The new Superman Revenge Squad Band’s album ‘There Is Nothing More Frightening Than The Passing of Time’ came out on Audio Antihero this week. Stream and buy it here:
We’ve been given a Track-By-Track by Superman Revenge Squad leader Ben Parker read it here:
Track by Track:
1. Lately I’ve Found Myself Regressing:
Back when I was first getting used to being a teenager – so quite some time ago now – I loved listening to Anthrax and I loved reading novels by Stephen King. Then my musical tastes developed into other things, I discovered other authors, I studied literature, and I would probably have looked down upon the things I used to love. Then, for whatever reason, a few years ago I picked up the Stand by Stephen King and read it. And I loved it. It was like bumping into an old friend again – it really was. And I thought of my snobbish former self and what an idiot he had been, dismissing stuff just because it was something the teenage version of himself had liked. And I re-listened to my old favourite “The Persistance of Time” by Anthrax, for the first time in years, and it was pretty good too. Again, it was something that had defined my cultural taste a long time ago, back in the days of only having three or four albums on cassette and listening to them until they fell apart, and as a result I know it very well. The theme of that album, as far as I can tell, is the relentless passing of time, and that’s the theme of the Superman Revenge Squad album too.
2. Kendo Nagasaki:
An old song revamped with the band and sounding all the better for it. You can tell it’s pretty old because it refers to things like Myspace. And I’m not actually sure that Weatherspoons does “2 for 1 meals” so much these days. But I quite like the references being there. They timestamp the song. And, if you remember, Myspace used to be massive. I can’t remember why I used the wrestler Kendo Nagasaki as the metaphor that holds the song together, and I did briefly fear that he or a member of his family might google themselves and find the song and think I’m mocking him. But I’m not mocking him. I’m only mocking myself.
3. I’m Gonna Go To Bed and When I Wake Up I’m Gonna Be Someone Else:
Another old one redone with the band. The song I tend to like to play first at gigs. It’s about a fresh start, forgetting the past and becoming a different person. I read The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier a few years after I wrote this song and the book seems to touch upon similar themes. It’s worth a read.
4. Flavor Flav:
I read somewhere that Rick Rubin wanted to sign Chuck D without Flavor Flav because he couldn’t see the point in having him in the band, but that Chuck convinced him otherwise. I agree with Chuck: Public Enemy without the other guy would work but wouldn’t have had nearly as much character or enjoyment. I then use this as a metaphor for other stuff. Originally I was going to call the album “A Box of old books and a box of old records and us”, a lyric from this song – it would have made the whole thing sound a bit more cheery I suppose.
5. Paulie In Rocky Three:
One of my most vivid memories of when I was young was of an evening when me and my Dad went up the road to a neighbours house and watched a pirate video of Rocky Three. I don’t know why this event has etched itself so much into my memory, but it has. My dad has no memory of this evening at all. The songs about the way pointless memories persist whilst the memories or more important stuff disappear.
6. A Funny Thing You Said:
This is kind of about looking back at past conversations about the future and realising things haven’t really happened you way you planned in some respects and that in many respects nothings changed at all. It’s also about the day you realise that everyone is as afraid of everything. It’s an old song that has been expanded. I really liked playing this one with Adam on the drums as we locked in together, kind of in a way that we used to lock together with Nosferatu D2.
7. We’re Here For Duration: I remember writing the lyrics to the first verse of this song a long long time ago, maybe when I was coming up with Nosferatu D2 lyrics, but not having anywhere to put them. Then, some time later, I listened to Gentlemen by the Afghan Whigs a few times and then sat down and finished the song. At the end it briefly turns into a downbeat version of Iron Maiden’s Can I Play With Madness. This seemed like a great idea at the time and, again, harks back to an album that I used to love and that I will be fond of forever.
8. The Angriest Dog In The World:
The only one of my songs that has been covered by more than a couple of other bands. So, in some respects, the hit. It was originally based on the comic strip by David Lynch. But I don’t think it’s actually about a dog at all. Not really.
https://audioantihero.bandcamp.com/album/there-is-nothing-more-frightening-than-the-passing-of-time
