Superchunk Cover Wham!, The Magnetic Fields, & Galaxie 500 On Surprise New Wintry Mix EP

We've just been through Halloween and Election Day, and now it's Bandcamp Friday, another very special day. North Carolina indie overlords Superchunk are longtime proponents of the random one-off release, and they have just given the world a brand-new winter-themed surprise EP with one new song and four covers.Today, Superchunk release a new EP called Wintry Mix — a pretty appropriate title for what's happening here. All of the tracks are winter-themed in one way or another, including the brand-new original opener "Shortest Day Of The Year," a classic-style Superchunk basher with a few sleigh bells tossed in. Fun song! One new Superchunk song would be enough, but no, they've given us a bunch of covers, too.Wintry Mix has one version of a song that everybody knows: Wham!'s "Last Christmas," the 1984 holiday perennial that just might challenge Mariah Carey on this year's holiday-season Hot 100. They've also included versions of two songs from their former Merge labelmates the Magnetic Fields. "The Blizzard Of '78" and "Have You Seen It In The Snow" both come from that band's 2017 concept album 50 Song Memoir. (As it happens, Superchunk covered the Magnetic Fields classic "I Don't Want To Get Over You" just last year.) Finally, Superchunk also give us their version of "Snowstorm," from slowcore pioneers Galaxie 500's classic 1989 album On Fire. Amazingly, they make all of these tracks sound like Superchunk songs. Check out the new EP below.The Wintry Mix EP is out now on Merge.