Here we are again: Supertouch
Not unlike The Big Takeover, Supertouch named themselves after a Bad Brains song. The band formed in New York City in 1985, originally calling themselves Death Before Dishonor. The one thing that distinctly set them apart from their peers is that they were a live band. Supertouch could play. They could move people. They were technically good as musicians and they wrote powerful lyrics, which was rare on the east coast during the days of Scatterbrain and Mucky Pup. During the mid 1990’s they managed to stay clear of the record deals and MTV videos that ultimately lured many of their friends into the cutout bin. But more importantly, they didn’t give up. And that’s what people love about them; they are survivors. They recently put out a new 7” called “Lost My Way” before heading off on their third tour of Europe. But I can’t stress enough that even this era of the band will be short lived. Supertouch are more like a light switch than a band. When the switch is on, they are actively playing and writing. But when they turn the switch off and disappear back into the darkness for years at a time, you realize that it’s all about timing. So here are ten things about Supertouch that you might have missed.
Anti-Matter
As I mentioned last week, the only track that they released after the LP was the song “Better”, which showed up on the Anti-Matter Fanzine compilation in 1996. The song is a mid-tempo, multi-level confession that is executed with precision and grace. Right before this came out they played the basement at Handy Street in New Brunswick and I missed it. Still pissed about that. But. The song is still their masterpiece.
St. Patrick’s Day
Need proof that Supertouch were incredible live? In 1988, they played live on Crucial Chaos, a punk radio show broadcasting out of WNYU on 89.1. Crucial Chaos was an amazing show, hosted by a girl named Spermicide. The show carried on the mission of Tim Sommer’s Noise The Show and probably deserves it’s own top ten (we’ll get to that one day). But the seven songs that Supertouch played live on St. Patricks Day have inspired an entire genre of bands playing hardcore today. Most of the hardcore bands that tried to push the limits of their three chord ability just ended up playing some form of heavy metal. But Supertouch took an entirely different path, and they did it without overdubs, without label support and with minimal press coverage. Horror Hotel Productions is releasing 500 copies of the radio show on a limited edition LP, they started taking pre-orders (the 200 copies on red sold out already) this week
What Did We Learn?
Their debut three song 7” set the bar. Released in 1989 on Dave Stein’s Combined Effort label, the record features the original lineup of Joe, Andy Guida, Jon Biviano and singer Mark Ryan. A lot of New York bands in this scene were busy trying to play faster and faster, heeding the call of Ian Mackaye’s famous line at the start of “Minor Threat”. But not Supertouch, they were slowing down. They developed a style that was more or less the natural progression of bands like Agnostic Front, The Psychos and Cause For Alarm. Building on the sound of those bands by using delay pedals and tempo changes was dangerous territory (and still is!) but there was never any question that Supertouch was anything but a wildly original hardcore band.
Oslo, Norway
Video from their current European tour – an amazing version of one their earliest songs, “Climbing Aboard”. Here
The Earth Is Flat
Their full length record, released in 1990. Reaffirmed what a lot of hardcore kids already knew – that Supertouch was something special. Almost everything about this record is great. The rhythm section are insanely precise, the guitar is spot on and the vocals have exactly the right amount of gravel. The sleeve photos and graphic design are incredible and undoubtedly inspired other bands to question their own definition of what was punk. Eleven songs total, some demand careful attention, all of them put together seamlessly.
Supertouch & Other People
Filmmaker Eric Fennell made a documentary called “Supertouch & Other People”, following them around during the late 80’s and early 90’s as they traveled to and from shows. To the best of my knowledge the footage was never released, but grainy VHS copies have floated around forever. Here is a clip from the film, it’s Supertouch playing “How Do You Feel” at CBGB’s.
174 Commerical Ave
This video of Supertouch playing in the backyard at the Bouncing Souls house in fall of 1992 is kind of ironic. They opened the set with “Anything It Takes”, an urgent warning against the selfish nature of empty teenage rebellion. The first line of the song is “Take a look inside that greedy little mind”, which when played in front of the incoming freshman class at Rutgers it kind of takes on a whole new meaning. Warning: video is ripe with twirling hippies and dudes in 5XL flannel shirts. The 90’s were painful. Not disco painful, but close.
Tapes and tapes
Because Supertouch is primarily a live band, they have established a cult following amongst tape traders and music nerds. I should know, I’m one of them. There are a few great live shows floating around, two of my favorites Albany 89 and University of Connecticut 1989. There are also unreleased songs floating around on blogs and file sharing sites – but a lot of them come from a bad source tape that is too fast. Just for shits and giggles I downloaded a bunch of Supertouch stuff this week to see how badly things have gotten and I found that out of 15 downloads, 14 were the wrong speed. I’m guessing it stems from one source tape that was bad. The 1988 demo and unreleased EP were the worst examples. The damage is so far and wide that I can only think of one way to correct it – someone should collect all this material, remaster it and put out a legitimate discography.
Together
The band’s first appearance on vinyl was in 1987 on the Together compilation with Sick of It All, Youth of Today and Warzone. They later re-recorded this song for the “The Way It Is: New York City Hardcore”, the compilation that Revelation put out in 1988. Their song might have been the last song on side B, but it is arguably the best song on the whole record.
Germany 1995
Great unreleased song from 95, live in Salzgitter, Germany.
