The Suicide Machines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Suicide Machines | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan |
| Country | United States |
| Years active | 1991-2006 |
| Genres | Ska-core |
| Labels | Hollywood Records SideOneDummy Records |
| Members | Jason Navarro Dan Lukacinsky Ryan Vandeberghe Rich Tschirhart |
| Past members | Royce Nunley Derek Grant Stefan Rairigh Travis Barker |
The Suicide Machines (formerly known as "Jack Kevorkian & The Suicide Machines") were a Detroit-based ska-core group founded in 1991 by Jason Navarro and Dan Lukacinsky blending modern ska-punk music with a hardcore influence. The band released on independent album and appeared on several ska compilations before signing with Hollywood Records, a Disney subsidiary. Making their mark with the release of Destruction By Definition in 1996, the Machines gained worldwide popularity with a line-up including Royce Nunley on bass and Derek Grant on drums. The Suicide Machines have recorded seven full-length albums, and achieved some level of commercial success with "Give" on the album Battle Hymns.
Member Royce Nunley on vocals and bass (1994-2002) left the group to start his own band Blueprint 76.
Drummer Derek Grant also left and became a musical journeyman of sorts, having played drums with Thoughts of Ionesco (he recorded with them as well), the Vandals as a fill in drummer for tours, played guitar for Face to Face on a tour, joined the Telegraph (recorded a full length with them) and when that band folded joined the Alkaline Trio and is still currently playing with them.
Contents |
[edit] The Break-up
Ryan Vandeberghe confirmed rumors that the band had broken up through a post on the group's official message board on May 13, 2006. His post read:
"In the middle of this past March I called Jay and told him that I was quitting the band. After months and months of talking about taking a break, there wasn't any in sight. I told him that I hoped they would continue on with someone else because I knew there were things on the horizon that they had wanted to do (Mexico/Japan/U.S. summer tour). I was too burnt out on TSM to pull another full year of touring. My friend Steve McCrumb was going to handle the drumming for the Mexico tour (that's who the guy behind the kit was at the Troubadour). A couple weeks later at Left In Ruin practice, Jay told me he had also quit and that he was finishing up the Mexico/Japan tours. He asked if I would be into doing a proper "last hurrah" thing for our xmas shows, and I said yes. Fast forward to yesterday morning...Jay and Danny both called me and told me that Dan had a meltdown after the Troubadour show and decided that he didn't want to finish the tour. That is all I know right now because I wasn't there. Unfortunately, I do know that there won't be anymore shows from the band. I think it's not entirely a bad thing at the moment. Everyone has been busy with their own things that they are excited about. Some of us will be starting new bands and looking for new people to rock with. Danny will be touring with AAA this summer. After 5 1/2 years, Jay and I will finally be releasing a proper record with Left In Ruin, and I know Dan has got some things going on but I know nothing about them. Thank you guys for the years of support. We've all had an amazing time. G'night -V"
Dan Lukacinsky, founding member and guitar for the band expanded the reasoning via email with Punknews.org
Yes - the Suicide Machines have indeed disbanded and will no longer be playing shows. We originally had planned on calling it a day at the end of 2005 - but some great offers for tours came in late last year that we just could not turn down so we decided to take them and keep it going. Things just got to a point recently of where we could no longer continue doing this band although we had planned on trying to stay with it until the end of this year.
Jay and I have been doing this band basically since we were teenagers and things have changed much for all of us since that time. I feel like we've had a great run and made some great records over the past 15 years for both Hollywood and Side One Dummy and left a legacy that will not be soon forgotten.
The Suicide Machines far exceeded any of our expectations and I never imagined that we'd be able to ever do the things that we ended up getting the opportunity to do.
Playing shows, working, and becoming friends with many of our heros and influences and traveling around the world to play our music for people are things that I never dreamed we'd be doing when we started this band.
Not bad for a bunch of working class kids from Detroit.
Now we are all doing what we need to do and moving on to other things musically and personally. As the last post about this said I do have a new band with some of my homies called Bayonetting The Wounded which you can check out at www.myspace.com/bayonettingthewounded. It's lo-fi punk with Hammond B3 organ. It's very new and we have a couple of demos which we recently put up and we are actively working on more songs at this time. We're having fun with it and we'll most likely have a recording out by the end of this year. Not sure what label yet.
It's been a lot of fun! But - all good things must eventually come to an end and this is a positive move in many different ways for all of us.
Thanks to everyone! Much love and we'll see you all somewhere soon!
[edit] Members
- Jason Navarro - Vocals (1991 - 2006)
- Dan Lukacinsky - Guitar & Vocals (1991 - 2006)
- Ryan Vandeberghe - Drums (1998 - 2006)
- Rich Tschirhart - Bass (2002 - 2006)
[edit] Former members
- Stefan Rairigh - Drums (1991 - 1992, original member)
- Bill Jennings - Drums (1992)
- Derek Grant - Drums (musician)(1992 - 1997)
- Travis Barker - Drums (1998)
- Dave Smith - Bass (1994)
- Royce Nunley - Bass (1994 - 2002)
- Erin Pitman - Drum (1998)
[edit] Post-Suicide Machines Projects
- Bayonetting the Wounded - lo-fi punk band featuring Dan Lukacinsky
- Left in Ruin - sludgey metal band featuring Jason Navarro and Ryan Vandeberghe
[edit] Discography
- VANS Song 7 (1993), Youth Rendition Records
- Green World (1994), Old Skool Records
- Skank For Brains Split, Dill Records/Beach Recordings (With The Rudiments)
- Destruction By Definition (1996), Hollywood Records
- Battle Hymns (1998), Hollywood Records
- Suicide Machines (2000), Hollywood Records
- Steal This Record (2001), Hollywood Records
- A Match and Some Gasoline (2003), Side One Dummy Records
- War Profiteering Is Killing Us All (2005), Side One Dummy Records
