Kent’s Punk Wonder, SuperNothing

“I wanna get drunk in the street, stay home, get stoned, and beat my meat
I wanna feel less incomplete and never slow it down!
I wanna fuck a girl I hate, leave her the bill on our first date
then tell her boyfriend she was great
never slow it down!” -SuperNothing

Genre: Punk / Rock / Thrash
Location: Kent, Washington
Label: Unsigned
Sounds like: Desensitized Youth, Early NOFX, Gang Green

Website(s): www.myspace.com/wearesupernothing, www.supernothing.bandcamp.com

Remember the summer you were 16? Taking the bus downtown to a questionable venue, chugging the single warm beer you stole out of your parent’s fridge in the back alley before paying the doorman only in dimes and nickels so you could mosh your brains out to your favorite local punk band? No? Well let SuperNothing remind you. They are the band you saw, except people actually liked them, and when you go to buy their EP at the end of the night with your remaining pocket change and get it home, it’s actually recorded…well.

SuperNothing is a thrash punk band from Kent, Washington. Together for just over a year and a half, they already have an impressive track record, playing with big name punk act GutterMouth and the legendary Agent Orange. SuperNothing is your favorite garage band all grown up. The angst is there, the concepts are the same. Their tags on Bandcamp include “punks, party sluts and speed,” and “watching porn with your girlfriend” is one of their highlighted hobbies on Myspace. They’re the boys down the street that don’t give a fuck and don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s angry, it’s unapologetic, it’s often hilarious.

Although the tried and true spirit of hard, fast and loud is still present, SuperNothing wanders off the beaten path. Unlike thrash metal and its related cross-over genres, which tend to throw the concept of melody to the wind in favor of rhythm and chaos, they put an emphasis on being, well, audible and catchy. “The whole idea is fast punk and thrash metal fusion, but hopefully with an accessible edge,” states Kevin Russell (more commonly know as “Nutz”), the band’s bassist and backup vocalist. “I think a big problem with a lot of bands playing in ‘extreme’ genres is they miss how important hooks are. I hope that what we bring to the table is fast, heavy, and aggressive, but at the same time has something in it that gets stuck in your head.”

I dunno, maybe I shouldn’t be so impressed. It’s not as if every punk band is composed only of tumultuous loudness (nothing could be further from the truth) and SuperNothing is some kind of diamond in the rough. Must be something about the nostalgia that this band brings that has me captivated. They take me back to that show at 16 and stir some sort of angst inside me that is reminiscent of being young(er), moralless and pissed. And I like it.

“Slow it down” (first track) and “1878” off of the EP Jesus Fucking Christ, It’s an EP! 

–Karli

Originally published for the Least Pretentious Music Blog Ever