The Supersuckers - Devil's Food

I think that, back in the day, I wasn't a huge Supersuckers fan because I found them to be a little too jokey. Maybe I took myself a little too seriously? In any case, I thought that they rocked but were a bit silly. I've come to appreciate the silliness and now dig on their back catalog as well as the various work they have done since. This is a compilation of singles and "rare treats" that shows off the variety of sounds they have created over the years.

Opening with a very hard-rockin' Supersuckers' styled cut, "Gato Negro", they show that they could go head-to-head with Zeke, who was on the other side of this split single. "Shake It Off" is similarly rockin' with a plethora of dynamics and call'n'answer vocals. I always dug Outkast's "Hey Ya" and the Suckers actually do a legit version of it that retains the original grooviness combined with the the SS's heavy guitars. They cover Electric Frankenstein's "Teenage Shutdown" in a fairly subdued manner with acoustic guitars before giving a country version of their white trash "hit", "Doublewide". Back to electrified frantic-ness in "Team Man" and "Can Pipe" before delivering some bizarreness with the Chips' "Rubber Biscuit" (made famous by the Blues Brothers), done pretty true to the original. Another "country" version of another tune from Sacrilicious Sounds, "Born With as Tail" (one of their best) is followed by the heavy metal-ish title track, and then a fairly peculiar country take on the Commodores ballad "Sail On" that doesn't really improve this, frankly, crappy song (although the rave-up solo at the end helps).

Back to rock'n'roll with "Kid's Got It Coming", another return to Country for Jerry Reed's "East Bound and Down" (done quite straight-forward with some ace git-playin'), back to heaviness for "Then I'm Gone" and "Flyin' Into the Mid-Day Sun" and concluding with the kinda show-biz-y "End of an Era".

Cool comp and, like I say, it does give an indication of the different approaches they broached since their inception.