One the Program Today ...

13 years ago deciding that I needed to begin immersing myself in American college rock, a friend of mine made me a bunch of tapes, . As a high school student I was somewhat familiar with the Canadian indie scene (and 13 years ago 'indie' actually stood for something), obsessing over Murder Records and Mint Records and catching every episode of Much Music's The Wedge, but knew next to nothing of what was going on south of the boarder (with the exception of some of the bigger names like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and The Pixies). So when I put those tapes on, and got my first taste of bands like Guided by Voices, The Magnetic Fields, and They Might Be Giants, I was overcome with excitement. Here was a whole entire culture of music that I had yet to explore.

Of these tapes, there were two that particularly stood out from a North Carolina band named Superchunk. My first experiences with Incidental Music and Foolish are ones that I continue to hold dear today. There was a rawness on these records that I had yet to hear another band utilize so well. Clearly influenced by the east-coast punk scene of the 1980s, yet determined not to fall into typical punk-rock cliches, Superchunk (or at least the Superchunk of these two records) were making punk sound like what I had wanted it to sound like for years. I couldn't get enough of it, and through them was introduced to a wider scene of similar bands (Modest Mouse, Mission of Burma, The Clean etc ...), that further immersed me into the culture of college of rock. As Carl Wilson put it recently "in 1994, I kinda would have given my life for Superchunk.” 3 years later, I felt the exact same way.

All of this is to say, that I was super pumped to find out that my first broadcast of my new radio show would be airing on the eve of the bands first release in over 9 years, Majesty Shredding. I've only had the chance to go through the record once, so I'll say more specifically on the record at a later time. I will however be previewing a few of the tracks on tonight's show alongside some Superchunk classics. So if you're wanting a brief taste, tune in tonight.

In the meantime, here's the video for the first single "Digging for Something."

Also for tonight, on the show there will be some giveaways, as well as some new tracks from Eric Chenaux's new record Warm Weather which is as beautiful as one would expect.

Again, tune in tonight, 6:30-8:00 pm on UMFM 101.5