Review: Superchunk – Majesty Shredding

When I first received Majesty Shredding at the beginning of this week I figured that by the time I sat down to write this review there would be a lot of “this song sounds like Indoor Living and that song sounds like Come Pick Me Up“.  I then settled into the first listen of the full album and I live tweeted my initial thoughts on each song (see here).  No such comparisons came out of that first listen and after a week “living” with the album that is still not what I want to talk about.

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Majesty Shredding Twittereview (Superchunk)

I’m a little late to the party (thanks Canada Post!!) but I finally got my copy of Superchunk’s Majesty Shredding.  Here is a picture of what I received, with all of the great bonus swag.

This is why Merge Records rules!!

Happy Superchunk Release Week Present

I made this desktop wallpaper back between CPMU and HTSU.

Jon Wurster? More like Jon Bester? Superchunk’s Drumming Rules!

I think we can all agree that Superchunk lives and dies on the strength of it’s drumming, and by “agree” I mean “argue”, because obviously I do not think this is true and every member of the band plays a vital part so stop trying to hog the spotlight, Jim!

Regardless of who the best is (Laura) we do really need to talk about Jon Wurster’s drumming.  It really is great.  Just ask Laura:

On the Mouth was the first album with Jon Wurster on drums. What was the difference between him and Chunk Garrison?

Chuck is a really great drummer and so is Jon. But they are great in different ways. Chuck swings, where Jon is tighter and more efficient. I also have found playing with Jon to be really different because he puts all these markers in the songs, especially when we are playing them live…and I don’t know if he does it consciously or not…but those markers tell me where we are in the song and what is coming up. It’s kind of amazing!

Full article can be found here.

Superchunk’s Majesty Shredding – The Truth Behind the Title

Great “behind the music” tidbit on the origin of the title Majesty Shredding from a Q&A with Mac and The Daily Tar Heel (full article here):

And the title is a joke that started when we were in the studio. We recorded all the songs live to tape, and the producer, Scott Solter — we were listening to playback with him to see if it was a take we should keep or if we needed to fix something, and so we started this joke where if we heard a fuck-up on our part, we’d say, “Oh, you can fix that with the ‘Majesty Shredding’ app in Pro Tools, right?” We joked that there was an app that would make everything sound awesome called “Majesty Shredding,” and it ended up being the title.

Now if I could just figure out how to stop my fingers from trying to type “Majestry” every time.  I don’t think that’s even a word!

Review: Superchunk – Majesty Shredding*

I finished my HAIL** just a day before the September 14th release date of Superchunk’s Majesty Shredding. My wife was not happy with the amount of money I spent on this purpose built room full of the most advanced audio entertainment equipment (thanks N.A.S.A.!!) and the chair from the set of Dollhouse, but we always taught our children to share and now they can share a kidney.

Review: Superchunk – Digging for Something

I can’t really review the new Superchunk 7-inch Digging for Something b/w February Punk as I do not have it.  I don’t do vinyl.  Don’t lynch me.

I downloaded the free Digging for Something mp3, which means I have half of the musical contents of the album.  It is upbeat and poppy, in a similar vein as last year’s Leaves in the Gutter EP.  The standardly awesome guitar assault – fuzz + solo = yay.  Great use of oh-oh-oh’s.  Drums are crisp and tappy-tappy with lots of snare to bop along to.

Pre-order Majesty Shredding now.