Album: Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91)
Year: 1990
. . .
OK, so a couple of things here: I’m using a couple of technicalities to start off the Superchunk posts with “Slack Motherfucker.” First, while it was the first single to be credited to “Superchunk,” it wasn’t the first single they released, as they had released a single in 1989 — which has their great version of “Train From Kansas City,” — credited to “Chunk,” an inside joke based on the name of their drummer, Chuck Garrison, being misspelled in the phone book.
Secondly, while “Slack Motherfucker” also showed up on their 1991 self-titled debut, the album to hear it is their early singles compilation, 1992’s Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91), which I think rivals the Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady or Squeeze’s Singles 45s and Under in terms of perfectly capturing a band that left it all out there on the 7″ single.
It’s also, not coincidentally, the first place I heard Superchunk, having bought Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91) at the end of 1992, and almost instantly falling in love with all of the loud guitars, loud vocals and loud hooks, all of which come together perfectly in the Gen X anthem “Slack Motherfucker,” a song that I misunderstood for years even as I shouted along with the chorus.
“Slack Motherfucker” opens with some utterly galloping, rampaging guitars from Mac McCaughan and Jack McCook, as Mac instantly chastises a co-working for not carrying their weight.
You haven’t moved from that spot all night since you asked for a light
You little smoke stack
You’ve wasted my time
I’d like to see you try and give it back
Which leads to one of the great choruses in indie rock, all full of droning guitars doing utterly classic chord changes.
I’m working
But I’m not working for you
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Slack motherfucker
That “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!,” which only shows up in the second chorus, is still one of the most transcendently angry moments I’ve ever heard in any song: a perfect expression of frustration and anger, and is followed by an awesome guitar solo from McCook. Unless it’s McCaughan.
But here’s the thing: in 1992, working my McJob managing a video store — remember video stores? — I thought that this song was about rebelling against a boss who wanted too much work done for too little pay. That’s because I couldn’t really understand the lyrics on the verses and only heard the chorus: it’s hard to miss either “but I’m not working for you” and especially the gang shouts of “slack motherfucker.”
But it wasn’t really aimed at a boss, but rather a peer who wasn’t pulling their weight: some asshole preferring to sit in the back instead of running films for customers on a particularly busy night, which I get, but given that the concept of being a “Slacker” was a short-lived generational concept in 1991 — we were going to be the generation that beat capitalism!!!! — it’s less resonant 30 years later.
But only slightly less resonant, because it remains too much fun to yell “you motherfucker!!!” at somebody pissing you off, regardless of the circumstances.
“Slack Motherfucker” was one of the first singles released on Merge Records, the label formed by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance — co-founder and bassist of Superchunk — and while it wasn’t ever a chart hit — did you notice the part where it had the word “Motherfucker” in the title and in the lyrics? — it was incredibly popular with the exact demographic to which it was aimed, and in retrospect, has been feted as one of the best singles of the 1990s.
“Slack Motherfucker”
“Slack Motherfucker” Live at the Pitchfork Music Festival, 2011
“Slack Motherfucker” Live Acoustic, 2023
Did you miss a Certain Song? Follow me on Twitter: @barefootjim
The Certain Songs Database
A filterable, searchable & sortable somewhat up to date database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page