Judybats

All Music Guide:

Although Knoxville, TN's Judybats managed a few minor college radio hits, their brand of genial, folk-inflected college rock was rendered passé around the time Nevermind came out, which limited their commercial success considerably. This was a shame, because although their albums were extremely uneven, the group's best tracks were something special.

The Judybats formed in Knoxville in 1988, initially consisting of University of Tennessee students Jeff Heiskell on vocals, Johnny Sughrue on acoustic guitar, and Ed Winters on electric guitar. The nascent group took their distinctive name from a friend's unrecorded song, which featured the line "punch me with a judybat," a reference to medieval Punch and Judy puppet shows. The trio slowly added keyboardist Peggy Hambright (whose occasional violin and backing vocals were an integral part of the group's early sound), bassist Timothy Stutz, and drummer Terry Casper, and after a self-released demo cassette attracted considerable local attention, the group was signed to Sire Records in 1990.

After debuting on Sire's fine 1990 Roky Erickson tribute Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye (despite the fact that only Stutz had ever even heard of Erickson when the band were asked to appear), the Judybats released 1991's Native Son. By far the folkiest of the group's albums, the album garnered generally positive reviews and college radio warmed to the atypically synth-poppy single "Don't Drop the Baby," but sales were uninspiring. 1992's Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow was a more eclectic affair featuring a much stronger set of songs, but although it's by far the Judybats' best album, it did not build on the modest alternative success of Native Son.

Casper had already left the band prior to the recording of the second album (session drummer Kevin Jarvis had filled in), but the Judybats underwent a massive restructuring afterwards. Hambright and Stutz both left the band (Hambright supposedly quitting in disgust when Sire's product manager told her to lose weight), with their places taken by bassist Paul Noe and drummer Dave Jenkins. 1993's Pain Makes You Beautiful debuted a much less musically unique Judybats, their musical idiosyncrasies held in check in favor of a slicker sound more in keeping with the burgeoning adult album alternative radio format. However, Heiskell's always-quirky lyrics were odder than ever, from "Ugly on the Outside" (about hiding one's unattractive significant other from one's friends) to the S&M-tinged title track. Both the first single "Being Simple" and the glorious "All Day Afternoon" managed some radio airplay and the album sold better than its predecessors, but the expected wider commercial breakthrough didn't come.

1994's Full-Empty sounded like a desperate bid for that commercial breakthrough, from Heiskell's drastically changed singing style (previously, he'd sung in a nasal Tennessee twang, here replaced by a much smoother, deeper, and less interesting voice) to the slicker production. A pointless remake of the Bee Gees' "Jive Talkin'," which adds nothing to the song and sounds like a cynical bid to jump on the retro bandwagon, is the nadir, though a couple of the tracks aren't as bad as all that. Following this album's commercial flop, Sire dropped the band. Winters left the group to return to school, followed by Sughrue. The Judybats split up in early 1995, with Heiskell, Noe, and Jenkins forming the short-lived dance-pop Doubter's Club soon after. (Noe and Jenkins left that group after one album, 1996's Fleur de Lisa, to form the mod-pop Nevers with a former member of the V-Roys.)

Unexpectedly, the Judybats reformed in 1999, with Heiskell and Sughrue newly backed by bassist Rob Bell and identical twins Doug Hairrell and Mike Hairrell on guitar and drums. The new lineup self-released Judybats '00 a year later.

Wikipedia:

(The) Judybats were an alternative rock band from Knoxville, Tennessee, active primarily in the late 1980s and early 1990s. First formed in 1987 after vocalist Jeff Heiskell, who with Ed Winters (guitar) had been playing acoustically in Knoxville as a duo, met Tim Stutz (bass) at a local bar called Hawkeyes Corner. Stutz, Johnny Sughrue (guitarist) and Terry Casper (drums) had known each other since high school and had been playing music together as a trio. Peggy Hambright, who was Tim and Johnny’s roommate, added keyboards, violin and vocals. The JudyBats played locally to large audiences before signing to Sire Records 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" in a punning allusion to Punch and Judy shows.

The band contributed a cover of The 13th Floor Elevators' "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)" to the 1990 tribute album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson, followed shortly by their debut album Native Son. The official form of the band's name was never entirely clear — although the band was credited as The Judybats on the cover of Native Son, 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.

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. Following that album, Hambright and Stutz both left the band, and were replaced by Paul Noe on bass and Dave Jenkins on drums. The revised lineup released the band's most commercially successful album, Pain Makes You Beautiful, in 1993, and had successful singles on college radio and adult album alternative stations with "Being Simple", "All Day Afternoon" and "Incredible Bittersweet".

The lineup remained stable for the band's fourth album, 1994's Full-Empty, but the album fared poorly on the charts and the band broke up soon afterward. Heiskell, Noe and Jenkins pursued a new musical direction under the name Doubters Club, releasing the album Fleur de Lisa independently in 1996 after being dropped from a development deal with Sire Records.

Heiskell subsequently revived the Judybats name, with a new band lineup consisting of guitarists Doug Hairrell and Reed Pendleton, bassist Rob Bell and drummer Mike Hairrell, and released the band's final album '00 in 2000; although he did not participate in the album's recording, Sughrue rejoined the band for live performances to support the album. The reunited lineup also recorded a cover of Paul McCartney's "Love in Song" for the 2001 McCartney tribute album Listen to What the Man Said, but the band later broke up again before recording another full album.

Heiskell has since released two solo albums, Soundtrack for an Aneurism in 2006 and Clip-On Nose Ring in 2008.

Heiskell acknowledged that he is gay in a 1994 interview with The Advocate, but otherwise rarely spoke about his sexuality with the press, and only wrote about it indirectly in his songs, until his solo albums.