The long and sordid history between indie rock posterband Superchunk and their soulless label Merge Records is well documented. Superchunk members Mac McCaughan, Laura Ballance, Jon Wurster, and Jim Wilber were locked in a constant fight with the powers-that-be at Merge for literally hundreds of years before their landmark 1991 album Punk in Drublic was finally released unedited and in-full. Tensions with the label remained high throughout the band’s career, culminating in Merge founders Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward unethically releasing many of the band’s late 90s albums under the name Super-dooperchunk (and later “The Get Up Kids”) to increase sales.
Now, on the auspicious 10-year anniversary of that album’s release, Merge is fucking with the most hated band on its roster one last time by confusingly reissuing the band’s 1994 album Foolish instead. Fans may recall that Foolish was initially recorded with Brian Paulson in Minneapolis and mixed by the the band and Steve Albini in Chicago and was only intended to be released on the then-very popular format of 3.5” floppy disk. However, on September 13, Merge will go against the band’s wishes yet again by rolling out the Foolish reissue on CD, LP, and digital download. Just to add insult to injury, the label has gone ahead and had Bob Rock remaster the whole album. They also swapped in some different album art, shoehorned in some bonus material, and forced drummer Jon Wurster to write liner notes by forcing him to hang out with John Darnielle until he acquiesced.
Tourdates:
09.08.11 - Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theatre
09.10.11 - Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Festival
12.01.11 - London, UK - Scala
12.02.11 - Minehead, UK - All Tomorrow’s Parties
• Superchunk: http://superchunk.com
• Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com
