“Flying High” was written shortly after the release of the band’s “The Earth Is Flat” (Revelation Records, 1990) and has just been released as a free download. SUPERTOUCH will be releasing a new album later this year via Triple B Records.
Photo by Nicole Gilbert.
A friend of mine was hanging out with New Found Glory and Unwritten Law came up in conversation and the bassist said that they’re his favourite band of all time. I guess that would explain what this band sounds like. Bad. Anyway, they have a song called “How You Feel” and for a second I thought it was “How Do You Feel?” by Supertouch, which is a great song.
Supertouch started in 1985 out of the ashes of New York hardcore band Death Before Dishonor, which featured a young Mike Judge on drums. They released a demo and some WNYU tapes, but no actual records. Supertouch, named after a Bad Brains song, had a different drummer than DBD, since Mike went on to Youth of Today and later, Judge, but it still had the Yu brothers on strings and of course Mark Ryan on vocals. Ryan had been into New York hardcore since about 1982 and was probably the first b-boy in hardcore, along with Eddie Sutton of Leeway, making him cooler than everyone. Keep in mind this was in New York City in the 1980s so chances are they were the first in the world.
If you were at a Supertouch show in ’89 you’d see Adidas Ewings, flannel Stussy gear and probably Starter elbow pads on Ryan, and maybe a tie-dyed GB shirt or something. So cool. Anyways Supertouch was a great band, with songs on “NYC HC: The Way It Is” and the Anti-Matter comp, respectively, as bookends to their 7″ and their LP, “The Earth is Flat.” The LP was definitely ahead of its time, it’s got groove like sick, so sincere and challenging, starting off with the words “I’ve been drinking all night,” keep in mind they had a predominantly straight edge audience. Mark Ryan was NOT straight edge. Anyways they broke up sometime in the ’90s before their second LP was recorded. Word was Mark Ryan became a porn star, which is probably true, but now he’s in another band, Steady Roosevelt, who are decent but no Supertouch. In conclusion, Mark Ryan is the man, Unwritten Law suck and Mark Ryan is the man.
– Sami Reiss / The McGill Daily, February 23rd, 2003
