Review: The Superman Revenge Squad Band | There Is Nothing More Frightening Than The Passing Of Time

Superlatives are nothing new when it comes to our coverage of Ben Parker and his music. Here we compared Mr. Parker favorably to Morrissey and Kurt Cobain, and here we counseled musicians to give up because the Croydon, England-based Parker operates at such a high level it makes the majority of other music pointless. Indeed, Parker's elevated songcraft, and particularly its focus and intensity, continues to surprise us with each successive release (only slightly more than we remain surprised at his relative lack of notoriety). That said, the first superlative that comes to mind when considering Parker's latest musical outing is rather absurd, although we think he would find it funny: There Is Nothing More Frightening Than The Passing Of Time, released today by London's fine small indie Audio Antihero, is the best album you will hear this year by a band that technically doesn't exist.

That's because The Superman Revenge Squad Band -- an augmented, ensemble version of Parker's long-time solo/duo unit Superman Revenge Squad -- isn't a going concern, but rather a group commissioned for a couple of (increasingly rare) live dates. And while the Band's new, eight-song collection presents only a few new compositions, it does so in thrilling, understated group arrangements of those as well as certain finer tracks from the SRS repertoire. While the spare and stark, OG Superman Revenge Squad's music is routinely flawless, the new iterations are transformative, enhancing what could be likened to a black-and-white experience so that it has become something vibrantly colorful. All of the recordings are both splendid in their more fulsome execution, and revelatory in much the same (curious) way as Bonnie "Prince" Billy's 2004 collection Greatest Palace Music. Opener "Lately I've Found Myself Regressing" and the classic self-empowerment/self-negating anthem "I'm Gonna Go To Bed And When I Wake Up I'm Gonna Be Someone Else" absolutely swing, driven by drummer (and brother) Adam Parker's virtuosic time-keeping, which complements perfectly the torrent of lyrics that tumble from Ben's mouth as soon as his lips part. Subtle touches of slide guitar, minimal cymbal accents, and piano add significant dimension to the brooding title track to the 2009 long-player We're Here For Duration... We Hope. There are still some spare numbers, such as the acoustic ballad "Paulie In Rocky Three," and they are still quite affecting. And the lyrical brilliance remains as well (Parker memorably explains in the opening verse to "Flavor Flav" that "...if you leave me we'd look like Public Enemy without Flavor Flav, it'll be functional, and records will still sell after all, Chuck D is still the main man, we'll get through this somehow, but I don't think I'd want to fight the power without you by my side..."). But the clattering rhythms and cool drone of saxophone and accordion that spur the new version of "A Funny Thing You Said," for example, feel just as natural and almost conventional, or at least a Frankenstein-ed pastiche of conventionality.

Aside from the brilliant, biting lyrics and intense, minimalist guitar-playing, the most interesting thing about Parker and the music he has made with Superman Revenge Squad, its legendary and volatile pre-cursor project Nosferatu D2 and even the band that preceded that, Tempertwig, is the steady reductive refinement of his music. As Parker worked and re-worked his sound over the past decade, he steadily reduced personnel and tightened instrumentation. The end result stripped brother Adam's drumming and electrical current from Nosferatu D2 to reveal Superman Revenge Squad, comprised solely of Parker's voice accompanied by acoustic guitar, and representing the hardest, sparest kernel of his aesthetic. While more recently the Squad has added a cello here, and a live date with a drummer there, this set presents the most lush, full and calm versions of Parker's music to date. And yet There Is Nothing More Frightening Than The Passing Of Time is a surprising destination for Parker's music. Nothing underscores this more than the use of smooth saxophone playing and buoyant accordion, which completely transform these songs from dark and dour into something wry and substantially lighter in tone. And while Parker may look upon the capital-B Band as an interesting, infrequent outlet for his music, it is certainly a very successful experiment indeed, and one well worth revisiting. Buy There Is Nothing More Frightening Than The Passing Of Time from Audio Antihero via Bandcamp right here. The full album is streaming via the embed below.

