Part 1 of a new ongoing series at MBV looking at Merge Records.

By coincidence(?), three of the most integral modern American indie labels were formed over three subsequent years. It’s why last year brought us a celebration of Sub Pop‘s 20th, why this year brings us one for Merge, and why next year Matador will (almost certainly) follow.

I hold a deep reverence for all of these labels (and, of course, to their essential older-school forebears), but Merge has a special place in my heart. For me, for a very, very long time, the term “indie rock” literally meant “Superchunk. And bands that sound similar to Superchunk.” My mind was made up about that soon after first hearing Tossing Seeds some time in the early ’90s.

And I know I’m not alone in my fondness for Merge. In fact, all of us MBV’ers adore Merge, and I’m willing to bet that a substantial portion of you reading this right now feel similarly. That’s why, over the course of the next year, we’re going to devote some time here at MBV to look back at, and celebrate, the wonderful Merge catalog of these last 20 years. We hope you’ll come along for the ride, we hope you’ll join in on the conversations, and most of all, we hope you’ll enjoy all the great music we’re going to drop on you.

So.

Let us start at the beginning. It’s the summer of 1989… it’s a time when discovering alternatives to the prevalent musical dreck (all due respect to Nelson and E’Nuff Z’Nuff) wasn’t as easy as simply logging onto Hype Machine and downloading to your iPod. Getting your indie rock took a lot of work. The best music out there was out there in the real world, and it was being passed around in the form of tapes and small-batch 7-inches. And that summer of ’89 marked the first time that the tapes and the small-batch 7-inches from a new label Merge Records began to appear. With a modest goal (putting out stuff by their band, Chunk, and some stuff by their friends), Mac MacCaughan and Laura Ballance launched Merge Records out of a bedroom in Chapel Hill, NC.

MRG001Bricks – Winterspring cassetteWhile studying at Columbia in the late ’80s, Mac’s musical focus was Bricks, a lo-fi, home-recorded collaborative project with his roommate. Spurred on by that primal artistic urge that’s compelled so many to huddle over bedroom 4-tracks, the Bricks recordings capture a really vital energy, though cut with a healthy dose of honest wet-behind-the-ears-edness.

(Trivia: Mac’s roommate and Bricks collaborator was Andrew Webster, who went on to play in both Geek and Tsunami. Later additions to the Bricks roster included Josh Phillips and Laura Cantrell.)

(Bonus Trivia: there is actually an MRG000, even though MRG001 was Merge’s first release. The 000 designation went to 1990′s “Three’s Company” Tour 7″, which was a three-way split with Superchunk, Geek, and Seaweed, that was co-released by Merge, Simple-Machines, and Leopard-Gecko.)

Bricks – “Winterspring”The title track from Merge’s inaugural release is a bit of an odd bird in that it’s an instrumental. With a simple 2-guitar setup and a lone tamborine as percussion, it’s charming, unassuming and infinitely likable. And there’s something intrinsic to “Winterspring” that perfectly evokes that End-Of-The-’80s/Early ’90s period for me. In my mind, I can see it soundtracking a sequence in a Hal Hartley film, or popping up at the right moment in an episode of Pete & Pete.

MRG005Bricks – Girl With The Carrot Skin 7″Bricks – “Girl with the Carrot Skin”Gorilla Pignose Mini-Amp distortion notwithstanding, you can hear seeds (no ‘tossing’ pun intended) of the Superchunk-to-come in this one. This is still pretty lo-fi, and still sounds a bit green. Nonetheless, I can see how aspects of this this style would eventually mix with the poppier, punkier tendencies of Mac’s teenage band, Slushpuppies, to help create the “Superchunk sound.”

Bricks – “Don’t Hog the Nog, Zog”Funnily enough, not only is one of my favorite Bricks songs a freaking Christmas song (with gang vocals no less!), but it also doesn’t even come from an actual Merge release– it’s from a super-rare Simple Machines 7″. Working Holiday was Simple Machines’ wonderful Singles Club, launched in January ’93, that ran for a year, and ended with a big, celebratory 3-day party the following January. This particular release was an exclusive for that occasion, and wasn’t made available to the general buying public. Scream out a request for “Zog” the next time you’re at a Portastatic/Superchunk show. I’m sure Mac is just aching to play it again.

Obviously, all of these original Bricks releases are long out of print– but most everything was collected on the MRG030 Bricks compilation:

Bricks – A Microphone and a Box of Dirt at Merge Digital

And as a special reward to those of you that read this far, here’s your bonus: we’ve got a copy of MRG005 to give away to one of you! Just enter your email below, and we’ll draw a winner next week.

Congrats to winner (No Love For) Ned Norland!

- Ryan Catbird