January 12, 2009: Portastatic - "I Wanna Know Girls"

Portastatic began as a solo side project of Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan in the early '90s. Early releases were essentially lo-fi, four-track recordings of would-be Superchunk songs. Through the rest of the decade, Portastatic evolved as a forum for McCaughan to experiment with bossa nova, tropicalia, and film scores.

Eventually, as Superchunk settled down, Portastatic became a full-band. The three big "rock sounding" albums are all great - and definitely some of the most underrated of this decade - but the best is 2005's Bright Ideas.



http://www.portastatic.com

November 22, 2008: Superchunk - "Driveway to Driveway"

Superchunk was one of the holy "indie rock" bands of the '90s. They have also always been one of my favorites. After four years, three albums, and countless singles of noisy, perfect pop-punk, a funny thing happened to Superchunk in 1994. They grew up.

Singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance, co-founders of the band and of their label Merge Records, broke up. The band played on... a little more polished, a little more focused, and sometimes a little slower. Foolish still contained its share of rock anthems, but its finest moment was a drunken ode to a regretful split.

"Driveway to Driveway" was one of the great songs of the decade. The video is pretty awesome, too.




http://www.superchunk.com