by JOHNSON CUMMINS

"Six years? Has it really been six years? I guess that is a long time," says Portastatic's head honcho Mac McCaughan of the lapse between releases from the band. You can't really blame the guy's memory lapse as he's been busier then a 10-dicked dog over the past six years. A man of many hats, McCaughan is probably best known as the driving force behind indie-rock legends Superchunk and secondly as the owner of the respected label Merge. Portastatic was originally hatched as a side project but the contents of its new album The Summer of the Shark could hardly be called throwaway tracks.

These days, McCaughan wears even more hats. His love for '60s Brazilian pop culminated in a record of cover songs that had McCaughan singing half the songs in the native tongue of Portuguese. Oh, and he's got a Montreal connection, too - he penned the soundtrack for the Montreal-produced film Looking for Leonard.

"It's really appealing to do a soundtrack for me as a songwriter because you can just concentrate on melodies without having to put words to them. It really makes you think about music in a different way." McCaughan is talking to me from the Merge offices and is expertly juggling the interview while taking other label-related calls. Starting off as a means to release friends' records and Superchunk seven-inches, Merge has grown into one of indie rock's busiest labels.

Recently, McCaughan realized a young punker's dream when he signed legends the Buzzcocks. "Merge can take up a lot of time but I also have the luxury of saying, ‘Okay, the owner is going to be recording for the next two weeks,' so that's kind of nice. Stuff like getting to work with your musical heroes, like the Buzzcocks, can add a little pressure and does take up more time, but it never becomes impossible to be able to do everything you want to."

With Yo La Tengo at Cabaret on Tuesday, April 15, 9pm, $20

>> Music Listings