Supersuckers preview

Supersuckers
Brauerhouse, Hillside
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008

Supersuckers will never lack for identity. Even when they made a “country” album, their whiskey-drenched, biker-punk rock had a habit of baring its teeth. And though for a while it seemed they wrote songs simply to go with new song titles, their intensity never wavered.

Raised from dusty Tucson, their existence on the Sub Pop roster served solely to distance the label from grunge. For the most part it worked, ’cause, even though they weren’t very good and were kind of a one-trick pony, Supersuckers didn’t hint a deeper meanings or try to disguise mook-rock machismo as art. If Sub Pop was going to market itself with “Loser” T-shirts, Supersuckers would proclaim themselves the “greatest rock and roll band in the world.”

Currently working on their first album since 2003’s Motherfuckers Be Trippin (Mid-Fi), they actually seem to have been caught thinking too much. Frontman Eddie Spaghetti says in a press release, “I pretty much thought we were done making full-length records. But the somewhat anemic response to our Paid EP sort of got me to rethink the whole EP concept.” No concepts, just songs. Fucking loud songs.

(Spaghetti remains the speaker of my all-time favorite song intro, probably from a 1999 gig in Champaign: “This is a song about God. It’s called “Goddammit.” )

Jordan Shapiro opens.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly