Supercharger Biography
by
Chris Larry
Brought together by a
love of rock & roll and a newly purchased drum set Supercharger
rocked the early '90s with trashy guitar riffs and a full-throttle
misfit punk attack. Based on the cretin hop of the Ramones and the Angry Samoans
with a good knowledge of rock & roll's two-minute pop nugget
history, Supercharger deconstructed songs till only the essentials of
beat and hooks remained. Filling in the gaps with power and volume the
music comes across like a cold slap in the face. Teenage mayhem and a
general antisocial sentiment cast the band as delinquent savants like
those that created the music originally in the 1950s. Calling San
Francisco central headquarters, Greg Lowery
(bass/vocals), Darin Raeffelli (guitar/vocals), and Karen Singletary
(drums/vocals) formed in 1991 and before playing out or mastering
singing and playing at the same time, they recorded their debut platter
Supercharger and released it on their own label Radio X. As Lowery says
of the record, "we basically were learning as we were writing the
songs." A limited vinyl pressing of 500 created a collectors item, rumor
has it fans/collectors in Japan pay upwards of 500 bucks a pop.
Supercharger was later reissued on Bellingham, WA, Garage Punk label
Estrus Records in 1997 with two bonus tracks to trump the bootleggers.
After a handful of singles the band was back recording their second and
final long player Goes Way Out, this time given a wide release on Estrus in 1993. Standing as their masterwork, Goes Way Out
was also their swan song as it was their last release and basically
came out as the band was folding. The band imploded after a 1993 tour of
Europe with the fabulous Mummies where both bands took their budget
rock manifesto to places like Holland and Belgium. After the death of
the band, the individual members continued to D.I.Y. themselves into
punk rock history. Singletary and Raeffelli formed the short-lived
Brentwoods and than Raeffelli went on to do a Kim Fowley trip with teenage all-girl band the Donnas. Lowery played in the Rip Offs (with Jon Von who had recently departed the Mr. T Experience), the Infections, and currently the Zodiac Killers.
He also started and runs the punk rock label Rip Off Records, which
continues to champion the visual, musical, and attitudinal style
employed by Supercharger.
Tracklist
| 1 |
| She's So Cool |
| 2 |
| I Broke My Mind |
| 3 |
| All About Judy |
| 4 |
| Sooprize Package For Mr. Mineo |
| 5 |
| The Day My Body Vaporized |
| 6 |
| Lost Cause |
| 7 |
| Phobia |
| 8 |
| Are You A Boy/Girl? |
| 9 |
| San Bruno |
| 10 |
| The Ghost Of Steve McQueen |
| 11 |
| You Put The Hex On Me |
| 12 |
| Hey, I'm Gone |
| 13 |
| Whiptofized |
| 14 |
| Hit The Road |
| 15 |
| Gum Flappin' Baby |
| 16 |
| Zodiac |