Superman Revenge Squad: Internets | Facebook



Previous Superman Revenge Squad coverage:
Today's Hotness: The Superman Revenge Squad Band
Nosferatu D2 Legacy Revisited, Remastered Recording Of Final Show Now Available From Audio Antihero
YouTube Rodeo: Superman Revenge Squad's "Dead Crow Blues"
Review: Nosferatu D2 | We're Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise
Out: Superman Revenge Squad's "We're Here For Duration... We Hope!"
A Dish Best Served Cold: The Clicky Clicky Interview With Ben Parker
Logorrhea, Pathos and Superman Revenge Squad
Every Band I've Ever Loved Has Let Me Down Eventually

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, The Raveonettes, The Notwist

>> The blog Death To Music delivers a nice interview with Johnny Foreigner frontman Alexei Berrow that conveys a lot of useful information for rabid fans of the band (present company included). Most notably, Mr. Berrow believes the brilliant indie trio's full-length debut Waited Up Till It Was Light will be out in June. And he confirms that the next single will be for the song "Eyes Wide Terrified," something an associate of the band had mentioned to us some weeks ago. The funniest line in the piece is when Alexei responds to a question about the importance of the band's hometown -- Birmingham, England -- in its music by explaining he writes about what he knows. And then he delivers the punchline: "By this logic our next album will obv[iously] be about living in a van and playing gigs and only be bought by members of Los Campesinos!" Read the whole thing here. Speaking of the band's singles, we'll post a rant later this week about the how we won't be buying any imports from HMV in the future, as our copy of the new Johnny Foreigner single "Our Bipolar Friends" b/w "The Houseparty Scene Is Killing You" arrived all dinged up and with a sticker permanently affixed to the front of the sleeve. What the hell, HMV? Why could the tiny (and awesome) indie Laundrette get a Johnny Foreigner single to us quickly and in pristine condition, but you can not? Well, we guess we just ranted there, so no need to come back to it.

>> We're excited about the prospect of MTV celebrating the 20th anniversary of the program "Yo! MTV Raps," because we watched it religiously during high school. During the summers when we weren't working (the good summers) we watched "Yo!" at 10 and 10 again, just like hosts Dre and Ed Lover advised. With the release of Public Enemy's amazing Fear Of A Black Planet we lost the thread on hip-hop, but there was a time when we actually considered ourselves knowledgeable. Anyway, more about the celebration of this fine cultural touchstone can be read here at Idolator.

>> Also found at Idolator is this news about a Feelies reunion. Longtime readers will recall we were clamoring for just such a reunion here 370 days ago.

>> The Notwist-Ultras blog is reporting here that German electropop geniuses The Notwist will definitely tour North American in the fall. This is great news. Additionally, Notwist-Ultras here links to what seems like a pretty great video blog. However, the hosts are speaking German, so there is only so much we are able to follow. Still, if you click the video and forward it to about 2:00 you can hear an excerpt from a song on the Weilheim-based quartet's forthcoming new record The Devil, You + Me. It sounds great, and we are increasingly excited for the record's release in June.

>> You have to wait a couple minutes for the payoff, but once New York-by-way-of-Denmark duo The Raveonettes take the gloves off and rock out, the clip below from a recent performance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" is spine-tingling. We were a bit disappointed that they employ so many pre-recorded backing tracks -- we hate that, as folks who read our review of a Blonde Redhead show last year will recall -- but even so, any band that delivers a nice solid section of white noise on a national TV broadcast deserves props aplenty. The Raveonettes played Boston Monday night, and had it not been for :: clicky clicky :: faves Frightened Rabbit playing the same night we would have liked to go check them out. Or maybe not, if they are performing with all those backing tracks recorded, we're not interested. That said, the recently issued Lust, Lust, Lust is one of our favorite records right now. Here's the opener, "Aly, Walk With Me."

The Raveonettes -- "Aly, Walk With Me" -- Lust, Lust, Lust
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[buy Raveonettes records from Vice right here]



>> Speaking of Frightened Rabbit, Pop Cop has a great interview with the band's songwriter Scott Hutchison. Mr. Hutchison addresses a few of the questions we would have put to him Monday night had things not been loud and had we not already monopolized a bunch of his time. Definitely a good read, so check it out here.

>> Finally, we've been meaning to pimp our friends at Echo Nest's new time-waster, ThisIsMyJam.com. It's fairly addictive. Kiss the next 20 minutes goodbye.