The Supersuckers had a string of great cow punk albums to their credit and had managed to keep their line up intact by 1999’s ‘The Evil Powers Of Rock ‘N’ Roll’. Their original drummer Dancing Eagle (Dan Seigle) lived in Austin and during this period I saw them about 8 or 9 times between ’95 and ’00 and they never disappointed. Bassist vocalist Eddie Spaghetti and co-lead guitarists Dan “Thunder” Bolton and Ron “Rontrose” Heathman, had the recipe for raucous rock n roll and spitfire live shows at their disposal. Album opener and title track, ‘The Evil Powers Of Rock ‘N’ Roll’ even fades out with a few seconds of Ozzy’s ‘Believer’ riff, and that my friend in my book, is cool. ‘Cool Manchu’ is a stab at accessibility with a hummable vocal and catchy riff, but we all know having dueling lead guitar all up in your face leads it in another direction. When was the last time the shit flavor of the month pop crap had killer leads on it? Exactly. ‘I Want The Drugs’ is exactly what real punk is, save the melodic punk for the Target commercials. Featuring call and response gang chorus of “I want the drugs” “drugs, drugs, I want the drugs!” This song, while hardly poetic, amps up the guitar and makes it count. Love this song, pure punk genius featuring scorching lead guitar and humor, which is essential for a song like this. ‘Santa Rita High’, a mid tempo rocker with the trademark twin Gibson Les Paul gold top leads and ‘Dead Meat’ the boxing themed punker make way for the ultimate slacker love song, ‘Stuff And Nonsense’, a very believable story of a twenty-something relationship break up is refreshing in that it isn’t sad, it just is, which you never realize until you’re older and wiser. ‘Dirt Roads, Dead Ends And Dust’ is distorted, revved up blues. ‘Fisticuffs’ is a tale of drunken brawling and being in a band, I know, the layman has no idea what the hell is going on, there’s music, a fight, someone is drunk, oh but it gets more complicated. I highly recommend this band and their catalog, but closing this album, billed as “13 new songs about liquor, women, drugs and killing”, is in my opinion, the first Supersuckers epic. ‘Hot Like The Sun’, which I witnessed them do live at the lovely Club Deville in Austin, TX in 1999, is a 2 part, punk/rock n roll odyssey that proves they were miles above many of the wannabes of the ’90’s. Recommended for fans of kickasserey.
– James Flores