By Justin Schwier
Rating: 4.5/5
Merge Records/Temporary Residence Limited Records
4/16/2011
When this split 7'' was announced for Record Store Day 2011, my mind was kind of blown at the bizarre, but incredible pairing and it easily became my #1 want. Thankfully, I was able to find a copy in my multi-store travels this year. This split is a perfect idea: completely random and out of left field – exactly the kind of thing that makes Record Store Day fun and not the, “trick people into buying re-mastered, $30+ versions of dollar bind albums” type of ploy that it becomes more and more each year.
I’m a relative newbie to the Superchunk fan camp, but I’ve fallen hard for them, especially after last year's Majesty Shredding album. On this one, they deliver a cool relatively straight up rendition of The Misfits' “Horror Business”. They rock it out a little bit towards the end to add personal flair to it, but it’s a solid cover of this classic tune from the Legacy of Brutality compilation. They did a great job making this sound perfectly lo-fi enough to match the original recordings too. All around a rad cover.
Coliseum is the highlight for me on this split. They deliver a mean, mid-tempo version of The Misfits' “Bullet”. This is a fine example of how a small tweak of the tempo can really alter a song and make it into something unexpected and great. They play down the over-the-top-ness of Danzig’s vocals and keep the heat down to a low simmer with singer/guitarist, Ryan Patterson, growling the words along and really extracting a near-Sabbath-esque sludge riff out of the guitar line. Awesome and over with far too quickly so it’s meant a lot of repeat playing of this single.
Thankfully, this came with a download card too, so I can blast these two covers all the time. The cover art is a simple design with half-toned pictures used to great effect and my copy came on a cool green (monster?) mash-colored vinyl.
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