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PHOENIX NEW TIMES 02/24/2000
END OF THE ROAD
For Jesus Chrysler Supercar and Windigo, breaking up is hard to do -- unless you're partying with the Me So Horny girls
By Bob Mehr
A 2 Live Crew show was the last place Windigo front man Matt Strangeways expected to spend his Valentine's Day. On a day that's supposed to be filled with hearts and flowers, Strangeways' mood couldn't have been blacker.
It wasn't a girl that Strangeways was pining over, but rather the demise of his band, one of Phoenix's premier hard-rock/metal outfits for the better part of seven years.
Strangeways had sensed the end was approaching last fall when the group parted ways with original guitarist Jason Wilhite. Undaunted, the singer decided to pause from the grind of writing and performing and went back to his native New York for a three-month sabbatical. Strangeways says he had every intention of returning to the Valley after the holidays, hiring a new guitarist and restarting the band.
Though he was able to hire former Sunburst Lovezap member Dave Buckley to fill the vacated guitar slot, resuming Windigo turned out to be an ill-fated hope. A combination of unspecified personal reasons, a sour experience with the band's record label and what Strangeways calls "guys deciding they don't want to do this forever" resulted in a decision by the rest of the group -- bassist Dave Curwin and drummer Junior Newlin -- to close the curtain on the band's run.
For Strangeways, the decision was understandably difficult. "It's been like years and years of blood, sweat and tears going into building the name and the band," he says, a trace of disappointment still hanging in his voice. "So it wasn't easy to part with. My heart was really in it."
It was in that somewhat depressed frame of mind that Strangeways called up longtime friend and fellow Valley musician Mitch Steele, front man for rock band Jesus Chrysler Supercar, and former Windigo publicist Sean Donovan with an invite to 2 Live Crew's Valentine's Day show at the Cajun House.
Ironically, Steele was mired in much the same state as Strangeways, having pulled the plug on his own long-running outfit several weeks earlier. The parallels were not lost on either men. Windigo and Jesus Chrysler formed at the same time, both watched their career paths chart a similarly upward course, only to run afoul when faced with the unending vagaries of the music biz.
If a concert featuring the notoriously raunchy rappers and their X-rated stage show seemed like an unlikely place to commiserate, they turned out to be wrong. The trio eventually ended up backstage, palling around with band members and "the internationally renowned Me So Horny dancers." Fraternizing with the Crew turned out to be just the tonic that the two disheartened front men needed.
"It was just so surreal to be sitting in between Chinaman and the Me So Horny dancers," says Strangeways. "That became the joke of the evening between Mitch and I. I kept telling him that if all else failed, we could go on the road with 2 Live Crew."
Speaking about Jesus Chrysler's split, Steele stressed that the breakup wasn't the result of any animosity, but rather "having plenty of opportunities and running into too many stumbling blocks." Though he maintains that Jesus Chrysler is ostensibly finished, he did note that the band is still shopping some of the demos it recorded for Columbia and Island to its industry contacts. But "my feeling is we're pretty much done."
"I loved the band and the music, but it was a question of beating a dead horse," says Steele. He says that Jesus Chrysler still has a small stockpile of material, tracks that were originally intended to be a companion to the band's 1999 Land Speed EP.
Despite his frustration with the career prospects in the music industry, Steele isn't planning to retire just yet. He's already performed a pair of shows, fronting a new band tentatively dubbed Chet. The combo is composed of members of defunct Tempe psycho-rockers Beats the Hell Out of Me and Phunk Junkee Jim Woodling on bass. Steele says the group has already demoed some material and will begin an active performing schedule in the coming months.
Similarly, Windigo's split has "opened a whole bunch of new opportunities" for Strangeways, one of which is a new band with guitarist Buckley. Though no other personnel have been secured, Strangeways says he has half a dozen songs ready and is eager to get things going with a new project.
"I'm not very patient when it comes to things like that. When I have something in my head, I don't want to sit around."
THE NEW YORKER Nov. 22, 1999 Night Life section
Arlene Grocery Nov. 17 - The rock of JESUS CHRYSLER SUPERCAR is as rollicking and mixed up as its
name, and onstage the band members wear stock-car racing jumpsuits.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Nov. 4, 1999
Fast cars and rock 'n' roll are a natural combination in the music of Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen. Some rockers raced cars in real life (John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, and one of the ABBA guys) and some acted in movie scenes featuring fast cars (Mick Jagger, Meatloaf).
