The Superjesus

The Superjesus
Origin	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Genres	Alternative rock Post-grunge
Years active	1994–2004; 2013-present
Labels	Warner (Aus)
Associated acts	Rogue Traders The Androids Baby Animals Sarah McLeod Divinyls Screaming Bikini
Website	http://www.thesuperjesus.com/
Members	Sarah McLeod Stuart Rudd Paul Berryman Jason Slack
Past members	Tim Henwood Chris Tennent Aaron Tokona Patch Brown

The Superjesus is an ARIA award–winning rock band from Adelaide, Australia. They are best known for their singles "Shut My Eyes", "Secret Agent Man," "Down Again" and "Gravity".

History

Lead singer and main songwriter Sarah McLeod formed the band in late 1994 with guitarist Chris Tennent, drummer Paul Berryman and bass player Stuart Rudd. Tennent was McLeod's guitar teacher at the time and a veteran of the Adelaide music scene, having played in various bands since the 1980s. The band was originally called Hell's Kitchen before changing their name to The Superjesus on the eve of the 1994 Big Day Out in Adelaide.

Says Paul Berryman of the name: "It was basically just a piss-take on commonly used words in the '90s. Like The Jesus and Mary Chain, "Jesus Built My Hotrod", The Jesus Lizard, Jesus Jones; there's just heaps of Jesus' out there in the music world so we thought we would have that and super was kind of like a '90s catch word."

The group's debut EP, Eight Step Rail, was released in 1996. It spent a couple of months on top of the Australian Independent charts and won two ARIA Awards, in 1997, for Best New Band and also Best Debut Single 'Shut My Eyes'.

All had not always been well with the band internally, and in 1997 Chris Tennent temporarily left. Aaron Tokona from Wellington, New Zealand band Weta filled in, though chose to turn down the band's offer to become a permanent member.

In April 1997, The Superjesus travelled to the USA in order to record their debut album, Sumo, with producer Matt Serletic (Collective Soul) and engineer Jeff Tomei (Smashing Pumpkins, Hole). They released Sumo, through Warner Music in 1998, and its success in Australia led to a US release. The band has released two subsequent albums, Jet Age, in 2000, and Rock Music, in 2003.

Chris Tennent left the Superjesus permanently in 1999 and was replaced by Tim Henwood (who subsequently left in 2002 to concentrate on his work with The Androids and Rogue Traders). Patch Brown replaced Henwood but due to stylistic differences during the making of the band's third album Rock Music was replaced by Jason Slack, a Slippery Rock Graduate.

In June 2004, the Superjesus split with Warner Music Australia and indicated they would take time off while individual members pursued other projects. McLeod worked on a solo album of material not suited to the band. Her solo single released in 2005 was entitled "Let's Get Together", while her album, released in the same year, was called Beauty Was a Tiger. McLeod then fronted the Sydney-based three-piece band, Screaming Bikini.

On 27 November 2012, Sarah McLeod announced through radio station MMM in Adelaide & her Facebook page that there would be a one-off reunion show in Adelaide on 1 February 2013. The band then announced in March 2013 that they would be playing the Stone Music Festival with Van Halen and Aerosmith in Sydney in April, before embarking on their first national tour in 10 years (dubbed The Resurrection Tour) in May and June.

In early 2015, The Superjesus with lead singer Sarah McLeod embarked on the "She Who Rocks" National Australian Tour with Australian Rock band, the Baby Animals fronted by fellow female vocalist Suze DeMarchi. In June 2015, The Superjesus released their latest single in over a decade entitled, "The Setting Sun". In November 2015, The Superjesus released their second single entitled: "St. Peters Lane" and embarked on "The Setting Sun" National Tour, with plans to release a new album in the new year. In December, Tim Henwood departed the band to further his pursuits with The Androids and was replaced with former member, Jason Slack. Meanwhile, Lead Singer Sarah McLeod traveled to New York city for 3 months to write new material for their upcoming album, due for release in 2016.

Discography

Albums

• Sumo (February 1998) (AUS Platinum certification)
• Sumo (US version) (June 1998)
• Sumo II, includes a bonus Enhanced CD of live songs and videos (October 1998)
• Jet Age (October 2000) (Peaked at No. 32 on the ARIA Top 50 Album Charts, AUS Gold certification)
• Jet Age re-issue, includes a bonus CD of a "Live Acoustic" performance (October 2001)
• Rock Music (May 2003) - (Peaked at No. 14 on the ARIA Top 50 Album Charts)
• Rock Music re-issue (February 2004)
• New Album TBA (2016)

EPs and singles

• Eight Step Rail EP (05/96) - Peaked at No. 47 on the Australian charts
• "Down Again" (25/08/97) - Peaked at No. 23 on the Australian charts
• "Saturation" (11/97) - Peaked at No. 42 on the Australian charts
• "Now And Then" (04/98) - Peaked at No. 40 on the Australian charts
• "Ashes" (09/98) - Peaked at No. 66 on the Australian charts
• "Gravity" (11/09/00) - Peaked at No. 35 on the Australian charts
• "Secret Agent Man" (12/02/01) - Peaked at No. 43 on the Australian charts
• "Enough To Know" (20/08/01) - Peaked at No. 42 on the Australian charts
• "Second Sun" (11/02/02) - Peaked at No. 107 on the Australian charts
• "Stick Together" (14/04/03) - Peaked at No. 35 on the Australian charts
• "Over And Out" (07/07/03) - Peaked at No. 53 on the Australian charts
• "So Lonely" (09/02/04) - Peaked at No. 45 on the Australian charts
• "The Setting Sun" (June 2015) - Radio release, first new single in over a decade.
• "St. Peters Lane" (November 2015) - Radio release, second new single.

External links

• The Superjesus at discogs.com
• Comprehensive Superjesus Discography at open-site.org