The Judybats (sometimes stylized as merely Judybats or JudyBats) were an American
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
band from
Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...
, United States, active primarily in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s.
The band released three successful singles that charted on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...
chart: "Native Son", "Saturday" and "Being Simple", the latter of which peaked at No. 7.
Background
The band was formed in 1988 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Frontman Jeff Heiskell and guitarist Ed Winters were neighbors and had been composing folk songs together.
The duo later met bassist Tim Stutz at a local bar called Hawkeye's Corner. Stutz, guitarist Johnny Sughrue and drummer Terry Casper had known each other since high school and had been playing music together as a trio. Peggy Hambright, who was Stutz's and Sughrue's roommate at the time, joined the band, contributing keyboards, violin and vocals. The Judybats played locally to large audiences before signing to
Sire Records
Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records.
History Beginnings
The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer ...
in 1990.
The band took their name from a song written by a friend of theirs, which contained the line, "punch me with a judybat", a
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...
ning allusion to
Punch and Judy
Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr. Punch and one other character w ...
shows.
The official form of the band's name was never entirely clear; although the band was credited as "The Judybats" on the cover of their 1991 debut album, ''
Native Son
''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s.
While not apologizing ...
'', all of their subsequent albums listed the band's name as just "Judybats" or sometimes "JudyBats", although several CD singles from the later albums retained the word "The".
Sire Records era
The Judybats' first major release was a cover of
the 13th Floor Elevators
The 13th Floor Elevators was an American rock band from Austin, Texas, United States, formed by guitarist and vocalist Roky Erickson, electric jug player Tommy Hall, and guitarist Stacy Sutherland. The band was together from 1965 to 1969, a ...
' "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)", which appeared on Sire's
Roky Erickson
Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson (July 15, 1947 – May 31, 2019) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member and the leader of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.
Biography
Erickso ...
tribute album, ''
Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye'', in 1990. The song also appeared on the band's debut album, ''Native Son'', released the following year. The album's titular track was issued as a single and peaked at No. 9 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...
chart.
On May 9, 1991, the band opened for alternative rock act
John Wesley Harding
''John Wesley Harding'' is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on December 27, 1967, by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to semi-acoustic instrumentation and folk ...
—who were joined by
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternative ...
's
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his car ...
on guitar—at the
Georgia Theatre
Georgia Theatre is a live music venue and event space in Athens, Georgia. Many prominent national and local acts across all genres have performed at the Theatre, including rock, folk, country, indie, alternative, hip hop and electronic. The venue i ...
in Athens, Georgia.
Casper subsequently left the band and was temporarily replaced by session drummer Kevin Jarvis on their second album, ''
Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow
''Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow'' is the second album by the American band the Judybats, released in 1992 by Sire Records. The single "Saturday" peaked at No. 21 on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Production and ...
'', in 1992.
This album spawned the hit "Saturday", which reached No. 21 on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Following that album, Hambright and Stutz both left the band and were replaced by Paul Noe on bass and David Jenkins on drums.
The revised lineup released the band's most commercially successful album, ''
Pain Makes You Beautiful
''Pain Makes You Beautiful'' is the third album by the American band the Judybats, released in 1993 by Sire Records. The album contains the band's most successful single, "Being Simple", which peaked at No. 7 on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboar ...
'', in 1993, and had successful singles on
college radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
and
adult album alternative
Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...
stations, including "Being Simple", "All Day Afternoon" and "Incredible Bittersweet".
"Being Simple" was the band's most successful single, rising to No. 7 on Modern Rock Tracks.
The lineup remained stable for the band's fourth album, 1994's ''
Full-Empty
''Full-Empty'' is the fourth album by American alternative rock band Judybats, released in 1994 by Sire Records. It was the band's final album for Sire and the last to feature all three original core members Jeff Heiskell, Johnny Sughrue and Ed Wi ...
