Superchunk - The Clambakes #4: Sur La Bouche Live In Montreal 1993

Bizarrely enough, Superchunk - The Clambakes #4: Sur La Bouche Live In Montreal 1993 is the only the second installment of love for the Sweet Chunky Goodness at JS-NYC. Ever odder, it's another live release. This is the fourth installment of The Superchunk Clambakes series. Previous installments contained rarities and improv material, but Vol. 4 documents a ripping live set from Montreal; one that marks the early days of the current Superchunk lineup. As the Francophiles in our midst may have already ascertained, it's a show from the On The Mouth tour. 

The band is in fine fettle and tight as all get out. You can hear that they've been on the road for a couple weeks. Listening to the two recent live releases from the Chunk, it's pretty funny how absolutely identical the band is sonically and personality-wise. Granted they are tighter here than on the Cradle Show but Jim is still a smart-ass and Mac still has the exact droll stage manner on this '93 recording that you'll hear at the rare Chunk live shows in this millennium. It so good, and only really serves to remind us all how remarkably boring and/or shitty most bands are today. It's not rocket surgery, kids: Good songs, catchy guitar, Jon Wurster. It's easy enough to get your own slant on the first two, and you might even be able to get the third if you play your cards right. If he'll play with Marah, as long as the Chunk are on blocks it's not out of the realm of possibility that he'd play with your shitty band. And speaking of shitty bands, here's a forum topic: Gaslight Anthem are the new Marah. The corollaries are scary. Don't get it twisted: that is not in any way a good thing, but you know Asslight want Steve Earle to do their next record.

But I digress. The Clambakes #4 is being released solely in the digital format, which kinda sucks. I'm not looking for gatefold vinyl, but I think we all would have paid more for packaging. The set La Bouche is nineteen tunes, with most of the stuff you'd expect to hear in 1993: Package Thief, On The Mouth, Cadmium. No Slack Motherfucker, but I think we've all heard enough of that tune in the set over the last ten or fifteen years.  You can get Sur La Bouche Live In Montreal from the Merge Digital Store for a mere $8.99 in the mp3 format. If your audiophilic ways necessitate lossless FLAC , it'll cost you $11.49. I haven't heard the decoded FLAC version, but lets not gild any fucking lilies, shall we? Fire up the ol' downloader and get this. Regardless of your audio leanings the set list is great, Superchunk are great, and it's cheap; plus safe money is on it being better than anything currently on Pitchfork's front page. Buy this shit and turn it up loud. 

R

CyTunes benefit cd - Superchunk: Live At Cat's Cradle 8.29.8

Were it not to be a year where The Hold Steady were touring, Mac and the Team Chunk might very well be on my shit list. Their only shows this year were for the Obama campaign and announced on short notice. It was obviously more of an issue for our Southern friends, but while I would have gone were I not to need a new couch, I was kind if bummed at the cross-pollenation of the two. When rock bands transcend humanist politics for Party ones, it's kind of a kill-joy, but then again the Chunk members are better people than me.

This cause is more up my alley, but I still wish they didn't have to throw their support behind it. Cy Rawls was a friend of the Merge and Superchunk camps, as well as a DJ on local terrestrial broadcasting force WXYC. He was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumor over the summer and has since succumbed to cancer this past October 3rd, but his friends that rallied to raise funds for his treatment (he had no health insurance) have established CyTunes to memorialize their friend. All profits are donated to North Carolina's Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.

Since the inception of CyTunes, a number of bands have donated music for the cause, including Shinola, Double Negative and the mighty Superchunk. The Superchunk contribution is a live recording from the venerable Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC. It commorates a benefit show they played for Cy where you could make a donation and request whatever Chunk song you'd like to hear. As a result, there are some dips into the back catalog that are more than a little unexpected. No new material, although I'd have ponied up hard for even a bad recording of "Learn To Surf". The show is as warts and all as you might suspect, with ample time for tuning breaks and generous time for Jim to be a smart-ass. It's also pretty damn good, especially in this time where Superchunk seems to be garaged for the time-being. Here's hoping Mac and Laura take some time off from politicking and procreating to get some new Sweet Chunky Goodness for our respective earholes.

I'd say the high point of Superchunk: Live From The Cat's Cradle is the live version of Home At Dawn, but there are 17 other tracks to tickle your fancy. There's even a version of Day The Sharks Flew featuring Kevin and Jennifer from Erectus Monotone for all you old-school Triangle kids and Merge estoterica aficianados. Misfits and Mistakes from The Aqua Teen Hunger Soundtrack appears, as well, (sans Meatwad lead vocals). You can buy tracks individually, or pick up the whole kit and caboodle for $13 cheap. Do that here. It's not a tax deduction, but if you want, you can donate in that regard, too. You could do a lot worse for less than $20. Check out CyTunes here and do some shopping.

There is more info on the fundraising effort here. Were you of a mind to keep up on Merge goings-on, you can check in here. The Chunk web presence is here, with info on the new Clambakes disc coming in January, too. Bookmark that shit, yo.

R