Send "Superchunk " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 The last time Superchunk released a new studio album was Here's to Shutting Up, in 2001. They didn't shut up or break up; they just went into near-hibernation, playing the occasional show, releasing some live albums, and not doing much else. In the meantime, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance's label, Merge Records, has become a significantly bigger deal, and Portastatic has become McCaughan's main musical project, releasing four full-length studio albums (as well as a pile of EPs and demo collections and a soundtrack).And now Superchunk are apparently in the early stages of preparing a new full-length record, so their new five-track, four-song EP basically exists to clear out the material they've worked up for their intermittent live sets over the last eight years. ("Misfits and Mistakes", written for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, turned up on a single in 2007.) It sounds exactly like what Superchunk were doing 15 years ago: McCaughan yell-singing those strained high notes of his, dual-guitar solos, fast, heavy unambiguous rock. "Learned to Surf", which gets reprised in a casual acoustic version at the end, hints at perspective on the band's longevity and its dropping out of the indie-rock rat race--"I can't hold my breath anymore/ I stopped swimming and learned to surf," the chorus goes-- but you wouldn't know it by its meat-and-potatoes arrangement. As always, McCaughan's songs are impeccably constructed, with clever bits of craftsmanship everywhere, from the gyroscopic riff that opens the disc to the way "Knock Knock Knock" builds up to its jump-shot of a chorus. The band's chemistry is untouched by time: They're still speedy, locked-in, and spring-chickeny. But even Superchunk once moved past what they were doing 15 years ago-- their last couple of albums preserved their instrumental voices but stretched them beyond headlong heaviness. This is a perfectly solid throwback by a band that's smart enough to know better....full text |
| Crawdaddy |
| After a seven-year suspension of songwriting, Superchunk returns at last with a morsel to whet our appetites for an upcoming LP and performance at this year’s Coachella festival. It’s a tight little five-pack consisting of a little new and a little old, bookended nicely by the electric and acoustic versions of “Learned to Surf”, a rousing ’Chunk anthem if ever there was one. The EP includes last year’s “Misfits & Mistakes” (the Superchunk “solo” version, not the Aqua Teen Hunger Force version with Meatwad singing), and serves well to remind us that these Chapel Hillians still ride their brawny guitars and charge the air like a warmer-blooded Iceman on an ice slide made of rock. In press materials, Mac “Mr. Merge” McCaughan describes the EP as a mini clearinghouse of sorts, sweeping the runway of these few bits and pieces in order to make way for the landing of the LP they’re working on now. He says the newer material on Leaves is in line with the stuff to come, while the older songs wouldn’t have fit with the “new era,” which begs the question: Which is which? Well, since “Misfits & Mistakes” was just released as a single last year and does include a tiny bit of keyboard, it stands to reason that this would represent some new-era material. Piano surfaces alongside the acoustic rhythm guitar in the following song, “Screw It Up”, which also demonstrates the sort of instrumental evolution Superchunk has undergone in later albums, so this is probably another new-era gem. Both also rely on slightly more deliberate, interwoven leads, at least a little more so than the old-school big-rock method of leaning on the distortion and full-chord sledgehammer melodies. “Learned to Surf”, on the other hand, tips its scales in favor of pure force over orchestral depth to earn its catharsis, just as “Knock Knock Knock” could easily have been a B-side on any On the Mouth-era single....full text |
| Prefixmag |
| It's been eight years since Superchunk's last album. Some of us (ahem) are starting to feel a little old, especially when thinking of the contents of mixtapes made in high school, mixtapes that often featured Superchunk. So the news that Superchunk is returning with new material for the music world is welcome (aka I can't be old if Superchunk becomes big on the indie scene again...don't question this logic too much, I beg you). The Leaves in the Gutter EP features a collection of songs that the band has played during their lives shows, some songs more recent than others. Superchunk's Mac states that before releasing a new album with entirely unfamiliar material:...full text |
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