The pride of Chapel Hill breaks my heart

I had yet another "satellite radio moment" in the car the other day when a song I'd never heard came on, from NC indie legends Superchunk.  The song was identified on my display as "Slack Mother" though it quickly became evident by first chorus that the title had been selectively abbreviated.  As far as songs worth screaming along to at a red light with the windows down in the last days before fall sets in, I don't think you can do much better.  Another one I totally missed back in the day, and this one considered to be one of the seminal indie hits of the '90s??  Well, better late than never.  A quick YouTube search revealed many worthy live versions but this one is my fave so far -

In any event, as is always the case with YouTube I was pulled down the "related link" rabbit hole and hit on a cover that Superchunk did for the AV Club program "AV Undercover".  AV creates a list of 25 songs every year and invites bands in to perform a song of their choosing in their Chicago office.  As a song is performed it's crossed off, so the later a band comes in the fewer songs they have to pick from.  As the program is in its 5th year there is quite a collection of on their website, and I spent several days working my way through them.  For the first couple of seasons they had the bands perform in a little round room a bit larger than an ensuite bathroom, which I thought was really great, though recently they have moved to a "bigger" venue.  Some highlights for me were They Might Be Giants doing "Tub Thumping", Nada Surf's beautiful melancholy "Bizarre Love Triangle" and a terrific cover of M Jackson's "PYT" by the Wood Bothers.  The hit that started me down the path though was the aforementioned Superchunk cover of the Cure's heart-breakingly great "In Between Days", one of my favorite songs of all time :

If the embedded video isn't working trip over to the AV site and burn a few hours watching through some great tunes,

http://www.avclub.com/video/superchunk-covers-the-cure-38884