''. Heiskell had intended for the album to be produced by
Mitchell Froom
Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician and record producer. He was a member of the bands Gamma (band), Gamma and Latin Playboys, and is currently the keyboardist for Crowded House. He has produced albums for several artists, ...
and even sent him a demo tape of new songs, but was told by the Judybats' manager that attempts to reach Froom had been fruitless. Instead, the band opted to work with producer
Paul Mahern
Paul Mahern (born September 11, 1963) is an American rock and pop record producer, mixing and mastering engineer, singer, songwriter, professor, and yoga teacher.
Mahern has worked with acts such as John Mellencamp, Lily & Madeleine, The Fray, Ig ...
, both because "he was cheap" and "was also supposed to have some kind of indie cachet at that time."
While recording ''Full-Empty'', Heiskell eventually received a phone call from Froom, who said he liked the songs and expressed interest in working with the band, only to be told they were already working with Mahern.
The band promoted the album by appearing on ''
Late Night With Conan O'Brien
''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...
'' on October 4, 1994, performing "Sorry Counts". In an interview with ''
The Advocate'' the following month, Heiskell acknowledged that he was
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
, but otherwise rarely discussed his sexuality with the press, choosing to write about it only indirectly in his songs until his solo career.
Looking back in 2023, Heiskell said, "It wasn't talked about in the open all that much back then, but more nuanced. Even so, some people expected me to come out and shout 'I'm A Gay Man!' to sell records. ... I wasn't willing to do that."
''Full-Empty'' fared poorly on the charts and the band broke up soon afterward.
In a 2008 interview with Popdose, Heiskell claimed that his dissolution of the band was attributable to several factors, with the last tour being "a nightmare of panic attacks and depression." Heiskell had been writing a screenplay about his experiences as a teenager that rendered him "an emotional wreck for nearly two years." Moreover, Heiskell alleged that band members Paul Noe and David Jenkins had attempted to convince him to break up the Judybats and form a new band with them. Heiskell explained, "By the time the tour ended I weighed 157 pounds – I'm nearly six feet tall – and could scarcely go out during the day for fear of having a bout of serious anxiety." Additionally,
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
decided to cull their roster of artists, which saw the Judybats losing their contract. "The idea of running about playing shows for schmucks in an attempt to get signed again made me break out in a sweat just thinking about it. And I was convinced that my life had become nothing more than trying to write the next college radio jingle of the week."
Post-Sire era
Heiskell, Noe and Jenkins, along with guitarist Reed Pendleton, pursued a new musical direction under the name Doubters Club, an informal reconfiguration of the Judybats. They released the album ''Fleur de Lisa'' independently in 1996, after being dropped from a development deal with Sire. Heiskell later claimed that, following the release of the album, "Dave and Paul moved off to Nashville, hiding from me the fact that they had started another band on the side, taking all of the equipment with them."
After the Doubters Club dissolved, Heiskell seriously considered quitting the music industry, while Pendleton encouraged him to stay the course, with the pair eventually creating a string of new songs, including "Break My Heart", "Shine", "You're Too Much", "Full Forward Angel", "Always", "Love Will Out" and "California". Moving forward, Heiskell and Pendleton formed the band Shoho, Jeff's nickname for local "scenesters" that often attended the band's shows. The lineup consisted of Heiskell on vocals and Pendleton on guitar, joined by local bassist Rob Bell and a set of twin brothers: guitarist/fiddle player Doug Hairrell and drummer Mike Hairrell. Early band sessions were held in a remote log cabin south of Knoxville, where the new lineup developed a guitar-heavy sound with
Britpop
Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...
influences. Upon the insistence of new manager SuperFrank, the band settled on resurrecting the name Judybats for the project. This incarnation of the band issued one album, ''Judybats '00'', in 2000, and released a cover of
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
's "
Love in Song" for the 2001 McCartney tribute album ''Listen to What the Man Said''. "Break My Heart" was also included in ''
Oxford American
The ''Oxford American'' is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the American South.
First publication
The magazine was begun in late 1989 in Oxford, Mississippi, by Marc Smirnoff (born July 11, 1963).
The name "Oxford American" is a play on ''T ...
s annual Southern Music issue.
In 2005, another configuration of Judybats performed at the
Northalsted Market Days Northalsted Market Days is an annual two-day festival in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Established in 1982, it's the Midwest's largest street festival with annual attendance exceeding 300,000 people over the two-day event. It takes place in the ...
festival in Chicago.
