Customer Reviews

Tossing Seeds: Singles 89-91

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
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'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.

"Slack" of course, was the blazing single about workplace resentment that put Superchunk on the map. But this collection is bursting with worthy stuff.

One standout is the defiant "My Noise," wherein Mac declares that, even if what he's playing is stupid, he loves it and he is driven to play it for anyone who will listen. He also bristles with confidence on "Cool," written in the spirit of the old saw about how good composers borrow and great composers steal. "What Do I" leads the album off nicely, and "The Breadman" is punchy.

You'll probably enjoy the version of "Cast Iron" that appears on No Pocky For Kitty; the production is a little fuller. But this album's "Seed Toss" and the No Pocky For Kitty version are equally good.

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.

I assumed that this being, from what I can tell, their earliest material, that it would rock hardest. It's that they hadn't yet found their writing strength yet. They have their dual guitars but the songs are as musically flowing like their next 5 albums. This is still indie rock but, a dash of punk, a smelt of Neil Young sounding guitar but no songs that are memorable like the many on the next 5 albums. I've been listening to rock n roll since about 1967. Typically I find that a group's first album is often their best. Course, this isn't a proper album but a collection of singles and eps. This album is in my group of 6th to 10th favorite albums of theirs. That is, I don't listen to it much while I listen to the first 5 pretty regularly. chrisbct@hotmail.com

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

the best thing about this record is the passion it holds. like 'em or not, superchunk has always been passionate. and if you fault the music--especially during recent years--for being predictable and samey, you can't fault the members of the band; they run one of the greatest record labels in all the land, merge, which has released more than a few of my favorite albums (among them the magnetic fields' _69 love songs_, spoon's _girls can tell_, neutral milk hotel's _in the aeroplane over the sea_, and the clean _anthology_). this disc is full of pretty standard early 90s indie guitar rock. but like i said, it's the ecstatic presentation that makes it special. all the same, i prefer the variation that the teenage fanclub comp offers.