The rock and racing connection continues in the form of Jesus Chrysler Supercar. This Phoenix quintet wears racing uniforms onstage and releases albums called Latterday Speedway and Land Speed. In addition, the group sounds like a supercharged version of new wavers The Cars. The band calls its sound "speedway rock." Despite limited sponsorship, it has the horsepower to contend in the rock race.
PITCH WEEKLY October 21, 1999 by Jon Niccum
THE JOURNAL TIMES October 7, 1999 by Patrick Fineran
Arizona band brings its over-the-top rock to Confettiz
This job is great. I get to meet a lot of interesting people. I get to meet a lot of people who have some serious fixations on things. Most of the time it's music, but it varies sometimes. I once worked with a woman who - to put it mildly - had a serious crush on NASCAR. All you had to do to put Jerri over the edge was criticize Rusty Wallace. It was great fun I tell you.
I just had the good fortune to run across a Mesa, Arizona, band that's coming to town that has that same race car fetish. Jesus Chrysler Supercar brings its over-the-top, pile-driving schtick to Confettiz on Oct. 20. Before you start complaining about the band's name, it's all in fun. As a matter of fact, on it's "Land Speed" record (I LOVE that!) the band sings "I have a friend in Jesus" on the song "Rusty Jones." OK, enough disclaimers already. On with the music. JC Supercar's members - Mitch Steele, guitarists Joey St. Clair and Jason Corman, drummer Matt Collins and new bassist Mike Brandt - deliver a thrill-ride knockout punch on the follow-up to their highly acclaimed "Latterday Speedway" debut. The guitars rip and grind as the band shifts gears from careening rockers to melodic groove numbers. Throughout, the rhythm section keeps the Supercar on track while Steele keeps driving the tempo to breakneck levels. Whew, enough race car references already!
Watching a video of JC Supercar, I realized where the real fun is. This band flat out rocks on CD. It positively blows away crowds onstage. Decked out in NASCAR jumpsuits and pogoing all over the stage, there's no doubt that this is a band to be reckoned with. The Supercar has had a couple of close brushes with major label deals that fell through, but that's all the better for us. There's not much chance the group would come to Racine if it was on some major's agenda.
Over time, the band has opened for Radiohead, Korn, the Deftones, Goo Goo Dolls, Frank Black and Citizen King. The members are convinced that by acting stupid and unprofessional at all times they have made all those headliners stars. That doesn't keep JC Supercar from being invited to play at several of the top music showcases around the country. Reportedly at the prestigious South by Southwest fest, Steele told the crowds, "We're gonna play an AC/DC country song for you hillbillies." At the Vegas-run EAT'M showcase, Supercar was ejected from the club it was to play before its set even started. At the last minute the stage manager told the band it couldn't use its own gear. With the band off the bill, many fans and industry types went away disappointed.
Jesus Chrysler Supercar is a rare band. The group flat-out rocks, has an out-of-the-norm edge that keeps you interested and has more hooks than
a psycho fly fisherman. This band grows on you. At first listen you merely love it. After a while you're a disciple of Jesus Chrysler Supercar.
LAS VEGAS WEEKLY October 1999 By Jeff Inman
The Checkered Flag
Sounding like the hot-laps house band at
Satan's weekly stock car extravaganza, Jesus
Chrysler Supercar is ready to rev its engines
Mitch Steele has been chasing the dream for awhile. The lead singer
of Jesus Chrysler Supercar, he's been playing the music industry
game for the last four years, lining up gobs of label showcases,
sucking up to an endless stream of A&R guys. Occasionally someone will nibble a bit, but nothing
much comes of it. The one thing Steele has learned through it
all: "You can't depend on those people one bit," he says, a
healthy dose of annoyance creeping into his voice. "One day
they love you, the next they think you suck."
Example: Steele cites the band's first self-produced demo. J.C.
Supercar had been together only a few months and hadn't quite
figured out its identity.
"We were a little derivative," Steele admits. "And when we'd
send it to labels they would just slam us as being unoriginal.
Now we talk to those same guys and they're saying we could
have sold a million copies of that disc. It's ridiculous."
Earlier this year, Steele thought he wouldn't have to play the
game anymore. J.C. Supercar had the golden challis right in
front of its hands. This past spring the quintet had just finished
a development deal with Sony and was in negotiations with
Island Records. Sony didn't know what to do with the band. But
at Island, everyone from the president to the mail guy liked the
group; the label said that Supercar would have the contract in
three weeks. The only problem: Seagram's had other plans for
Island, the label embroiled in the largest consolidation the music
industry had ever seen. A week before the band was to sign its
deal, Island called and said Universal, now its parent company,
had put a freeze on new contracts. A few days later, Supercar's
A&R rep was let go, and the group watched its dreams of
stardom get downsized.
