Superchunk didn’t plan to make a protest record. But America just wouldn’t shut up. “I think I just started writing songs,” Mac McCaughan shrugs. “And once I’d written a couple, it became clear they’d be really good Superchunk songs — even though we hadn’t decided, ‘We’re gonna make a record this year.’” So they did. What a Time to Be Alive was born in the cold, anxious days post-election, full of fight, threadbare hope, and the occasional shout-along chorus to get you through Thom Tillis and Mitch McConnell.
“These old men won’t die too soon,” Mac spits on I Got Cut. It’s not subtle. “I saw that photo — Trump, all these old guys grinning about how they’d just made it harder for women to get healthcare. It was infuriating. But you don’t want to just turn it into a newspaper, you know? That’s boring.”
Don’t worry — What a Time to Be Alive is anything but boring. It’s ragged, fired-up, full of hooky noise-pop and community spirit. That’s where the Merge Records roster comes in. “Hey, you gotta exploit the resources around you, right?” he grins. Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee, Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, David Bazan — they all turn up. “I mean, if there’s a song with someone besides me singing on it, it’s improved. So I roped in as many people as possible.”
Merritt, famously thorny in interviews, was a breeze. “We sent him the song and four days later he sent back four vocal tracks. He was up for it. It was awesome.” If you’re wondering, no, they didn’t have to endure his sardonic stare-down in person. “I think Stephin’s thoughtfulness gets perceived as difficulty,” Mac says, politely implying he knows a thing or two about interviewing him too.
While they’re at it, they manage to slip in a shimmering closer: Black Thread. It’s the album’s acoustic outlier — a breath at the end of the political shouting. “It’s about anxiety, depression… looking forward to the time when you’re maybe not thinking about all this stuff 24 hours a day,” Mac says. “Sometimes you need that breather.”
Don’t hold your breath for that break, though. The world keeps lurching on. “I remember when politics used to be boring,” Mac laughs. “Now it’s this constant cycle. But there are moments — my kids know more about politics than I ever did at 10. Seeing the Parkland kids organize? That gives me hope. Then you read about Thom Tillis and you’re like, oh yeah, we’re up against monsters.”
Monsters, but not unbeatable ones. “They’re gonna be old enough to vote soon. The scary thing is, they’re also trying to dismantle how those kids can even vote.” He sighs. “You just gotta keep going.”
What a time to be alive, indeed.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the video below!
