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| The Evil Powers of Rock 'N' Roll Aces & Eights/Koch Records KOC- 20801 by William Michael Smith |
| Her first comment when I slammed the cd in Living Room Monster and turned the sound up to 12 was "WHAT IS THAT NOISE? TAKE IT OFF NOW." This was not an offer of casual afternoon sex. So "The Evil Powers of Rock 'N' Roll" is now relegated to my pickup. What's the world coming to when a man's got to go to his truck when he wants to RAWWWWWK!!!? Actually, that's what this cd is all about - fighting back against and poking fun at what the rock and roll world has become. Supersuckers aren't pretending to save the planet. They aren't angst-ridden, my-life-sucks-and-it's-my-parents'-fault wuss rockers. They aren't raging against any machine. Politics? Couldn't give a flyin' flip. Supersuckers have a simple philosophy: shut up and play. And make it fun. Political correctness? Yeah, right. "Evil Powers" marks the 'Suckers return to the punkish high energy rock that was their trademark until they produced the critically acclaimed "Must've Been High" on the ultra-cool independent label Sub Pop in 1997. Putting out a country record seems to have thrown both their fans and their record label for a loop. Fans wanted to know had the 'Suckers gone country. There were rumors that the band was moving to Austin from Seattle. The confusion was helped along when they began to get requests to record with the likes of Steve Earle. They backed up Earle on 'Going to New York City' on Earle's "El Corazon" and contributed a hellbent version of the Willie Nelson classic 'Bloody Mary Morning' to the Justice Records "Twisted Willie" compilation. To make matters more confusing, they parted ways with Sub Pop and signed with major label Interscope, then spent two years in limbo waiting on Interscope to issue their record. Eventually the band got out of their contract with Interscope and, as Interscope would not give them the record they had recorded (which lead singer/bassist/songwriter Eddie Spaghetti described as "somewhat sterile"), they went back to the studio without a label deal and re-recorded much of the Interscope material plus a few additional tunes with noted punk/metal producer Kurt Bloch. The result is a great piece of fun loving power rock that you won't want your children to own. While the idea of a concept album may seem almost inimical to what the Supersuckers do (and I'm not saying this is the next "Sgt. Pepper's"), "Evil Powers"' is in many senses a concept album. The title cut is not only the first song, it is essentially an outline to the record, the equivalent of a thesis paragraph in a term paper. All the songs that follow are about the rock life and lifestyle, sex, drugs, drinking, touring, fighting, being young and crazy and irresponsible, hating high school and authority - in other words, the same stuff Elvis was signaling when he shook his pelvis and that Marlon Brando and James Dean were doing with their acting. Looking beneath the surface, it is obvious that most of the mayhem and aberrant behavior is just for show, false bravado, a James Dean tough guy pose, and that what this really is is tongue-in-cheek outrageousness ("Oh, you don't like my hair bleached, Mom? Well, how about blue?"). The 'Suckers are taunting the serious, straight world, knowing most adults will take these lyrics literally (uhsorta like my wife did), but that the kids who listen to this stuff will know that it's not meant to be taken seriously, that it's just another example of "outrageous" youth - and, more importantly, that it's just for fun, something to bang your head to. And a head banging, fun album it is. 'Cool Manchu' is a cheeky anti-anthem of political correctness, another statement for rebellious youth. "Now I consulted all my friends and colleagues and they all agree that it's a drag, now don't you be insurgent, deny your primal urges, and keep your liquor in a bag." And then they write off the politically correct with "I got my inclinations, I bet that you do to. You call it ruination, I call it Cool Manchu." Perhaps the funniest song on the record is 'I Want the Drugs,' a punk scorcher that could be on any Ramones record. This one is guaranteed to have Tipper Gore singing "I Wanna Be Sedated' and scrounging the pantry for a bottle of Chardonnay before the first chorus comes around. "If some is good, then more is great The 'Suckers all grew up together in Tuscon, Arizona, and they lay out the truth about their high school days in 'Santa Rita High' (don't fail to pick up on the double entendre). I taught at a big city high school for five years, and let me tell you, I recognized a lot of the scenes and attitudes in 'Santa Rita High.' Ah, misspent youth. Guitarist Ron Heathman, who has an absolutely encyclopedic knowledge of '70s power, punk, metal and thrash rock licks (and who, ironically, says Willie Nelson is the picker he tries to learn from), blasts out a 'Smoke on the Water' opening lick on 'Deadmeat,' a choppy, speed-of-light ditty about the mentality of and the public's fascination with professional wrestling. "Deadmeat beatin' on you with his big, bare knuckles, gonna drop your body off the top turnbuckle, Deadmeat gonna put you in a pile drive 'cause he ain't afraid to disqualify." A future