Superconductor ‘Satori Part One’

Once upon a time, there were these curious little commodities gregariously scattered around inner-city hipster neighbourhoods, called record stores. These stores were nothing like the “record stores” that you young ‘uns refer to today. For one thing, they didn’t sell comics. Or action figures. Or DVD box sets or overpriced books or posters or turntables or cheap memorabilia packaged up to seem urgently necessary and sold at a premium. No. They just sold records. 33. 45. 78. And for a few hours each weekend, the record store dude was your best buddy.

My go to record store was Au Go Go , an inner city sanctuary from routine and the mundane. My church. Founded and run by a demigod in the Australian music underworld Bruce Milne, Au Go Go became so much more than a gritty, potentially condemnable building in which to procure fine musical recordings from upstanding citizens. It became a lifestyle. Once through the narrow doorway of the two-story sacred kingdom, everyone from nerd to bully, from homeless to heiress, was king or queen. Equals.

Such was the progressive foresight of Au Go Go -sadly, a now defunct institution- that they even had a record store clerk exchange program. I do not lie. One such exchange saw one of our own, our beloved, jetted off to Vancouver to work at -I wanna say Neptoon Records, my memory is hazy- while one of their own came to work for us, the people, at Au Go Go. His name -I wanna say Steve, names are not my forte- he was a six-foot-two balding bucket of knowledge and mystical tales from beyond. Steve –Brian?- no, Steve, would regale us, his small but eager audience, with stories of hanging out with the Didjits, and seeing Jello Biafra performing with D.O.A. and Nomeansno on the same night! Pre-internet, folks such as these to many young Aussies may as well have been mythical creatures. Steve brought them to life through enthusiasm and detailed recount.

Amid such merriment and wisdom, Steve would also turn us onto lesser known music from his local Vancouver area. One such group were his good friends Superconductor. Six guitarists, he said they had. Two bassists. Drums. Many vocals. This we had to hear. Superconductor had just released an EP and to the jovial Canadian it was aboot the best release he’d heard in years. ‘Heavy With Puppy‘ was the EP. Five tracks packed with freneticism, guitar assault, noise, metal, punk, pop and avant-garde sensibilities and holy crap, ol’ Steve was right. Perhaps one of the best releases of the nineties.