Mac McCaughan (guitar/vocals and co-founder of Merge Records): “It’s always
been the case that everyone is going through something that you may not be aware
of. This is currently more true than ever—but also the case that we are all going through
some things together. In the face of that, what good is art and where is happiness
found? (Spoiler alert: I don’t know.)”
Pitchfork: “At times, bursts of velocity push the group toward a kind of transcendence, particularly when the spiky “Everybody Dies” is chased by the galvanizing gallop of “Stuck
in a Dream.” The moments of speed also lend a sense of urgency to McCaughan’s nagging anxiety, which complements the barbed melodies and gnarled chords; every element
suggests that he’s searching for a way outside of his head.”
TUTV:Superchunk have no intention to reinvent the rock wheel, and why should they,
as long as they come up with action-packed and sticky guitar tunes like you find a bunch
of them on this new record. They’re definitely aware of the distressful times we’re going through.
And they don’t ignore our daily shit race, but as with most of us, they have more
questions than answers. Why not take all possible opportunities to have some fun,
now and then? Songs In the Key Of Yikes is one of those moments. Press play and enjoy.
Mac McCaughan (singer/guitrist): “The last…10 (?) years have
given us plenty of material for crushing nights and endless days,
and this rollercoaster is only going down at the moment, but
here we are singing.”
Wake up America,
with Trump in charge
there’s no hope
whatsoever.
Daily noise that works faster than a stream of caffeine
3 June 2025
Photo by Alex Cox
Veteran rockers SUPERCHUNK from North Carolina,
formed in 1989, and are alive and kicking.
They have finished the recordings of their 13th LP.
It’s baptized Songs in the Key of Yikes and will land
on August 22.
The band also said that the 2 singles they dropped last year, Bruised Lung andEverybody Dies will on the album. More
info here.
Along all that news comes taster number three. IS IT MAKING YOU FEEL SOMETHING is a vintage
guitar-dominating Superchunk ripper.
“This song is about not second-guessing yourself in the very second-guessable
process of writing words and music. It’s about the legitimate question of “who
needs this and what is it good for?” but also about not setting such a high bar
for making art that you never get started. “Is it making you feel something?”
OK, that’s a place to start.”
Daily noise that works faster than a stream of caffeine
26 March 2025
Veteran rockers SUPERCHUNK from North Carolina,
formed in 1989, have no intention whatsoever to retire.
Since their 12th LP Wild Loneliness, from 2022,
the band kept the fire go with a couple of singles.
And here’s their first of 2025, titled BRUISED LUNG.
It features backing vocals and guitar by songstress Rosali .
Mac McCaughan (vocalist, guitarist): “A song about being disoriented
and sleepless and not being able to explain why. Like a hangover but not
from drinking. Rosali came into the studio to add some woozy shredding
and great harmonies.”
Superchunk still know how to get you out bed, lazy people.
Disco-freak stomper of the month, hands down. This new punky-funky corker follows
the previous 2 shared crackers Wild Flowers and Fatso. They will all be on their upcoming album At the Hot Spot, out tomorrow, 1 April (no joke).
It’s a bangin’ beast with a screamin’ chorus. A perfect pick-me-up tune for all the weirdos
who are always in the kitchen at parties waiting for Warmduscher to kick their lazy asses.
Compared to this Japanese red-hot-bloody fury the Ramones sound like choirboys. Otobeke Beaver‘s race and rush in an overwhelming overdrive. No brakes, no breaks.
Their rabidity rolls like a tsunami through your ears. These perky punkettes produce
moshpit madness on the spot. The average song length is 2 minutes, 120 seconds
of clamorous pandemonium.
3. ‘Territorial Call Of The Female’ by BODEGA (Brooklyn, NY)
The New Yorkers still operate on Parquet Courts’ playground with their new,
2nd full-length Broken Equipment. But they supersized their jangly beats
and they turned up the temperature.
Territorial Call Of The Female is my favorite cut. It activates
every muscle and every nerve in my itching body.
Scott Kirkland (the remaining member of Las Vegas dance act The Crystal Method)
invited icon Iggy Pop (you can hear him almost any day on a new collaboration, the
past few years) and his British buddy, composer/DJ Hyper in his studio.
The raving result is a techno boom boost, bursting all the way, with Pop‘s voice
strangled by a blender. Sounds spooky, sounds wicked, sounds like lust for life.
Breaking news: Iggy says he’s not a punk anymore!
