Return Of The Mac

MAC MCCAUGHAN (SUPERCHUNK)

ORIGAMI VINYL, LA

12 JUNE, 2012

For me, if it's a road trip or a long haul late night drive, odds are good Superchunk is involved.
They've seen the hard times and taken the lumps and soldiered through, bloodied but unbowed, carving a nice little niche for themselves, and a mini-indie empire in the form of Merge Records.  It's a band I reach for by default when the going gets rough.
Last we heard from the the band was 2010's aptly named Majesty Shredding, until now. Tuesday saw the release of a new Superchunk 45, "This Summer", b/w an ace cover of Bananarama's "Cruel Summer".  Limited to a release of 1300 copies, it's probably best to strike quick if you want this one.

 To commemorate the event, or fortuitous luck, Mac McCaughan played a solo instore at Origami Vinyl in Echo Park, packed to the gills with 40-50 very happy campers. He walked the margins of the Superchunk/Portastatic catalogues, favoring lightly heard tunes, stripping down the classics and even debuting a new song, "Trees Of Barcelona".  The hard rocking "Digging For Something" really benefitted from acoustic treatment, highlighting the bittersweet lyrics.  "Detroit Has A Skyline", which has been performed in seemingly every configuration sans polka, was the inevitable showstopper.
An amazing night in the company of an indie legend, and a nice stopgap until the full bands return.

Courtesy of @Superchunk, here's the setlist in their typical shorthand fashion:
Origami solo set: RopeLight/Cool/ThisSummer/HomeAtDawn/ SongforaClock/Spys/Barcelona/Throwing/Digging/Noisy/Detroit/SanAndreas
Fun bonus outtake (below), what I've come to know and love as the "Abraham Lincoln" shot: