Thursday, February 26, 2009

'Chunk In Action


Superchunk is stirring a bit this spring! we have a new EP coming out at the beginning of April, Leaves in the Gutter which does not mean that it's the last songs we're releasing ever, it's a line from one of the songs. though it does also refer to the fact that these songs are collected from a couple different sessions over the last few years and it seemed like a good idea to put them out before they got too old, and before we were tempted to put them out on an album....for an album we'll need to start fresh. the EP will be followed closely by a couple of shows:

April 15th at the Cats Cradle in Chapel Hill
April 18th at Coachella in Indio, CA

...on our first trip out west our van broke down in Indio, CA. we were on the side of the road and got towed to this guy's auto repair show that was in the middle of a huge orange grove. when i say we got towed, i mean, we rode in the van while it was being towed, we might have been sitting up on top of the tow truck in the van, i can't remember which but it was slightly frightening. it didn't matter -- we had an opening slot the next night in LA with Sonic Youth at the Whiskey and had to get there. somehow this guy in the orange grove styled us out by the next morning, he was amazing. who knew there was a polo ground nearby? with concerts.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

UPDATE! Loser AND a Liar


Bobby Jindal is the conservatives' next big hope? Yeesh. No matter how many time he says "Amayricans can do anything!" the guy does not project anything but douchebaggery.
He talks like Kenneth from 30 Rock except Kenneth wouldn't be embarrassed to talk about the exorcisms he participated in "back home."

UPDATE: turns out that the heart-pumping story that Jindal told about his post-Katrina, anti-bureaucrat heroism wasn't, eh, true...Talking Points Memo has the details.

The F*cking Awesome Crap of Life


one of my favorite artists, Megan Whitmarsh, has a new show up at New Image in Los Angeles with the fantastic name "The Fucking Crap of Life"... check it out if you are in the City of Angels, and also check out the prints you can buy of a couple pieces from the show, available at all price levels and sizes over at 20x200 who i guess specializes in making art available in that way...
Megan you may recall did the art for the Portastatic CD Some Small Things You Can't Defend, which features a yeti and his surfboard.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Touch and Go RIP

hopefully the label Touch and Go will survive this current situation, but the distribution arm of Touch and Go Records, which we've worked with at Merge for almost 17 years, is shutting down this spring, which is incredibly sad for all of us at Merge and for all of independent music really.

Touch and Go Records as a label released some records that were (and are) incredibly important to me before Merge even existed -- Die Kreuzen, Big Black, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, and then later on Slint, Jesus Lizard and more -- and hopefully they will be able to continue that, but the distro closing up is not a good sign for the rest of us in this world.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Glen Wesley - Good! Hurricanes - Bad!


heart-warming jersey retirement for Big Red as Forslund called him tonight, #2 Glen Wesley, defensemen for the Bruins, Whalers, Hurricanes, briefly Leafs then back to the Canes for his Stanley Cup victory in '06. good interviews and congrats from across the league during timeouts, and any timeout where the "DJ" doesn't get to play a song is a good timeout. plus i never would have guessed that he's (by far) the franchise leader in +/-. one of his sons, his daughter and his wife sung the National Anthem which was also sweet.

the the Hurricanes proceeded to get beat up by the aforementioned Boston Bruins. played pretty well actually for the first 55 mins and then gave up 3 goals including TWO short-handed in the last 5 minutes...Staal skates like he's in mud these days and in general they appear to be a team trying hard to make sure they don't make the playoffs. depressing.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Move Along


can't idiots like Andrew Card just move on with their lives? doesn't he realize that no one gives a crap about what he thinks about the White House dress code under Obama? he talks about treating the office with respect after the craven bullshit that's gone on in there over the last 8 years...
seriously.

Lux Interior RIP


sad to hear about Lux Interior...the Cramps were certainly more frightening than any standard issue "punk rock" at the time, and they never stopped doing their particularly well-honed yet out of control thing. the film Urgh! A Music War was certainly one of our high-school go-to viewings (and if you didn't rent it you could usually find it on Nite Flite...) and the Cramps performance of "Tear it Up" in that is just amazing, grimy, out there.