Superchunk, ‘This Summer’ – Song Review
Indie vets Superchunk just released a giganticly joyous seasonal single with ‘This Summer,’ an over-the-top sugar rush of sleepovers and roadtrips.
Superchunk, who have always had one of the best band names around, last delighted us with 2010’s we-still-got-it stomper ‘Majesty Shredding.’ The Chapel Hill, N.C., band has been making extra-endorphin indie rock for two decades now, and the new single, all full of vim, vigor and whatever else youth is made of, blazes as much as anything else they’ve made. There’s even a shout out to Baltimore.
So what are the ingredients to an epic summer anthem? The Superchunk fun serum includes bare shoulders, sunset horizons, sweaty seats and ocean views. And don’t forget those opening handclaps and an invitation to “waste this summer with me” from frontman Mac McCaughan, all before a massive Jim Wilbur guitar solo. The band is tight: McCaughan has a gift for goofy-awesome rhymes — “we’ll break for the bridge after raiding the fridge” — and bassist Laura Ballance and drummer Jon Wurster can still hold down a groove together.
Plus, McCaughan and Ballance founded Merge Records, home of the Arcade Fire and Spoon, so you know they know what’s up. When he asks you to waste your summer with him, it’s probably a good call to heed.
Listen to Superchunk’s ‘This Summer’
