Supersuckers
by Sarah Klosterbuer
May 2002
Supersuckers on the cover of Maximum Ink in May 2002
There are two types of country music. There’s the whiney, poppy, overproduced dribble, and then there’s the kind produced by the Supersuckers - the good kind.
To say the least, the Supersuckers are a bit bipolar when it comes to musical styles. They’ve opened for White Zombie and Motorhead and also backed country legend Willie Nelson. Producing primarily rock albums, the band also delivered a country disc in 1997, providing the material for their latest live release, “Must’ve Been Live.”
The decision to make their first live album country as opposed to rock was far from calculated. “It’s all part of our legacy of confusion,” jokes lead singer Eddie Spaghetti. The band had the recordings in their possession and was a bit indecisive as to what to do with them. “We were planning on bootlegging them, selling them on the internet and maybe selling a thousand copies. But all the people who started listening to it were like ‘You should really release this!’ so it ended up being the first release off our record label.”
Creating your own record label is always risky, but things have paid off for the Supersuckers. Mid-Fi Records, the band’s label, has actually proven more successful at getting their music out than their previous, relatively bigger labels while allowing the band more freedom.
Spaghetti is quick to relay that his heart lies in rock, but he doesn’t do a thing to fight the country vibe running through the band. They’re surprisingly good at both genres, with an underlying desire to just play music and forget about everything else staying constantly apparent. “I think bands who practice too much suck,” remarks Spaghetti. It’s an interesting philosophy to say the least, but for the Supersuckers, this kind of carefree, heart-filled style manages to work, and is essentially what allows them to switch gears on the fly and span two very different musical fields.
The Supersuckers are performing their country set at Luther’s Blues on the 8th of May, and have vivid memories of Madison. “Madison’s a fun town. We got arrested there,” recalls Spaghetti. Nothing too terribly serious, mind you. A little out of season Independence Day celebration started a few small fires. Who hasn’t been there? Spaghetti speculates, but makes no promises, that the band will stay out of trouble this time. Only time will tell.
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Supersuckers
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