Don’t call it a comeback, Superchunk‘s been here for years. The band members just haven’t been doing anything since the release of 2001’s stellar Here’s To Shutting Up. Well, not much together, anyway, apart from a few one-off gigs and the occasional single. Singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance have their hands full running Merge Records and raising families (plus McCaughan has released a number of fine Portastatic records); drummer Jon Wurster has toured and/or hit the studio with the likes of Robert Pollard, the New Pornographers, Bob Mould and the Mountain Goats in between hilarious Facebook postings and Best Show On WFMU appearances; and while we’re not sure what guitarist Jim Wilbur has been up to, other than gigging with Portastatic, he probably has a lot on his plate, too. It’s a wonder the busy quartet was able to reconvene for the fine Majesty Shredding (Merge), a more-than-welcome return that’s accompanied by the band’s first full-on, albeit relatively brief, tour since 2001. Superchunk will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with McCaughan and Ballance.
Mac: I drink iced coffee year round. Sure we have a little bit of snow each year, just for scenery and a day or two of sleddin, but frankly our winters are mild and there are few days when I want hot coffee. (This summer has been brutally hot.) But icing down hot coffee sucks. I have a feeling that thanks to global warming, more and more people will be getting on the toddy train. I don’t know why it’s called a toddy—that’s what my grandma called her hot whiskey drinks—but the coffee toddy is basically just you putting a pound of coffee and nine cups of water in a container overnight. In the morning, you drain it, and you have a thick, delicious, espresso-strength drink with 70 percent less acid than hot-brewed coffee. Awesome all year long!
Video after the jump.
One reply on “Superchunk Can Always Count On: Cold-Brewed Coffee”
Toddy is actually a brand name for a particular cold brew system. ( I got mine from Barista Pro Shop.) The creator of that system was a man named Todd Simpson, but everyone called him Toddy. So he named his cold brew system the Toddy. Over the years the name became synonymous with the cold brewing process and now you know the story behind the name. Just a fun little tidbit.