''Autumn Was a Lark'' is an EP by the band

Portastatic Portastatic is an American indie rock band founded in the early 1990s as a solo project of Mac McCaughan, singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Superchunk. The project has since expanded into a full band, sometimes including Superchunk ...

. It was released on the

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expand ...

label in 2003. The EP was recorded at Pox Studios in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

, after the touring version of Portastatic finished the ''

Summer of the Shark Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

'' tour. During the tour the band learned several cover songs to "keep hemselveshappy" while playing warm up gigs at a venue called "The Cave" in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

. At the end of the tour they decided to record three of these cover songs for release on this EP. In addition to the cover songs they also recorded one new original song, "Autumn Got Dark," and a reworked "full band" version of "In The Lines," from ''Summer of the Shark''. In addition to the 5 songs that comprise the actual EP, the CD also includes eight bonus tracks taken from two separate radio sessions (one from WPRB in Princeton, New Jersey and one from WERS in Boston, Massachusetts).

Critical reception

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' wrote that "when inger Mac McCaughansteps to the piano for a spellbinding 'Isn't That the Way,' he sounds like he could be the hippest hotel piano bar singer in the world."

Track listing

# "Autumn Got Dark" # "Baby Blue" (Badfinger) # "Growin' Up" (Bruce Springsteen) # "In The Lines" # "One For The Road" (Ronnie Lane) # "Clay Cakes" * # "A Cunning Latch" * # "Bobby Jean" (Bruce Springsteen) * # "Don't Disappear" * # "You Know Where To Find Me" * # "Drill Me" ** # "San Andreas" ** # "Isn't That The Way" ** "*" – Bonus Track from WPRB, Princeton, NJ Radio Session. "**" – Bonus Track from WERS, Boston, MA Radio Session.

References

{{Authority control 2003 EPs Portastatic albums