TITLE: "Off The A List"
ARTIST: Surgery
ALBUM: Shimmer
RELEASE DATE: 1994
Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth once described the band, Surgery, as a cross between Einsturzende Neubauten and Guns N' Roses. I'm not entirely sure how accurate that description really was, but it certainly made for compelling copy. Surgery was a New York City band in the 90's who blossomed from the same fertile, cacophonous ground as bands like Helmet, Barkmarket, the Unsane and my beloved Cop Shoot Cop. True to Moore's description, the band's particular blend of gritty rock did boast a bit of GN'R's outlaw swagger, only with a bit more East Village bite (and they were a good deal less cartooony than Axl's gaggle). Never was this more true than on this track, the first single from their major label debut, Shimmer.
Constructed around a bluesy, descending riff and an unhurried groove, "Off The A List" takes its sweet damn time building up steam. Over the top of those gnarled guitars, lead vocalist Sean McDonell manages to tell you what a luckless badass he is, warning you to "wipe that Summer smile off ya face!" Surgery were one of the bands swept up in the big label feeding frenzy following the success of Nirvana, and the era's de rigeur trappings were summarily thrust upon them (witness the prevalance of rote, `90's grunge gear like woolies, baseball caps worn backwards and such in the video). They may not have possessed the star-crossed charisma of Cobain's bunch, the earnest piety of Pearl Jam or the photogenic presence and sonic sprawl of Soundgarden, but it terms of just raw, unhomogenized, guitar-based rock, Surgery could entirely hold their own.
While I'd heard their name and seen the cover of their first record, Nationwide (they were originally signed, like Helmet, to the indie label, Amphetamine Reptile), I didn't get around to hearing Surgery until Atlantic signed them and I got a copy of Shimmer, their big label debut, in the mail in 1994 (I've said it here before, but it bears repeating -- 1994 was truly an amazing year for music). True to the era's penchant for incongruous cover art striving for the iconic, Shimmer featured a listless, glitter-slathered nude staring blankly into the middle-distance against a glaring white background, providing absolutely no clue as to the music contained therein. It sat unplayed on my desk for a few weeks until I happened to catch a glimpse of the video for "Off The A List." Replete with shots of the band lurking around NYC, it immediately sunk its hooks into me.
I can only guess what the thrust of this song is really about -- sort've the band's own "Smoke on the Water," talking about their trek from "Tompkins Square Park to North Hollywood" (where the album was recorded), but it's rife with enough quotable bytes ("They try to spread me out/But I'm wrapped too tight/There's a Rooster In the Barnyard/Not A Hen in Sight!"), that it kinda doesn't really matter. "Off The A List" evokes such an effortlessly cool vibe and delivers practically everything I want in a rock song: sneery attitude and a blues-buggering, closing guitar that Slash & Co. wish they could replicate.
Sadly, this would be the last we'd hear from Surgery. Sean McDonnell passed away from complications with asthma in early 1995, and the band dissolved in mourning. While the afore-cited video for "Off The A List" might be awash with the sartorial trappings of the decade that spawned it, "Off the A List" remains, for me, a simply perfect, timeless rock song, and I'll never stop playing it.
Recent Comments