Digging For Gold: Supercharger

Supercharger - Self-titled (Radio X, 1991)

Brilliance. I first had the second Supercharger record because this one was too hard to find, rare and long gone by the time I knew about them. Then a bootleg version, lovingly subtitled The Fuck Greg Lowery Edition came out and I grabbed it. (Estrus reissued it right after the bootleg.) Anyway, I LOVED this band. Early '90s Bay Area simple punk rock'n'roll; think a more inept Angry Samoans with a little garage swing to it. Like I said, brilliance. I was bummed to have missed them in Seattle when I lived there but I did get to see two bands they spawned: the Rip Offs and The Brentwoods. I even got to play a gig with The Rip Offs and Spoiled Brats when I was in the Primate 5. Where at? The Purple Onion, of course! (Such a great music scene in SF back then, Spoiled Brats, Mummies, Trash Women.) This record has the infamous "Sooprize Package for Mr Mineo" — not sure who wrote it and played it first, these guys or the Mummies. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. Other bands I befriended did this one justice too; The Statics and Tie Reds. More gems include "The Ghost of Steve McQueen", "All About Judy", "She's So Cool", "Whiptofized"... the hits just keep coming and coming on this one!

Download: "Sooprize Package For Mr. Mineo"

Text by Tom Hyland