Pitchfork: Extras-Packed Superchunk DVD Out Next Week

Extras-Packed Superchunk DVD Out Next Week
It's Mac tonight

"S" for seminal. "U" for underground. "P" for pop-punk. "E" for... uh... enema? Wait, what? Forget that noise. Superchunk, roughly fifteen years into their career and still going strong, are one of the most famous obscure bands of our time. They were "indie" when it was more of a description of an ethic than of a style, and have remained so (still putting out their albums on bandleader Mac McCaughan's now-bigtime Merge Records) while many of their contemporaries symbiotically grafted their fates to the majors. They helped to place Chapel Hill on the musical map and remain one of those bands you use to try and describe to a commercial rock fan what kind of music you listen to ("Stuff like, you know-- Superchunk... Sonic Youth... Fugazi.").

Superchunk's career retrospective DVD, entitled Crowding Up Your Visual Field, will be released by Merge on February 17th. Cam Carrithers, who shot the video interview and worked with McCaughan editing the documentary, hooked us up with an advance copy, and let us tell you: this thing is bursting with content! It includes all of Superchunk's music videos with optional band commentary-- from their first professional video, "Throwing Things" (shot in McCaughan's parents' yard), to the angst-ridden, sneering punk of "Precision Auto," to the mature yet playful power-pop of "Art Class."

The DVD also includes the documentary Quest for Sleep, which was filmed by the band and documents their exploits on a 2001 tour through Japan, Europe and the U.S. to support Here's To Shutting Up. It includes the aforementioned video interview/ band history and a metric ton of bonus material: four (mostly live) bonus videos, including a really fucked up animated one for "Ribbon," and ten songs worth of live footage from throughout Superchunk's career, including four songs from their first show ever, in Raleigh, NC from 1989. These reek of grainy authenticity and glow with the soft halo of dormant, pre-realized potential, and may induce near-epileptic fits of nostalgia for long-time NC music aficionados.

More than anything, Crowding Up Your Visual Field reminds one of the long shadow Superchunk casts not only over NC rock, but independent music in general, and of how they've stayed active and relevant for a decade and a half. Brrr, is it just me or is it getting all zeitgeisty in here? Retrospectives like this are also bittersweet reminders that the subject's career will, at some point, be capped, even when it feels as if they'll persist into eternity. One day, the 'Chunk, too, shall pass-- leaving behind a towering legacy, thousands of miles of conquered road, and the scent of scorched ozone where they'd been. Tracklist:

Videos:
01 Throwing Things
02 Tie a Rope to the Back of the Bus
03 Fishing
04 Mower
05 Precision Auto
06 Untied
07 Package Thief
08 The First Part
09 Driveway to Driveway
10 Hyper Enough
11 Watery Hands
12 Art Class

Bonus videos:
01 Rainy Streets
02 Cast Iron
03 Ribbon
04 Slack

Live footage:
01 My Noise (Raleigh, NC - 1989)
02 Night Creatures (Raleigh, NC - 1989)
03 Swinging (Raleigh, NC - 1989)
04 Train From Kansas City (Raleigh, NC - 1989)
05 Punch Me Harder (Chicago, IL - 1993)
06 Seed Toss (Chicago, IL - 1993)
07 Ribbon (Chapel Hill, NC - 1995)
08 Phone Sex (New York City, 2001)
09 Cast Iron (Osaka, Japan - 2001)
10 Precision Auto (Osaka, Japan - 2001)

There is a battery of screenings lined up to celebrate the DVD release. The dates and places are:

02-11 Cambridge, MA - Zeitgeist Gallery
02-12 Philadelphia, PA - Doc Watson's
02-13 Austin, TX - Emo's
02-13 Dallas, TX - The Meridian Room
02-16 San Diego, CA - Whistlestop Bar
02-16 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
02-17 Portland, OR - Hollywood Theater 02-17 Chicago, IL - Schuba's