A Well-Known Drag

Despite his close proximity to Nashville, little of what passes for country these days strikes a pleasant chord with Davis. "Country now is basically '80s pop. That whole outlaw element is gone. The whole Shania thing -- take a chick that looks like that and it doesn't matter what it sounds like. That's the whole deal nowadays, the boy-band thing and Britney Spears. Do you really think any of the kids buying those records care about the songs that they're hearing?" he asks, adding sarcastically, "I'm sure they're sitting around trying to figure out the diminished chord behind Justin Timberlake."

Unfortunately, power pop is caught in the extreme middle between teen pap and backward-baseball-cap rock. To the industry, power pop has always been the sound of a burst bubble. Now, whenever the odd pop record makes it onto either Top 40 or alternative formats, it's considered a novelty, its creators stamped as one-hit wonders before they can entertain any thoughts of a career beyond next week. Superdrag makes such pop records -- brilliant ones. The kind that have genuine melodies and only come off as novel when placed in the context of Korn and the Kottonmouth Kings.

John Arsenault

Superdrag tripping back into view: From left, John Davis, Don Coffey Jr., Sam Powers and Willie Tyler.

Details

Saturday, August 5, at, with the Beat Angels, Pollen, and Tolerance. Showtime is 9 p.m.

Nita's Hideaway in Tempe

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Not willing to accept the tag of one-hit wonders, Superdrag frequently drops "Sucked Out" off its set list, concentrating instead on better, newer material. "Yeah, we don't really play the song live that much anymore," adds Davis, with an ironic laugh.

With In The Valley of Dying Stars, the band hasn't changed its sound all that radically from its last disc. "There's only a few songs that have that full-blown overdub sound, layers and layers of different instruments, which was kind of our calling card on the last record," says Davis. "We wanted to get back to that live-band feel that we had on the first one and the EP (1995's The Fabulous 8-Track Sound of Superdrag). The new album kind of just sums up everything we've done up to this point."

Everything but one. This is the group's first long-player to be released free from the meddling of an unfeeling corporate parent.

For Davis and company, the situation echoes the opening salvo of Dying Stars. Superdrag's gotten rid of the hassle. All that's left to do now is rock 'n' roll.