“I don’t want to be a punk
I don’t want to belong to any of it
I just want to be”
Busy blues-rock bee Jack White canned two new longplayers for this year, titled Fear Of The Dawn (out 8 April 2022) and Entering Heaven Alive (out 22 July 2022)
The hottest cut I heard so far is Hi-De-Ho (from ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ LP) featuring Q.Tip.
The by now legendary passion rockers from Cincinnati, Ohio with mastermind
Greg Dulli in control are back from being away for 5 years. Their last album In Spades came out in 2017.
I’ll Make You See God a striking steamroller, a red-hot-heated stunner, an unstoppable
cannonball going everywhere fast. It will feature in the upcoming PlayStation game Gran Turismo 7.
7. ‘Nothing Comes Good Easy’ by DEAD LEVEE (Canada)
Wowzer! This sickly uplifting belter (from upcoming EP Rise-Up) elevates your state of mind with fired-up dynamism from the get-go. Rapid-fire rawk and roll riffs switch on a fervent feel of euphoria. It did it in the past, it does it in the present and it will do it in
the future.
Despite all the BS we have to endure (pandemic, Ukraine, natural disasters,
and other threats) it’s never too late to get back on track and why not start
with 4 and a half minutes of heart-warming guitar-fueled boogie-woogie
that breathes hope and assurance.
Once I learned that this startling uppercut is about the horrible
exploitation of human beings by ferocious money sharks this
jagged jackhammer blew my mind even harder than I heard it
the first time before knowing about the band’s inspiration
for this standout.
Expect rabid guitars, doom and gloom vocals, and frantic twists and turns
until the chaotic finale. Post-punk at its razorblade best. Think fierce Canadian
turbine Metz and London‘s up-and-coming gunslingers Crows.
This fiery crackerjack goes forth and back with
turbulent velocity. Imagine the full of vim and vigor
intenseness and puissant vocality of The Afghan Whigs.
Anxious, unyielding, and ablaze.
Breaking Grounds races like a rush of blood to the head with
screaming guitars and propelling drum muscularity.
The first taster from the upcoming debut full-length Dancing On A Volcano.
Imagine the fervid fuzz of punchy guitar pop legends Buzzcocks, with The Stranglers’ Jean-Jacques Burnel on bass, combined with the cutting
verbality of today’s post-Brexit-punk rebirth and you know a frisky doozy
is coming your way.
Add some American-dream girls of the City of Angles on your imaginary
mind-screen and you’re about to start a champagne party in your head.
The combination of a nasty Gang Of Four bass riff,
frenzied Keith Levene guitars here and there and Skinner
hip-hop-rapping like Beck used to do, works like an ecstatic
upper.
This funk-punk stonker has an immediate intensifying impact on all of your
limbs and your bloodstream’s flow. Add some sexy sax thrills to the mix and
you’ll have all you need to jump out of your slump. Capice?
Cut from their sophomore album
‘Moon Reflections’, out on June 24
A rotating synth riff echoes British electro legends New Order and
is the beating heart of this new piece, yet the mood is meditative
and musing, strengthened by the near-whispering and eager vocals.
This darksome and soul-searching reverie gets under your skin after
a couple of spins.
This impassioned hard-luck story grows slowly but surely into a soul-stirring and mesmerising heartbreaker with an epic finale. Glowing guitars, a steady drumbeat,
and mixed emotions vocals all come together for a poignant performance.
‘Love Is Cruel / The Hurt Within’. You can feel it.
You’ll hear titillating electro-echoes of early Depeche Mode before
they became the darkwave Goth-esque rockers we all know. But
in an eye-blink White Skin becomes an infectious nightclub earworm
with an ecstatic chorus.
In a normal world (does that actually exists?) this adrenaline-infused
and hip-swinging spark should top the dance charts around the globe.
The musical project of singer/songwriter Jordan Speare
assisted by guitarist/bassist and friend Andrew Billone.
After a couple of EPs the pair’s canned their first longplayer
called Silhouettes. Release at the end of the year.
I don’t know if it’s the world-famous and historic museum in Paris
they want to burn, that wouldn’t be so nice. What I do know is that their
brisk and spirited sound is infectious and captivating with an immediate
impact on your body’s movements. Expect guitar pop electricity, extra
pushed by lively vocals.
16. ‘Life And Lies’ by LEE ROGERS (Northern Ireland)
The Americana voice of Northern Ireland releases
his new album Gamebloodon 13 May.
Ahead of it came this mixed emotions single with Rogers‘ sky-reaching voice as the star, once again.
