Supersuckers - History

History

Supersuckers was formed in November 1988 as The Black Supersuckers in Tucson, Arizona. The original line-up was Eddie Spaghetti on bass guitar, Dan "Thunder" Bolton and Rontrose Heathman on guitars, Dancing Eagle on drums, and Eric Martin as the lead singer. In 1989, they moved to Seattle, Washington. Here, Martin left the band. The song "Marie" was allegedly dedicated to Martin's mother after his death. The remaining members decided to continue as a four piece with Spaghetti taking over the vocalist role. They recorded numerous singles for various small labels before being signed to Sub Pop. A sampling of these are collected on the 1992 release The Songs All Sound the Same. Their first album with Sub Pop, The Smoke of Hell, was released in 1992.

In 1995, guitarist Heathman temporarily left the band. He was replaced by Rick Sims, formerly of the band the Didjits (and later the Gaza Strippers), for the recording of their third album, The Sacrilicious Sounds of the Supersuckers, and the subsequent tour. Heathman returned for the recording of their fourth album, Must've Been High, which, as their first alternative country album, was a major turning point for the band. Their fifth and final album with Sub-Pop was their greatest hits release, 1999's How the Supersuckers Became the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World. In the same year, they released their fifth studio album, The Evil Powers of Rock 'N' Roll. In 2001, the band formed its own record label, Mid-Fi Recordings. In addition to numerous singles and several live recordings, the band released its sixth studio album, Motherfuckers Be Trippin' on this label. Dancing Eagle then left the group and was replaced by Mike "Murderburger" Musburger, who was in turn later replaced by Scott "Scottzilla" Churilla. Their most recent studio release is Get It Together in 2008. On tour, the Supersuckers always close their show with a "fake encore", where the band and the audience go through a 15 second pretend exit and stage entrance.

Recent years have found The Supersuckers in disarray as both their long-time manager Chris Neal and Rontrose Heathman (left in August 2009) left the band for undisclosed reasons. The band officially announced a hiatus, during which Spaghetti continued to tour and record solo. He eventually abandoned Supersucker's own Mid-Fi Records label and signed with Bloodshot Records in November 2010. His new solo album, Sundowner, was released on February 15, 2011. Shortly after the albums release, Supersuckers regrouped and began touring with Thin Lizzy in Europe. This was followed by a tour of bars and clubs throughout North America with co-headliners Nashville Pussy. The band are currently working on their next album, although no title or release date have been set.