Rockbites: Portastatic break out of pop eggshell with Ken Vandermark

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November 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Portastatic break out of pop eggshell with Ken Vandermark
9 November 2001

This past spring, multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Mac McCaughan, aka Portastatic (and front man for Superchunk) found himself looking at an invitation to perform at the second annual Noise Pop Chicago festival with post jazz improvisers Ken Vandermark (sax, clarinet) and Tim Mulvenna (percussion)—both of whom play in The Vandermark 5 and in Steam. Admittedly frightened by the idea (“...improvising with Ken would have put me way out of my depth!”), McCaughan nonetheless signed up for the ride. The result was a short festival set witnessed by a lucky few, and an exceptional five-track EP for the rest of us.
    Recorded in May 2001 live in his studio by naturalistic producer Steve Albini (Pixies, Big Black, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, The Breeders, Low), the EP—titled The Perfect Little Door—is an open window to the emotion and musicality of a unique and remarkable event.
    The convergence of McCaughan’s acoustic folk-rock guitar & unvarnished, high-key vocals on the one hand, with Vandermark’s and Mulvenna’s improvisational, experimental reeds and percussion on the other, comes across as totally fresh. These modest musicians make a rather bizarre juxtaposition of styles look easy.
    On the surface perhaps just another unexpected merging of genres, this is more significantly a pop record broken open by the improvisational aesthetic, defined by an emotional honesty & focus that manifests only when the players do not know quite what happens next—but have the chops & courage to ride the wave, as it were.
    Tracks include complete reworkings of the classic Portastic songs Had and When You Crashed, the latter taped live at Noise Pop; the first released version of Portastatic’s Broken Arm, planned to have been part of the Looking For Leonard instrumental soundtrack album released earlier this year; a new version of the Vandermark 5 song Late Night Wait Around; and one all new Portastatic song, the breezy and romantic Hey Salty.
    Four bites out of five.

Rockbites ratings  5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying.

McCaughan is on tour now in the US with his other band, Superchunk; while the Vandermark 5 continue a European tour in Portugal, Sweden, and Norway through the end of the month. | Portastatic on Merge Records | | Vandermark 5 on Atavistic Records | | CD-EP from Amazon US | | top of page |

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