The Mad Doctors — Snake Oil Superscience

If you’re bummed that Halloween is over, fret not. The Mad Doctors’ sophomore album calls to mind a Frankenstein’s monster of the Ramones, obscure C-movie sci-fi, the hardcore rage of the ’80s and the resigned nihilism of the early aughts. Snake Oil Superscience is an onslaught of sludgy garage riffs sure to tickle a primal nerve or two.

Most of the songs are flights of fancy, like “Space Woman”:


Just when I thought we were alone

Flying saucer crashed into my home


White light did blind me

That I can’t see

Space woman come out

Six eyes on me

But like the worst sci-fi movies (even Plan 9 From Outer Space), there are universal truths hidden in the camp. “Swamp Taco” feels as honest a blues song as ever there was:


My brain is drippin’ out my ear

Feel the earth is sinkin’

Beneath my feet

I’m sinkin’ deeper

Into this black abyss


Blood under my fingertips

I’m clutching to my drink

My head’s a mess

And my house is bound to sink


And if I found a woman

Who would take me

From this muck

I just might have to

Follow her home

Or else I’m sinkin’ deeper

Into these murky depths

Where the gators are sure

To swallow me whole

But fuck it 

Amidst the crunchy guitars and swing-for-the-fences riffs, The Mad Doctors slip their existential angst like a yeerk into an unsuspecting human. The result is a little nourishment for your brain before it completely rots.

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