Thursday, March 30, 2006
Radio Refreshments #1.
Superdrag - Sucked Out (rapidshare linkneedwebspacesoonholycrap)
Puttin' you all on to something new in an effort to reach out for yet another weekly segment. Every Thursday, I will post a track I first heard from the radio, way back in the day of my depressingly memorable youth. Most of these tracks will be modern rock fodder. Then again, I wouldn't have downloaded them in the first place if they didn't offer some sort of catchy hook to make up for a dated sound.
And so for our introduction, we focus on Knoxville, Tennessee's Superdrag, an excellent power pop outfit who never really had a hit, but thanks to MTV they had a nice run with this song on the actually-relevent-at-one-point "Buzzworthy" playlist. They took that buzz and went on an extensive tour that seemed to do them some good, but how many ways can you unsuccessfully squeeze an orange? Marketing problems maybe? Duh. It was Elektra Records/Entertaiment or whatever for crissakes. THEY DON'T EVEN EXIST ANYMORE. They're an enigma of the music industry and I don't think I've seen their name on a CD in at least four years.
Enough of that tirade. I remember seeing the video for the first time and loving it. But as it happens to be the case, it was the second medium to which I had been exposed to Superdrag. I first heard "Sucked Out" sometime earlier that year on this ridiculously thin formatted station called WRRV based out of Middletown, NY (home to the guy who made this album; is it any surprise now?). It's not the same format anymore; it used to be all about alternative rock and boy did it get old after a few years. Try listening to a station celebrating bands who celebrate the 90's sound when its near end of the 20th century. You know the deal. I caught on quickly and that might be why I found myself getting into hip-hop a lot more than ever before.
Thank god for catchy numbers like "Sucked Out" to bring me back to middle school without making me think about middle school. Definitely taking a page from Weezer's handbook, sprinkling in a bit of Bad Religion (slower tempo though, I suppose, but harmony construction still in tact), and offering a good yang to their then counterpart Nada Surf's extreme ying.
[sidenote: The album believe it or not was recorded in my hometown too. Not bad for a connection, eh?]
Superdrag released another album after Regretfully Yours, called Head Trip in Every Key in 1998. When I can remember, I will most defintely post "Do The Vampire", the only song I think I might have heard from that album. I liked it enough, anyway.
Enjoy! Tomorrow we take it back for another edition of Throwback Friday. Until then...
Cheers,
~*E*~
