 Sugar Has everyone forgotten about Sugar? Me too. In fact, I was sort of surprised to see that I still had a few of their EPs, having sold back so much of this kind of music years back when my discovery of Brazilian music led me to renounce all ties to the white man's world. (?) But picking the A Good Idea EP out of a stack of neglected discs sitting on a file cabinet in my room, I am suddenly reminded that not only did I like Sugar back in the day, I reaaaallyy liked Sugar; they rocked my skinny pimpled ass all the way back to Bement. In fact, I was in attendance at the semi-legendary "surprise" show at the Metro in Chicago, highlights of which comprise the bulk of this CD. This was before Sugar had released a single note, and the place was packed with faithful Bob Mould fans who trusted that no matter what the band turned out to be, it would be cool 'cuz it was Bob. We weren't disappointed. They came out and literally tore through a set of hyper-fast punk pop so furiously that it made your head spin. No familiar songs, just a big wall of sound and bits of brilliance you'd try to hold onto long enough to comprehend, only for them to be obliterated by the next whirlwind song. I wouldn't say that the recordings here necessarily do justice to how I remember that evening (do recordings ever?), but I immediately see why I have never tried to sell this disc back, and why I never will. Although I don't really listen to this stuff anymore, I don't ever want to forget the moment in time when I (along with many others) truly believed in Bob Mould and in the saving grace of what was termed alternative music. This is a kick-ass EP for conjuring all that up, too: "A Good Idea," from Copper Blue, perhaps Bob's most derivative song ever (it's basically "Debaser" by the Pixies, but great in and of itself), plus four cuts from that Metro show (July 22, 1992 … I was twenty, depressed, and trapped in the early 90s … yeah, those were the days): "Helpless" (awesome), "Where Diamonds Are Halos" (extrafabulous amazing – a David Barbe song that eclipses most of Mould's Sugar output; I specifically remember this one from the show and remember being disappointed when it wasn't on the album), "Slick" (oh yeah), "Armenia City in the Sky" (did they close with that one? It was phenomenalistical). Yow. A great night. I can't imagine I'll listen to this again before 2011, but I promise I'll never again let myself forget Sugar. Someday they'll get their due.
Review by Mason Bray |