The Supersuckers have made a career out of not being serious. How else to explain a body of work that includes songs like “Pretty Fucked Up,” “Born With a Tail” and “I’m a Fucking Genius”? In their 34 years as a band, the heavy-metal-meets-outlaw-country group started by bassist/vocalist Eddie Spaghetti has, in some ways, come a long way, and in others, stayed just the same.

From the band’s late ’80s beginning in Tucson—even before they were known as the Supersuckers—the group always played original material.

“Pretty much ever since I was able to play three chords on the guitar, I’ve been making up songs,” says Spaghetti. He laughs as he admits that his skill set hasn’t progressed much past that point in the three and half decades since. “I just learned what I needed to.”

The Supersuckers’ output—a dozen albums of original recordings, four compilations and five live releases—has showcased consistent quality. But when it comes to musical style, few would describe the band as consistent. On record, the Supersuckers have veered from hard rock to hardcore country and back again…and again. The thread that runs through all of their—on record and onstage—is its spirit.

Eddie Spaghetti describes the band’s enduring philosophy:

“Just come up with something that’s catchy and preferably fun,” he explains, “and then play it as fast as it ought to be played.” The band, he says, lives in the spirit of Motörhead, AC/DC, and the Ramones. “Throw in some Replacements, and you’ve kind of got the vibe of what we’re going for.”

All of the original members of the Supersuckers grew up in Tucson, but felt hemmed in by their hometown. 

“We formed the band thinking that it would be our ticket out of town,” Spaghetti says. The band took an irreverent approach to the prospect of relocating, though. “We decided based on a coin toss,” Spaghetti says. “We narrowed it down to either New Orleans or Seattle.”

Seattle won the coin toss. Spaghetti recalls thinking, “There’s nothing going on up there; there’s no [music] scene. We’ll go up there, we’ll be the greatest band that anybody’s ever seen!” 

When they arrived in the Pacific Northwest, reality hit them hard. 

“Nirvana was already going,” Spaghetti laughs. 

The band eventually inked a deal with taste-making indie label Sub Pop, and would go on to release four albums on the imprint.

In 1995, the group scored a major break when Willie Nelson invited them to play at Farm Aid. 

“That really helped us a lot to get solidified in that whole outlaw country world,” Spaghetti says. “It’s acceptable to be an old fart in a cowboy hat up there singing songs,” he says with a chuckle.

It looked like another big leap forward was in the cards when Interscope Records picked up the band, but abrupt changes at the label left the band high and dry with an unreleased album in the can—where it remains to this day. 

“We made a real cool record with Tom Werman, who had produced Cheap Trick and Mötley Crüe,” he says. “But nobody’s ever heard it.”

The Interscope debacle paled in comparison to another challenge the band would face. Diagnosed with cancer, Spaghetti wasn’t sure if he—much less the band—would survive. But he earned a clean bill of health in 2015. The record that eventually came out of the experience, 2018’s Suck It, is equal parts dark and humorous, and it ranks among Spaghetti’s favorite Supersuckers albums. Their most recent record, Play That Rock -N- Roll, featuring the trio lineup that’s been in place for nearly a decade—Spaghetti on bass, plus guitarist “Metal” Marty Chandler and drummer Chris “Chango” von Streicher—was released in 2020.

Now, after being sidelined by the pandemic, the band is back on the road. 

“We’re going out into this vast, messy, germ-filled world, to try to tour,” he says. “There are upsides: maybe I won’t have to be giving hugs to strangers!”

Asked where he sees the Supersuckers five years from now, Eddie Spaghetti has a ready answer. 

“Doing the same thing we’ve been doing for the last 30-plus years,” he says. “Just making killer rock music.

The Supersuckers
Thur, 8pm, $15
The Ritz, San Jose

For more than 15 years, Orange County ska band Suburban Legends have choreographed energetic, dance-filled shows in any location imaginable, from bars to punk festivals. Tonight they stop in San Jose at the Back Bar along with pop-punk band, The Maxies.

In October, Suburban Legends released their Disney cover EP Dreams Aren’t Real, But These Songs Are. With the success of their last two Disney covers, “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” and “Under The Sea,” the band tried releasing more covers, which ended up fitting surprisingly well with their energetic, playful style.

Suburban Legends’ first few albums were focused on ska but they moved to incorporate pop punk, especially criticized by fans on their 2009 album Infectious. Though many of the songs were catchy, the album didn’t gain much support from the band’s fanbase. The move away from ska toward pop-punk seemed to have thrown fans a curve ball, which made the band realize that a pop punk sound, while it is an extra element, shouldn’t be their main focus.

“We’ve been through all those growing pains and changes and stuff over the years,” says lead singer Vince Walker. “We’re going back to what we think we did best which is just ska music the way we do it.”

Even though they’ve refocused back on their ska sound, traces of pop still linger in their songs, especially so in the Disney covers, except now newer releases seem to resonate better with both fans and the band. Using popular Disney tunes that the band and their fanbase could identify their childhood with, from a fist-pumping chant on “DuckTales” to a slightly chilly beginning retake on “Colors of the Wind,” ended up being the throwback fusion that worked in their favor.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Before summer disappears completely, San Jose’s All City Elite is releasing a new single “The Breaks,” a mellow reggae-influenced jam that conjures up feelings of warm sunny days and beach barbeque parties. “The Breaks” is the first single off of All City Elite’s new EP, scheduled for an early October release.

While All City Elite has always fused elements of hip-hop, rock and pop together, reggae, as heard on “The Breaks,” is new territory.

