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Once a Chunker, Always a Chunker

An indie rock anniversary brings back the good times.

Brock Thiessen 2 Apr 2009TheTyee.ca

Brock Thiessen is a Vancouver music writer and regular contributor to Exclaim!

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Superchunk 2009 -- doesn't look a day over 19.

To be honest, Superchunk hasn't been on my radar for years. Sure, I've popped on an album now and again -- indulging in the '90s indie rock nostalgia that is No Pocky for Kitty or On the Mouth -- but really, I haven't felt close to the Chapel Hill gang since my long-gone university days.

But back in the '90s, Superchunk and I were inseparable. Their forever-adolescent punk/rock anthems provided my soundtrack to everything from dorm-room ragers to bruised-heart recovery to a failed stint as a skateboarder, making me believe back then I was a Chunker for life. But after the band's last full-length, 2001's Here's to Shutting Up, Superchunk, well, they shut up. And so the inevitable happened: I moved on, eventually -- and a bit guiltily -- replacing my one-time rock 'n' roll heroes with newer, hipper, more timely ones.

Well, not being good with dates, little did I realize that 2009 marked Superchunk's 20th anniversary year, and with it, the group's first proper release in nearly a decade, the Leaves in the Gutter EP (available April 7). Only being made up of five tracks, the record doesn't exactly scream "comeback," but it does stand as a stunning reminder of just why I fell in love with these guys in the first place.

Like all the band's work, Leaves in the Gutter is devoid of bullshit. It's just energy, volume and defiance, all of which come courtesy of Mac McCaughan's nasal, call-to-arms tenor, big-ass power chords and fist-pumping, rhythmic enthusiasm. There's nothing to "get" here -- no gimmicks or chin-stroking -- just nice, catchy songs like "Learned to Surf," which don't try too hard to please but do so all the same.

The EP was enough to make me go back to my old Superchunk collection and give it a good dusting-off, a move that's proved to be a great relief to these weary ears. It brought back simpler times when I didn't always put music under a microscope and only asked that a band give me a few good, honest tunes. Because at the end of the day, that's all that really matters: the songs, and Superchunk wrote tons of great ones, even if they now come only once every decade or so.

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