John Davis

I’M HORRIBLE, BUT REDEEMABLE: After dropping the ball on Superdrag back in the day (Dang, did I blow it…), then getting right with them some 26 years later, devouring their entire discography, every Lees of Memory record and as much John Davis solo action as I could (hell, I even bum-rushed a Rectangle Shades show hours before they hit the stage this one time), then getting to see them up close in Knoxville with Spears and Middlebrookes a couple falls back, getting to meet John and the band and finally getting a call up to the orange leagues to help John and Stewart Pack bring the graphics of the record to life? All of it VERY, VERY COOL.

You know what I love about John’s output so much? These songs are big, thunderous, electric, clever, catchy, crafted examples of a talented guy MAKING AWESOME STUFF right here and now, all the while juggling family, work and everythingelseness. It’s incredibly impressive to me. And I need to see that. Wind in the sails. These songs sound big, vital and so good to the ears. And I love rooting for this stuff. And for John.

I feel older and older…weirder and weirder, futzing around in the middle-age crisis currently lighting up this backyard shop. I have CRANKED this album for three months…and love every bit of it. I cut down cardboard to it. I rake those sharp-ass-pointy-ass leaves my Japanese maple trees give off to it. I got to work with John and Stewart to design the record I’m listening the shit out of. These songs make me forget I’m 50!

John Davis - Jinx

Release Details:
01. Released on Lost in Ohio records.
02. Hitting record stores on September 27, 2024.
03. Catalog No. “LOH-19.”

Project Details:
01. Two colors of vinyl!
02. Designed the vinyl, CD and cassette tape.
03. Directed by John Davis, Stewart Pack and Bill Spry.

John Davis“Jinx” Singles

It was impressive to see how Bill Spry of Lost in Ohio followed the game plan devised for the release. First there would be singles, each with their own art, all building up to the record release on Sept. 27, 2024. I whipped up these four collages at the direction and John and Stewart, handed them off to Bill and watch the froth get frothy! Such a fun project. Thank you, fellas!

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 really 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, not incidentally, 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.”

The first thing you notice on the record, in fact the very first thing you hear, is John’s thick, raw guitar tone. (And its short, warm sustain at the end of “I’m Sorry” is the very last sound.)

Not unfamiliar or unaffiliated with the big production energy of Nashville where a band might employ more than 20 guitars to make a record, John and Stewart pinned almost all their sonic hopes on one Fender Stratocaster. “As ubiquitous as the Strat is, I feel like they’re really undervalued on records.” The decision was less about championing the Strat and all about creating a sonic universe the listener could take instant residence in. Once you key into the sound, it feels like home.

It also felt as honest as the lyrics. “I’ve been writing songs for a long time and my process has never really changed. I just try to open my heart up and whatever’s in there, that’s what you get.” And what you get on JINX is indeed that—a man carrying out assorted boxes from the dark and light sides of his heart. John takes listeners through the internal monologues of a person battling with depression and then buoys us back up with sweet and straightforward declarations of love.

The album opens with the lyrics “sometimes I’m a bag of broken glass / what am I supposed to do with that?” from “The Future” and then, on a dime, the newly engaged Davis invites us to his upcoming betrothal on “Please Be My Love” (“she’s so kind and sweet to me / that’s all she has to be”). The album intentionally conflates negative and positive connotations, which manifests in its titular identity. As a word, “Jinx” usually immediately conjures thoughts of bad luck, and that’s the idea to be certain. But the title is really just an inside joke between John and his fiancée about their almost daily tendency to utter the same phrase at the same time.

Yep, misfortune and soul connection, depression and new love. That’s Jinx.