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Supermassive, one fun funk jam

We’ve said it before, Super Massive remains one the best local funky jam bands around. We’re saying it again because its worthy of repeating.
We caught the May Rong Tans show. The perfect place to catch a great band with a jam band vibe by the way. Super Massive started out playing to about 5 people at 10 o’clock. By midnight that number had swelled to triple digits leaving not a single parking spot vacant.
“We’re a late bloomer” Alonzo (percussion) told us. That’s probably because a strong jam band vibe comes on slow. You don’t just hit it and boom there it is. It creeps.
“Strong jam band vibe” is accurate if not understating Super massive’s talent.
Of course you will hear cover tunes that span across genres of reggae, rock and the great jam bands in the live shows. But the true jewels are Super Massive’s original work. Band members Jeremy Lacinak (Vocals/Guitar), John Gentry (Guitar), Nick Blasky (Bass/Vocals), Andrew Lenihan (Keys), Tim Hensley (Drums) and Alonzo Leggette (Percussion) come together as a well oiled machine. Smooth reggae grooves, scalding rock riffs and hard hitting bass bumps are laced with the funky drum work and tickled over with precise percussion. It’s hip as hell, cool as a frozen cucumber and hotter than a Scotch Bonnet smoothie.
The tracks Dog Eat Dog, Unk, Bad Men and Dem Wrong really show off the rock n roll in the bands blood. On the other hand, Gotta Have Time, Shine, All Night, Collie Mi Cutchie, and Night Walk sound like straight Jamaica joints, musically as well as lyrically. The cd’s sound is a reflection of the bands’ diverse influences. Jeremy explains: “This band started as a reggae cover band, so we know quite a few reggae tunes. The beauty of this was that it allowed us to focus on the feel and timing. To sink our teeth into the rhythms, and experiment with different beats and chord changes. It also left us with a decent repertoire of covers to sprinkle about the set, include Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse, Third World, Bunny Wailer, and of course Bob Marley. Lately we’ve been taking songs we like from other genres and arranging them as reggae tunes, such as “Dirty Work” by Steely Dan, and “Across the Universe” by the Beatles”.
They’re back at Rong Tan’s on Friday June 18th. For the schedule, music & more go to www.myspace.com/thesupermassive6.

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EV: Super Massive is an Eastside band, however many of our Eastside readers may not be familiar with you guys. Introduce the band and tell us how you came together.

SM: In the spring of 2005, our friend and former band-mate, P.J Harrington, was itching to put together a reggae band after the breakup of Admiral Walker, his previous reggae endeavor. He called a group of musicians that he knew could get the job done and we began playing reggae cover tunes as “Selector”. In late 2006, P.J. and Selecter keyboardist, Jerome Kincaid moved to Austin, TX to pursue other avenues of music. This left me (Jeremy), Alonzo Leggette, and Nick Blasky (of the very popular jazz fusion group, Ray’s Music Exchange) and drummers (that were different from gig to gig), to carry on. It was then that we picked up John Gentry on lead guitar and Andy Lenihan on keyboards. It was also about that time that we decided to stop playing musical drum chairs, so to speak, and brought Tim Hensley on as our full time permanent drummer. John and Tim, having also played in Ray’s Music Exchange and being the super-adaptable musicians that they are, were obvious choices to take over for P.J. and our myriad of drummers. Andy had been coming to our shows for a while and was in Grand Oversoul, a local band for which John Gentry had produced a CD.
It was about this time that we began learning original tunes and working them into our set. Today we play mostly original tunes in our shows though we know about 75 cover songs. About 7 months ago in the process of going through the details of putting our CD together we found out that there is a Ska band from the UK called “The Selecter”, which is when we changed the name to “Super-Massive”, an adjective we had been using on our MySpace bulletins to describe our shows (super-massive reggae w/ selector!)

EV: People who hear Super Massive for the first time will instantly gather you play deep reggae, do you think of your band as pure reggae and how did forming a dedicated reggae band in Cincy ever come about?

SM: I’ve (Jeremy) been a reggae fan ever since my mom randomly bought me a Peter
Tosh album and a Bob Marley album when I was 12. She always encouraged my music and love of music and was trying to expose me to different styles. I listened to those albums and have been hooked ever since. Alonzo and I (Jeremy) were original members of Zionites, a reggae band that we started as a bunch of kids with some friends of ours including, Lucky Spaulding, who still plays around town and who has recently reformed Zionites. That band played throughout the Midwest all through the 90’s and to be honest, I’ve (Jeremy) never really thought of playing anything else. Staying true to what I feel and know has been my strategy, if you will, throughout my musical endeavors. So when P.J. called me (Jeremy) and Alonzo to start Selecter it was a natural fit. Nick Blasky (bass) had always wanted to play reggae and the rest is history.

