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.