Jesse Sublett (born May 15, 1954)"Biographical Note" a

, Wittliff Collections, Alkek Library, Texas State University–San Marcos (retrieved September 18, 2009). is a musician and writer from

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. As a musician he is best known for his long-running rock trio, The Skunks. His essays and journalism have appeared in a wide range of publications, and he is also known for his mystery novels featuring a bass-playing sleuth named Martin Fender.

Early life

Jesse Sublett was born in

Johnson City, Texas Johnson City is a city and the county seat of Blanco County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,656 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1879 by James P. Johnson, it was named for early settler Sam E. Johnson, Sr. Johnson City is part ...

, where he was valedictorian at Lyndon B. Johnson High School. He attended

Southwest Texas State University Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

for two years, then moved to Austin in 1974.

Music career

Sublett founded The Skunks in January 1978 with bandmates Bill Blackmon and Eddie Munoz. Soon thereafter, The Skunks and The Violators (a band that included Sublett on bass guitar along with

Kathy Valentine Kathryn Valentine (born January 7, 1959) is an American musician who is the bassist for the pop punk band the Go-Go's. She has maintained a career in music through songwriting, recording, performing and touring as well as additional academic and ...

(later of the

Go-Go's The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belind ...

Carla Olson Carla Olson (born July 3, 1952) is a Los Angeles-based songwriter, performer and record producer. Biography Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Olson moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1978 where she formed the Textones, whose debut album ''M ...

, and Marilyn Dean) made their Austin debut at a University of Texas area club called Raul's, marking the beginning of the punk/new wave scene in Austin.Jan Reid, ''The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock'' (new ed., University of Texas Press, 2004), , pp.282-283
excerpt available
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

). Sublett left The Violators after six months to concentrate on the Skunks, and the Violators disbanded thereafter, but the Skunks recorded numerous singles, EP's and LP's, and played across the US, including the punk meccas of New York City,

CBGB's CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...

and

Max's Kansas City Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in Decem ...

. Sublett sang and played electric bass in the band. He also wrote most of the band's original material. Munoz left the band at the end of 1978 to join the Plimsouls. With his replacement on guitar,

Jon Dee Graham Jon Dee Graham is an American musician, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas, United States. Graham was named the Austin Musician of the Year during the South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in 2006. He was inducted into the Austin M ...

, the band saw some touring success as headliners and as opening act for

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...

The Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United St ...

, and

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various sty ...

. The band more or less disbanded in 1983 but more recently have performed annual reunion shows at their favorite Austin club, the Continental Club. Sublett is also credited with naming the "

New Sincerity New Sincerity (closely related to and sometimes described as synonymous with post-postmodernism) is a trend in music, aesthetics, literary fiction, film criticism, poetry, literary criticism and philosophy that generally describes creative works ...

" movement of

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 mainstream or commercial ...

bands that arose in Austin from about 1985 to 1990, and who were perceived as reacting to the more ironic outlook of punk rock and New Wave bands. He used the phrase during a casual conversation with his friend, local music writer Margaret Moser. Moser began using the term in print, and it ended up becoming the catch phrase for these bands.Barry Shank
''Dissonant Identities: The Rock'N'Roll Scene in Austin, Texas''
(

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present form ...

, 1994) (), p. 148–149 & p.271 n.84
excerpt available
at

)."Jesse's Music Bio"
a
''Jesse Sublett's Little Black Book''
(retrieved September 18, 2009). Sublett played in numerous other ensembles over the years, including Secret Six, Flex, and a stint playing with ex-

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

guitarist

Mick Taylor Michael Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, he appeared on: ''Let It Bleed'' ...

and Carla Olson, as well as a band called World's Cutest Killers featuring Kathy Valentine, Kelly Johnson (

Girlschool Girlschool are a British rock band that formed in the new wave of British heavy metal scene in 1978. Frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead, they are the longest-running all-female rock band, still active after more than 40 ye ...

