About Me
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The Supertones are great! Clearly one of the best American (and the entire worlds) guitar-based instrumental bands.
-- Robert Silverstein, Music Editor, 20th Century Guitar Magazine
For my money, of all the modern bands its The Supertones who best represent the spirit of The Ventures.
-- Alan Taylor, Editor, Pipeline Magazine
Every band has a center a hub where the band forms. For The Supertones, the common interests were surfing and guitars and the location Chelsea Guitars in New York City. Chelsea Guitars was where the relationships were formed that created and sustained The Supertones over the past decade. Another essential ingredient to the formation of The Supertones has been the sport and lifestyle of surfing. Current band members Tim Sullivan, Mike Mandina and Simon Chardiet are all avid surfers and have been surfing buddies longer than theyve been band mates. In a word, The Supertones music is about the Stoke. All serious surfers understand the Stoke. It is the heart of the surfing lifestyle, it is the foundation of true surf music, and it is the raison dêtre for The Supertones.
The Origins of The Supertones
Tim Sullivan is the central unchanging core of The Supertones over their many years. Tim was born in Long Beach in Southern California, the son of a Marine Corps Colonel. Tims early days were spent down at Camp Pendleton, living in Carlsbad and learning to surf on some of Southern Californias most revered surfing spots. Tims biggest influence in picking up the guitar were hearing Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy and recordings by Link Wray (in fact, the first Supertones recording was Wrays stiletto-sharp Switchblade). Tim moved with his family to Camp LeJueune in North Carolina where he started playing surf music. He formed his first band in 1964 at the age of 8 years old with one of his lifetime friends, Randy Laine, who played drums. Together with Rusty Miller on guitar and one of their friends on bass they were known in the local area as The Surfing Nomads. The band continued to perform until 1967.
Tim went on to study for a degree in music at St. Petersburg College in Florida and later ended up in New York City in 1979 on a ballet scholarship. Tims next band of significance was a rockabilly band he formed in the early 1980s The Stringbusters with future Supertones bass player Marc Lipsher. From the Stringbusters, Tim and Marc moved onto the Mustangs and then The Dragsters. With The Dragsters, Tim and Marc recorded their only major label release, Stoked, on Island Records subsidiary Great Jones label.
Tim relates how The Supertones came to be: I guess it was January of 1989 when I met Ted Lawrence at Chelsea Guitars here in NYC. Ted would come in on the way to his rehearsal studio and we found that we shared an interest in old pre-CBS Fenders and love of The Ventures, Link Wray and The Shadows. We said lets get a band going and we got Marc Lipscher interested on bass, who was in a couple of NYC retro bands with me, The Dragsters and The Mustangs. Then we got Steve Busby to play drums, he was in a band that was rehearsing in Teds studio at the time. We played at the Memphis Studio Christmas party and everybody had a blast.
Trying to come up with a name for the newly formed surf band, Tim and Ted considered using but ultimately rejected, the name of The Penetrators (which was later adopted by the great spy-surf band from Atlanta). Looking across the studio they noticed a very cool amplifier from the 1930s with a speaker hole in the shape of a harp or lyre. Being a good Irishman, this was Tims sign for the name of the band. The amplifier brand was The Supertone amp thus The Supertones.
On their early success Tim states: Everything seemed to click and we started getting a lot of gigs at places like McGoverns and the Continental and all around the Lower East Side. We also recorded The Big Wet Twang in 1990. We went on like that for about 3 years and then Ted wanted to form Purple Knif. So I thought about asking Mike (Mandina), who was a friend of mine who I also had met at Chelsea Guitars. He was in a couple of country bands, The Biscuit Flippers and The Party Killers, and also a surfer like me, so we had been going surfing for years out at Jones Beach and Long Beach.
Mike Mandina was born in Spain the son of a Lt. Colonel Air Force pilot. Mike was exposed to music at an early age since his dad, having been born in Shreveport, Louisiana, had a huge collection of dixieland, bebop and jazz records which he played for the family. Mike started playing guitar at the age of twelve. Mikes formative years growing up were in Southern California (Whittier) in the 1960s where he thrilled to the sound of surf music, the Beach Boys and the Beatles. He played guitar, sang in the local church choir and, of course, surfed the Pacific Ocean. One of Mikes earliest musical memories was an argument as to which band was cooler the Beach Boys or the Beatles. Deciding the Beatles were cool even if they didnt surf, the Fab Four were a huge influence on Mikes early musical development.
Mike moved away from Southern California for the hot steamy surf of the Gulf of Mexico in Houston, Texas when his father went to work in the NASA Apollo program. Mike remembers attending high school with the sons and daughters of famous astronauts and Apollo program crew such as Buzz Aldrin and Ed White. After Houston, Mikes family moved to North Carolina where Mike attended the University of North Carolina. Despite having both lived in Southern California and North Carolina, Tim and Mikes paths were not to cross until Mike moved from Carolina to New York City. Mikes first gig with the band was actually at his wedding, where The Supertones were booked as the entertainment for the reception. Ted handed over his guitar so that Mike could join the band for a rendition of the classic Pipeline. That evening foreshadowed Mikes recruitment into the band by Tim when Ted left to form Purple Knif.
The release of the movie Pulp Fiction in 1994 was a significant event for The Supertones as they were the only surf band actively playing in the Tri-State area at that time, and they had just released Ride The Wild Twang. For that brief period surf music ruled the clubs in New York City and The Supertones ruled surf music in New York: interviews on NYCs prestigious radio shows, performances on Lee Sobels Lo-Fi Entertainment TV Show, stories of women undressing on stage during frenetic sets of wild surf music, autographing womens breasts and other wild antics. The wave created by the renewed interest in surf music sustained the band into the late 1990s.
With Mike on the guitar we kept going and did a lot of gigs around the city and also recorded Ride The Wild Twang, The Wet Set and Surf Fever 2000. That lineup was a lot of fun too and that must have gone on for another 5 or 6 years. Then we ultimately ended up with Presley Acuna on drums and Simon Chardiet on bass. Presley is a great drummer and a pal of Mikes who used to be in a band with him called The Lids. Simon is a NYC bass virtuoso and legend in his own right. He has toured the world for decades as Joey Miserable and Simon & The Bar Sinisters and he has played professionally on countless recording sessions. And that pretty much brings us up to date.
In 2001, Golly Gee Records approached the band about signing to the label. Tim relates, That happened through Ralph Santiago who I also met at the guitar store (Chelsea Guitars). Ralph also has a band on Golly Gee and called me one day and said he thought we would be good for Golly Gee and hooked us up. The band decided that the musician-focus and band-friendly approach of Golly Gee Records ideally suited their needs. Golly Gee has been re-releasing The Supertones back catalogue with plans to release the two brand new Supertones albums, Cinema Surf and Twango in 2003.
The Supertones current line-up: Tim Sullivan Guitars/Keyboards, Mike Mandina Guitars, Simon Chardiet Bass and Presley Acuna Drums/Percussion - is arguably the best ever. Each of the current members has written material for the upcoming release Twango and has had a significant influence on the bands sound.
