Superchunk already delivered one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most moving treatises on death with “Me & You & Jackie Mittoo,” in which Mac MacCaughan declares, “I hate music/ What is it worth/ Can’t bring anyone back to this earth.” They’ve returned to the subject today with “Everybody Dies,” the A-side from a new 7″.

“Everybody Dies” is the first new recording since longtime drummer Jon Wurster left the band last year. It follows Wurster’s final Superchunk single, “Everything Hurts” b/w “Making A Break.” Wow, from “Everything Hurts” to “Everybody Dies.” I hope MacCaughan is OK.

Laura King of Bat Fangs, R. Ring, and Speed Stick is behind the kit here, and seemingly maybe permanently? On the “Everybody Dies” Bandcamp page, it says, “Superchunk: Laura Ballance, Laura King, Mac McCaughan, Jim Wilbur.” King also lists Superchunk as one of her affiliations on Instagram. On the other hand, a press release says this was Superchunk’s lineup “for these recordings.”

On the 7″, “Everybody Dies” will be backed by “As In A Blender,” a cover of the Alastair Galbraith song from 1992. King reportedly has some vocals on that. As for the A-side, new Merge signee Rosali Middleman can be heard among the gang of vocalists shouting, “Everybody dies!”

MacCaughan shared this statement on the new song:

The last years have often felt like an avalanche of loss—starting with Bowie and Prince, really, and then magnified by the pandemic and amplified by social media. Something that seems different recently is that we aren’t just losing legends from older generations — Pharoah Sanders or Toots Hibbert or Kidd Jordan or Tina Turner — but musicians we think of as peers and friends; people we have toured with and recorded with and shared beers with all over the world. It means of course we’re getting older, and while we know from an early age that yes, everybody dies, it doesn’t make these departures any less shocking.

Listen below.

“Everybody Dies” b/w “As In A Blender” is out 1/26 on Merge.