I remember when we used to sit in our bedrooms and play records. It was the 70s, and listening involved sitting in front of the stereo and flipping the record when a side was over, as well as thumbing through your collection and deciding on what to listen to next. It was back when bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, Hendrix, Deep Purple, and King Crimson took us on epic musical journeys, and when an appreciation of their craft required interaction. This is exactly where Superunloader takes me -- a place where the emphasis is on jam and lyric, not on danceabilty or catchy-ness. It takes some getting used to, but the fruits of their labor makes it well worth your effort.

Don't be mislead, however. Superunloader is not a band simply refreshing old sounds -- rather they freely pull from their influences and add their own seasoning. This album showcases jazz and big band sounds on "Speechless," blues on "Bottom Feeder," grunge (whether they admit it or not), and even bluegrass on "Pockets." A wind complement furthers their bid for growth, including the adept puffing of Andy Geib, as well as some fluting by drummer Farran in the Kansas/Yes/Jethro Tull inspired "Mac's Tune."

The band is snugly wound and gets an A for both effort and difficulty of task, since they employ constant key and tempo changes with that hit-and-run timing that made bands like King Crimson and Rush so intriguing. These is an excellent release and I look forward to hearing these songs live.

Superunloader Goes #2
By Will Shilling

SUPERUNLOADER's well-deserved award for the 1995 SDMA's "Best Rock Album" was a surprise. While peers pounded out three-minute Angster-rock, local guitar phenom Jimmy Lewis was weaving Bloomfield-cool mutations around drummer Chad Farran's and bassist Chris McGreal's liquid polyrhythms, sculpting ad-libbed interplay into six-minute, shape-shifting jams. Their self-titled debut's jazz based aesthetic was so un-Alternative, so un-punk, so... un-Marketable. Amidst all the postpunk conformity, Superunloader's sonic collages put an ironic twist on the term "Alternative."

In the mid-eighties, bands like Faith No More, Soundgarden, and Metallica took Rush/Sabbath metal, stripped it down, and created their own "progressive" style of hard rock, one that Superunloader's early songs echo at times. Unfortunately, "Progressive" became the style used to describe them. Don't be fooled. Superunloader's mid-nineties interpretation of blues-driven, speed-metal, thrash-jazz makes Rush sound like the Ramones. Their sound aspires to that rarified strata of artists who are a genre unto themselves. Call it "Thrazz," for short.

Enter the second do-it-yourself disc, Superunloader Goes #2 (Superunloader Records), which boasts a full horn section anchored by Andy Geib. A dynamic, disparate range of influences informs Number Two -- from Bird's bebop phrasing to Dick Dale's churning, overhead riffs, from homegrowm bluegrass stomp to Frank Zappa art-rock. The risk of reaching beyond their grasp looms constantly over this ambitious power trio, and their cathartic live performances showcase the best and worst in this ballsy approach. The studio, however, threatens to smother the band's delicate synergy with the weight of overproduction.

"No Particular Motive" is a full throttle sprint undercut by funky ska breakdowns, one of the band's vaguely discernible blueprints. The amazing Miles-meets-Coltrane-state of "Jumping Off" is, indeed, just that: it's roaming jazz melodies assert themselves, changing the tone of the entire album -- dropping the fragmented plasticity for a more focused, organic sound. What follows is a seamless body of well-crafted songs, dramatic mood shifts, and subtle storylines revealing Jimmy Lewis' rapid growth as a writer. "Speechless," with it's opening lament, "Some bitch just stole my ride...," is Jimmy Lewis at his low-down lonely best, vulgar and vulnerable in the same breath.

Bassist Chris McGreal is deceptively buried beneath lush layering on most songs, but his laid-back style forms a tight pocket essential to "umping" and "Don't Be Denied." Highlights also include Farran's "Pockets,' 'Bottom Feeder,' and Eric Garcia's raw harp on the mosh-pit hoe-down of "3000 Degrees to the Wood." The closing tune, "Number Five," illuminates Superunloader's penchant for conceptual bookends, a la Smashing Pumpkins and the Doors.

Sans an unfortunate false start, Goes Number Two is an almost flawless chunk of genre-blending rock, as brilliant and innovative as any DIY release has a right to be.