Mac McCaughan is the creative force behind Portastatic, the singer and guitarist of Superchunk and co-owner of the venerable Merge Records. If there were a way to measure an indie rock pedigree, McCaughan's lineage would crushingly destroy the scales.
Tonight, Portastatic will rock the Parish as part of its tour opening for John Vanderslice -- and "rock" is the operative word. In the past, Portastatic has been known as McCaughan's lo-fi side-project to his full-time power-pop band, Superchunk. Portastatic used to be what McCaughan did during the rare times that Superchunk wasn't touring. But as Superchunk's breaks between albums becomes longer, Portastatic has evolved into a full-time endeavor, with McCaughan singing and playing guitar, his brother Matthew playing drums and Superchunk guitarist Jim Wilbur on bass.
The results of this collaboration, the group's new album, "Bright Ideas," are a new page in Portastatic's songbook. The lyrics are now loud and crystal clear in the mix. And - hold your breath - McCaughan has provided a lyric sheet inside the CD booklet for "Bright Ideas." In the past, McCaughan has only been outdone by Michael Stipe during "Murmur"-era R.E.M. for buried-in-the-mix, cryptic vocals that you had to crank your stereo up to painful, yet blissful volumes in order to discover the poetry at the heart of his indie-pop classics.
"I actually put the lyrics inside of the last Portastatic record too, 'Summer of the Shark,'" said McCaughan. "Both with that record, and with 'Bright Ideas' too, they are pretty loud in the mix anyway. It's not like with a Superchunk record where they tend to be more buried and kind of mysterious."
McCaughan explained that having the lyrics up front in the mix, and printed inside the CD booklet comes more out of his getting older and not caring what anyone else thinks than it does out of any newfound confidence about his songwriting.
And despite having a 2-year- old daughter running around his house that indie-rock built, his priorities haven't changed. Melancholy and poignant power-pop songs are still his priority.
"Music is still incredibly important to me. It's not so much that the priority changed. It's just, what can you really do? It's like, can you have a 2-year-old and still record music in your house until four in the morning? Well the answer's no, you can't," McCaughan said. "I'm sure there are things that lose out in priority in your life. But, music's not one of them. It's just how do you still do it logistically and psychically? How do you still fit everything in? That's the hard part."
Fitting everything in still includes running Merge Records, the label he co-founded with Superchunk bassist Laura Balance more than 15 years ago. When asked if he could have predicted Merge's success, McCaughan's response was mixed.
"This is a strange answer, but yes and no," he said. "No, we didn't because it would be silly to be in this business and think, 'Oh we're going to plan on selling X amount of records.' It's doesn't work like that. But at the same time, if someone had said, 'This band on Merge - whether it be Arcade Fire or Spoon or M. Ward or whoever it is - is gonna sell this many records.' I would have said, 'Well, that's not surprising.' It's not surprising because they are that good."
McCaughan has incredible faith in the bands that he and Balance bring into the Merge family, which includes Austin bands Spoon and ... Trail of Dead.
"It's strange, because we think a lot of the bands on Merge could sell a lot of records. We don't go into things thinking, 'Well this Annie Hayden record is not going to appeal to that many people.'"
McCaughan has also expressed interest in doing a second collaboration with Guided by Voices icon Robert Pollard under their moniker as a duo, Go Back Snowball.
"Bob already has so many things going on at once, I think it's a matter of us both having the time to do it," McCaughan said. "I think that every time you finish a record, you feel like, 'Oh my god, how are we ever going to make another record.' But I've never felt like I needed time off to rejuvenate," McCaughan said. "That's why I've always been able to do Portastatic records when Superchunk isn't really happening. I don't really feel a waning amount of energy for writing."
With more than 20 albums to his credit and a countless amount of singles and EPs, that has to be the biggest understatement of McCaughan's successful career.
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