2000 Great Songs #1365: San Andreas
Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan historically used Portastatic as his outlet for home demos and more experimental recordings (though during a long Superchunk sabbatical in the 90s, Portastatic released several fully-realized pop records which hold up well alongside his main band's discography). Yet despite its relatively lo-fi sound, "San Andreas" sounds particularly Superchunky (though as far as I can tell, the band has never played it). The lone rocker on 1995's otherwise largely home-studio-wonkery Slow Note From A Sinking Ship , the track (titled "San Andreas Crouch" on the prior year's single) has a rollicking riff and an earworm chorus that's right up there with Superchunk's catchiest tracks. Plus, the saga of trying to reach a loved one while watching televised reports of an earthquake along the title fault-line hits frighteningly close to home for me--about 3 miles from home, to be exact. So, yeah, lines like "Did you just not he...
