Supersuckers

At this point in their illustrious, nearly 40-year career, Supersuckers have nothing to prove to anyone. Formed in 1988 and led by charismatic singer/bassist Eddie Spaghetti, Supersuckers caught with a crowd that appreciated the group’s license to shred within the confines of killer punk rock songs, along with lyrics that didn’t take things so seriously. So much so that the band’s legacy has grown over the years as has their rabid fan base.

For the band’s previous three records, 2015’s Holdin' the Bag, Suck It, which was out in 2018, and 2020’s Play That Rock N' Roll, Supersuckers produced and released it pretty much themselves. Following years of relentless touring, Spaghetti, along with guitarist "Metal" Marty Chandler and drummer Christopher "Chango" von Streicher, decided to get back into the studio for what would become Liquor, Women, Drugs & Killing, the band’s twelfth studio album. 

Ahead of its release, Supersuckers inked with Hardcharger Records, owned by Texas guitarist and singer-songwriter Jesse Dayton, in partnership with Los Angeles based Blue Élan Records. Despite the band’s years doing it themselves and, in turn, leaving the business of recording behind, Spaghetti says that joining forces with Hardcharger made sense for them. His familiarity with the musician (they’ve been friends for nearly three decades) alleviated any potential concerns about a record deal.

Usually, Supersuckers would use a new album as an excuse to tour. Here, however, things were different. Spaghetti says that at this point in their band’s career, he has no expectations for how a new record will land with fans.

“It’s just what I do (recording),” he explains. “We do not expect that a new record will move the needle for us in a significant way. But I’m an artist, so I keep doing that.” As he jokes, the band writes songs, records them, releases them, and plays them live until they’re tired of them, and then repeat the process.

On Liquor, Women, Drugs & Killing, the Supersuckers joined forces with old friend Billy Joe Bowers, who produced the album in Atlanta. Spaghetti and Bowers were in a band in Tucson in the 1980s, and the Supersuckers actually recorded with the producer in 2007; however, that session was discarded due to band clashes. Even so, Spaghetti and Bowers remained close and in touch, so teaming up again felt natural. “Being produced again was new and helped the record a lot,” Spaghetti says of the sessions. “He was able to tap into something that we didn’t see, and the record is extra special because of that.”

Specifically, Spaghetti says that Bowers envisioned the Supersuckers sounding like a three-piece, which isn’t something that he does when he was at the helm. What’s often the case is that the band will include various instruments to get exactly the sound they want. When they were in the studio, Supersuckers were as focused as they’d been in years, and it shows. The lyrics are sharp, yet dark and biting —the trademark of any Supersuckers song. Sonically, it is more upbeat than its cynical lyrics. 

The scorching first single, “Maybe I’m Just Messin’ With You,” reflects exactly that. In contrast, concocting the song, which was one of the last to emerge from his writing session. Spaghetti wanted a song on the album to have a “Motörhead-type song” on it. Here, he does precisely that. 

“We needed that vibe,” he explains. “I cranked it out quickly and didn’t think much of it until we started playing it and realized there was a lot more meat on that bone than we anticipated. So much so that it became the first single.”

Other songs, like “Volunteer” (which Spaghetti calls hilarious because it’s a song about not volunteering), “Meaningful Songs” that starts acoustically before roaring into a big rock song (“Earnestness in music can be so boring and ruin everything for me but I’m very happy with that one”) and the pacey “Unsolvable Problems,” showcase the depth and range of the Supersuckers in 2025. The latter, which Spaghetti says is his favorite song on the record, features an exquisite Chandler solo and builds off the band’s on-and-off flirtation with twangy sounds. “In a perfect world, this song would be a huge hit,” Spaghetti remarks on “Unsolvable Problems.” “I like the way it’s featured on the record and could be on a country record.”

As Supersuckers gear up for another round of touring, this album has given something the band hasn’t had in a bit: hope.

“You don’t want to hope too much and keep your expectations low,” he says. “Still, I am excited about this. I feel like this record has maybe seven singles on it. We have no business putting out a record this good this late in our career. It is what makes us the greatest rock n roll band in the world.”