Deja Vu

ALBUM REVIEW
Absolutely rockin' debut from the Valley's own SuperKart. With Sue Burkhart on vocals and guitar, Adrianne Fielding on vocals, ubiquitous superhuman J.J. O'Connell on drums (is there a band J.J. isn't in?), and Cloudcuckooland recording engineer Jim Weeks on bass, SuperKart could end up the next Valley super group. Though clearly grounded in Indie, SuperKart isn't afraid to add some dynamic flavors that separate them out from the multitudes. Solid rock, great vocals, wicked slide work, top rhythm section and a great sound quality give this self-release a launching ground that is surprisingly far beyond where they probably should be. It's debuts like She Doesn't Have to Know that make the Valley music scene stand out from the rest of the country. Beware o' half-ass musicians that would do so well elsewhere. This is another level all together.

Burkhart's guitar work and Fielding's vocals belie the typical industry notions around women rockers and label demographic crap. This band has power, quality, and rock to spare. "Deja Vu," "Crackers," and "Tell Me" open up the disc with a ton of energy. A blend of four on the floor, country, and barroom come together here superbly. "Dirty Rocks" combines a bit of the Stones with some jazzier elements and really showcase Fielding's prowess on the mic. Burkhart's guitar work on "All or Nothing" make this heavy slide tune leap off the CD for me. Definitely too bad that is got buried in deep cut territory, but song selection and placement is hard to do when you're deciding between strong tracks and stronger tracks. No losers here. After this the tempo comes down a bit and we fall into some thicker blues-rock with "Soul Groan" and some sweet country-bluegrass-blues with "Dyer Road." "Rhubarb Pie" brings the energy level back to the fore and continues impressing with more of Burkhart's slide work and some nice choices on vocal filters for Fielding. In an interesting choice "Mama," "Blowpop," and "Crave." and the disc's closer "Tricky." clock in at the end as the most radio-friendly tracks on She Doesn't Have to Know. Often radio-friendly translates as S-U-C-K, but thankfully not here and their placement on the CD gives an idea about where this bands heads are at. They obviously have their collective minds right.
-Duke Aaron