguous these lyrics are...they sound so cool and they're super fun to yell along with in the car. And I think part of their awesometude is that they free you from having to really think about what they're about. Like, when you're blowing down the highway in your car screaming along to, say, "Pervert" by the Descendents you might think "this song rocks!" But you might also think "this song is kind of creepy!" (I skew towards the first interpretation but, you know, maybe you got your sweetie in the car with you when you're belting it out! Of course, maybe your sweetie loves the Descendents so all is well! But maybe not! In that case, here's the answer: get a new sweetie!)

Holy digression! "Cast Iron" is another one of my all time faves. Its got a good slightly above mid-tempo head-nodding beat going on, its got the loud/QUIET/loud dynamic, its got really chunky riffs that are really catchy in their own right, its got some sweet-ass harmonized guitar parts, its got the word "uppity" featured prominently. I mean, it's basically perfect.

But here I want to focus on the key twist in this song, one they wound up using a lot later on in songs and (I think) first shows up here: THE MISSING BEAT. Superchunk mosdef aren't a math rock band, though they dabble in weird time signatures from time to time. And the easiest way to have a weird time signature is to drop a beat out of a riff. And there you have the pre-pre-chorus of "Cast Iron"!!!

DAH DAH DAH, DAH DAH DAH, DAAH DAAH DAAH DAAH;

DAH DAH DAH, DAH DAH DAH, DAAH DAAH DAH!

You can see right there the dropped beat!!! LOOK! Okay, maybe that doesn't make it that clear, but the pre-pre-chorus is basically the verse riff but with the last beat dropped out every other time so it winds up being 15 beats total instead of 16. Odd times like this are great because they give a loopy feel and when you're dancing along and you know it's coming you can throw in a cool hitchy hip swing or high kick or hand jive or whatever and those others listening along are all caught flat-footed! Take that others listening!!!

Another feature this song shares with plenty of other Superchunk songs is that a big chunk of the song is basically the same riff over and over, but with little twists here and there that make it seem like there're lots of different parts. Like this song starts with a pretty classic "octaves solo" intro (Which doubles as the chorus later on, but no singing at the start!) then goes into the aforementioned guitar harmonies thing. Then it goes from that into the singing, but the singing is over what is essentially the same riff as with the guitarmonies, but replaces those self-same guitarmonies. The song starts out pretty loud and rocking, and slowly anti-ratchets down to this singing part, another great lesson from Professors Superchunk in how subtractive parts are super freaking great. After the singing is over its into the loud MISSING BEAT pre-pre-chorus I obviously love so much. I mean, the effect is just great. The guitarmonies, verse and pre-chorus all share the "DAH DAH DAH" thing, but each is a little different so that you never get sick of what you're hearing. You're rocking in the beginning, they metaphorically bring the lights down, get all sensitive with it, then the blast you with the totally bad ass pre-pre-chorus! So much dynamism with just a few chords!!!!

So anyway, I keep talking about the pre-pre-chorus so its probably worth talking about the pre-chorus which is like maybe 4 seconds long. Well really, its not its own part, it's just the octaves solo from the beginning but played just on one guitar and drums. And anyway, its only half of the total riff anyway and I'll give you a guess as to what happens with the second half. What, you don't know? All you have to do is ask and I'll tell you: PICK SLIDES AND DRUM ROLLS! Hello old friends!!!!

They did this same thing in "Cool", basically, and maybe also "My Noise." It basically always works! The chorus is a great anthemic sort of thing, complete with discussion of his "special friends." What the hell?!?!? The whole song basically repeats verse/chorus two times goes into the bridge, which is once again (as was the case in "Breadman") a sort of rising guitar riff to contrast with the descending riffs that dominate the rest of the song. SO TRIUMPHY!

The end is the chorus over and over, but with the lyrics from the bridge going and a thin sounding guitar solo. You know, rocking out!

Song structure:

BABABCBAjr

(leaving out all the little twists and stuff)

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.