On the record

Merge Records makes ther own history in Our Story

By Adam Schragin
Published: September 14th, 2009 | 10:50am

Against the odds, the North Carolina-based independent label Merge Records has gone on to release 358 records (as of the last count) during a ten-year tenure. In that time, the label has broken bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, the Magnetic Fields, Spoon, and Arcade Fire, while also putting out albums by talented (if much less commercially successful) artists like Butterglory and Shark Quest.

The story of Merge records parallels that of the band Superchunk, who formed in 1989 in Chapel Hill. Part of a vibrant local scene, lead Superchunkers (and couple) Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance started the label modestly, with a cassette release of the album Winterspring by the band Bricks. The label’s seventh release was the “Slack Motherfucker” single by Superchunk, and thereafter both McCaughan and Ballance became consumed with the twin responsibilities of fronting a buzz band and running Merge records. Eventually the romantic side of their relationship dissolved, and the two forged ahead regardless, putting their businesses and friendship ahead of the awkwardness and difficulties that come as a result of any break up.

Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records is not a straightforward biography of the label and its founders – instead, it is primarily a story told through interviews of the people who were there. Each chapter is prefaced with commentary from writer John Cook, but this is mostly a book of recollections, and everyone from Kurt Wagner of the band Lambchop to a bevy of lawyers, roadies, and A&R representatives give their take on the little label that could.

The nineties were a time of glut and excess in the major label world, a trend in which Merge would have no part. Artists and others involved in the Merge empire take turns remembering the label’s famous restraint and caution – from refusals to take bank loans to Ballance’s amusing habit of using a pencil until she wore it down to a nub. The interviews in the book reveal the hardships and struggles implicit in running a DIY label, from artist conflicts to making that bottom line. Add to it all the Superchunk and Balance/McCaughan drama, and you’ve got yourself a pretty juicy story.

Our Noise is a fascinating look at the real issues underlying some of our favorite indie rock releases of the past ten years, from the difficulties of pressing enough copies of Funeral by Arcade Fire to meet the hyped-up demand, to the label’s trepidation at putting out the magnum opus 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields. We get an insight into the changing dynamic between McCaughan and Ballance, as well as brief visits to Merge luminaries like Stephin Merrit and Fred Cornog. Heartbreakingly, we also watch as the popularity of Merge and Superchunk begin to take different paths, with the former only growing in stature and popularity as the appeal of the latter slowly diminishes.

Unsurprisingly, the label comes across very well in this biography. Cook himself is a self-professed fan, and the founders of Merge are listed as co-authors of Our Noise. With that in mind, the book spends a little too much time explicating the success of the label, and not enough uncovering some of the thornier mysteries behind it all. Almost three hundred pages in, Laura Ballance, the emotionally reserved cofounder of Merge and bassist of Superchunk, is as inscrutable as ever. With that in mind, Our Noise should be recommended to any fan of Merge records, or torchbearers of indie rock in general.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small (Algonquin Books)
By John Cook
320 pages
$18.95