The Indie’s Turn
Merge Records
By kid spill

In 1989, there would still be two more years before punk “broke.”  The college rock scene was a ménage of alternative bands that would go on to figure prominently in the annals of both underground and mainstream rock and roll history.  “Indie” still meant something beyond serving as a vague descriptor of an unusual sound.  Thus, it’s fitting that in the summer of 1989, members of Superchunk - a band culturally rooted in and crucial to this era in American music - started up what would become one of the most reputable and reliable record labels to put out rebellious music. 

Superchunk leader Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance started Merge Records in Chapel Hill, NC, primarily to release their challenging and worshipped but commercially difficult music.  Inasmuch as Merge offered a respite from the broader music industry to the band, Superchunk’s off-the-charts indie credibility lent a measure of integrity to the label.  As Merge’s roster grew, it became obvious that the label’s apparent mandate - to release quality, innovative material by a staggeringly diverse collection of musicians - was both a viable idea and an alt. rock necessity.

In some respects, Merge can be readily compared to another indie label of the same approximate vintage, Matador.  In fact, Superchunk released their first record on the always-progressive label.  The ethos of the two labels seems to be eerily similar as well.  Neither are contained by an overarching musical sensibility, and their respective catalogues span pop, punk, rock, folk, and whatever amalgamation of these happens to converge in something beautiful.

The current rota of Merge bands includes the heavily sweated The Arcade Fire, Kurt Wagner’s group Lambchop, twee Scots (and Matador faves Belle and Sebastian progeny) Camera Obscura (whose sleepy album Underachievers Please Try Harder was a hit with the Bust magazine set), the Texans whose live shows inspire glassy-eyed declarations of undying love, … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, legendary Brit punks the Buzzcocks, and cutesy-awesome Imperial Teen.  Returning to Merge is ex-Dinosaur Jr. and prolific music man Lou Barlow, who is scheduled for a solo album on Merge in 2005.  The benefits these musicians have in their label bosses being professional indie rockers are evident in the variety and often the sheer oddness of the material. It’s unlikely that at Merge the pressure would be on to carve out a surefire hit single.

Merge has grown from a fuck-off indie to a significant presence, if not a dominating industry force. In support of the long roster, the label’s official website is a no-nonsense source for information about good music, an uncanny reflection of the label’s overarching style. The “Merge Radio” feature offers up a fantastic sampling of the label’s wares, some lesser known like The Essex Green and Ashley Stove, and some established like Portland’s M. Ward and, of course, Superchunk.

Superchunk, no longer the label’s best-selling band (being topped in sales by Neutral Milk Hotel’s landmark In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Magnetic Field’s epic 69 Love Songs), continues to produce no-holds-barred rock music, much to the delight of rock music enthusiasts, even claiming the hearts and minds of the impossibly jaded 99^th percentile of indie snobs.  Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, who are now both parents (Ballance played the Merge 15th anniversary show with her bass slung under her pregnancy-swelled tummy), run Merge with a paid staff, a rare thing indeed for a grassroots music label.  Now based out of Durham, NC, Merge is officially “not a girl, not yet a woman,” as definitely-not-Merge-affiliated “artist” Britney Spears once sagely sang.  While its adolescence has been interesting, perhaps it has only paved the way for an even more vital future.

 Click here to discuss this article on our new forum!