Don’t call it a comeback, Superchunk‘s been here for years. The band members just haven’t been doing anything since the release of 2001’s stellar Here’s To Shutting Up. Well, not much together, anyway, apart from a few one-off gigs and the occasional single. Singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance have their hands full running Merge Records and raising families (plus McCaughan has released a number of fine Portastatic records); drummer Jon Wurster has toured and/or hit the studio with the likes of Robert Pollard, the New Pornographers, Bob Mould and the Mountain Goats in between hilarious Facebook postings and Best Show On WFMU appearances; and while we’re not sure what guitarist Jim Wilbur has been up to, other than gigging with Portastatic, he probably has a lot on his plate, too. It’s a wonder the busy quartet was able to reconvene for the fine Majesty Shredding (Merge), a more-than-welcome return that’s accompanied by the band’s first full-on, albeit relatively brief, tour since 2001. Superchunk will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with McCaughan and Ballance.
Jon: I’ve been doing yoga for about six years. I tour all the time, and doing yoga for as little as 15 minutes in the morning makes a huge difference for me, physically and attitudinally. If I don’t do it, I get pretty depressed and grouchy. Last year, while touring with Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar, I went a few days without yoga and became such a bitchy creep that Ben and Jay stuffed me in a trash can. OK, that didn’t happen, but you get where I’m coming from. Lately, I’ve been buying yoga DVDs to work out with. They’re great, but they can be really challenging. And frustrating. So much so that I recently found myself shouting “Oh, come on, you c*nt!” at one instructor because she was holding a pose way longer than I could. Below are two workouts that have been kicking my ass: The Shiva Rea workout incorporates yoga and push-ups, two things I was 100 percent not in favor of several years ago. The other is Rodney Yee‘s Yoga Burn. My only issue with Yee is his way-too-frequent use of the word “pubis.” That word is not for me. Ever.
Videos after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRRgNUlXSYU
