This is Part VIII of my Going To XX Merge series, you can read the rest of the series here.

Finally arrived in Chapel Hill last night. It was a long drive, but we stayed off the main highways. Traffic wasn’t so bad, except for the 25 and 35 mile per hour speed limits when passing through tiny little towns. Superchunk and Les Savy Fav were still in my head, even though we weren’t behind too many slow cars…one song..here are both versions:

[mp3] Les Savy Fav- “Precision Auto” (Superchunk cover)
via mbv. on the SCORE Covers CD.  Buy it here.

Superchunk- “Precision Auto”

on On The Mouth.  Buy it Here.

The first stop once we were in town was CD Alley!

XX starts tonight!

Dear Readers,

As of today I am on Vacation!  If you have been reading you probably already know that I will be on my way to XX Merge shortly (read my going to xx merge series).  I plan on getting a couple posts up at the beginning of next week  (stay tuned… one will be a very special XX post, and all will be Merge related), but other than that you only get what I feel like doing while I’m on vacation…maybe some picture posts or something.

As for Weekend Recs…I’m not doing it this week (or next week for that matter)…I don’t want an outdated post to be at the top of the page until the beginning of August (more realistically the end of July).

So I only have one for you…if you aren’t going to see Paul McCartney tonight, you should be going to see SUPERCHUNK! They are playing for free at South Street Sea Port, and if you are still standing after that maybe hit up Kurt Vile at Bruar Falls (I have a funny feeling that members of Superchunk might be doing the same thing…well that is my guess because Kurt Vile has been a constant recommendation the Portastatic blog).

For our trip, klk and I will first head to Charleston, SC then Chapel Hill/Carborro, NC and then we will be drunk at the Orange County Social Club in no time!

I’m looking forward to hitting up two of my favorite record shops on my trip too: Fifty Two Point Five (in Charleston), and CD Alley (in Chapel Hill)!

I’m so excited…I’ve had Superchunk in my head for days!  XX here we Come!

I love you all very much, and you will get a full report once I get back home.

Cheers,

Tom

This is Part V of my Going To XX Merge series, you can read the rest of the series here.

Time is winding down until we depart on our trip, but I’m not running out of things to post leading up to XX Merge.

I remember seeing Superchunk way back when I was in freshman or sophomore high school.  I didn’t really know their music all that well, but I was going to show with some older kids.  Back then the album I knew and loved was No Pocky For Kitty, and I have reverted to listening to this album quite a bit over the past couple months (actually right now too).  Back then I thought No Pocky was an older Superchuck album, and now that I am looking at their discography I realize that it was probably new at the time that I saw them.  I’m going to have to dig out those 45s that I bought at that show when going through my records that are still down in South Carolina.

It goes without saying that XX Merge wouldn’t be possible without Superchunk, and they just happen to be playing a free show in NYC this weekend before the festival. To put you in the mood I dug out another free mp3 from the Merge on-line store.

[mp3] Superchunk- “I Believe In Fate” (Sebadoh Cover)
Buy the rest of the Sebadoh covers here.  Buy the Sebadoh version here.

here is a little bit about the track:

“We recorded three Sebadoh songs for our “Freed Seed” 7″ EP (with “Seed Toss” as the A-Side) back in 1991, but chose not to include all three on the Tossing Seeds singles comp, leaving off “I Believe in Fate” which was the least successful of the three…Superchunk always operates most effectively at mid- or high- but not top-speed and this came out sounding a bit like someone’s high school hardcore band doing the two-step and doesn’t convey any of the darkness of the original Barlow version. But here it is digitally at last, good for a laugh at least…Then go break out your Weed Forestin’ tape!” -Mac McCaughan, 2008

While I’m talking about Superchunk, I just stumbled upon the video for “Throwing Things” off No Pocky for Kitty:

Want to own this video in much better quality and a whole lot more?
Buy Superchunk’s Crowding Your Visual Field DVD from Merge here.

Also one of my favorite tracks from No Pocky for Kitty:

[mp3] Superchunk- “Tie A Rope To the Back of the Bus”
via Superchunk. Buy it here.
More Superchunk releases can be had here.

I’m going to miss Superchunk this Friday (only due to seeing Sir Paul McCartney!, but I will see them at XX!)…here is the info:

This Friday, July 17th in NYC (it’s Free! Starts around 6pm):

Superchunk & Versus @ South Street Sea Port

I can almost taste vacation (1.5 more days of work)!