the supertones
|
4/6/2008 5:32:47 PM
the supertones at otto's
The Supertones are great! Clearly one of the best American (and the entire worlds) guitar-based instrumental bands. -- Robert Silverstein, Music Editor, 20th Century Guitar Magazine
For my money, of all the modern bands its The Supertones who best represent the spirit of The Ventures. -- Alan Taylor, Editor, Pipeline Magazine
Every band has a center a hub where the band forms. For The Supertones, the common interests were surfing and guitars and the location Chelsea Guitars in New York City. Chelsea Guitars was where the relationships were formed that created and sustained The Supertones over the past decade. Another essential ingredient to the formation of The Supertones has been the sport and lifestyle of surfing. Current band members Tim Sullivan, Mike Mandina and Simon Chardiet are all avid surfers and have been surfing buddies longer than theyve been band mates. In a word, The Supertones music is about the Stoke. All serious surfers understand the Stoke. It is the heart of the surfing lifestyle, it is the foundation of true surf music, and it is the raison dêtre for The Supertones.
The Origins of The Supertones
Tim Sullivan is the central unchanging core of The Supertones over their many years. Tim was born in Long Beach in Southern California, the son of a Marine Corps Colonel. Tims early days were spent down at Camp Pendleton, living in Carlsbad and learning to surf on some of Southern Californias most revered surfing spots. Tims biggest influence in picking up the guitar were hearing Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy and recordings by Link Wray (in fact, the first Supertones recording was Wrays stiletto-sharp Switchblade). Tim moved with his family to Camp LeJueune in North Carolina where he started playing surf music. He formed his first band in 1964 at the age of 8 years old with one of his lifetime friends, Randy Laine, who played drums. Together with Rusty Miller on guitar and one of their friends on bass they were known in the local area as The Surfing Nomads. The band continued to perform until 1967.
Tim went on to study for a degree in music at St. Petersburg College in Florida and later ended up in New York City in 1979 on a ballet scholarship. Tims next band of significance was a rockabilly band he formed in the early 1980s The Stringbusters with future Supertones bass player Marc Lipsher. From the Stringbusters, Tim and Marc moved onto the Mustangs and then The Dragsters. With The Dragsters, Tim and Marc recorded their only major label release, Stoked, on Island Records subsidiary Great Jones label.
Tim relates how The Supertones came to be: I guess it was January of 1989 when I met Ted Lawrence at Chelsea Guitars here in NYC. Ted would come in on the way to his rehearsal studio and we found that we shared an interest in old pre-CBS Fenders and love of The Ventures, Link Wray and The Shadows. We said lets get a band going and we got Marc Lipscher interested on bass, who was in a couple of NYC retro bands with me, The Dragsters and The Mustangs. Then we got Steve Busby to play drums, he was in a band that was rehearsing in Teds studio at the time. We played at the Memphis Studio Christmas party and everybody had a blast.
Trying to come up with a name for the newly formed surf band, Tim and Ted considered using but ultimately rejected, the name of The Penetrators (which was later adopted by the great spy-surf band from Atlanta). Looking across the studio they noticed a very cool amplifier from the 1930s with a speaker hole in the shape of a harp or lyre. Being a good Irishman, this was Tims sign for the name of the band. The amplifier brand was The Supertone amp thus The Supertones.
On their early success Tim states: Everything seemed to click and we started getting a lot of gigs at places like McGoverns and the Continental and all around the Lower East Side. We also recorded The Big Wet Twang in 1990. We went on like that for about 3 years and then Ted wanted to form Purple Knif. So I thought
|
|