Published on Aug 20, 2000
I remember the first time I ever listened to
Pocket Full Of Kryptonite, the debut studio album from
trip-rockers The Spin Doctors. I also remember not being terribly
impressed back in 1991 – and, to the best of my knowledge, this
tape has sat in storage in the Pierce Memorial Archives for nearly
a decade.
I don’t know what possessed me to dig it out from one of the
boxes. Maybe it was that I had been impressed with what appears to
be the band’s final release (unless singer Chris Barron’s vocal
chord paralysis miraculously heals itself),
Here Comes The Bride. Maybe it was morbid curiosity – was
there more substance to this tape than the two singles that get
overplayed on radio to this day?
Sure enough,
Pocket Full Of Kryptonite proved to be a worthwhile listen,
and dispelled all fears I had about not living up to its potential.
It is a portrait of a band discovering just how funky roots-rock
can be, but it’s kind of fun watching the creative process.
Everyone over the age of 10 has to know the singles by now –
“Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and “Two Princes”. These are decent
enough tracks, and it is funny to hear the anger wrapped in the
humor of “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”. But wrapped up in these
songs, as well as the track “How Could You Want Him (When You Know
You Could Have Me?)” and, to an extent, “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” is a
recurrent theme of unrequieted love. I don’t know if this was
coincidence, but I tend to think it was intentional – after all,
Blues Traveler’s John Popper is credited with “inspiration” for
“Two Princes”. (Popper also contributes harmonica to two
tracks.)
What is striking about
Pocket Full Of Kryptonite is that, for the most part, it’s a
strong album from beginning to end. There is only one weak link in
the chain, that being the half-baked funk exercise “What Time Is
It?”. But aside from that, you could pick up this album at any song
and it would sound like a natural place to begin your journey –
that’s not a common trait in any album. From “More Than She Knows”
and “Refrigerator Cars” to the coulda-woulda-shoulda been a hit
single “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues,” this album lays down a solid groove
and refuses to let it go.
The unheralded stars of the band, though, are bassist Mark White
and drummer Aaron Comess. Sure, Barron was a charismatic front man,
and guitarist Eric Schenkman provided some very tasty licks
throughout the album. But if it wasn’t for the frantic drum work of
Comess and the slap-happy bass work of White, this project would
not have the same spark of creative genius.
Pocket Full Of Kryptonite remains the high-water mark for
the Spin Doctors; whether this is fair to the band or not, we’ll
discover as we continue to plow through their discography. But it
does prove itself to be an album far more worthy of recognition
than for its two hit songs, and is worth a full investigation, even
after nearly a decade on the market.