The Comedy of Errors: Madbox - Clean/Superconductor - Bushpilot (29 May 1992)

Buy Madbox and Superconductor on Discogs.

These were my favourite selections from a suite of five records which Peel played on 29/5/92 as examples of recent American singles which he had enjoyed.  The other tracks were Young Splendor by Pond, Turn Down by Three Hour Tour which Peel felt had touches of The Beatles about it and
Somebody Owes Me Money by Small which made my list of selections from this show, but fell down  when listened back to.

Instead, I went with the noise and both of these share the fact that they are short, sharp bursts of pure rock energy.  Clean is marginally my favourite, probably because I like its mix of motorcycle start-up riffs mingled with that Southern Baptist rock vibe prevalent around the “I wanna find the water/Or I will drown.” chorus.  I can’t make out what sins they are hoping to wash away though.  Madbox only released two singles while they were going.  Indeed, Clean is a track on the last of these, the Donkey Boy EP, but someone clearly liked them enough to put out an anthology of their unreleased recordings under the name Making Haste Slowly.  Maybe answers to their sins can be found there.

Superconductor were no strangers to Peel’s show or this blog and with their seven guitarists and two bassists cook up another brew of near impenetrable, but undeniably exciting noise.  I can’t make out the lyrics but the title, Bushpilot gets me thinking that they’ve come up with a fabulously inventive name for the penis.  Indeed the rapidly ascending guitar passage from 1:05 onwards, interspersed with timer beeps and homage to the Thighmaster, sounds like nothing quite so much as a gallop towards orgasm.  Sex was certainly on Superconductor’s mind given that Bushpilot was part of their latest release, Heavy with Puppy.  As well the sonic excess, Peel also enjoyed the bandlisting in the liner notes which revealed that Bushpilot had been brought to us by:
Dream Whip (guitar)
It’s On You (guitar)
Thighmaster - Maybe he was the Bushpilot? (bass)
He Who is Named (vocals, guitar)
Flying Fist (guitar)
Noise Annoys (guitar)
El Impacto (vocals, drums bontempi)
Sweet Bitch (bass)
Alan Smithee (guitar)
Delicious Warm (guitar)

Clearly the North American underground rock scene of the early 1990s contained at least one bunch of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich fans.

Videos courtesy of Irresponsableful (Madbox) and Marshall Clarke (Superconductor)