Brother bring it on
My mother done brought me up wrong
And you can use my dick
As a walkin’ stick as well
Welcome brethren, here on this Sunday we find ourselves in the appropriately God-fearing, clean-living company of the Supersuckers and their 1995 platter The Sacrilicious Sounds Of The Supersuckers. I really enjoyed their previous LP La Mano Cornuda, which had some real spikes of sick brilliance on it and when I stumbled across The Sacrilicious Sounds … in HMV I pounced.
I remember using the, long, bus ride home to devour the cover and the LP credits. I love the Charles Peterson-shot LP cover with the devil and a rather scrumptious angel, I also loved the fact that there are tracks called ‘The 19th Most Powerful Woman In Rock’, ‘Ozzy’ and ‘Run Like A Motherfucker’. I had a lot of fun wondering what each track would sound like and how much swearing would be on the record. These days of course I’d just stream the LP directly into my cerebral cortex via a skyjack and watch the videos being projected directly onto my retina, whilst cruising along in my anti-grav speeder. Back then, I had to anticipate stuff.
When I got home in a lather of excitement I whacked The Sacrilicious Sounds … on the turntable, probably before even saying hello to my long-suffering wife, cranked it up and got roundly disappointed. Deflated. It was as though instead of seizing on the blasts of sleazy excellence from La Mano Cornuda as their template, the band modelled this album on the default grungy boogie that crept into their sound between their good stuff. I can remember how I felt and I’ve probably played this LP about 8 times before today. It’s not awful, just (mostly) pretty samey.
The Sacrilicious Sounds … isn’t all bad though, there are some proper standouts amongst the average. The first one of which is ‘The 19th Most Powerful Woman In Rock’ a spiteful dig at some record label lady, with the best tune on the album to match the bile – poppy and hard-hitting; Eddie Spaghetti really meant this one! ‘Marie’ which is about the death of their previous singer Eric Martin from an overdose is as close as the Supersuckers get to emotional, there’s a nice melancholy edge to this track and the refrain ‘he was a talented boy’. The track is addressed to Martin’s mother and contains the lines, ‘He let me and his mother down / She was the coolest, always let us hang around’. The up-tempo ode to Ozzy Osbourne that is, umm, ‘Ozzy’ is also pretty good, but we’re not talking brilliant here.
The Supersuckers throw in a couple changes of pace towards the end too, ‘My Victim’ steals the melody from ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ over some lyrics about killing – the sort of thing that a gang of smart-ass 16 year-olds think is neat, but it just misses a gear and stalls – unlike the revved-up ‘How To Maximise Your Kill Count’ the highlight of the previous LP. I do quite like ‘Don’t Go Blue’ which closes the album on a faux-country, time to close the bar folks vibe. It also features Bobbie Nelson, daughter of Willie, on keys and very tasteful Hammond organ.
I know they’ve done the occasional good bit since and this isn’t awful but this LP killed my enthusiasm for the Supersuckers, stone dead. The place in my affections reserved for semi-ironic redneck Neanderthal boogie merchants would soon be taken by Nashville Pussy, who did rock harder and far more consistently* . The Sacrilicious Sounds … sounds a bit rote, not terrible but just not zapped-up enough, which is the main thing this type of music needs.
Much as I love the word ‘sacrilicious’, coined by Homer Simpson I believe**, the music here doesn’t really merit it. The Sameilicious Sounds? The Transitionalicious Sounds? The Averageilicious Sounds? they’d all fit, sadly.
I’m waiting for my last drive
While the bugle of my backside
Blows a losing beat
Hope I don’t run out of gas
Bet my sacrilicious ass
Ain’t nothing down there that scares me
522 Down.
PS – Now here’s a conundrum for you, poking around today I found that mint vinyl copies of The Sacrilicious Sounds … has been selling for around $100 US. Now do I cash in on an LP I’m not that fussed on but who’s cover I really like? or do I keep it. Mrs 1537’s (entirely logical) take on it is ‘get rid’, but I’m genuinely undecided. Over to you …
*as well as having at least two well-stacked dames in the band at all times. Hubba, hubba!
**what do you mean ‘he’s not real’, he’s far more realistic than most people I meet!