) and Jebin Bruni ( Public Image Ltd.).Ken Lieck
"Young, Loud, and Cheap: The Skunks, the Band That Broke Austin Out of the Seventies,"
''

Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'', December 8, 2000.Jesse Sublett, ''Never the Same Again: A Rock 'N' Roll Gothic'' (Ten Speed Press, 2004),
excerpts available
at

). Sublett currently performs in various club ensembles, variously known as Jesse Sublett's Big Three Trio and The Murder Ballad Show (the latter featuring his longtime collaborator and friend,

). His most recent musical performances feature his upright bass work, a grittier vocal style and an ongoing fascination with the work of

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

and various jazz, blues and traditional composers.

Writing career

Sublett began writing seriously in the 1980s. His first novel, ''Rock Critic Murders'', was published by Viking Penguin in 1987, followed by ''Tough Baby'' and ''Boiled in Concrete''. Sublett's 2004 memoir, ''Never the Same Again: A Rock 'N' Roll Gothic'', relates the story of Sublett's girlfriend's murder when he was 22, his career with The Skunks, and his battle with throat cancer. Writing in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', critic Marion Winik described the book as "riveting" and chose it for ''Times'' list of "most surprising new books". ''

'' critic Greg Beets described it as "a gripping memoir that never feels forced or emotionally manipulative. . . . Sublett's prose remains rich, fierce, and humbling." "Adaptation," Sublett's 2008 piece in ''

The Texas Observer ''The Texas Observer'' (also known as the ''Observer'') is an American magazine with a liberal political outlook. The ''Observer'' is published bimonthly by a 501(c)(3)New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and is ...

'', and elsewhere. Sublett's adaptation (written with director/producer Stephen Purvis and Tom Huckabee) of the Austin play ''In the West'' was produced as a feature film entitled ''Deep in the Heart (of Texas)''. Sublett has also written extensively for non-fiction television, contributing to numerous series on The History Channel such as "The Great Ships," "Search and Rescue," and "Boneyards: The Secret Lives of Machines." A two-hour documentary, "The Killer Storm" (chronicling the so-called Perfect Storm of 1991), which Sublett wrote, aired on The History Channel in 1999 and also premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin. He wrote the original book for a stage play called ''Marathon'' which debuted in 2007 with music by Austin-based singer-songwriter Darden Smith. In 2009, however, Sublett asserted his sole authorship of the play and announced that future productions will feature his own original score. "Broke, Not Broken: Homer Maxey's Texas Bank War," by Broadus Spivey and Jesse Sublett, published in 2014 by Texas Tech University Press, is one of several works co-authored by Jesse Sublett "Armadillo World Headquarters: A Memoir," by Eddie Wilson with Jesse Sublett, published in late March 2017, tells the history of the famed music hall affectionately known as "the 'Dillo" which served as an Austin music industry stage and incubator of Austin culture far beyond the decade it was in existence (1970-1980). Sublett has also written a history of the

Texas Turnpike Authority The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is an organization that maintains and operates toll roads, bridges, and tunnels in the North Texas area. Functioning as a political subdivision of the State of Texas under Chapter 366 of the Transpor ...

."Dallas TX:Broad turnpike vs skinny tollway"
, ''TOLLROADSnews'', February 4, 2001 (retrieved September 19, 2009). His papers are collected in the Southwestern Writers Collection of the

Wittliff Collections The Wittliff Collections, located on the seventh floor of the Albert B. Alkek Library at Texas State University, was founded by William D. Wittliff in 1987. The Wittliff Collections include the Southwestern Writers Collection and the Southwester ...

of Alkek Library at

Texas State University–San Marcos Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

References

External links

Jesse Sublett official website''Jesse Sublett's Little Black Book''
interview of Jesse Sublett at

The WELL The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...

, June 2004 (retrieved September 18, 2009). *
Jesse Sublett on Rag Radio
Interviewed by Thorne Dreyer, April 8, 2011, with live performance. (52:42) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sublett, Jesse 1954 births Living people Musicians from Texas Music of Austin, Texas Writers from Texas People from Blanco County, Texas