"We really got cut off at the knees," Steele says. "We couldn't
believe it had happened."
The backtracking left the band dejected and wondering what to
do. "After all this time we're right back at square one," Steele
says. But rather than sit around and wallow in self-pity,
Supercar has decided to make its own destiny. The group has
just released its third disc, the Land Speed EP. They've also
booked themselves on a two-month trek around the U.S., taking
the band from Phoenix to Toronto, hitting virtually every college
town in between.
"The one thing we did learn out of this whole thing is that we're
not going to wait around anymore," Steele says. "We've been
sitting around and watching the pot boil, but that's never going
to happen. We've got to get out and make it happen for
ourselves."
The pro-active stance goes a bit against the band's grain.
Supercar both embodies and mocks everything rock 'n' roll: the
bombastic flare, the goofy theatrics, the sheer testosterone.
"We're showing that the rock cliches are easy to do, we just do
them bigger than everyone else," Steele says.
Supercar can go from sounding like the hot-laps house band at
Satan's weekly stock car extravaganza ("Time Trials" and the
grinding "Coming Clean") to some goofball, backwoods hicks
pondering a pretty mouth ("Rusty Jones"). In between it all,
Supercar throws in a hefty dose of hyperactive harmonies and
some heavy and twisted guitar lines. The whole thing relies
more on grooves than growls; it's far from derivative. But for a
band that likes to go out and bounce around, taking control is a
little out of character.
Yet having dominated the Phoenix music scene for the last few
years--the group's live shows have become legendary--there's
no reason to stay at home and hang out. "Let's put it this way,
Phoenix isn't really a music industry hotbed," Steele jokes.
And the band's outreach program has already paid off. J.C.
Supercar recently inked a deal with the British label DC
Recordings--the two hooked up at
this year's South by Southwest music conference in Austin. The
plan is for DC to re-release Land Speed in Europe
this winter, backed with a heavy push by MTV Europe. By
January the group will be trekking through the European
countryside, playing wherever it can.
"It's weird to have to do it this way," Steele says. "We always
thought we'd get things figured out over here first and then try
our hand at Europe. But there's too many bands here, so now
it's the other way around. They seem to really want American
bands over there. We plan to give it to them."
Wonder if Hendrix said the same thing before jetting off to England to get discovered.
What makes JC Supercar so great is that they have a distinctive sound. Sure, there are other rock 'n' roll bands out there with a heavy pop edge, but Supercar is unique - mostly due to the lack of three-chord verses, cheesy choruses, and redundant song structure. A great example of the band's style can be found on "Coming Clean," which has five parts to it - each part hooky-as-hell. The song will follow you around for days.
Jason Corman's and Joey St. Clair's guitars work great together. Instead of continuous chords, like you may expect, they play an interesting riff/tight-noodle style throughout many of the songs. And during much of the singing they tend to hold chords for a couple of moments, as opposed to rhythmic strums. Both of these techniques allow Mitch Steele's vocals to shine through, without getting buried underneath the music. Good thing, because Steele's vocals are worth hearing. They are powerful and unique. In "Rusty Jones" he skips to falsetto for certain words throughout the verses, which makes for a fun listen. Steele also tracks in some full harmonies and backup vocals throughout the album. Land Speed is very well recorded and the production is outstanding. Each song is completely radio-ready.
Just as the band wears stripes on their racecar uniforms while performing, they also wear their musical influences on their sleeves while songwriting and producing. The fact that the guitar rhythms, accentuated vocals, and keyboards of "Dopesick Lunatic" will remind you of a Cars song is no accident. It's not possible to accidentally use the exact same handclap from the 80s pop legend's "My Best Friend's Girl" in a song that already plays around by exaggerating some of the band's traits. It is clear that Supercar was simply having fun in the studio paying homage to one of their influences. Listen to this CD and you'll hear the fun coming right through the speakers.
It was then that the inside stage manager at Tommy's came up to Collins and Steele, telling them they wouldn't be allowed to use their gear either. Steele was pissed. "That was the first we had heard about not being able to play our own gear," he says. In fact, every band was supposed to have been informed about the "no equipment" policy. JC Supercar never got the letter.
"They kicked us out of the bar because we wouldn't play on their crappy gear," Steele says. "We'd been there 15 minutes. Some of the guys in the band had ordered some food. That's when the stage manager guy and a bunch of bouncers came over and told us we weren't playing and that we had to leave immediately. We couldn't believe it. We just laughed about it."
