Some Small Things You Can't Defend is an album of demo songs by the band Portastatic

Portastatic

Portastatic is an American indie rock band founded in the early 1990s by Mac McCaughan. Portastatic began as a solo project for McCaughan, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Superchunk...

. It was released on The Portastatic Label in 2006.

The album includes four songs that did not make the album. Two of them (cover songs) were later released on the compilation album, Some Small History

Some Small History

Some Small History is a collection of "rarities, collecting B-sides, compilation tracks, EPs, fanzine vinyl, and previously unreleased material recorded between 1990 and 2007" from the band Portastatic. It was released on Merge Records On September 9, 2008...

. These songs are noted below with an asterisk (*). Two other songs are only available on this release. These songs are noted below with two asterisks (**).

All tracks were recorded at home, or Room 8 by Mac McCaughan

Mac McCaughan

Mac McCaughan is a founding member of the rock band Superchunk, and co-founder of Merge Records along with Laura Ballance. He also heads the band Portastatic, which began as a lo-fi side project and has blossomed into his main musical project...

 except for "...Boy From School" recorded at Pox Studios.

This CD was originally given away for free with pre-orders of the Portastatic

Portastatic

Portastatic is an American indie rock band founded in the early 1990s by Mac McCaughan. Portastatic began as a solo project for McCaughan, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Superchunk...

 album Be Still Please

Be Still Please

Be Still Please is Portastatic's sixth studio album. It was released on Merge Records On October 10, 2006. The album was recorded at Pox Studios with Zeno Gill, with additional recording at Room 8 in Carrboro, North Carolina...

.

Track listing

1. "Sweetness and Light"
2. "Sour Shores"
3. "And I Was A Boy From School"(Hot Chip
   Hot Chip
   Hot Chip are an English electronic indie band. They have released four studio albums—Coming on Strong, The Warning, Made in the Dark and One Life Stand.-Formation:...
   
   )*
4. "Getting Saved"
5. "You Blanks"
6. "Black Buttons"
7. "Hang Down Your Head" (Tom Waits
   Tom Waits
   Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
   
    & Kathleen Brennan
   Kathleen Brennan
   Kathleen Brennan is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and artist. She was born in Johnsburg, Illinois, as noted by her husband and musical collaborator Tom Waits, in the song of the same name. Brennan and Waits met in 1980 during the filming of the Francis Ford Coppola film One from...
   
   )*
8. "Don't Make Me Useless"**
9. "I'm In Love (with Arthur Dove)"
10. "Cheers and Applause"
11. "The Only Other Chord"**