Supersystem

at Black Cat, 1/7/2006



Chris Porter wrote a nice review of the show that ran in the Post, so I'll try not to duplicate.

This show was crazy packed. I saw them a few months ago at Warehouse Next Door, which wasn't quite full - maybe 75 people? A few months (and lots of good press) later, and the Black Cat is jammed to capacity. It was the place to be, apparently. Both DC punk icons named Ian were there (MacKaye and Svenious) as well as a few hundred other scenesters. The show was excellent. I think I liked the Warehouse show better mostly because it was a smaller crowd.

Stupid Pitchfork wrote a dumb-ass review of their record and gave them a 4.9. The reviewer really doesn't get it. I guess it's time for name-dropping... Back in 2000, I did a short East Coast tour with Ty Braxton and Eric Bernasek. At our Pittsburgh show, one of the openers was a dynamite avant punk-ish group called El Guapo. Now they are Supersystem and they rock. They rocked before, but Rafael played oboe in addition to guitar, and Justin played drums, electronics, bass clarinet, and probably other things that I don't remember. Back then, they were a duo. Now it's a quartet. And they rock.

All the reviews I've read of the last record say disparaging things about El Guapo - and they're so wrong. Also, all the reviews I've read don't seem to understand what's going on. In the Audiofile column in Salon.com, they thought the guitar parts to "Born into the world" were lifted off some African record (they're not, Rafael is a great guitarist and writes interesting music and plays that stuff himself). Stupid Pitchfork criticizes the lyrics to "Everybody Sings" suggesting that they are random and just "hoping to find meaning by accident." Um, actually that song is probably the one on the record that is MOST CLEARLY ABOUT SOMETHING and it's pretty damn obvious. Stupid Pitchfork. I think from now on I will only refer to the dumb ass website called Pitchfork Media as "Stupid Pitchfork" and I urge you to do the same. For more evidence, read the stupid review of Bob Massey's record... or the one for Travis Morrison's Travistan, which scored a big fat zero. Stupid Pitchfork. There's a review of Travis Morrison's show at Black Cat the other night in today's Post... Mark Jenkins tastefully refers to them as "an inexplicably influential Web site." Stupid Pitchfork.

ps. you can stream both songs I mentioned here.