Pitchfork

Photo by Maggie Fost

That Mac McCaughan's been holding out on us. The Superchunk frontman, Merge label co-head, noted Obama booster, and human embodiment of indie rock lifer-dom has raided his rather impressive vaults yet again, this time in search of elusive ear candy from Portastatic.

Out came Some Small History, a double disc collection of odds and ends packed with previously unheard stuff, a whole load of covers (of Bob Dylan, Hot Chip, the Magnetic Fields, Ryan Adams, Galaxie 500, and more), and a number of soon-to-be favorites from the Portastatic archives. In a very smooth move more bands should really consider, the collection throws chronological sequencing out the window in favor of a running order designed to preserve "maximum listening pleasure." Some Small History is due September 9 from Merge.

Some Small History:

Disc 1:  

01 Starter
02 Sandals With White Socks
03 Oh My Sweet Carolina [Ryan Adams cover]
04 Lousy Penpal *
05 A Cunning Latch (acoustic) *
06 Teenage Kicks [The Undertones cover]
07 Too Trashed to Smoke *
08 Skinny Glasses Girl
09 Trajectory
10 Power Supply
11 Josephine [The Magnetic Fields cover]
12 Race You Home
13 Make You Up *
14 Your Own Cloud
15 Love Breaks Down [Prefab Sprout cover] *
16 Portraits From Before the War
17 Soft Fruit
18 Easily Aroused
19 Guessing
20 Little Fern
21 All I Need Is You [Sandy Denny & the Strawbs cover]
22 You Love to Fail [The Magnetic Fields cover]

Disc 2:

01 Some Small History
02 San Andreas Crouch
03 Not the Same
04 Boy From School [Hot Chip cover]
05 Spying on the Spys
06 Weighted Raft
07 Dragging a Crow
08 Gray Robins
09 I Wanna Know Girls (acoustic demo)
10 Feel Better
11 Useless Switch
12 Had (full band) *
13 Secret Session
14 Tugboat [Galaxie 500 cover]
15 Codes, Runes, Dunes
16 Candy Cigarettes
17 Firefly [American Music Club cover]
18 La Pelicula
19 Look, Honey, Peaches
20 Replacement Parts *
21 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue [Bob Dylan cover]

* previously unreleased