STILL SUPER AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: Davis and the 'Drag reunite

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

When rock bands — the famous (The Eagles), the infamous (The Sex Pistols) or the semi-famous (Superdrag) — reunite, the first question out of the mouths of cynically minded fans usually has to do with how much money the members will make.

It’s a fair question. On their “Hell Freezes Over” tour, The Eagles seemed nonplussed at the fact fans were selling non-vital organs just to afford tickets. The Sex Pistols came out and declared that the only reason for doing a reunion tour was the cash.

The guys in Superdrag, now ... well, that’s a different story. If it was strictly about the benjamins, the guys could have jumped at several previous opportunities to come their way over the years. But for the original members of the Knoxville-based power-pop outfit, it’s always been about one thing, and one thing only — the music.

That’s why they parted ways with Elektra Records, after riding high enough to brush their fingers against mainstream stardom. That’s why they called it quits when they did, still able to remain friends and hold up a ragged banner of artistic integrity instead of riding an artistically exhausted horse into the ground.

And it’s why they’re back together — singer John Davis, guitarist Brandon Fisher, drummer Don Coffey Jr., bassist Tom Pappas — because the music summoned them. And these guys ... well, they’re humble enough and earnest enough that when the muse calls, they heed.

“I kind of always felt like it was inevitable; it didn’t really come out of left field completely,” Davis told The Daily Times this week. “We always kind of left the door open, and we never took out an ad saying that we’d never play together again. I just think there were a few mitigating factors that bumped up against us and aligned us to come down the chute again.”

To fully appreciate the story of Superdrag, you have to go back to the beginning — the early 1990s, when Fisher recruited his girlfriend’s cousin — Davis — to play the drums in The Used, Fisher’s band with Pappas. When Coffey, a friend of the band, overheard Davis play some of his own songs, he picked up the drumsticks and tapped along. Pappas switched to bass, Fisher took the lead guitar slot and Superdrag was created.

After a couple of vinyl singles and a song on a College Music Journal compilation, the band recorded an EP, “The Fabulous 8 Track Sounds of Superdrag,” in 1995. The band’s first full-length, “Regretfully Yours,” was released on Elektra Records the next year, and the first single, “Sucked Out,” quickly became an MTV “Buzzbin” staple. The album’s second single, “Destination Ursa Major,” set the band up for a promising second album, one that Elektra expected to be more radio-friendly.

Superdrag, however, had other ideas. Full of unusual instrumentation, the foursome made “Head Trip in Every Key” what most fans consider their masterpiece. Elektra didn’t think so, however, and soon cut off the money train. The band was dropped while recording its third full-length (“In the Valley of Dying Stars”), and shortly thereafter Pappas quit the band to move to Nashville. New bass player Sam Powers came on board, but before “Dying Stars” could be released, Fisher left the group as well. Former V-Roy Mic Harrison was brought in as guitarist, and although the band had one more album under its belt — “Last Call for Vitriol,” released in 2002 — Davis and Coffey, the remaining original members, were already looking at life beyond the band.

Davis, in particular, was keen on integrating his faith into his music — in 2001, after a long battle with alcohol, he turned his life over to God. His self-titled debut album was a gospel-influenced hybrid of rock and spirituality; a far cry from the punk-influenced pop he had been churning out in Superdrag. His new album, “Arigato!” is more a return to form as far as the sound goes, but the subject matter — faith, family, love and hope — have replaced the darkness and cynicism and melancholy that pervaded Superdrag’s last couple of albums.

Reconciling those two sides within himself was another factor in agreeing to a Superdrag reunion, Davis added.

“It’s kind of like a double helix, and it’s a chain of thought I’ve dealt with in the past,” he said. “I’m a Christian man, and I guess maybe my point of view initially was, does that mean I can’t play Superdrag anymore? At first I thought the answer was yes, but there’s an inherent theological flaw in that — it means that God wasn’t sovereign until 2001.

“Now, we both know that’s not correct. He invented rock, and He invented our band, and He meant for us to meet and break up and reunite again. All of the dark times, that’s pre-ordained by God, too, and He’s sufficient enough to redeem even the darkest of dark times.”

Earlier this year, the band’s record company — Arena Rock — released an album of B-sides and rarities, “Changin’ Tires on the Road to Ruin,” a project Davis had mastered himself three years ago. It’s release, however, got him thinking about his old band again, as well as the offers that had come their way over the past four years urging them to get back together.

“Basically, before I made the decision whether to do it or not, I called Don and just asked, ‘Do you want to play?’” Davis said. “It was a very short series of conversations, and in five minutes or less of talking to each of the guys, it was pretty much unanimous that everybody wanted to do something and move it forward. A lot of the things about the situation before had fallen by the wayside; factors that had precluded us from continuing to play in this lineup aren’t there anymore. And because we kept up good relationships with our management and our agent, the people that helped us to do our thing before were ready at a moment’s notice to start gauging what the interest would be.”

As it turns out, the interest in booking the original lineup has been red-hot, from both those in the industry and the fans who have followed Superdrag all these years. After Saturday night’s show at Barley’s Taproom in Knoxville sold out, a second show was added; other dates around the country include performances in venues that Davis considers old favorites, to people in the audience who are old friends.

“It’s really exciting and satisfying to get to go and play, and we were thrilled to start seeing those places on the schedule,” he said. “Going to play at places like Irving Plaza, places we first played back in ’96 or ’97 — it’s been great. We tried to keep our expectations modest to extremely low — I know I did, because I didn’t want to be unrealistic about who was going to show up — but it’s been pleasantly surprising.”

For the tour, the guys learned and relearned roughly 35 songs (including one from Davis’s new album, “Arigato!”). Doing so was like riding a bike, he added — after playing them hundreds of times over a decade, it was relatively easy to slide back into the old routines without a long period of adjustment. With a two-night stand in Knoxville, the band will reach back to songs that pre-date “Regretfully Yours” — songs off of those vinyl singles, the EP and more.

Other than one song off of “Arigato!”, there isn’t any new material. Not yet, anyway.

“We end up having the recording conversation at least once a day,” he said. “Tom’s always rocking, and Brandon’s been writing lately. There’s a rumor going around that Don Coffey has some compositions he’s written, and I’m going to beg and plead until he plays them for me. Who knows — it might be time for the overblown, self-titled, double LP.

“As far as touring goes, we haven’t laid too much track into the future on that end, but I would safe to say we’d be down for whatever, as long as it’s fun and everybody’s willing to do it.”

For now, the willingness is there. Not for the big paycheck or the big audiences — if that was the case, the band would have gotten together when it had an opportunity to open for Papa Roach in Nashville. An old friend setting the show up made a generous offer, Davis said, but it just didn’t feel right.

“It would have taken the whole thing completely out of context,” he said. “No disrespect to Papa Roach, but if Superdrag was going to play again for the first time, it was not going to be to 9,000 Papa Roach fans who couldn’t care less and 300 Superdrag fans who would rather have been at the Exit/In.

“We knew there was only one opportunity to do this, to bring it back from the dead, so to speak, and we wanted to get it right. Not just for our sakes, but for the people who are going to take the time and effort to come out and see us do it. We wanted to make it first and foremost something our fans would enjoy, and I’m really pleased that the response has been amazing. It’s been a completely positive experience.”