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jonny chan March 12, 2009 -
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The Jonny Chan story starts with humble beginnings outside of Detroit in a platitudinous suburb known as Troy Michigan. The only thing not characterless about the city was the oldest house in Troy Chan grew up in, a turn of the century farmhouse filled with antiquities and rare works of art. Growing up in an artistic household his father Glenny Michael Chan, was already a famous artist and classically trained musician. He had attended Yale in the 1950’s while Paul Hindemith (German composer, conductor and violinist) was there. Since he was constantly exposed to classical music, Jonny of course did the only natural thing a young delinquent could do and turn to contemptuous punk rock. In high school he started to play guitar and formed his first band with neighbor friend Greg Boes, called “Fester” bashing out cover tunes by the Sex Pistols, Yardbirds & The Who as well as original tunes like “High Steppin’ Bitch”. Johnny later teamed up with
High school pal Freddy Fortune, along with Boes and later Michael Maltese to start the Nuggets/ Pebbles inspired band The Covingtons. They played all the seediest dives in Detroit from 1988 to 1991, sharing the stage with other like minded miscreants such as The 3D-Invisibles and The Gories spreading the garage gospel to a city yet unfamiliar with the term “Garage” In fact the Covingtons played so many shows with the Gories that they were covering their original tune “Thunder Bird ESQ” before it was even released. This is what musician and friend of the band Professor Schmiddy Had to say about them. “The Covingtons were a shock onto the local music scene- equated to the likes of oil being mixed with water. Something didn't quite fit. There were too many metal bands, hippie bands, and funk combos... and then there were The Covingtons”. Although the Covingtons had a decent local following they never released any records at the time they were
Together. Instead they wisely chose to blow their entire band fund on a battered 1969 Cadillac hearse. In 1991 disillusioned with D-town, Chan relocated permanently to New York City. The Covingtons played one final show in 1992. A year later Freddy & Michael formed Fortune & Maltese & The Phabulous Pallbearers and one year after that Jonny Chan & The New Dynasty Six were born in 1994. The new bands continued to carry the garage punk torch, with both groups eventually recording tracks from back in their days as the Covingtons.
The early New Dynasty Six started off slowly and conventionally playing mostly covers as well as shifting through multiple lineups. Jonny soon began writing lots of original material and around 1996 he finally teamed up with the guys that would eventually record the “So You Want Action” album. Finally he had a steady working version of the band, featuring Wayne Sweeney on Guitar, Tommy Jade on Bass and Irish born John Paul Tansey aka Tripp Fontaine, original drummer for the 80’s band Hot House Flowers on drums. Wayne also became an integral part of the group writing, producing and also doing a fair share of the lead vocals as well. With much perseverance the New Dynasty Six became one of the most popular bands in Manhattan, and was voted best band in Brooklyn by the New York Press. Wayne filled us in on some of the basics of the band. “When I met Jon and started playing with the band he was still wearing the frilly Edwardian shirt with
ruffles, but Austin Powers came out around that time and he had a hard time convincing people that he was sporting the look years before "yeah baby" was a catch phrase. By the time Tom and I joined up, the sound of the band started to show influences from sources other than the Yardbirds and we muscled things up with some misguided AC/DC punch. But it worked somehow. We were angry young men and worked through some Nuggets staples like Ain't No Friend Of Mine and Hey Joe but from the beginning we wanted to create something different that used the vocabulary of innocence from all those great garage bands but added all our personalities. Tom channeled Gene Simmons and Bruce Foxton, John Paul added those lopsided Ring Starr drum fills, I brought a relentless pop sensibility from the Turtles to Stax/Volt and Jonny had this peculiar drive to keep himself front and center and everyone else on edge. Our first steady gigs were at the Charleston in Williamsburg and we owned the place. We would end up drenched with sweat and fistful of one-dollar bills for a paycheck. The owner would get into it and turn down the stage lights and use a penlight and a laser pointer to light up our performances. We learned how to play in the dark from that experience and it helped us tighten up”.
By 1998 and it was finally time to record. On the advice of record labels that might be interested in the group, Freddy told Jonny to send a demo to Lee Joseph at Dionysus records. Lee dug it! With a solid set of tunes, but little recording experience the album was quickly self produced in a nursery school in Brooklyn Heights that Jade’s father had access to. Here they had an 8 track reel to reel tape recorder, a farfisa organ, and access to a vibraphone, heard on a couple of tracks. The album contained many sizzling Chan/Sweeney originals as well as a fantastic cover of the “Little Black Egg” naturally sung in Mandarin Chinese of course! With a healthy buzz about their new release, the boys flew to L.A. to perform at the Dionysus Demolition Derby festival. While in California Flipside magazine interviewed them and did a nice big color spread on the group. They also appeared in Atlanta Georgia at Fuzzfest a sixties garage festival, featuring the most high profile groups of the genre. Thanks to Tripp Fontaine’s technical knowledge, the group shot a 16mm promo video for the album’s opening track “Hey” featuring the band romping through Coney Island and overgrown vacant lots ala “Hard Days Night”. It was one of the hottest days of the summer a blistering 103 degrees when they shot the Coney Island footage. The annual Mermaid parade was in full swing, an event where freaks from the Village dress up like creatures of the sea. On this day eyes were not on the topless girls like should have been, but were staring at the guys frolicking around in sharkskin suits with guitars and beatle boots.
Inspired by a solid album and decent praise, the band continued to keep writing new material. John Paul at this point became a family man, and had to bow out of the New Dynasty shenanigans. He was temporarily replaced by Tommy’s brother Jan and later by a cat named of Vinny the Nose. It wasn’t until they enlisted the skin bashing abilities of the “Mighty” Joe Vincent whose band the Pristeens had recently broken up, that the band was once again back in business. By the time Joe entered the picture the band had written a ton of new songs. Back to Wayne in regards to the new material: “John had some sappy chord changes we were working together on and I sort of adlibbed the entire song “Its All About Me” on the spot. That tune ended most of our shows since Jonny would inevitably attack the crowd with a twisted version of a Vegas style croon, get some young honey in a headlock, drink someone’s pint of beer if he couldn’t drink
directly from the tap behind the bar, toss some tables over, you get the idea. One night, the only time we played lakeside lounge in the lower east side Jonny hucked a couple of pint glasses back at the band barely missing us as they smashed on the wall. The fucking guy regularly lost control but the crowd loved it and kept coming back.”
It seemed at this point the world was truly going to know the sonic sounds of The New Dynasty Six, however inner turmoil was brewing within the band. Though the other guys were all excellent musicians they didn’t always share the same vision as Chan, preferring to work on their own musical projects making the New Dynasty Six a secondary priority. Many fights ensued with Jonny invariably being the scapegoat. One incident occurred at a wedding gig the band was hired to perform at. Jonny got so angry with bassist Tommy Jade that he punched him in the face. Jade returned the favor by dropping to his knees and biting Chan on the leg. The father of the bride had to bust in and break up the wedding reception fracas.
I think Wayne said it best when describing Jonny Chan: “Jonny Chan is bulletproof and everyone who has ever been in a band with him is lucky to still be alive. At its best JCND6 rode the edge of complete mayhem and anarchy at a decibel level you could feel.”
