Merge Records will reissue Superchunk’s No Pocky for Kitty and On the Mouth on CD, LP and digital download on August 17. Remastered by Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Company from the original 1/2″ reels, both albums will be available for the first time on 180 gram vinyl (with download coupon), and on CD newly packaged in LP-style cardboard sleeves.
No Pocky for Kitty and On the Mouth are available for full album streaming and pre-order on CD and LP in the Merge store, and download a free MP3 of the newly remastered “Skip Steps 1 & 3” now.
Author Dan Kennedy shared his thoughts on these releases:
No Pocky for Kitty and On the Mouth were originally released about one thousand American Idols ago. There was a time when the most careerist thing a band did was buy their own PA or van, and during that time, Mac McCaughan, Jim Wilbur, Laura Ballance, and Jon Wurster made music that you bought in a store and met like a friend—music that felt like someone a few towns or states over had finally heard how you were feeling. Back then, you bought something like On the Mouth or No Pocky for Kitty and the songs smelled like a van with a gas leak. They sounded like a thousand things you had been saying in your sleep before waking up alone or with friends and almost always realizing you were out of coffee.
Superchunk’s bio during the time these two albums were made could have read: the band was coming together, breaking up, touring, staying home, getting big, sleeping on planes, staying small, staying awake behind the wheel, trying for a taste of what they didn’t get, and learning they loved what they already had. You can hear every note of that.
No Pocky for Kitty track listing:
1. Skip Steps 1 & 3
2. Seed Toss
3. Cast Iron
4. Tower
5. Punch Me Harder
6. Sprung A Leak
7. 30 Xtra
8. Tie A Rope To The Back Of The Bus
9. Press
10. Sidewalk
11. Creek
12. Throwing Things
On the Mouth track listing:
1. Precision Auto
2. From the Curve
3. For Tension
4. Mower
5. Package Thief
6. Swallow That
7. I Guess I Remembered It Wrong
8. New Low
9. Untied
10. The Question is How Fast
11. Trash Heap
12. Flawless
13. The Only Piece That You Get
