what a time to be alive

Not knowing where all of you grew up, I'm not sure if you all had the same feeling of "nothing cool ever happens here" when you were a kid. 

This isn't just a knock on growing up out in the wilds of pine trees - that, as I've said before, was a particularly quiet lonely expanse on which to mature. It's a bit of a wink and a nod to the region I grew up around.

By the time I was a teenager I'd missed most of what made RVA musically cool. RVA was a stopover for 70's rock artists that were just getting their start, and in particular was an often haunt of one son of Asbury Park. Richmond also caught the punk bug and seemed to become a younger sibling of the DC scene for kids that didn't have cars to drive the two hours. When I was looking to spread my wings my hometown had become totally infatuated with jam bands, and though I did become a fan of one of them, the rest I wanted nothing to do with.

But I had television and I could see that super cool things were happening in other towns and I was very jealous. I was jealous of Athens, GA. I was jealous of Seattle. I was also jealous of Chapel Hill, NC - so much so that I applied to go to college there and was flatly denied. Chapel Hill was (and still is) the home of Merge Records, and if you at all know your college rock of that period, you know that the label is both owned by and the home of this weeks band, Superchunk.

The first song of theirs that I ever heard was "Driveway to Driveway" from the album Foolish. To this day it's still an all time fav - it's distorted, drunk teen love punch is both simple and fierce. The band has just released their eleventh studio album, What A Time To Be Alive, and it's their first in five years. For a band that's been doing things their own independent way since 1990, it feels like not a single day has passed.

There is an immediate sense of urgency in the first/title track, yet at the same time band leader/guitarist Mac McCaughan tricks you - there is such an amazing amount of smart sarcasm in "What A Time To Be Alive" it's awesome. The only thing missing is a true call to action... oh wait, the album is full of them. The band uses what's some of their punkiest material in ages to do what punk was always best at - scream at the top of your lungs FUCK THE MAN - WE WILL NOT TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN. 

This album is a fun listen, and not just for the politics. It's a band cranking out another stellar album (just like my review from a few weeks ago, They Might Be Giants) without slowing down or growing old. They even bring in a few guests on the track "Erasure," Stephen Merritt of the Magnetic Fields and Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee. I would love nothing more than this album to catch on over the summer and become anthems for change, but in case it doesn't - be the change yourself.

Recommended tracks: "What A Time To Be Alive," "Break The Glass," "Erasure," "Bad Choices," "Reagan Youth"