[.ca] Tossing Seeds

it is stupid... it is MY noise:
Now seeing as I missed out on this whole era, being 19 right now, and having been about 6 when all of these singles came out, I can only explain their historical importance from a very detached perspective. However, I think this fact lends credibility to me when I say that this collection makes an excellent summation of everything that was important in the early stages of the indie rock underground... when indie actually meant independent and not "we wear tight jeans and ripped t-shirts, but put our records that were funded by modeling mogul daddy out on RCA." For an outsider like myself, Superchunk's singles(along with Pavement's early singles) gave me an excellent perspective on the values so prevalent in that early scene, and all of the angst rising in the "slacker" gen x era when starbucks and the gap were still hip names. Oh, and I forgot to mention, this is excellent music as well. Considering the lo-fi, noisy production, the squealing, scratchy guitars, and Mac McCaughan's whiny, off-key, yet endearingly passionate vocals, there are some amazing, well written, catchy as hell pop songs lying about. They are anthemic, powerful, full of bile, and a joy to listen to. They capture the spirit of early punk rock, but with a very skewed vision, especially the quasi-metal numbers, such as the "kiss as performed by a garage band" tune "night creatures"(actually a cover of an ancient power pop song by the flys from 1979). The music on this cd will energize you with endless amounts of positive energy. Some contend that the last great era for singles was New Wave, but one listen through Superchunk's singles as well as Pavement's will lead you to believe that the early indie rock years were indeed an excellent time for singles as well. Unfortunately, these ones didn't chart the way that Elvis Costello's did.

fantastic 7-inch collection:
'Tossing Seeds' and 'No Pocky for Kitty' was my introduction to Superchunk and though the latter is probably a better choice, you do get some very cool nuggets of post-punk power pop in these 13 songs. The covers stand out as covers should: loyal to the original, but still retaining the stamp of the interpreter. The Sebadoh songs are fantastic and listening to them side-by-side with their originals is a tutorial in itself on how to cover a song. 'Train from Kansas City' is just ..... great. There are a coupla punky rave-ups that don't register with me ("Night Creatures", "Fishing"), but the remainder of the album is solid. There's even a song about writing songs ("Cool") that speaks to the nerd rock star wannabe in all of us.

A great early collection form a band that's still great:
I would recommend this to anyone who likes powerful, funny, indie-guitar music. This is a great collection of early singles form a band that continues to be vital and creative. The songs range from good to great but the great ones--like "Slack M-F" and the staggering anthem, "What Do I"--are as good as rock gets.

A Classic:
This is a good well-rounded collection of Superchunk songs, good for those people who dont have their out of print songs.

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