Supersuckers

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....................... ...........2003

Official Music Publication on The Web Representing The Bay Area

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Supersuckers Rocking the USA!

..... It’s safe to say the Supersuckers have met the most important standard (and survival tool) set by their hard-rock forebears AC/DC and Motörhead: consistency. Sure, AC/DC only ever wrote one song, but it’s a fucking great song. And it’s now the same sort of tradition with the Supersuckers. Air-guitar worthy, wah-drenched lead axe work? Check. "Goddamn, I love drinking!" songs? Check. Love songs that don’t make you feel like a pansy? Check. Songs with "rock" in the title? Check: two. Fans of the band should be aware of their twin personas by now: punk-inflected rock (reveling in all the best hard-rock clichés) and drunk, authentic, Waylon-and-Willie-flavored country. Motherfuckers Be Trippin’ falls completely within the first camp, although some of the country stylings of ’70s Southern rock dinosaurs bleed through now and again. And while the band may have learned their rock lessons well, the past 25 years of hard music, specifically punk, haven’t escaped them either.

Interview with Eddie Spaghetti

I Q: Yeah. I was really impressed with your songs. I don't understand what they meant by country twang. It sounds like you're just pretty straight up rock and roll.
A: Well we do straight up rock and roll music, but we have also put out a couple of country records. Sort of like something that most bands would probably call their band something else because I mean it sounds totally different. But we do we have both sides, so the writing and the reviews start getting a little bit confusing, because we're a little bit confusing.
Q: So does that go back to your Tucson roots - the country side.
A: I think so. I mean it must. We never really thought about it too much when we were living in Tucson, but when we moved away, we just always kind of kept the acoustic guitars around, writing these sort of country-esq kind of songs and the day finally came when we had enough laying around that we made a record.
Q: Have you done any of the Van Warps tours?
A: Those Warped tours? No we haven't. We were going to do one at one point, but we were at the tail-end of a really long tour and we tried to kind of pull it off. We should have done it though. Those things are really good for bands to do and you can play to a lot of kids, but we had only like seven days from the tour stuff, so we didn't feel it was like that big of a deal.
Q: You must be doing pretty good though. You've got two dates back to back in San Francisco coming up on the 28th and 29th.
A: Yeah. It's cool to get to do that. San Francisco is one of our better towns and Slims and is a great venue. It's really nice to get together and do two nights in the same place, because it's like a little vacation that next day. No load-in, none of that standard drive somewhere and set up your gear.
Q: There's a lot to do there. You can go to Hamburger Mary's around the corner. Awesome hamburgers dude.
A: We're going to Alcatraz this time coming up. We're having an E-Bay auction for someone to come - we're flying them out and putting them in a hotel room and taking them with us to Alcatraz that next day.
Q: You've been around for about 10 years?
A: Yeah. We've been doing this actually since 1988. A long time.
Q: Have you only had one member change in your band.
A: Well, we had a member change from one record and then he's back. So, we have the exact same members that we started with. Ron's been back for quite a while now.
Q: You're Seattle based?
A: We've been in Seattle since '89.
Q: That's a nice base there.
A: Yeah. It's a killer town.
Q: It's similar to San Francisco.
A: Yeah, it's kind of a like a smaller version of San Francisco.
Q: Since you have quite a few albums now, do you take just a little bit from each album when you play?
A: Yeah. We have to. I mean we can't play all the songs obviously. But the sets have gotten a lot longer. That can be a blessing and a curse. Sometimes they're too long and sometimes they're not long enough. But we try to play a little bit from every record and try to make people hear the songs they want to hear as much as we can. Q: I think every band must have that probably after they've been around for a while.
A: Yeah. Definitely.
Q: The album "Smoke of Hell," it was saying was your first real record. What was that pertaining too?
A: Well we had a record come out that was sort of a compilation of singles slightly before that record. It seems kind of like a regular record, but it doesn't really feel like one. The first time we ever went into the studio to record a full record, it was Smoke the Hell. The first one was called Songs All Sound the Same and it's just a compilation of demos and singles and stuff.
Q: When you make these albums, do you have a problem sometimes with the lyrics being what they might consider "R" rated nowadays?
A: Well I think about it, you know. I just kind of write the lyrics to entertain ourselves first and keep each other laughing or thinking or whatever it is you want your lyrics to do and then we do look back and we go "Aw shit, look at these lyrics man. These are naughty."
Q: I think most people who buy your albums are adults anyway.
A: Yeah. But that's too bad because I do think the kind of rock and roll music we make is for everybody. We're not trying to be elitist or artsy in any way. We're trying to make rock and roll for the people who like to rock. Kids like to rock. We definitely don't want to exclude the kids, but by the same token, I've got to write the lyrics that are in me.
Q: You're right, but some of the big store chains have been capping on people who write something they don't like and then they would ban them.
A: Yeah and it didn't help matters with the record title like Motherfuckers Be Trippin'.
Q: Well at least they put it on the internet without bleeping it out.
A: It's nothing that a well placed sticker doesn't take care of usually. Q: Have you always had this great sense of humor, or was this just a gradual thing.
A: Well you know, I think I've always kind of been this way. Comedy is my second calling.
Q: You've must have some great parents. I can see you sitting at the table just making jokes all day.
A: Yeah. We crack each other up. I mean that's how you get through the day. That's how you do this job over and over again.
Q: Are you on tour now or are you just getting ready?
A: Yeah. We're on tour right now. We're driving somewhere in Colorado. We just got in the van and we're heading towards … well a busy day. A lot of interviews, we've got a radio station we're going to right now, and we've got this thing on this band's record in the afternoon. Busy day.
Q: I know what you mean. DJ's are a trip. They're a lot more energetic than us guys who write things.
A: Yeah. I don't know how they do it.
Q: So what's your favorite band of all times? A: Boy that's a tough one. I mean I guess I'd have to say ___, but it changes from day to day. Today it's Beak. Tomorrow it'll be Zen Guerilla. And the next day it'll back to AC/DC again. Q: How's the tour going so far?
A: Good, really good. We had a good show last night and a good show in Salt Lake City the night before. And we're heading into Denver tonight to kick their ass.
Q: Did you find you have followings in any particular place than the other?
A: Well San Francisco's a really good one. Texas is really good. Spain is really great. Scandinavia, just all over, Seattle, LA. There's little pockets of Supersucker mania to be found out there.
Q: You've been all over the world so far?
A: Oh yeah.
Q: I guess after 10 years you have done the whole thing.
A: You've got to go everywhere.
Q: A lot of new bands, I'll ask that question and they'll tell say wow, I've been here and there. Sometimes they'll say wow I was in Germany and I didn't see it.
A: Yeah. That happens a lot.
Q: You fly in fly out. A: Well you live at night and sleep whenever you can, so you miss a lot.
Q: So do you listen to other types of music sometimes.
A: Oh yeah totally. I listen to like a little percentage of everything pretty much.
Q: Have you done new videos?
A: Actually just finished another one that should be done like this week for rock and roll records from a song off of the new record and it's going to be It's a Motherfucker. It's got this guy - this bad ass visual effects dude and he's just like ___. And it's free and ___ and it's really nice.
Q: If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?
A: Anything at all? Nothing. My great goal is to do absolutely nothing. Q: And you're so energetic and you're touring like crazy and that's probably why.
A: Yeah, it's the yin and the yang.

By Randy Cohen

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