I am, obviously, not at XXMerge this weekend — this shot is from Superchunk’s Coachella warm-up show at the Cradle this past April. (My weekend plans go baseball, show, baseball, baseball, baseball, show, but neither show is Merge-related.) Am I bummed that I’m not there? Yeah, a little. This amazing thing is happening in my town and I’m missing it because I was broke and then laid off when tickets were going, and even if I had managed a ticket back then, with the new job I probably couldn’t have managed the late nights.
But it’s happened before; it’ll happen again. Merge Records is the little indie label that could, they’ll have another anniversary in five years, and they’ll still be around to celebrate it. So I’ll go then, or I won’t — it doesn’t really matter, because ultimately, it’s all about Merge, not about me. So happy birthday, Merge, beloved label of my heart. Here’s to 20 fantastic years so far, and to 20 more in the future.
A handful of Merge-related links:
- the Washington Post lists their top 20 Merge albums, and Prefix did the same last November.
- the Triangle’s Independent Weekly basically wrote Merge a big fat love letter in their music section this week (left column, all of the bits under “Feature”). (For good measure, actually, a direct link to the Indy’s Top 20 (Plus Two To Grow On) Merge releases)
- Sleater-Kinner’s Carrie Brownstein on Merge at her NPR blog, Monitor Mix.
- All Songs Considered interviewed Mac and Laura about the label, XXMerge, and the anniversary and Chicago Public Radio’s Sound Opinions did an interview/feature with them earlier this year.
