Expiration dates are for suckers, not Supersuckers

The Supersuckers have drifted back into country mode on their new album, Holdin’ the Bag. It’s the first time the band has released a country collection since 1997’s Must’ve Been High.

“We were on tour for Get the Hell and just kind of rocking ourselves into oblivion,” Supersuckers mastermind Eddie Spaghetti explained. “Backstage, we were making up songs that were kind of more like country songs, and we started talking about how cool it would be to try and finally follow-up Must’ve Been High. I think we did an excellent job of that.”

Spaghetti further unraveled: “I feel like our natural disposition is to be a rock band. I still kind of feel like we’re a rock band making a country record and not like a real country band. I do feel that, as we get older, having this country side of what we do sort of helps take the expiration date off the career of the band. It’s much more valid for an old guy to be up there singing country songs than it is for an old dude to be screaming about the evil powers of rock and roll.”

These days, fans accept the Supersuckers as a band with two personas. Back in the late ’90s, though, not everybody was down with this raging rock band releasing a country album that began with a lonesome harmonica. The initial backlash faded and Must’ve Been High went on to become the Supersuckers’ best-selling album, even though the group did switch back to rock mode before they could get swept away to stardom in the late-’90s alt-country wave.

“I don’t know why, but we’ve always kind of ducked the spotlight. Every time it looked like we were onto something, we would switch gears and do something else — almost to our detriment. I feel like we might be much wealthier people if we had just gone with the flow a little bit more,” Spaghetti said.

Look for Spaghetti onstage at the Casbah Wednesday night, February 10, or perhaps a little earlier at a well-known Ocean Beach haunt. “There’s a restaurant we like to go to in O.B. called Ortega’s. They have the most amazing carnitas. It’s second to none. So f!!!ing good! That’s a spot we definitely try to hit when we’re down there.”