EV: You’ve just released your new self titled CD “Super Massive” is this the first CD you have released?

SM: This is our first release, we plan on going back into the studio sometime this winter to begin work on number two. Hopefully if time and money allow, we will be able to release our second cd, and dub our first cd in the spring.

EV: We have been jammin’ this CD around here for days now, at first it seems a fluid reggae collaboration, deeper listening reveals two distinct phases. First you have the Lacinak written songs that have an “Island like” flow and easy feeling, they speak of love, relationships, great sex, good times and righteous “collie” (think Kush). Then you have the Blasky songs that are written with more of a Rasta attitude, in that they speak of political wrongs, injustice to society and the ills of man kind. And one really sweet rock/reggae/jam band instrumental “Unk”. Is this simply a reflection of each writer’s talents and personal focus or were there conscience efforts made on purpose to create a well rounded CD?

SM: We weren’t really trying to come up with two different dynamics, I think we were just writing from the heart.

EV: The tracks Dog Eat Dog, Unk, Bad Men and Dem Wrong really show off the rock n roll in the bands blood. Is this influence driven by any certain personalities in the group?

SM: These particular tunes are definitely studies in the rock /reggae dynamic. If you stick completely to conventional thought when writing any type of music, you can restrict the personality and possibility that might already be there. That being said, we all embrace the rock!

EV: On the other hand, Gotta Have Time, Shine, All Night, Collie Mi Cutchie, and Night Walk sound like straight Jamaica joints, musically as well as lyrically. With all the Sublime influenced rock reggae around, you decided to go back to the old school straight reggae dope, that’s refreshing and surprising. Where did this classic reggae motivation stem from?

SM: Its kind of the same answer as in question 2. I’ve (Jeremy) been a reggae fan ever since my mom bought me those two albums I mentioned. And while I like some dance hall reggae and I certainly like a myriad of musical styles, roots reggae has just always been my thing. My late friend and one time Zionites guitarist, Jordan Briggs Rebuhn told me, “Roots is too strong a sound not to come back eventually.” That’s one of those things that’s always stuck with me. And something that I’ve always believed is that there’s something to be said for staying true to what you know and love.

EV: Allow me to congratulate you on the CD, it’s fresh, clean, vibrant, intelligent and radio worthy. What I love about it most is the fact that it’s all original. Not just original tunes mind you, but original among the current jam band “reggae” bands. Many have reggae feel, but no real reggae soul. So many bands cry about Cincy conservatism, complaining about no interest in original bands and the like. This CD (among other recent releases from several local bands) goes to prove the bands producing original music will persevere... period. Covers are for casual bands, song writing is for the serious ones. That being said, what songs/artists do you cover when you choose to play covers at your live shows, or do you even play them at all?

SM: This band started as a reggae cover band, so we know quite a few reggae tunes. The beauty of this was that it allowed us to focus on the feel and timing. To sink our teeth into the rhythms, and experiment with different beats and chord changes. It also left us with a decent repertoire of covers to sprinkle about the set, include Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse, Third World, Bunny Wailer, and of course Bob Marley. Lately we’ve been taking songs we like from other genres and arranging them as reggae tunes, such as “Dirty Work” by Steely Dan, and “Across the Universe” by the Beatles.

EV: You guys released this CD back on September 19th at Stanleys Pub, Stanley’s has yet to join the official EV list so we weren’t there to cover the kick off or get the word out as we usually do with CD releases like this. Nevertheless, tell us what reaction have you had from the fans so far?

SM: (A) Our two CD release parties at Stanley’s Pub and the following night at The Madfrog were awesome! Our fans came out, we sold a good amount of CD’s, gave away a bunch too. So far, the response has been great! Everyone seems to really dig it. It’s gotten air play on WNKU and it got a great review from City Beat. Most importantly, our fans, who have waited so patiently for this CD to come out, have given us nothing but positive feedback. They seem to genuinely love it and we can’t ask for any more than that. That is, after all, why we do this.

EV: Your myspace has many show dates for area clubs and festivals, what shows have you played this year, which were especially great venues and which are you really looking forward to?

SM: We really enjoy our weekly gigs at Stanleys and the Madfrog, but Hookahville was a standout. Opening for Steel Pulse at Annies was also great. Play by Play in Silverton is nice too because they have a big stage and a great sound guy. Anytime we get to play is great. We’re looking forward to playing some more festivals next summer.

There you have it, you can hear it at www.eastsidevibe.com/supermassive or www.myspace.com/thesupermassive6 It’s available to buy at the shows. If you dig it tell your local club to book them, we need more good music like this in the Eastside so shout it out and lets get them on stage.