Supercar's management, however, didn't. The band is closing in on a record deal. Its EAT'M performance was to be one of the band's final label showcases. Supercar's manager had to wait outside Tommy Rocker's and explain to people who had come to see the band why they weren't playing. "It made us look like idiots," Steele says. "It was ridiculous."
Yeah, they got the whole NASCAR schtick going on. And occasionally Jesus Chrysler Supercar does sound like the hot laps house band for Satan's weekly stock car extravaganza. But the Arizona quintet can write some damn fine songs full of hyperactive harmonies with some of rock's most interesting guitar interplay to date--period. It's hard and heavy, but relies more on groove than growls. Sure they're sacrilegious, but who cares? This shit rocks.
The biggest shock of the weekend for me was the Saturday night showcase by SXSW virgin Jesus Chrysler Supercar. Fueled by an amazingly large and energized crowd at Babe's, the band pumped out the most exciting set I've ever seen it play. Stalking the stage in black NASCAR jumpsuits, band members were a berserk celebration/satire of rock's greatest clichés. The alien surroundings only emboldened singer Mitch Steele, who at one point told the audience, "We're gonna play an AC/DC country song for you hillbillies."
The band's secret weapon was its friend and van driver, Dave Jensen, who was an amphetamine-charged dancing machine in his foam-rubber red cowboy hat and yellow jumpsuit. Jensen, who cites Jesus Chrysler and Jimmy Eat World as his two favorite bands, gets my vote for Most Valuable Player of SXSW.
Having said all that, last Wednesday I briefly felt like an extra on the V.I.P set. It happened about midway through Jesus Chrysler Supercar's set at Bash on Ash. Even by normal JCS standards, this was a raucous gig from the first cymbal crash, with glitter flying all over the crowd and booze being sprayed in every direction.
Fueling this escalating sense of calculated mayhem was the fact that the band was being videotaped. Jesus Chrysler recently signed a deal with new British label DC Recordings for European distribution, with guarantees of a U.K. tour and a heavy video push on MTV Europe.
"It's to serve a couple of purposes," Mitch Steele, the band's singer, says of the footage shot at the gig. "One of the main purposes, obviously, is that we have good video footage to help shop the band. The other thing is this deal with the company out of the U.K."
Before Jesus Chrysler even hit the stage, word was spreading that some video ringers were gonna make it up onstage and turn the proceedings into a kind of homage to "Hot for Teacher" or "Girls Girls Girls," depending on which brand of sexist '80s metal you prefer.
Sure enough, early in the show, a couple of excitable women in the front row lowered their skimpy tops for the camera. But that was hardly preparation for what was to come. About 45 minutes into the gig, 10 or so V.I.P. types jumped onstage and jiggled like it was 1999. Josh Prior of Yoko Love (who opened the show, along with Digital Free Loner Boy) joined the festivities, alternately grinding with the dancers and getting passed over the crowd like a beach ball. Meanwhile, breasts were getting exposed like it was Cinemax on a Friday night. The lingering question at the end of the night, though, was who were those merry exhibitionists, and what did they have to do with Jesus Chrysler Supercar?
"I have no idea who the hell they were," says Steele. "I know that some of them were from Tiffany's. I didn't know 'em from shit. I think it might have been that our co-manager's girlfriend used to work at Tiffany's, and she just came down with a bunch of her friends. So I'm just like, 'Whatever. I have no problem with you showing us your tits all night long.'"
Once order was restored to a manageable level of anarchy, Jesus Chrysler returned to its patented high-decibel rock, winding down with a version of Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love." All the while, the band's van driver, Dave Jensen (who I like to call "the sixth Chrysler"), danced like his NASCAR jumpsuit had caught on fire and basically chewed up the scenery with true rock 'n' roll gusto.
Wild as the video shoot was, the real excitement for Jesus Chrysler is yet to come, with the six-song EP Land Speed set for a June 10 release and a six-to-eight-week European tour likely for September. The video footage will likely be edited into clips for "Dope Sick Lunatic" and "Jillbilly," the latter of which Steele describes as "a modern-day 'Lola' kind of song."
The band's European connection was facilitated by one of the band's two managers, Brian Scully, who used to work at Sony Records. Two months ago, at SXSW, he made a connection with DC founders Tony Dobson and Paul Cardow, U.K. concert promoters who had formed into a record label and were looking for American acts.
"It's not really a money deal, like signing a deal here, where you're promised $500,000 or something," Steele says. "It's an opportunity for us to go over there and tour, and it's exposure over there, which gives us more of an edge over here.
"I guess they want some American-sounding bands over there. I guess everybody's really burned on the whole English sound, especially in England. They're really sick of it, and they're looking for some new stuff."
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