Wednesday's Emotional Setup: On The Mouth
2:11 pm.
So today I finally found an affordable copy of Superchunk's Incidental Music 1991-95, which despite the title is an excellent, essential collection of singles, b-sides, compilation appearances, etc, etc. The only other Superchunk I own is Indoor Living, which is an album that apparantly only I think is sheer genius.
Incidental Music 1991-95 was the first thing I ever heard by Superchunk; I was working at the call centre at the time, and a coworker of mine by the name of Meghla (you pronounce the g) and I had been exchanging CDs (the traditional form of greeting for music geeks). I got the Smiths, Neil Finn's first album (which I bought from her for $5, and she near-immediately regretted it) and some old Sunny Day Real Estate, and I can't remember what I lent her. I remember she taped most of it, though.
The other thing she lent me was, of course, Incidental Music 1991-95, which I almost didn't listen to because I knew of Superchunk and 19 seemed like a few too many tracks of indie garage rock to put up with at one time. I immediately found out I was wrong once I popped it in, though; there are so many highlights here, their cover of the Magnetic Fields' '100,000 Fireflies', 'Ribbon', 'Baxter', 'Cadmium', 'Home At Dawn', etc, etc. And, of course, 'On The Mouth'.
The reason I loved the CD, and the reason I love Indoor Living, is because singer/songwriter/guitarist Mac McCaughan is one of the great romantics of rock and roll. I'm not going to attempt to justify that claim, and if all you've heard by the Chunk is 'Slack Motherfucker' you're likely to disagree. But go listen to the later stuff, or (from what I hear) his Portastatic side project, and see if you still feel that way.
'On The Mouth' is not further evidence for my claim, though (for one of those, go listen to the acoustic version of 'Throwing Things', it's gorgeous); it's another unrequited love song sung from the point of view of an immature (teenage?) male; it's, of course, about being unappreciated etc etc. Songs like that can get tiresome quickly, but luckily the band also has the chops to make the chorus joyous rather than resentful. When McCaughan sings,
I've never even been to your new house
But I bet I know exactly what it's like
And when we're both asleep I kiss you on the mouth
And later on your couch I spend the night
It doesn't sound creepy as you might expect - you kind of find yourself sympathizing with the guy. More important, you find yourself singing along. And really, what we want from our rock is not necessarily sympathetic protagonists, it's that lift the music gives you. 'On The Mouth' is more than sufficient for that.
So, anyway, today I went to the university bookstore to pick up my last textbook for the semester, before they get sent back. As I walk in, I see the carousel that holds their used CDs. I stopped looking through them in third year, as it always took me too long and I bought too many CDs from them. But this time I'd just been paid and so figured as long as I really didn't buy any CDs I didn't need to buy, it'd be okay.
And lo and behold, Incidental Music 1991-95 was sitting right there. I combed the rest of the rack, but nothing else I needed showed up, so I only bought one CD. One I've been looking for for about three years but have only seen in record stores, new, for close to $30. I paid $10.99 plus tax.
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So today I finally found an affordable copy of Superchunk's Incidental Music 1991-95, which despite the title is an excellent, essential collection of singles, b-sides, compilation appearances, etc, etc. The only other Superchunk I own is Indoor Living, which is an album that apparantly only I think is sheer genius.
Incidental Music 1991-95 was the first thing I ever heard by Superchunk; I was working at the call centre at the time, and a coworker of mine by the name of Meghla (you pronounce the g) and I had been exchanging CDs (the traditional form of greeting for music geeks). I got the Smiths, Neil Finn's first album (which I bought from her for $5, and she near-immediately regretted it) and some old Sunny Day Real Estate, and I can't remember what I lent her. I remember she taped most of it, though.
The other thing she lent me was, of course, Incidental Music 1991-95, which I almost didn't listen to because I knew of Superchunk and 19 seemed like a few too many tracks of indie garage rock to put up with at one time. I immediately found out I was wrong once I popped it in, though; there are so many highlights here, their cover of the Magnetic Fields' '100,000 Fireflies', 'Ribbon', 'Baxter', 'Cadmium', 'Home At Dawn', etc, etc. And, of course, 'On The Mouth'.
The reason I loved the CD, and the reason I love Indoor Living, is because singer/songwriter/guitarist Mac McCaughan is one of the great romantics of rock and roll. I'm not going to attempt to justify that claim, and if all you've heard by the Chunk is 'Slack Motherfucker' you're likely to disagree. But go listen to the later stuff, or (from what I hear) his Portastatic side project, and see if you still feel that way.
'On The Mouth' is not further evidence for my claim, though (for one of those, go listen to the acoustic version of 'Throwing Things', it's gorgeous); it's another unrequited love song sung from the point of view of an immature (teenage?) male; it's, of course, about being unappreciated etc etc. Songs like that can get tiresome quickly, but luckily the band also has the chops to make the chorus joyous rather than resentful. When McCaughan sings,
I've never even been to your new house
But I bet I know exactly what it's like
And when we're both asleep I kiss you on the mouth
And later on your couch I spend the night
It doesn't sound creepy as you might expect - you kind of find yourself sympathizing with the guy. More important, you find yourself singing along. And really, what we want from our rock is not necessarily sympathetic protagonists, it's that lift the music gives you. 'On The Mouth' is more than sufficient for that.
So, anyway, today I went to the university bookstore to pick up my last textbook for the semester, before they get sent back. As I walk in, I see the carousel that holds their used CDs. I stopped looking through them in third year, as it always took me too long and I bought too many CDs from them. But this time I'd just been paid and so figured as long as I really didn't buy any CDs I didn't need to buy, it'd be okay.
And lo and behold, Incidental Music 1991-95 was sitting right there. I combed the rest of the rack, but nothing else I needed showed up, so I only bought one CD. One I've been looking for for about three years but have only seen in record stores, new, for close to $30. I paid $10.99 plus tax.
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