In 2011, the ''Judybats '00'' track "California" appeared on the compilation album ''Kat Vox: Celebrating 20 Years of Timmi-Kat Records''.
Post-Judybats
In 1992, former keyboardist Peggy Hambright founded Magpies Bakery in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was the owner until 2018, when she passed the business on to her niece, Elizabeth.
Jeff Heiskell has since released five solo albums, under the name Heiskell: ''Soundtrack for an Aneurism'' (2007), ''Clip-On Nose Ring'' (2008), ''Arriving'' (2015), ''Emotional Terrorism'' (2017) and ''Songs in the Key of H'' (2019). ''Emotional Terrorism'' was accompanied by two videos, for the songs "Still Life With Broken Heart" and "I Want More Life". Conceived by Heiskell himself, both were guided by videographer Douglas Stuart McDaniel,
with intern Tyler Juárez Dippel shooting the footage for "Still Life With Broken Heart". "I did not feel comfortable carrying on the Judybats name with my being the only member", Heiskell explained in 2008. "I didn't really feel that comfortable with it when the 00'' record was released, either. A millionaire control freak backed that project financially, so I felt that I had to follow his lead. I follow no one's lead now."
In the fall of 2015, former bassist Tim Stutz released music via
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...
, under the name Because of Robots (stylized as "because of robots").
In 2016, Heiskell performed several Judybats songs at Waynestock, a benefit concert for Girls Rock Camp Knoxville.
In 2019, Heiskell became a full-time real estate agent for
Coldwell Banker
Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is an American real estate franchise owned by Anywhere Real Estate, with headquarters in Madison, New Jersey. It was founded in 1906 in San Francisco, and has approximately 3000 offices in 49 countries and territor ...
Wallace & Wallace Realtors in Knoxville, Tennessee, while continuing to release original music under the name Heiskell.
In 2023, former guitarist Reed Pendleton's new band the Velvet Air released the single "Save Us", via Bandcamp.
Discography
Albums
* ''
Native Son
''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s.
While not apologizing ...
'' (1991)
* ''
Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow
''Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow'' is the second album by the American band the Judybats, released in 1992 by Sire Records. The single "Saturday" peaked at No. 21 on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Production and ...
'' (1992)
* ''
Pain Makes You Beautiful
''Pain Makes You Beautiful'' is the third album by the American band the Judybats, released in 1993 by Sire Records. The album contains the band's most successful single, "Being Simple", which peaked at No. 7 on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboar ...
'' (1993)
* ''
Full-Empty
''Full-Empty'' is the fourth album by American alternative rock band Judybats, released in 1994 by Sire Records. It was the band's final album for Sire and the last to feature all three original core members Jeff Heiskell, Johnny Sughrue and Ed Wi ...
'' (1994)
* ''Judybats '00'' (2000)
Compilation appearances
* ''
Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson'' (1990) – "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)"
* ''
Just Say Yes Volume V: Just Say Anything'' (1991) – "Don't Drop the Baby"
* ''
Just Say Yes Volume VII: Just Say Roe'' (1994) – "What We Lose"
* ''OUTLOUD'' (1995) – "My Dead Friend"
* ''Listen to What the Man Said: Popular Artists Pay Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney'' (2001) – "
Love in Song"
* ''Kat Vox: Celebrating 20 Years of Timmi-Kat Records'' (2011) – "California"
A
bootleg
Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to:
* Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially
* Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence:
** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...
fan compilation of B-sides, rarities and live performances entitled ''Hold Your Horses'' has also been in circulation, but is not an official release by the band.
References
External links
Judybats on MySpaceJoe's JudyBats PageHooks 'N' You: Judybats, "Judybats '00"HEISKELLRed Veil Syndicate on InstagramJeff Heiskell Discusses the Judybats' Exquisite 'Pain Makes You Beautiful' at 30
{{DEFAULTSORT:Judybats
Musical groups from Knoxville, Tennessee
Alternative rock groups from Tennessee
Sire Records artists