Key local figure
Mac McCaughan founded Merge Records in Chapel Hill in 1989 with Laura Ballance, at the same time the two formed the band Superchunk. The label put out records by local acts including Polvo, Erectus Monotone and Portastatic on 7-inch singles and cassettes, and issued its first full-length, Superchunk's Tossing Seeds, in 1992.
Source: UNC Libraries: Merge Records Collection, 1987-2012 (finding aid)
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Mac McCaughan. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Mac McCaughan’s life and work.
Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.
People named in the same dated entries as Mac McCaughan, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.
Background reading on The Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the 1990s. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Mac McCaughan. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Tom Maxwell's 2024 account of Chapel Hill's alternative rock scene in the 1990s, set against North Carolina's longer musical history. Maxwell writes as a musician who played in that scene, and the book follows the bands, clubs and labels that drew national attention to the town. Subjects include alternative rock music, Chapel Hill, 1991-2000, history and criticism. Published by Hachette, 310 pages with plates.
Singer and songwriter Ben Folds (born 1966), whose band Ben Folds Five came together in Chapel Hill, looks back on his life in music. Chapters cover his music teachers and 'cheap lessons', a stretch in Nashville, the band's first albums and the music business, 'Rockin' the suburbs', going solo, and the years after a low point, told through anecdotes and working advice. Published in a first edition of 2019, 311 pages with illustrations.
John Cook's history of Merge Records, the independent label that Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance of Superchunk built in Chapel Hill. Chapters follow the label year by year from 1987 to 2009 and pause for profiles of Butterglory, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Magnetic Fields, Spoon, Lambchop and the Arcade Fire, ending on how it managed to stay small. Advance reading copy of the first edition, published in Chapel Hill in 2009, 289 pages with twelve pages of plates.
Essays on the American independent music underground, edited by Thomas Howells according to the colophon and published in London in 2013. The essays include the history and criticism of alternative rock in Chapel Hill. Of interest to readers following North Carolina music of the late twentieth century.
Concert film of the Archers of Loaf recorded at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro on August 19 and 20, 2011, released on a single videodisc running 89 minutes in color with sound. Extras include six additional songs, four interviews with the band and a trailer. Topics include rock concerts in Carrboro and rock music of the 2010s.
Visual discography covering the first twenty years of Merge Records, the independent label founded in Chapel Hill, published by the label itself in 2009. Album covers and catalog listings make up the substance of it, and the spine carries the label number MRG353. Topics include the sound recording industry in Chapel Hill and catalogs of album covers.
Video compilation of seventeen music videos by Chapel Hill area bands, directed by Norwood Cheek and released by Cane Man Films of Carrboro in 1994, with clips of local figures cut between the songs. Running an hour and seven minutes on VHS, it documents the Chapel Hill alternative rock scene of the early 1990s. Subjects include alternative rock and popular music in Chapel Hill.
Archived captures of the website of Merge Records, the independent record label founded in Chapel Hill, preserved by the Internet Archive. Alternative rock music and the sound recording industry in Chapel Hill are its subjects. The Internet Archive stands as publisher with San Francisco as the place, and no capture dates or extent are recorded.
Mogwai and Growing at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro on 8 March 2006. Concert poster by Casey Burns, number 41 in his oversize series, which runs from 1997 to 2006.
Chapel Hill's Local 506 was the venue for Bettie Serveert and Schooner on 9 March 2005. Poster by Casey Burns, number 38 in his oversize series of concert posters from 1997 to 2006.
Gang of Four, Morningwood, and Men Women & Children at the Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, on 6 October 2005. A Casey Burns concert poster, oversize number 39 of the series he made from 1997 to 2006.
Southern Culture on the Skids with the Moaners at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, 10 December 2005. Poster by Casey Burns, number 40 in his oversize series of 1997 to 2006.
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Picture: Mac McCaughan, photograph, 2018. CC BY 2.0. Photograph by David Lee; via Wikimedia Commons
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