Atlanta Trio Subsonics Receive Recognition with Tribute Album from International Artists
The Subsonics second volume “You Didn’t Think We Could Take It Vol. 2,” is out now on Mandinga Records.
Chris Beat
The Subsonics are an Atlanta trio long known and loved for their “gutter glam” rock-and-roll style and stripped-down songs, often only one or two punchy and provocative minutes long. They’ve achieved international recognition and cult acclaim over their thirty-year career. Now, Brazilian label Mandinga Records has released the second iteration of a compilation of Subsonics covers, recorded by artists worldwide, called “You Didn’t Think We Could Take It Vol. 2.” “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes was joined by the Subsonics members Clay Reed, Buffi Aguero, and Rob Delbueno via Zoom to talk about their wild journey.
Asked about the secret to their longevity, the band responded with their characteristic enigmatic, winking rhetoric. “Disturbance, I guess?” offered Reed. “We’re all getting deafer, so we can’t fight as much,” said Aguero. But she quickly followed up, “Well, and we love what we do, and we love each other. That’s a big part of it.”
Reed described the humble origins of the Subsonics, meeting for the first time in the most rock-and-roll of sites, a dentist’s office. “The story is, I had broken a tooth on a microphone because I have all these little things I do, you know? And some of them involve breaking teeth on microphones. I was at the waiting room at the dentist’s office. Buffi was in the waiting room to get her teeth cleaned. As you do, you’re bored, and you strike up a conversation. One thing leads to another,” said Reed. “Buffy had, I guess, ‘quote-unquote an audition, sort of like a job interview, I guess and got the job. And it was April 1st we initially had the job interview; May 1st was our first show.”
The band immediately launched into an all-in, five-day-a-week practice and performance schedule. Eventually, the band traded out a previous bass player for Rob Delbueno, also known for his work in Man? Or Astroman? “I’m still the new guy,” said Delbueno, who’s been a member of the Subsonics for a solid twenty years. “I had known and met Buffi and Clay prior because our bands at the time had played many shows together and toured together. Being from the Southeast, we tended to want to stick together, particularly when we were out in the middle of nowhere, say, in the central United States, us Southerners had to stick together.”
Clay’s lyrics often focus on marginal characters and shadowy protagonists, giving the sense of an unreliable narrator involved in unsavory situations, all in a two-minute burst of music. “I’ve met a lot of interesting people, and had a pretty interesting life,” said Reed. “You know, if you go back to Shakespeare or the Bible, the interesting stories are the stories where bad things happen to people with problems. Those are interesting stories. Those are the compelling people.”
Aguero offered her take on the type of characters the Subsonics’ music both invokes and invites, saying, “When you’re a different person or a weird person in the South, it’s almost like a homing beacon.… I definitely feel like you attract people that are weirdos, like you. So in some ways, I feel like weirdos are our tribe, and that’s part of why we end up like the ‘Island of Misfit Toys’ around us because we’ve always flown our weirdo flag pretty high.”
Rare among drummers, Aguero plays her instrument from a standing position. She cites Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker as an influence, whose own standing style of drumming and androgynous personal style was certainly striking in her own time of pioneer experimentalists. “And it just looks cool,” said Aguero.
When the band was contacted by Brazilian label Mandinga for their compilation of tribute covers, the Subsonics weren’t immediately jumping at the bit. “I didn’t necessarily take it that seriously,” said Reed, hinting that the band had received such offers before that hadn’t gone very far. But the label reps won them over with persistence. “At best, this kind of project with this many artistes, from this many different locations, all using different recording processes – putting all this together was really a lot of work, and I think, for them, a labor of love. So I have a lot of respect for them going through all of this, just because they like us,” Reed said.
“Usually, tribute records happen when you’re dead,” laughed Aguero.
“You Didn’t Think We Could Take It Vol. 2,” out now on Mandinga Records, can be found on Bandcamp here. The Subsonic’s recordings are available on most streaming platforms and for purchase here.
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