The following is a Designated Cheerleader piece by @zacharymull for the Best Album of 1991 tournament. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you follow the link to vote in the tournament. Thanks!

Chapel Hill in the early 90s was an interesting scene. The biggest bands to emerge from it, Ben Folds Five and The Squirrel Nut Zippers, didn’t sound like anything else going on at the time. The musical vanguard were off-kilter dissonant guitar bands like Polvo and Archers of Loaf. The key band of the scene, Superchunk, sounded like The Replacements with a high-pitched Paul Westerberg singing. Their first album wasn’t anything special. The second, recorded in three days by a pre-Nirvana Steve Albini, was. Twelve songs of hooky indie punk that hinted at a genuine songwriter in the band. Singer Mac McCaughan would flex those songwriting chops on later records, but here he’s focused on creating momentum. These songs were tracked live and they were meant to be played live. No Pocky for Kitty sounds like a young band that’s finally got its set together. I didn’t see Superchunk live until 1997. I most recently saw them in 2017. They played plenty of No Pocky songs both times.

– @zacharymull