Today John Davis of Superdrag announces his new solo LP, JINX, out Sept. 27 on the Lost In Ohio label. Watch the lyric video for “The Future” and pre-order the album HERE. This record is different from other material released under Davis’ name since the original plan was to be a new Superdrag LP, which would have been the band’s first new album in a decade. It’s essentially the same record as what could have been Superdrag’s comeback album, it was just completed with a different set of musicians backing up Davis. 

Davis gives a little background/perspective on “The Future”:

“I guess it sounds extremely pessimistic to say, “I don’t wanna know about the future,” but that’s just where I was at the time. Sometimes the “now” is crushing your soul to the point where you can’t really look ahead. I love this track, love what Stewart & Henry brought to it. Seemed like the perfect opener and the perfect introduction to the LP.” -John Davis

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JINX was intended as a Superdrag album. It even started tracking as one. But the exercise of recording in fits and starts ultimately found the endeavor sputtering to a stop. Superdrag ran out of patience, time and energy. But John Davis, heart-on-the-sleeve songwriter that he is, knew that these songs needed to be saved.

“Stewart Pack has been a hero of mine for about 30 years,” John says. “He was the guitarist and the singer in my favorite Knoxville band ever, Pegclimber.” John had collaborated with Stewart on past projects like skate punk revival band Epic Ditch, but what John was looking for was to be put in touch with Stewart’s son, Henry, who was fast becoming one of the most sought-after engineers in town. Not to mention a “monster drummer.”

What John got from that call was a twofer—Henry agreed to engineer, and Stewart signed up to produce. The father-son combo also quickly slotted in as John’s rhythm section. Suddenly – and, yes, heroically – there was a brand-new John Davis band. 

They took their cues from three-piece legends like the Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, and Dinosaur Jr (all SST Records stalwarts) and used the spartan, no-frills rock sensibility of the Ramones as inspiration. But they weren’t looking to go punk on John’s songs as much as go lean. “We weren’t gonna be bound by any of the earlier arrangements or earlier decisions about the songs and what we wanted to do was eliminate all the fat.”