Super Adventure Club – Straight from the Dick

It’s so sad they split, they were so much fun. But we have this, and in time they’ll be seen as a special band, no doubt about that.

It’s so sad they split, they were so much fun. But we have this, and in time they’ll be seen as a special band, no doubt about that.

http://www.armellodie.com/ http://superadventureclubuk.bandcamp.com/album/straight-from-the-dick

Ah the marvellous and now sadly lamented Super Adventure Club! Still, while they were with us their effervescent, slightly batshit spirit burned bright and fast, and many who normally don’t crawl out too often, or too far into the real world’s cruel glare were warmed by their spirit. And, in parting, they leave us with this, Straight from the Dick, which on reflection, you’re pretty confident it is.

As ever with Super Adventure Club, there’s this restless utterly wayward spirit in their music (which has nothing to do with their intelligence or proficiency as musicians); the sound turning on the odd sixpence, pissing about on the ball in the manner of old time Scottish wizards like Morton, Johnstone and Baxter, with nary a care. And it’s all weird, but in a good way. But of course… The opener Hablo Espanol boasts lines in the lyrics like “Trousers exploding” and “fatherless cheese” which make you suspect the track might start to wander off into Soft Boys territory, but the music hall warbling (sounding like a pissed up bloke in the chippy) and the kick of pace amidships brings a more math than punk element. The waywardness is taken up and into second track, Fuck the Pop which is an astonishingly bracing work out that builds and builds, but whereto, nobody should know. These strange inconclusive worlds they conjured up, at one turn spat out with such vigour and no little eloquence, at the other utterly baffling listeners… I mean, what is this track all about? Oh well… In any case for those needing something more recognisable as music, melodies of a sort are provided with Dog with Two Dicks (which is angry and tough), and 9 Times the latter a fun instrumental, a sparky fairground ride, a blur of colour and noise.  Finally, Bossa Novice acts as this record’s great dewy eyed goodbye, a slowly unwinding, math take on the beginning of the O’J’s In A Nutshell.  

Best tracks on here come slap in the middle, is Between A Sock and  Hard Place, which is such a strange soliloquy, one that sometimes flirts with being a pop song; a bit of Pere Ubu’s The Modern Dance thrown in, a bit of a demonstration record at one point too, you know those things called “learn to play guitar in 5 weeks”, whereas  And Turns Out My Brain Was My Other Brain is a lesson given by someone who’s been locked up in a shed full of weird tools, and his now out, running free, keckless and unafraid. A tremendous racket, almost their perfect track, full of fire and energy.

It’s so sad they split, they were so much fun. But we have this, and in time they’ll be seen as a special band, no doubt about that.