Merge Records is celebrating three and a half decades of indie rock with the Merge 35 festival that happens July 24-27 in Carrboro, NC. Label co-founder Mac McCaughan will be very busy that weekend, as in addition to his general duties at the festival, he’s also playing it with Superchunk, and they’ve just announced his solo project Portastatic will also be playing.
This will be the first Portastatic show in 10 years, and it reunites the band lineup of the group that made 2005’s Bright Ideas album, with Mac joined by his brother, Matt McCaughan, on drums, and Jim Wilbur on bass. You can listen to Bright Ideas below.
Portastatic are playing July 27 at the Cat’s Cradle as part of a lineup that also includes Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn, Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson (of The Magnetic Fields), The Clientele, Imperial Teen, HC McEntire, Mike Krol, Hiss Golden Messenger, Greg Cartwright, and Eric Bachmann. Tickets are still available.
The rest of Merge 35 also includes performances by Detroyer, Fucked Up, Redd Kross, Mary Timony, Lambchop, The New Pornographers, Quivrs, Rosali, Wye Oak, M. Ward, Fruit Bats, Ibibio Sound Machine, The Mountain Goats (solo) and more.
The Clean’s David Kilgour and M(h)aol were originally part of the Merge 35 lineup but have had to drop off.
More information on Merge 35 is here.