Portastatic


Portastatic is an American indie rock band founded in the early 1990s by Mac McCaughan. Portastatic began as a solo project for McCaughan, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Superchunk. Since then it has evolved into a full-fledged band, which sometimes includes Superchunk guitarist Jim Wilbur and McCaughan's brother Matthew.
Tom Scharpling of 18 Wheeler fanzine was so impressed by McCaughan's solo material that he cajoled him into releasing it under the fanzine's own imprint; so came 1993's "Starter" 7". Since then, under the Portastatic moniker, McCaughan has recorded several records drawing on a number of genres, including traditional indie rock, lo-fi, soundtrack and Brazilian music.
The name "Portastatic" is derived from the TASCAM Portastudio home recording device. Due to the quality of the recordings, Mac McCaughan added "static" to "porta" to form "Portastatic."

Discography

Official Albums

1994 - I Hope Your Heart Is Not Brittle

1995 - Slow Note From a Sinking Ship

1997 - The Nature of Sap

2003 - Summer of the Shark

2005 - Bright Ideas

2006 - Be Still Please

Compilation Albums

2008 - Some Small History

Demo Albums

2005 - Ideas for Bright Ideas

2006 - Some Small Things You Can't Defend

Soundtracks

2001 - Looking For Leonard

2006 - Who Loves the Sun

Singles and EP'S

1993 - Starter

1994 - Naked Pilseners

1994 - Hello CD of the Month

1994 - San Andreas Couch

1995 - Scrapbook X's

1995 - Scrapbook EP

1996 - Spying On The Spys

1997 - Trash Heap - Split 7" w/ Ida

1997 - Portastatic/The Landing Split 7" : "Secret Session"/"And Forward Again"

1997 - Portastatic/The Ladybug Transistor/Land of the Loops Split 7" : "You Love To Fail"

2000 - De Mel, De Melão

2001 - The Perfect Little Door

2003 - Autumn Was a Lark

2005 - Looking For A Power Supply

2005 - I Wanna Know Girls

2006 - Sour Shores

2009 - Make It Sound In Tune

Compilation Appearances

1994 - Ow!, Quit It! Volume 2

1994 - A Day in the Park

1994 - Rows of Teeth

1995 - Speed Kills No. 7

1996 - Extra Walt!

1998 - Blatant Doom Trip

1998 - The Garden Place: Songs by Our Friends

1998 - Chunklet No. 14

1999 - Oh, Merge

2000 - Come on Beautiful - The Songs of American Music Club

2001 - Snowstorm - A Tribute To Galaxie 500

2002 - Survive and Advance Vol. 1

2002 - Survive and Advance Vol. 2

2003 - Survive and Advance Vol. 3

2003 - Compulation Vol. 1: Songs From North Carolina

2004 - Old Enough 2 Know Better - 15 Years of Merge Records

2006 - Songs for Sixty Five Roses

2008 - Love Goes On - a Tribute to Grant McLennan

2009 - TOM: A Best Show on WFMU Tribute to RAM

2009 -