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from RIP magazine, September 1994 (Fresh Blood)
[It's 1994 and grunge has taken over the airwaves and the pages of RIP magazine. So what do I do? I find the least Seattle-type band from Seattle and claim them as mine. My first interview with the Supersuckers was a bit raw, to be honest — when I met them outside of Hollywood's infamous, trashy club, Raji's (R.I.P.), I was bleary-eyed from being up most of the night before with this guy I had just begun seeing. I apologetically explained to the guys why my brain wasn't functioning 100% and got a decent story. A few months later, the Supersuckers came back to L.A. and I brought said guy to the gig. I introduced him to singer Eddie Spaghetti, saying, "This is the guy I was up all night with-" But before I could continue, Eddie stared at my date wide-eyed and said, "You're Brian 'Damage' Forsythe from Kix!" It turned out that he and the rest of the band were huge Kix fans. I do want to say that bringing Brian to the show did absolutely nothing to raise my esteem in the eyes of the Supersuckers. Instead, they pretty much ignored me in favor of Brian. So much for thinking I was too cool for words.]
"We're from Seattle. Get used to it."
Such is the brazen declaration of Supersucker guitarist Dan Bolton. Seattle-ites these guys may be, but they're no bunch of angst-ridden, navel-contemplating introverts. Perhaps it's because they're not really natives of the city of gray skies and Pendletons. All four band members — Bolton, singer/ bassist Eddie Spaghetti, guitarist Ron Heathman and drummer Dancing Eagle (a.k.a. Dan Siegal) — spent their formative years in Arizona's hot spot, Tucson. The experience obviously fried their brains. Check out their three Sub Pop albums and it's obvious.
Both The Smoke of Hell and the band's latest, La Mano Cornuda, are crazed studies in punk mayhem: Rhythms that shatter the speed limit, intense guitar-bashing and lyrics so stupid and obnoxious that you have to be blitzed out of your mind to appreciate their true beauty. Supersuckers sound like an accident waiting to happen. Don't fasten your seat belts for this one.
Who knows what would have happened if this quartet had stayed in Tucson? "We may not even be a band anymore," Eddie contends.
Pre-Supersucker fame, the guys were high school buddies.
"Eddie and I saw X at Disneyland," Ron relates.
"On our senior trip," Eddie adds. "We got X and the Blasters."
Bolton, who graduated a year later, wound up with Mr. Mister and Miami Sound Machine. In 1990, after forming the band, they headed northward and never looked back.
Seattle was a revelation. Eddie saw that "there were bands and small labels that were saying, 'Hey! Let's me and you get together, put out this record, send you guys on the road.' And we were like, 'Whoa! What an idea! You can just do that? Cool, let's do that!'"
Was Sub Pop — Seattle's highest-profile label — Supersuckers' preferred choice? Well... let Eddie explain.
"We played this show, opening up for the Dwarves, and I was ranking on Sub Pop all night long, saying how they suck because they weren't promoting the show and that the Dwarves are a great band and more people should be coming to see them and it's Sub Pop's fault. And then they came back stage and were like, 'You wanna be on Sub Pop?'"
"He (Eddie) was going, 'No! No!'" Dan laughs. "Then he went, 'Okay.'"
As a result of this astute career move, we can now enjoy tunes like "I Say Fuck" and "Sweet 'N' Sour Jesus" (off of The Smoke of Hell), and "Creepy Jackalope Eye" and "She's My Bitch" (from La Mano Cornuda). Oh yeah, what does La Mano Cornuda mean anyhow? It's Spanish for "the horned hand," proving that although Supersuckers' roots are embedded in punk's unbridled frenzy, they nevertheless have a warm, fuzzy place in their hearts for the ever-powerful heavy metal. Not to mention Satan. "He has all the cool artwork," Dan observes.
Listening to Supersuckers is the most fun you can have with just your ears. Who cares where they're from? "It doesn't matter," Eddie affirms. "It just matters how bad you suck."
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