Superchunk

Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance have wonderfully turned their modest little DIY enterprise Merge Records into a global force for chart-busting indie acts. While the rest of the music industry has been in a steady state of collapse, the North Carolina label soared with the Arcade Fire, Spoon and She & Him.

It all started with McCaughan on guitar and Ballance on bass in Superchunk. The group was to Chapel Hill what R.E.M. was to Athens, the Replacements were to Minneapolis and Nirvana was to Seattle: a punk-inspired, tune-happy, scruffy rock act that made its town famous for something other than football, snow or plaid shirts. True, Superchunk’s profile never reached the same cultural zeniths of its more widely celebrated and emulated peers, but there always was something heartening in the Chunk’s straightforward power-chords, blue-collar work ethic and emotional uplift.

Though the band never broke up, McCaughan and Ballance—augmented by original drummer Jon Wurster and current guitarist Jim Wilbur—have been largely off the radar (or behind the scenes) for most of the decade. That changed with September’s release of Majesty Shredding, Superchunk’s first new studio album in nine years and a solid excuse to tour again.

The 11 new songs are as good as anything the band’s ever done—more reflective, with lyrics inspired by silly things their kids say (“My Gap Feels Weird”), but shockingly invigorated. Mac’s boyish wails sound 18 again. The group’s collective personalities are winning enough (and hyper enough) that nostalgic auras can be forgiven. They still deliver a slamming good time.

• More Music articles