Surpercrush is the newish Vancouver, British Columbia-based band from Mark Palm, a dude most known for playing in a long ancestry of punk/HC and metal bands and as being the primary songwriter for San Francisco, CA’s bliss-pop snorefest Modern Charms.
Hey Mark, Bob Mould called and he wants his Sugar back. No, seriously, this is alright. I mean I fucking love Sugar and this sounds like Sugar—at least the guitar—so it’s OK. In fact, just recently I was having a debate of sorts with a handful of friends where a couple of us were of the belief that it’s just fine to think Sugar is better than Hüsker Dü. Especially if you came of age in the ‘90s, and were too young to experience Hüsker Dü properly. I’m not 100% ready to make a decision as to which I think is a better band myself, but I can’t fault any Gen X-er for picking Sugar. Anyway, that’s all beside the point. The point is the guitars on here sound really Sugar-y.
I recommend getting this two-song single and ripping them to MP3s for your smart phone so that you can crank it all the way into the red in your SUV/mini-van/hybrid the next time you’re waiting in the drive-thru at a large coffee chain for your overpriced non-fat vanilla latte and iced lemon pound cake, while your child screams at you from the back seat. Because, well, that’s what 40 year old dudes do, right? That and wear those soft fleece zip-up hoodies while satisfying their mid-life vinyl addiction crisis in some record store in Austin/Portland/Seattle/Minneapolis, where the guy behind the counter is also a 40 year old dude who’s also wearing one of those soft fleece zip-up hoodies, and the two of them are talking about Lightnin’ Hopkins or the Happy Mondays or tube amps or where to get soft fleece zip-up hoodies or some shit.
Anyway, the vocals are less Sugar-y but still rooted firmly in ‘90s alt nostalgia. There’s a heavy Posies Frosting on the Beater vibe, or anything Teenage Fanclub ever did. (Excluding the song with De La Soul from the Judgment Night soundtrack of course.) It might seem like I’m ripping on this, but I’m not. I actually like it quite a bit. Especially because it’s different than most the punk and hardcore I normally review, and that it reminds me of being really high and watching 120 Minutes on Sunday nights and then not going to school the next day. Not everything from the 'alternative' ‘90s was terrible; we just like to pretend it was. And this reminds me of some of the better stuff from that time period.
Also, a special shoutout to Grave Mistake records for taking the time to send actual physical product to reviewers instead of lame MP3s. (Even though MP3s will work better on your smart phone in the coffee shop drive-thru.) Alright, that’s enough. Just go get this, OK?
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