To commemorate his half-century mark, Scott Ian told his wife, singer Pearl Aday, that socks and booze wouldn’t do it this year – he wanted his 50th birthday to be an historic event and nothing short of reuniting his favourite power trio, LA’s Mother Superior, would do.
Formed by frontman Jim Wilson in the early 90s, Mother Superior enjoyed cultish status for their bullshit-free, garage-style blend of rock’n’roll that fuelled eight studio albums and a gig backing Henry Rollins before folding in the early 00s. While a full-blown reunion wasn’t in the cards, Jim Wilson turned up and, with Scott on guitar, plus mates Joey Vera (bass), John Tempesta (drums) and Pearl (vocals), the group ran through a set of Scott’s favourite Mother Superior tunes for 25 lucky guests.
The men had so much fun that they rang up Midas-fingered producer Jay Ruston and in two days cut this amped-up gang of Mother Superior covers as Motor Sister.
With a mighty roar of flamethrower riffage, opener A-Hole and Get That Girl showcase a taut muscularity and punchy grooving that permeates the entire collection, while slower tracks like Fool Around tap into the boozy melancholy of Southern Harmony-era Black Crowes. Nothing groundbreaking, but fun as hell./o:p
