Dumbass Deluxe

It's not every day that you go to a show with the exclusive and single-minded intent to do nothing at all but kick out the jams, muthafucka, but when you do -- when the moon is riding high and frothy curls of adrenaline are crashing through your veins and dammit, you just feel like hurling something, anything, against a wall for the sheer joy of watching it smash -- the last thing you need for a soundtrack is some bunch of schmucks with an issue and a ballad that'll tell you all about it. You need serious dumbass rockers playing serious dumbass rock.

Check out Seattle's Supersuckers, a band that probably got dissed as geek party rock when they were still toiling away before the great unwashed of hometown Tucson, Arizona. But slap some oversized cowboy hats on the boys and move them to the upper left coast in time to catch the ass end of the grunge hype, and suddenly they're not only not geeky, but the perfect antidote to all that leans to pompous in Seattle's sludge-metal revival. Drums, bass, two guitars and voice. No vocal histrionics, no snazzy production techniques, no virtuosic solos, no meaningful lyrics -- and no place to hide.

The Smoke of Hell (1992) kicked off the Supersuckers' stint with Sub Pop, and the new La Mano Cornuda stretches the shit-kicking legacy to two full-length disks. But as far as I'm concerned, Supersuckers will stand the punk-rock test of time even if all that survives is their seven-inch cover of Ice Cube's "Dead Homiez." (Helpful hint regarding La Mano Cornuda: the last track, number 14, is a 25-minute one-track repeat of the entire album. If you see it on a jukebox, buy yourself a bargain).

The buzz is that Supersuckers are the no-frills rock-and-roll faves of what's left of the Seattle scene, and just in case anyone doubts it, La Mano Cornuda samples an answering machine tape of grunge superproducer Jack Endino groveling at the feet of vocalist Eddie Spaghetti for free tickets: "I wanna get into that show with you and Mudhoney... 'course I really wanna see you guys."

I know just how he feels.

-- Brad Tyer

Supersuckers play Thursday, March 17 at the Shimmy Shack, 4216 Washington Ave., 863-7383. $7 for minors, $5 for adults. Uncle Joe's Big Old Driver opens. Doors open at 9 p.m.

Also Recommended:
* Scorpions/King's X at the Summit, Friday, March 18
* Laughing Hyenas/Crain/Don Caballero at Goat's Head Soup, Friday, March 18
* Paladins at the Satellite Lounge, Saturday, March 19
* Slim Dunlap at Fitzgerald's, Saturday,
March 19
* Cadillac Tramps at the Abyss, Saturday, March 19
* Ramones/Frank Black at Bayou City Theatre, Monday, March 21
* UB40/US3 at the Music Hall, Tuesday, March 22
* Johnny Winter at Bayou City Theatre, Wednesday, March 23