The Key

As we’ve seen just as recently as last week, some seminal indie-rock bands break up, then get back together over a decade later to announce a reunion tour and reap the hard-earned benefits of their then-underappreciated work. Other bands declare an “indefinite hiatus,” quietly disappear from the spotlight, and go on with the rest of their lives without ever formally calling it quits. Then there are bands like Chapel Hill’s Superchunk, who released Here’s To Shutting Up back in 2001, then decided they’d get around to recording their next album, you know, after they took care of a few other things first. (For guitarist Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance—co-founders of Merge Records—that included other musical projects and raising a daughter, respectively; meanwhile, the quartet would play the occasional live show whenever they felt like it.) Fast-forward to nine years later, when the members of Superchunk finally got around to recording that album they had put off for so long. Majesty Shredding, the band’s ninth studio album (released earlier this month on Merge), was nine years in the making—but you wouldn’t know by listening to it. Musically, the band hasn’t skipped a beat, belting out the type of fast-paced pop-punk songs that are a logical next step in the band’s musical progression. Which means, when the band performs with pop duo Jenny And Johnny (featuring Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis and her folkie boyfriend Johnathan Rice) at The Trocadero tonight, the new material should feel right at home with the older classics. Superchunk performs with Jenny And Johnny at 7:30 p.m. at The Trocadero; tickets to the all-ages show are $19.

Here’s the video for the band’s first single off Majesty Shredding, “Digging For Something” (via Videogum):