WWF theme song? Like John Henry working on the railroad, drummer Danny "Dancing Eagle" Siegel proves he can whup-ass on any drum machine as he lays in the beat for these sonic blasts. Siegel and rhythm guitarist Dan "Thunder" Bolton drive another Ramones-ish punk rocket, 'Stuff and Nonsense', a rock 'n' roll last talk breakup song. You never thought you'd get mixed up with a rock'n'roller Given a different arrangement, 'Dirt Roads, Dead Ends and Dust' could easily have been included on their country record, but on 'Evil Powers,' the 'Suckers give this reflective, well written song a '70s power rock treatment that really works. This song may have their most powerful hook, "I keep taking dirt roads that turn in to dead ends and dust, guess I'll drive this old pickup truck 'til it rusts." Charlie Robison could make a million seller out of this song. The 'Suckers don't stay on the reflective tangent for long, diving right back into the mosh pit with 'Fisticuffs,' which, as Siegel says in a sound clip between songs, is a song about "getting my ass kicked in Cincinnati by a progressive-alternative band that didn't appreciate me jumping into the drum set." Love those biographical details from The Road. This cut has a vintage '70's 'wah-wah' rhythm track. The power groove the 'Suckers get on 'Gone Gamblin' is proof that they aren't just talking through their hats when they say "we are the greatest rock and roll band on the planet." Another '70s style power rocker with some very hip lyrics about the whole gambling ethos and ethic, Heathman, Siegel, Bolton and Spaghetti literally fuse into a single unit as they drive this one home. There is just a wall of rhythm on this track. Forget turning the knobs to 11 on this one, the 'Suckers just twisted the knobs until they broke and threw them away. On one of the rockingest numbers on the cd, the Alice Cooper-like 'My Kickass Life' Spaghetti gets reflective about the rock'n'roll lifestyle again (remember our theme paragraph?), but in a tongue-in-cheek, self deprecating sort of way. Got a show tonight it's gonna pay my rent and what I got left over's all been spent You think this is typical rock'n'roll star self indulgence until, in the final stanza, Spaghetti sings "I can see through the smoke and lights that it's all bullshit, but I do it night after night." In other words, my 'Kickass Life' isn't all you think it's cracked up to be, and I'm not really fooling myself that this is all that important in the Big Picture. The 'Suckers started out in Tuscon (the story goes that their goal was to get out of Tuscon, and that one day they held a coin flip - heads we got to Seattle, tails we go to New Orleans - and it came up heads) and in 'Goin' Back to Tuscon' they get down in words their feelings about the old home town. "Goin' back to Tuscon, goin' back where things went wrong, gonna find out why my friends are haunted by the things they've done." But in the end, they really don't discover what they thought they might find and are left with "I'm getting' outta Tuscon takin' everything that ain't nailed down, gonna wave goodbye to the unfortunate who stick around." Having somehow escaped from a town much like Tuscon myself, I had no problem getting the point of 'Goin' Back to Tuscon' -- been there, done that. My favorite cut on the album is the Merle-Haggard-meets-The-Ramones rendition of Merle's classic "I Can't Hold Myself in Line.' Given the subject matter and composition of this song ("I'm going off of the deep end, slowly losing my mind, I disagree with the way that I'm living, but I can't hold myself in line"), it is little wonder that it has been covered by more rock bands than any other Haggard number. The 'Suckers play this one like they are on the Bonneville Salt Flats hunting a world land speed record. Elapsed time? One minute thirty-seven seconds. The treatment reminds me of the country covers by Mike Ness and Social Distortion. The final track, 'Hot Like the Sun', is the most interesting track in an artistic sense. A song in two movements, the first movement is 70's hard rock reminiscent of AC/DC and other heavy metal giants. But the second movement, which instrumentally my son says sounds like Megadeth (I had to ask him, because I wouldn't know Megadeth from Pantera), has the best vocal track on the album. The three-part chorus sounds like Steve Miller in his 60's psychedelia mode. Heathman delivers a Clapton-like solo on that goldtop Les Paul while the backing vocals repeat. Shame on the rock stations who aren't playing this cut. It makes Creed and Live and bands of that ilk look like weak sisters. OK, I hear my wife's car in the driveway, so I've got to hurry and wrap this up. Like I said, this is the record you don't want your kids to have. So why not make it work for you? Buy 'The Evil Powers of Rock 'N' Roll.' Play it often and play it loud. Bob your head violently in best headbanger style. Close your eyes and jump up and down in front of the stereo like you are in your own private mosh pit. Your kids'll think you're a freak, that you're really weirder than they thought, that you've lost it. 'Cause if you like the cd, they won't, right? That's the way it's working at my house. Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net |
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