Aug. 2 street date. 1993's 'Icky Mettle' was the first of four studio albums for ARCHERS OF LOAF that seemed to personify what SPIN Magazine deemed "a tremendously optimistic time in underground music, that 15-minute period in the early 1990s when it looked like indie rock really might take over the world". Re-mastered by Bob Weston and featuring new liner notes by Robert
Christgau, 'Icky Mettle' will come with bonus material including the entire 'Archers of Loaf vs. The Greatest of All Time' EP as well as singles and b-sides from the 'Icky Mettle' era. The vinyl edition, which includes only the original album, is on blue vinyl and limited to 2000 copies, and includes downloads for the album as well as the bonus material.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
Aug. 2 street date. 1993's 'Icky Mettle' was the first of four studio albums for ARCHERS OF LOAF that seemed to personify what SPIN Magazine deemed "a tremendously optimistic time in underground music, that 15-minute period in the early 1990s when it looked like indie rock really might take over the world". Re-mastered by Bob Weston and featuring new liner notes by Robert
Christgau, 'Icky Mettle' will come with bonus material including the entire 'Archers of Loaf vs. The Greatest of All Time' EP as well as singles and b-sides from the 'Icky Mettle' era. The vinyl edition, which includes only the original album, is on blue vinyl and limited to 2000 copies, and includes downloads for the album as well as the bonus material.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
Feb. 21 street date. Expanded reissue of ARCHERS OF LOAF's second album, 'Vee Vee'. Remastered by Bob Weston and featuring new liner notes by MAGNET magazine editor Eric Miller, CD copies of 'Vee Vee' will include 16 bonus tracks and new cover art re-imagined by graphic artist Jay Ryan. The limited edition LP's are pressed to green vinyl and include a coupon to
download the entire album, plus the 16 bonus tracks. The first full-length produced by Bob Weston, 1995's 'Vee Vee' was a
slight departure from the bombastic noisepop that characterized Archers of Loaf's previous work, and the album's success
proved that the band wasn't just a flash in the pan. The album became their best-selling album to date and landed them on the covers of national publications and at the top of college radio charts across the country. "Harnessed In Slums" and "Greatest Of All Time" became anthems of the underground and led to successful tours with the Flaming Lips and Weezer, and international tours of Europe and Australia. The bonus tracks include singles from the same era and unreleased demo versions.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
Feb. 21 street date. Expanded reissue of ARCHERS OF LOAF's second album, 'Vee Vee'. Remastered by Bob Weston and featuring new liner notes by MAGNET magazine editor Eric Miller, CD copies of 'Vee Vee' will include 16 bonus tracks and new cover art re-imagined by graphic artist Jay Ryan. The limited edition LP's are pressed to green vinyl and include a coupon to
download the entire album, plus the 16 bonus tracks. The first full-length produced by Bob Weston, 1995's 'Vee Vee' was a
slight departure from the bombastic noisepop that characterized Archers of Loaf's previous work, and the album's success
proved that the band wasn't just a flash in the pan. The album became their best-selling album to date and landed them on the covers of national publications and at the top of college radio charts across the country. "Harnessed In Slums" and "Greatest Of All Time" became anthems of the underground and led to successful tours with the Flaming Lips and Weezer, and international tours of Europe and Australia. The bonus tracks include singles from the same era and unreleased demo versions.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
August 7 street date. With All the Nations Airports, originally released in 1996, Archers of Loaf were uncompromising in their efforts to push themselves in new directions. They delivered an album that included some of the more simple indie pop songs that had made them famous as well as four instrumental tracks, layered tape loops and even a solo piano song, but the song structures became much more complex. These songs provided a wide range of color and emotion but somehow none of the songs seemed out of place on the album. In Stephen Thompson’s liner notes for the Airports reissue, he says, "It’s music that exists because it must, with all the bile, beauty, and bluster of youth and all the disaffected paranoia of a perpetually worried mind. The album might not have fulfilled Archers of Loaf’s commercial potential at the time, but that makes an awful lot of sense. The band tended to craft its greatest art when it saw fit to scribble in the margins". LPs are limited edition and pressed to clear vinyl. LPs include coupon for full download, in addition to coupon for full bonus download.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
August 7 street date. With All the Nations Airports, originally released in 1996, Archers of Loaf were uncompromising in their efforts to push themselves in new directions. They delivered an album that included some of the more simple indie pop songs that had made them famous as well as four instrumental tracks, layered tape loops and even a solo piano song, but the song structures became much more complex. These songs provided a wide range of color and emotion but somehow none of the songs seemed out of place on the album. In Stephen Thompson’s liner notes for the Airports reissue, he says, "It’s music that exists because it must, with all the bile, beauty, and bluster of youth and all the disaffected paranoia of a perpetually worried mind. The album might not have fulfilled Archers of Loaf’s commercial potential at the time, but that makes an awful lot of sense. The band tended to craft its greatest art when it saw fit to scribble in the margins". LPs are limited edition and pressed to clear vinyl. LPs include coupon for full download, in addition to coupon for full bonus download.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
August 7 street date. Archers of Loaf almost called it quits after All the Nations Airports due to the strain of touring and the rut of the album cycle (i.e., make record, make video, do interviews, tour, tour, tour; repeat) but decided they would make one more album and see how they felt after that process. They again enlisted the help of Brian Paulson to record the album that became White Trash Heroes. This album found the band adding keyboards to some of their songs as well as a vocoder, and it also included the first song to be sung by a member other than Eric Bachmann (Matt Gentling sings 'I.N.S.'). The band pulled out all the stops to keep its members engaged, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and the band decided to make the fall tour of 1998 its final outing. Like recent reissues Icky Mettle, Vee Vee, and All the Nation’s Airports, this deluxe edition of White Trash Heroes builds on the classic version with reimagined cover art, new liner notes and bonus audio. LPs are limited edition and pressed to white vinyl. LPs include coupon for full download, in addition to coupon for full bonus download.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
August 7 street date. Archers of Loaf almost called it quits after All the Nations Airports due to the strain of touring and the rut of the album cycle (i.e., make record, make video, do interviews, tour, tour, tour; repeat) but decided they would make one more album and see how they felt after that process. They again enlisted the help of Brian Paulson to record the album that became White Trash Heroes. This album found the band adding keyboards to some of their songs as well as a vocoder, and it also included the first song to be sung by a member other than Eric Bachmann (Matt Gentling sings 'I.N.S.'). The band pulled out all the stops to keep its members engaged, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and the band decided to make the fall tour of 1998 its final outing. Like recent reissues Icky Mettle, Vee Vee, and All the Nation’s Airports, this deluxe edition of White Trash Heroes builds on the classic version with reimagined cover art, new liner notes and bonus audio. LPs are limited edition and pressed to white vinyl. LPs include coupon for full download, in addition to coupon for full bonus download.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
June 26 street date. From Eric Bachmann: "Of all the songs Archers of Loaf have written and recorded over the last 28 years, "Talking Over Talk" ranks 26th (out of around 75, give or take a few) in overall relative quality. It's no rock epic like "Wrong" or "Harnessed in Slums," but it's no snooze fest like "After the Last Laugh" or "Death in the Park," either. If you're a fan already, you'll probably allow it into the lexicon with mild enthusiasm. If you're new to the Archers, however, you probably won't make it through the first minute or so, which is understandable because there are so many other sounds to enjoy during your short time here. "Cruel Reminder," the B-side, comes in at a modest yet impressive 25th place, barely edging out "Talking Over Talk" for the victory.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
October 21 street date. As sculpted shards of guitar - tumbling, tolling, squalling - shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener "Human", it's obvious that "Reason In Decline", Archers of Loaf's first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina's 90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers' hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson, once headstrong smartasses inciting a series of artful pileups on the band's four studio albums and EP, are now a fluidly complementary, sonically advanced unit. Notably, Johnson's signature trebly lines peal clearly above the din instead of struggling to be heard. Second, singer-songwriter Bachmann, after throat surgery, relearned how to sing (this time from his diaphragm); as a result, he no longer howls like the angriest head cold on the Eastern Seaboard. And now, his lyrics balance righteous wrath with a complex tangle of adult perspective. In short, this is not your father's Archers of Loaf, even if you're a father now who was a fan then.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
October 21 street date. As sculpted shards of guitar - tumbling, tolling, squalling - shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener "Human", it's obvious that "Reason In Decline", Archers of Loaf's first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina's 90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers' hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson, once headstrong smartasses inciting a series of artful pileups on the band's four studio albums and EP, are now a fluidly complementary, sonically advanced unit. Notably, Johnson's signature trebly lines peal clearly above the din instead of struggling to be heard. Second, singer-songwriter Bachmann, after throat surgery, relearned how to sing (this time from his diaphragm); as a result, he no longer howls like the angriest head cold on the Eastern Seaboard. And now, his lyrics balance righteous wrath with a complex tangle of adult perspective. In short, this is not your father's Archers of Loaf, even if you're a father now who was a fan then.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
October 21 street date. As sculpted shards of guitar - tumbling, tolling, squalling - shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener "Human", it's obvious that "Reason In Decline", Archers of Loaf's first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina's 90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers' hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson, once headstrong smartasses inciting a series of artful pileups on the band's four studio albums and EP, are now a fluidly complementary, sonically advanced unit. Notably, Johnson's signature trebly lines peal clearly above the din instead of struggling to be heard. Second, singer-songwriter Bachmann, after throat surgery, relearned how to sing (this time from his diaphragm); as a result, he no longer howls like the angriest head cold on the Eastern Seaboard. And now, his lyrics balance righteous wrath with a complex tangle of adult perspective. In short, this is not your father's Archers of Loaf, even if you're a father now who was a fan then.
Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single. The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette. With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then. Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC. In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge. Thanks for listening!
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