Key local figure
Laura Ballance moved to Chapel Hill to study anthropology at the University of North Carolina, where she met Mac McCaughan. In 1989 the two founded the band Superchunk and the record label Merge, which she still runs with him. She stopped touring with Superchunk in 2013.
0 indexed records are connected with this person.
Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.
No work in the index names this person by itself yet. The works below belong to The Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s, the wider story it is part of (111 works in all).
"North Carolina has always produced extraordinary music. From Charlie Poole standardizing the bluegrass form in the 1920s, to the creation of an entire diaspora of Black musicians which included Thelonious Monk, John Co…
Death Chick and the Caveman : 1987 to 1989 -- Wet behind the ears : 1989 to 1991 -- Where's your patience, dear? : Matt Suggs, Butterglory, and White Whale -- The popular music : 1991 to 1993-- Signals that sound in the…
Video compilation of Chapel Hill-area bands. "Seventeen videos interspersed with clips of our most famous and not-so-famous locals."
Posters, 1997-2006.
Posters, 1997-2006.
Posters, 1997-2006.
Posters, 1997-2006.
Posters, 1997-2006.
Posters, 1997-2006.
Posters, 1997-2006.
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See the whole chronology →
Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance started Merge in Chapel Hill in 1989, the year they formed Superchunk, to put out their own band's and friends' records on 7-inch singles and cassettes.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
The Chapel Hill band, whose early singles had launched Merge Records, issued its self-titled debut album on Matador; Merge put out the band's later albums from Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
After working out of several Chapel Hill houses, Merge took space at 120 East Main Street in Carrboro, upstairs from the Armadillo Grill; it moved to a Chapel Hill house in 1996 and to Durham in 2001.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
The Superchunk singles collection Tossing Seeds (Singles 89–91) was Merge's first full-length release and its first CD.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
The label held four nights at Cat's Cradle and a finale at UNC's Memorial Hall, with film screenings at the Ackland Art Museum and a free show at the Orange County Social Club in Carrboro.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
Merge marked 25 years with a festival built around Cat's Cradle, ending with an outdoor show in the club's parking lot that organizers expected to draw about 3,000 people after the indoor nights sold out. Passes were sold through the Cat's Cradle website.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
More than 30 acts from the label's roster played MRG30 over four days. The Carrboro nights were at Cat's Cradle, where Superchunk closed the Thursday bill at midnight, and the opening night and after party were in Durham. Fans held a potluck and kickball game at Wilson Park in Carrboro on the Friday.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
Merge celebrated its 35th anniversary with four shows at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, the club that had held its earlier anniversary festivals, in the same year the label was named to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
People: Mac McCaughan · Laura Ballance
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Held in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection. Selected because their titles or catalog subjects provide wider historical context for this person; they may not discuss the Orange County person directly.
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