The Supersuckers

Of all the big, loud, stoopid rawk that's crawled out of the Northwest this decade, the Supersuckers can reasonably lay claim to the title of proudest Luddites. Until a few years ago, the Seattle (by way of Tucson) quartet gleefully spat up a series of country-fried boogie-metal platters, each replete with enough drink-drugs-devil imagery to let self-conscious fans explain away their affections as "irony." The group's channeling of Motörhead through some desert sagebrush wasn't exactly convincing on disc, but you'd be hard-pressed not to smile at the sight of four drunken yahoos onstage in cowboy hats, tearing through a blistering rendition of Sabbath's "Mob Rules" -- especially when the band nicely avoided the kind of self-importance that made, say, Soundgarden such a laugher.

The 'Suckers never pretended to be much more than a good bar band -- until they went and released 1997's Must've Been High, a full-fledged country record. But the wink was still there; witness "Non-Addictive Marijuana," "Hungover Together" -- hell, witness the whole thing. At least it was better than Ween's 12 Golden Country Greats. Of course, that's not saying much. But the familiar roar was back on this year's best-of How the Supersuckers Became the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in History (um, OK), and the recently released The Evil Powers of Rock 'n Roll. Figures that they couldn't keep a straight face for long.

— Keven McAlester