Superheater - Something Sticky

Label: self released
Year: 2014

This one sounds like a throwback to a previous throwback to the fuzzy guitar rock of the early to mid 1990s, of which I'm a fan. And by throwback to a throwback, I mean, remember back to the turn of the century...this current century...when there was a "resurgence of rock" or something? There were bands like The Datsuns, The Vines, The Hellacopters, The Von Bondies, The Hives...basically any band with a "The" definitive article in front of their name who were taking elements of pure rock and roll and dragging that through the muddy fuzz of the Grunge Era bands (who were a throwback in and of themselves, but I mean, all music is sort of a throwback really, so...) and basically celebrating (to varying degrees of success) the essence of guitar based music. Nothing wrong with that, right?
Well, now, ten years removed from that guitar rock resurgence comes another generation of that same effort to mine the fertile vein of loud, raucous, catchy, rock music. Four friends, a bass guitar, a drum set, a microphone, a guitar, and a distortion pedal. Done and done. Superheater have the 90s elements, the 00's elements, and then add in a few Brit-pop sort of touches, a few Nirvana-isms, a few proto-metal caveman riffs, and a general "alt-rock" sheen, which I'm ok with. I like it. I like that they can offer up a few different influences and still come out the other side with something catchy and something that harkens back to touchstones that were important to me (the royal "me" of course..."me" is "you", it's always "you").

DL