It’s a bluesy goosebumps reflection. Wurlitzer jukeboxes should be reinvented
for these heartbreakers so moody minds can cry their eyes out (or cry in their beer)
at night in a downtown bar where lonely ones gather and chat about life and lies.
A poppy synth trip with a floating flow and near-whispering vocals. Both eerie and affecting, both dizzy and hypnotic with a frenetic guitar attack coming out of nowhere around the 3-minute mark.
It’s an epic ballad with a country feel. If this melancholic gem was written
in the 60s it would have been sung by Linda Rondstadt, Tammy Waynette
or Dolly Parton, anyway, by an angelic voice like Olsen‘s magnific one.
Mojo says: “For all Wild Loneliness’s concerns about our ailing world,
it’s unmistakably a tonic. It’s also a life-affirming thank-you note for
what we have left.” Score: 4/5.
Turn Up The Volume: Tune after tune after tune. Not one dull one.
Sounds like they have been together for 13 years, instead of 33. Wild
Loneliness is a prizewinner, a mood booster, an aural triumph. The band
grows older with the refreshing vitality of a young group. Right on!
The second single from their 11th LP
called Wild Loneliness, out 25 February.
Mac McCaughan (guitarist) About: “Like much of Wild Loneliness, this song was
written in the mode of “let’s look around and be thankful for what we have rather
than focusing on what Republicans have taken from an entire generation.”
Almost three years after their debut album Silver Tongues this must-hear
post-punk hit team returns with follow-up Beware Believers, out 1st of April.
James Cox (frontman): “Slowly Separate is about living in London, working a job
you hate and just going through the mundane routine of hand to mouth living.”
A blazing uppercut with the
cutting force of a chainsaw.
I’m not a big fan of remixes unless the remixer – in this case, electro duo Flight Facilities – transforms a head-dazzling rocker into a head-dazzling
disco stomper that works like a vaccination with a shot of adrenalin.
I’m sure that this Big Apple indie squad has all Parquet Courts records on their shelves. You already could hear it on their 2019 debut album Endless Scroll and their second one, titled Broken Equipment looks to go in the same direction when hearing new single Thrown.
Not original but tumbling
and revolving nevertheless…
7. ‘Fraggle Rock Rock’ by FOO FIGHTERS (Seattle, US)
Seems like Dave Grohl and his Fighters adore the spotlights
and do anything to have them shine on them every day.
Check this… children’s television series Fraggle Rock gets a full revival on Apple TV+ and yes, you already guessed it, the Foos are among the musical guests on the show. For the occasion, they wrote this bonkers retro rocker that triggers your laughing muscles.
I love the smell of rock ‘n’ roll in the weekend. Here come
five new firecrackers to boost your favorite 48 hours.
‘There’s A Ghost’ by SUPERCHUNK (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
This brand new steamed up Superchunk missile proves that the band still has the adrenalin-fueled buzz and fuzz energy to make you jump up and down like a manic kangaroo on speed. A welcome wham bloody bam smack to ventilate your lockdown frustration. Press play…
Clear your living room cause here comes a Donna Summer dance floor killer that activates your isolation bones instantly. A dazzling disco-ball knockout pushed by a bouncy, funky drum/bass beat while Natalia‘s voice makes you feel sexy. Electro brilliance. Shake your booty here…
These DIY post-punk challengers just dropped their most catchy single so far. Built
around an addictive, ongoing guitar riff the band invites you to get up, stand up and discharge yourself. Exactly what our minds and our bodies need in these surreal times.
Big stroke, once again. Lubricate your vocal cords and release your demons this way…
Last week the King Of America launched his new excellent album Hey Clockface. The outstanding track is unquestionably No Flag. His most sassy stroke in a long time rollin’
all over you. Costello is back from being never away. Here’s why…
After an intro of radio live radio broadcast flashes of the live radio broadcast of the
1937 German Hindenburg zeppelin disaster you enter a multi-layered sonic universe where you are tossed back and forth. From Mogwai atmospherics to Zappa‘s prog-rock eccentrics. From the psychedelic past to the art-noise present and back. Transfixing from start to finish and a fuck you middle-finger to all white supremacists. New album Faulty At Source out 20 November.
Veteran North-Carolina rockers SUPERCHUNK
just released a dynamite 2-track single.
The first one is a new original called THERE’S A GHOST
and the second stroke a steamy SISTERS OF MERCY
cover of their 1982 goth smash ALICE.
Check it out here…
.
The original…
Oh no, we didn’t forget A-side ‘There’s A Ghost‘.
A pulsating crackajack with familiar, energetic vocals
by the passion driven Laura Ballance…