“We have never been locked into a specific genre or style, partly due to the fact that there has been a revolving door of musicians in the ACE’s roster over the years, and also the desire to just have fun with it and let it flow,” says ACE lead singer Casey Sky. “Several members of the band have been playing in the SJ scene for many years, and the idea behind ACE was to bring together these talented people and let them create without restrictions or expectations.”

Yeshua & the Hightones and Maxx Cabello Jr. are join forces with Mezcal for a night of great music and great food for Silicon Valley Sound eXperience.

Maxx Cabello Jr. & the Breakdown
10pm, Mezcal
San Jose local Maxx Cabello Jr. is known for his guitar chops, his soulful voice and mixing it up with a wide range of styles. He plays everything from slow soul jams, blazing electric blues and Latin rock. In the case of his video, “My Love,” he digs into old-school romantic soul, a throwback to the days before the style was dominated by drum machines and synthesizers.

A quick Google search reveals footage of Cabello playing accomplished eight-minute blues guitar solos (with touches of Duane Allman-esque slide work on “Heartbreaker”), but the simplicity of “My Love” makes it a good place to start for people new to his music. Like the video, the song is smooth and sweet—just a straightforward love song.

The video holds special significance because it helped Cabello land an opening spot at San Jose’s Jazz Summer Fest this year after submitting it to festival organizers in a contest where people voted for the song they liked best. “My Love” won by a landslide.

Yeshua & the Hightones
10pm, Mezcal
Yeshua Orozco’s dreads are sort of like his playoff beard—he’s been growing them for as long as he’s been in a band, and they seem to be bringing him luck. His seven-piece San Jose reggae group, Yeshua and the Hightones, quickly made a mark on the scene and has been getting the kind of rock gigs that are often off-limits to musical proponents of Jah. Maybe it’s something about the blues and Latin grooves they bring to the island sound. Maybe it’s the talent of the musicians he surrounds himself with, who are clearly versed in musical traditions from the world—and able to cut loose on a mean guitar solo, as well. Or hey, maybe it’s the hair.

Since 2009, four San Jose women, known at the Like-Me’s, have been at the forefront of modernizing Khmer (Cambodian) music. The fact that only two of them are Cambodian makes the story that much more interesting.

The Like Me’s take folk, rock, soul and classic Khmer music—singing in both English and Khmer—and fuse the genres into one. Their newest song, “Behdong Khmean Kongval,” adds electronic dance-pop to that list.

The key to the Like Me’s success, or at least how they’ve garnered so much exposure in Cambodian communities worldwide, is their videos on Youtube. While always on a shoestring budget, their videos are well-produced thanks to so much donated assistance from friends and admirers in San Jose. One of their previous videos, “Sva Rom Monkiss,” a remake of a classic 1960s Khmer song by by Pan Ron, is basically a period piece set in 1960s Cambodia.

The video for “Behdong Khmean Kongval” opens in a drab office where singer Laura Mam presumably works. She walks in and decides she’s had enough and throws all her papers in the air. She grabs the other members of the Like Me’s and starts to dance. As the music changes, so does the setting. They sing and dance in a low-lit dance club, perform on stage at a large rock venue and do synchronized dance moves in what looks like an 80s hip-hop video. At the end, it’s all just a fantasy in Mam’s head one day before work. Watch the last 30 seconds of the video. The punch line at the end is priceless.

The two MCs behind Calicove are talking about the aftermath of their last party. It was just last week, in fact, after they played a show.

“We took the party back to our studio in Santa Clara, and we continued to party through the night,” says Douglas “DJ” Williams Jr., who goes by the stage name Amazin. “I’ll tell you this much: I did not wake up until 8 o’clock the next night. PM. No AM stuff. PM. I woke up, and I was like, “OK, I’m going to try.’ But then I was like ‘I can’t move.'”

His partner in the group, Travis Lindsley, a.k.a. Authentic, isn’t even phased by the recovery time. He’s more impressed that Williams pulled it together enough to tidy up the place afterwards.

“Did you clean up?” asks Lindsley.

“I did. You saw that?”

Lindsley shakes his head. “You’re a beast.”

“Party,” says Williams authoritatively. “Then clean.”

These are two guys who know the rules of partying. In Calicove, they’ve mixed rap with big rock power chords on songs like “Party Animal” and “Life of a Rock Star” from their debut mixtape 808s and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Not to mention this year’s catchy anthem “I Wanna Party,” on which they use the p-word dozens of times, rivaling even the longtime record holder for party references, Andrew W.K.’s “Party Hard.”

All of which makes them a natural for Motif’s New Year’s Eve bash; they’ll headline a party that also features five DJs, go-go dancers, champagne and more. Because it’s not just a shtick. They write what they know.

“We party pretty hard,” boasts Williams. And they may be getting a rep for NYE in particular. Last year, they led the bender at Mosaic, the club at the San Jose Sheraton. “The show was downstairs, but they’d booked up the whole hotel. They wanted to do it Vegas style, so everybody who was at the party had a room. After the show, it was crazy. You’d go up into different rooms and hang out and …”

“And do God knows what,” finishes Lindsley. “The party was everywhere.”

Finishing each other’s thoughts comes easy to the Calicove duo, who play live with a full rock outfit but do the songwriting themselves and work with a team of producers on beats. They started the band in 2009, but they met four years earlier, working at a shoe store in Newark’s NewPark Mall. Williams grew up in San Jose; Lindsley is from Hayward. They became friends, and each knew the other did music, but back then they never even talked about working together. Then they lost touch, but reconnected completely by chance in, of all places, Las Vegas.