Superdrag
Industry Giants
(Superdrag Sound Laboratories, 2009)

Lesson one: Never call it a comeback. When I gushed to a fellow critic about the new Superdrag album “transporting me back to 1994,” he riposted:

“You were, what, eight in 1994?”

Nine actually, but point taken, Jeff. False nostalgia is indeed a trap many critics do fall into and fool themselves with; anyone listened to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings or Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere in the last 12 months? Of course, this isn’t to say I don’t like a ton of 1994 bands. Four songs into the awesomely titled Industry Giants, I flashed on 12 Rods, My Bloody Valentine, Superchunk, Weston, Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, Fountains of Wayne, Jimmy Eat World, and two different classic groups with Bob Mould in them. But most of these groups were before my time, and I’d certainly better halt before I begin to get self-righteous about the current State of Music and whatnot. Yes, I wish more 2009 albums sounded like Copper Blue. No, I won’t dwell on it. Especially because I got my wish.

I should disclose: I’ve never heard Superdrag before, and not only that, I’ve probably mixed them up with Supergrass. Growing up in the ’90s with my ear glued to modern rock radio, I could compile a fearsome competitor to the Nuggets series from all the less-sought tidbits I know, from Cowboy Mouth’s boot-stomping “Jenny Says” to My Friend Steve’s surging “Charmed.” But somehow I missed Superdrag’s 1996 Buzz Bin special “Sucked Out”, which fell between the power-pop cracks of Weezer and Wax (I didn’t hear Fountains of Wayne’s “Radiation Vibe” until, like, 2003 either).

Playing catch-up now, “Sucked Out” is a charmer, indeed, with vacuum-sealed hooks despite its casual cynicism, singer John Davis shredding his vocals on the hook and that hallmark of power-pop: A guitar solo you can hum. Skipping ahead to 2002’s Last Call for Vitriol, long after the band had followed label mates Nada Surf into one-hit-wonder purgatory and cut free from the under-funding majors, they were building stronger, more forceful killers, especially the back-to-back punch of “I Can’t Wait” and “The Staggering Genius.” Davis’ oft-reported conversion from alcoholism to Christianity occurred around here, and his renewed confidence supposedly inspired the more assured configuration of Superdrag.

But backstory nothing, Industry Giants is juicier than anything the band has done by leaps. In spite of this, there aren’t a lot of memorable hooks here; nothing will stick out like “Sucked Out.” But it will amaze. Think of the Wrens’ Meadowlands, where shifting sounds and cool noises and all sorts of zooming distractions keep turning the record on its side. “Aspartame” and New Day Rising-ish opener “Slow to Anger” pound and bleed into the more melodic stuff like “I Only Want a Place I Can Stay” and “Cheap Poltergeists”, while “You’re Alive” and the Metal Circus-ish “5 Minutes Ahead of the Chaos” make their meat from old-fashioned guitar pyrotechnics. Occasionally, they indulge in the dreamiest shoegaze sludge. But when you steal the string hook from U2’s “So Cruel” as “Try” does so deftly, there is no sludge finer. As I overstated earlier, the thing’s bursting with signifiers; “Only Want a Place” is Marshall Crenshaw with a Dismemberment Plan-style yeah-yeah coda. Splitting up songwriting and lead vocals, Davis’ efforts have made his all-but-forgotten unit an egoless, well-oiled monster truck burning out some of the least fashionable music you’re likely to hear this decade. And not a moment too late to make new fans.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]