Portastatic

Earlier this summer, The Gotham Gal read a story about   Mac McCaughan and Merge Records in the NY Times.  If I could find the article on the web, I'd link to it, but for some reason I can't.

She went to Rhapsody and listened to the new Portastatic record, Bright Ideas, and told me it was great.  Portastatic is one of Mac's bands, the other being Superchunk.

We didn't pay enough attention because we moved on to other stuff.

Then we got into M. Ward, who is also on Merge Records.

And Raj, who is rapidly joining Chervokas on my music guru list, also had Portastatic on his listening list.

All it takes is three of four mentions to get my attention and so I've been listening to Bright Ideas a lot in the past couple days.

This is a great record.  It rocks pretty hard, but its the songwriting that makes the records so special.  I honestly don't think there is a bad song on the entire record.

Here is the link to bright ideas on Rhapsody.

Or you can buy the record at Amazon.

Mac played a free live acoustic show last night in NYC at Other Music. 

I sure wished I'd been there to see that.

Comments

[Dan Wick]

Here's a profile of Merge/interview with Mac from last summer, pre-Arcade Fire and Gimme Fiction blowing up:
http://www.junkmedia.org/?i=1110

Interesting background info on how Merge pulled off a major label-scale wide release of Spoon's Gimme Fiction earlier this year:
("Spooning w/ the big boys"):
http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2005/05/spooning.html

Speaking of major vs indie, it will be interesting to see what the new Death Cab scans this week behind their first major label push.

[matt schulte]

Give their older records, especially I Hope Your Heart is Not Brittle, a try, too. It came out around 1994, and was one of my favorite records that year.

[Motts McGregor]

There's a great line-up of artists on Merge Records, including The Magnetic Fields. Be sure to check them out if you haven't yet.

Other highlights include the re-issue of the first three Dinosaur Jr. albums, East River Pipe (this guy is really wacky!), Lou Barlow (solo album, he of Sebadoh and Folk Implosion), new album from the reunited American Music Club, obviously the Arcade Fire, etc., etc., etc.

Very impressive!

-Motts

[Raj Bala]

Merge has a very impressive roster indeed.
For a good Merge sampler, check out the uber cheap "Old Enough To Know Better: 15 Years Of Merge Records." It's a great 3CD compilation.

Some of the other Merge bands and their records that are off the chain include:

Matt Suggs - Amigo Row
Superchunk - Here's To Shutting Up
Camera Obscura - Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi
Spoon - Girls Can Tell

[Stuart]

I have listened to a little of Portastatic. I like what little I have heard, but not as much as I like Superchunk.

Speaking of Merge Records has anyone heard Crooked Fingers?

[Raghav Gupta]

On another note, check out Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah. Lead singer is the next incarnation of David Byrne. Recently signed to Matador and have a ton of buzz.

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