Superdrag Remembers ‘Regretfully Yours’ Album on 30th Anniversary

 Late last month, on March 26^th, Superdrag celebrated 30 years of their debut album ‘Regretfully Yours’, with some behind the scenes photos from their studio sessions.  Founder John Davis also provided some memories of that first album which shot out their biggest hit, “Sucked Out” about the music industry sucking the soul out of music and its artists. 

Superdrag, the Knoxville post-grunge band who brought forth highly consumable material in the late 1990s and early 2000s, already had released ep’s and singles prior to ‘Regretfully Yours’.  Yet “Sucked Out” brought forth the MTV and mainstream crowd to find some excellent songwriting and hard rock power.  The guitar distortion is incredibly thick yet great melodies still seep through, especially on songs like the catchy “Destination Ursa Major” and “Cynicality”.  Their sharp-witted lyrics in a self-conscious nature provided some heart and mind to post-grunge music without sacrificing power.  Sometimes they let the grunge ride like on the opening songs “Slot Machine” and “Phaser”, yet sometimes nuance is involved like on the slow low and loud, “Nothing Good Is Real”.  

John Davis may have used a guitar crunch of the best grunge bands, but his singing and songwriting softened and enlightened those mighty drums, bass, and guitars which created a balanced equilibrium.  Brandon Fisher on guitar, Tom Pappas on bass, and Don Coffey Jr. on drums rounded out the original foursome.

Davis recalled, “First of all, man, wow! Can't believe it's been 30 years. Getting old sucks, but it sure beats the alternative. Every time. I remember Tim O'Heir coming to Knoxville to do pre-production. Our friend Whitey (of "Whitey's Theme") and roommate Lefty (theme still TBD) ran Underdog Records on Cumberland; they let us set up and jam in there so Tim could listen to us.

I remember a few things about us being at Easley. I remember thinking how cool it was that Sonic Youth had been there recently. (Most of [Sonic Youth’s] Washing Machine was recorded there.) Sadly the studio was lost in a fire some years later.  To my recollection we took a QP down there with us... and we ran out. We thought we'd finished tracking the record in 7 days. More on than later. Then it was time to mix, so we headed for Fort Apache in Boston. @dinosaurjr recorded Bug in there. We might as well have been mixing at Abbey Road! Walking in the footsteps of giants!!”

Davis continued on about the material that would eventually make up their second album, ‘Head Trip in Every Key’.  "Then I went home and wrote a ton of new songs. "Sucked Out" was just one of them. I sent it to the A&R just to be a smartass and told him, "here's the second album." And a bunch of those songs WERE on our 2nd album. But when he heard "Sucked Out", everything changed, and it had to be added to the record immediately. And you all know what happened after that!" Many of these songs are live staples to this day; expect to hear plenty of Regretfully Yours at our Destination Superdrag shows this year!”

Currently, live shows are set for Nashville in June and Boston in October.  Perhaps more shows will come.