Month: January 2011

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.

Jon: While I try to keep it as positive as possible, there are times I need to blow off a little steam. And when I do, I make additions to WordHate™, a list of words I dislike and have been compiling since my early teens. Many of the early WordHate™ words were ones I heard at church or school that still make me bristle for reasons I don’t fully understand. I don’t dislike their meanings; it’s the sound of these words that causes me distress. “Crafts,” “meal,” “nourishment,” “bounty,” “fellowship,” “loaf,” “reap,” “panties” and “belly” are all high-ranking WordHate™ words. I could list more, but why don’t I just turn the microphone over to Dr. Barry Black, who somehow managed to drop almost the entire WordHate™ top 20 into his prayer (#17) at President Obama’s inaugural luncheon (#2). Enjoy (#12). Also, I’m very pleased to introduce PhraseHate™. First entry: “I loves me some _____.”

With I’m Having Fun Now (Warner Bros.), Jenny And Johnny are following in the grand tradition of girl/boy singing duos, a select conga line that stretches as far back as Sonny & Cher and X’s Exene Cervenka & John Doe to more recent warbling tandems like Mates Of State and She & Him. Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice are living proof the trend is still on the boil. Lewis cut her teeth in L.A.-based combo Rilo Kiley and has recently released two exciting solo efforts. Rice, a Scotsman transplanted to America as a teenager, has also issued a pair of solo albums and produced Lewis’ sophomore release, Acid Tongue, before teaming up with her for what could turn out to be the gold standard of indie-rock duos. Jenny And Johnny will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with Rice.

Jenny: At one time in my life, I was the proud owner of a 1964 Chevy Malibu SS. I bought it in a parking lot after emerging from a bar in Hollywood in the mid-’90s.
It was a beautiful machine, and my mother happened to be dating a guy called Radio Bob who owned an auto-body shop out in the San Fernando Valley. He offered to paint the car for free. When I finally got it back after some time, Radio Bob informed me that he had painted it “cinnamon sunset” after the color of my hair.
It was beautiful! It was fast! It turned heads!
I drove it for many years until I couldn’t afford to drive it any more. I had switched careers, trading in the residuals of my youth for the T-shirt-selling, on-the-floor-sleeping, coast-to-coast-schlepping indie-rock-band life.
It was either sing for my supper and pay my rent or sell my muscle car. So, it had to go.
I listed it for $3,500 in the Auto Trader. I received more than 50 calls on it. I should’ve known then that the listing was too low.
A family showed up to buy this beautiful machine. The father and I both wept a little as I walked him down the carport to greet cinnamon sunset.
He knew he was getting a great deal, and I knew I was making a huge mistake.
We all piled in the car. I decided to sit in the back, as I never had before. It seemed fitting for the last ride.
The father drove, his wife in the front, and I sat next to their two-year-old kid in the back.
We drove around Silverlake. And as we turned back onto the street where I lived, the kid, who had been silent up until this point, looked at me and said, “Vin Diesel!” His parents turned around in disbelief. Apparently, those were the kids’ first words.
”Vin Diesel “
Right there in the back of my Malibu.
Well, their Malibu.

Video after the jump.