Superdrag – Industry Giants – Citizen Dick Album Review

There were only five things that I listened to in my car in 1996: REM’s Document, the soundtrack to Repo Man, the first Violent Femmes album, Led Zeppelin II (all on cassette tape) and 107.9, WENZ, The End; if you were in the passenger seat, those were your options, unless you brought your own tapes.  The thing in there that identifies me as a Clevelander is The End.  In my formative music listening years (let’s say seventh grade through high school graduation, just to ballpark it), it was Cleveland’s only alternative radio station (other than the college radio that was way cooler than I was), providing a glimpse into the world outside of “China Grove.”  An afternoon drive with The End would bring you Smashing Pumpkins, Everclear, Nirvana and the like (all little audio revolutions for me, albeit on different scales).  While The End gave me all the new music I needed, it also informed my understanding of records I was too young to get when they came out; my cassette collection (Zeppelin excluded) was largely a product of The End’s stellar Flashback Brunch program.  In short, a large part of who I am as a music fan is a result of 107.9; it was a quiet tragedy when they switched over to urban music (it’s now Z 107.9, Cleveland’s place for blazin’ hip-hop and R&B, which is okay, but doesn’t give me The Smiths).  This is a long way to go to introduce a record review, but you almost certainly remember Superdrag fitting right in between the fresh Breeders single and “Train in Vain,” on whatever local alternative station you were listening to  in the 90s, right?  “Sucked Out” is one of the classic singles of the alternative boom, cramming a lot of the crucial ideas into two and a half minutes.  Good news: Superdrag is still pumping out music that’s going make you remember (and miss) 120 Minutes.

Superdrag spent a few years in the wilderness and Industry Giants is their first batch of new material since 2002’s Last Call for Vitriol. They’ve not lost their fastball over the break.  The album roars out of the gates with “Slow to Anger,” which features the slightly fuzzed, crunchy power chords, arena ready verse/chorus/verse structure and half-pissed/half-ennui laden lyrical content that typified much of the alternative rock of my youth.  It’s a formula Superdrag return to often on the album; they’re not blazing new territory, but I’m not complaining. (I’m the guy who’s already got tickets for Roger Clyne’s May gig at the Beachland, so I’m never going to step on alt-revivalism.)

While there’s certainly a lot of overlap with Superdrag’s back catalog (and that of their peers), there’s also a certain jaded edge to many of the tracks.  The cynicism here sounds like it’s been earned by years of toil, where the cynicism of a track like “Sucked Out” sounds like the product of too many days in prep school.  The difference between “you’re rocking to the next big thing” (from “Sucked Out”) and “we come from a nation that eats its young” (from Industry Giants’ “Five Minutes Ahead of the Chaos) seems pretty vast.  The Superdrag you remember was a rookie third baseman, breaking into the bigs with a heap of promise; the 21st century Superdrag is a grizzled veteran, not afraid to come in with the spikes high.

There are several songs that jump out on the album.  “Ready to Go” stands out as one of the sunshinier cuts, with a gleaming guitar line and a sing-along chorus that’s distinct from the growlier material on the record.  Of the songs that stomp a little harder, “Aspartame” distinguishes itself with a near reggae breakdown in the middle; it’s a cool touch that breaks up the record a bit, an astute left turn that keeps things interesting.  It’s also a song that shows a good bit of social consciousness (“I want peace and safety for the kids in Kandahar”), which is certainly commendable.  Overall, however, it’s the consistency of Superdrag’s music that’s appealing here; there aren’t any tracks that fail, which is a hard feat to pull off.  (What percentage of your record collection has at least one song you automatically skip?  70?  80?).

Superdrag is all over SXSW this week, charging back into the consciousness of the both the critical and receptive communities.  For sheer throwback credibility, it’s a welcome resurgence.  Superdrag have changed over time, but they’re still largely the band that you loved. If your car stereo sounded anything like mine in the last millennium, this is an album worth picking up.

“Filthy & Afraid” – Superdrag

Snag Superdrag at insound.