LAKE FOREST — The Orange County Supertones are the best of the local ska-rock bands to have emerged since No Doubt's massive success took ska-related pop from the underground to the Top 10.
Still, Reel Big Fish and Save Ferris are the best-known O.C. beneficiaries of the new taste for ska. Both landed major recording contracts and have gotten lots of modern-rock radio play for their energetic but superficial fare.
Faith demands that the Supertones take a different approach. The band's insistent Christian message has kept it from the mainstream radio and video exposure that would otherwise be a given for the extremely catchy, high-energy songs of its new album, "Supertones Strike Back."
But if Christian rockers typically have trouble reaching the mainstream, they also benefit from access to a parallel universe in which a national circuit of Christian venues, promoters and sales outlets can nurture an emerging band. Most O.C. ska-rock fans may never have heard of them, but the Mission Viejo-based Supertones, who play Wednesday on the "Praise '98" Christian pop festival bill at Knott's Berry Farm, are racking up numbers that would be the envy of any emerging band.
On Sept. 27, the Supertones headlined at UC Irvine's Bren Events Center for "Skamania '97," a bill of Christian ska bands. The show at the 5,000-capacity basketball arena did turn-away business. Six months after its release, "Supertones Strike Back" is nearing 150,000 sales, 80% through Christian music retailers, according to David Bahnsen, the band's manager. A 1996 release, "Adventures of the O.C. Supertones," is approaching 100,000 sales.
"It's pretty amazing for a band that has had very little radio or video airplay to have been able to sell that amount of CDs," said Tazy Phyllipz, the veteran ska-scene chronicler who co-hosts "The Ska Parade," a weekly program on KUCI-FM (88.9). "I would have to say the whole Christian values thing really works in their favor, big time. It's a niche they've carved for themselves, but they're also a good band, and I think they have great potential to cross over" to fans not primarily interested in a Christian message.
"Strike Back" is one of the best Christian rock albums ever to come out of Orange County, which has a strong tradition of Christian alternative music. It's one of the best O.C. releases this year in any genre.
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The Supertones offer the liveliness of the now-familiar ska-hybrid approach, with its scratchy or punky guitar rhythms and bright, heraldic horns. But where much ska seems lightweight, the Supertones' music has stature and heart. Matt Morginsky, the band's shaven-headed front man and lyricist, sings in a forthright, chesty voice that gives his avowals of faith the honest, earthy conviction of a rock 'n' roll Everyman; the melodies he writes with bassist Tony Terusa have real staying power. While proclaiming love for Jesus in unmistakable terms, the songs are written from interesting points of view that avoid religious cheerleading and happy talk. Proudly defiant avowals of embattled faith, or, conversely, moments of doubt and self-criticism, give the album gumption and spiritual depth.
Morginsky, Terusa and drummer Jason Carson, the Supertones' founding members, chatted over sandwiches and fries recently at a South County burger joint. Carson, 23, had the outgoing, confident air of a fellow who could do well in the business world if rock ever lost its shine for him; Morginsky, with his goatee and tattoos, had a quietly intense manner, and Terusa, 23, was the epitome of that familiar rock 'n' roll type, the soft-spoken, mild-mannered bass player.
For Morginsky, 21, writing spiritual songs that express doubt and struggle simply reflects the common experience of believers. "It's a misconception that once you're a Christian everything is great and you're a happy-go-lucky person. Joy is definitely a part of it, but I feel a lot of Christians are like me: They don't have it all together, and they don't always do what they're supposed to. I'm hoping people will see some of themselves in the lyrics."
When the Supertones' members began playing rock, their motives were not so lofty.
"I was 12, and hormones had just kicked in," Morginsky recalled. "I started playing music so I could get girls. It didn't work at all."
Morginsky was so eager to play his bass that, at 14, he accepted an acquaintance's invitation to join his band. "He didn't tell me that it was a worship band at the Catholic church." Born Jewish, but raised with the idea that religion "was a waste of time," Morginsky found to his surprise that, in between musical numbers, he was paying attention to the prayers and sermons. Gradually he became a Bible reader and a Christian believer, though he also has looked to his Jewish roots; tattooed into his right arm are a Star of David and Hebrew letters spelling out Jesus' Hebrew name.
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