Punk pioneers Ultraman to release first new album in nearly 20 years

When vocalist Tim Jamison started the St. Louis punk group Ultraman in the mid ‘80s, he didn’t plan on sticking with the band for nearly four decades. 

But true to the Japanese pop-culture icon that serves as its namesake, Ultraman’s history reads like a death-and-rebirth story straight out of a comic book, with the latest heroic feat coming in the form of Dead End Thoughts Under a Crawling Sky, the group’s first full-length record in almost 20 years. August 16 will see the official release of the long-awaited new material via Rad Girlfriend Records, to be celebrated with a release show at Red Flag the following day.

Of course, every good superhero has an origin story. But Jamison describes his first attempt at a punk band in decidedly humble terms.

“White Suburban Youth: a name that I always say is more of an adjective than a statement,” Jamison chuckles. “We were just some kids in the suburbs writing about what we knew, which was skateboarding. We didn’t have a mission.”

White Suburban Youth’s first show in April 1984 was a canon event in the history of St. Louis punk. At the legendary but long-gone Bernard Pub, Austin act the Offenders performed alongside three local bands for an infamous night that newspapers would later dub the “punk disco raid.” Although White Suburban Youth’s set went off without a hitch, the headlining act was cut off halfway through their set.

“When I saw a cop walk through the pit I thought, Oh, this is not good,” Jamison says. 

Courtesy of the artist.

Courtesy of the artist.

The PA was shut off as police officers filled the room, and the attendees were divided into two lines, resulting in the arrest of 36 minors. One detective described the event to local press as being “like breaking up a Halloween party.”

In a lot of ways, it was a different time. While punk music eventually found a place in mainstream media, Jamison came up during a period when he and his contemporaries were fighting to even be seen as legitimate musicians. Few venues welcomed punks with open arms.

“Every show that we played was in a crazy neighborhood, because that was where you could find places to do shows,” Jamison says. 

It was under these conditions that Jamison and White Suburban Youth guitarist Rob Wagoner decided to take a little inspiration from a hero born on the other side of the world.

“At least we didn’t name our band Racer-X,” Jamison jokes.

Jamison still counts himself as a fan of the sci-fi media franchise that serves as his band’s namesake. He owns the original show on Blu-ray and watches episodes on YouTube. So what if his band is hard to search for online?

“If I knew about the internet back then, I wouldn’t have even picked Ultraman,” Jamison says. “At the time in 1986, that show was like this weird distant memory, because I saw it as a little kid, then it was just gone.”

With a few songs carried over from their former band, Jamison and Wagoner formed Ultraman with three like-minded musicians: John Corcoran (bass), Bob Zuellig (guitar), and Mike Doskocil (drums). Throughout the next two years, the group cut its teeth performing at small clubs in town such as Turners Hall, Sports Palace, and the aforementioned Bernard Pub—the first of many local venues that Ultraman would go on to outlive, whose lot is now an empty, barren square of land.

In fact, many of the punk-friendly spots that were active in the ‘80s and ‘90s no longer exist. But Jamison played them all, and even currently runs a YouTube page dedicated to defunct music venues.

“We played a lot of shows,” Jamison says. “We were on almost every [punk] show.” 

When Ultraman wasn’t keeping a hectic schedule at home, the band was either on tour or planning for the next one. Ultraman was especially prolific during this time, self-releasing a cassette and two EPs before signing to New Red Archives in November 1988.

The band kicked off 1989 by recording its first studio album, Freezing Inside, in New York City. Ultraman even played a matinee at the legendary CBGB before driving home, resting for one day and heading back out on the road to tour the United States and Canada with U.K. Subs. 

In 1990, Ultraman recorded its second studio album, Non-Existence, over the course of four days in San Francisco, a process that Jamison describes as relaxed compared to the first record. The band then embarked on its first tour of Europe, where it sold shirts with big bold letters on the back that read “EUROPEAN IN YOUR PANTS!”

Although Ultraman operated at this time as a revolving door, with members coming and going over the years, the grind of writing, recording and touring started wearing on the band as a whole—especially Jamison.

“Touring is the most fun you’ll have being miserable,” Jamison jokes. “I consumed a bottle of Rolaids like every couple weeks. It was bad. It ate me up.”

After returning from a second European tour in late 1991, Jamison and Co. had a band meeting to decide the fate of St. Louis’ original punk superhero. Three of the five members voted to move on, so Ultraman played its final show at Mississippi Nights on December 30, 1991.

But even though Ultraman was technically over and its members had started new projects, Jamison was asked about bringing the group back for one last show—over and over again. Ultraman played a series of reunion shows, including a 10-year anniversary bash in 1996 and a special “Ultra Damned” set at the end of 1997 that saw the band covering tracks by the Damned before closing with a full set of Ultraman songs.

“I call the ‘90s the reunion decade,” Jamison explains. 

After a bit of pushing from Bob Fancher (owner of Red Flag, Fubar), Jamison decided that it was time for Ultraman’s rebirth. But he also knew that if the band was going to come back, there needed to be new songs and a fresh approach. Fancher agreed and officially joined as guitarist, and is now Ultraman’s longest-tenured member after Jamison.

“I wanted it to be a progression of what was there before,” Jamison says. “I didn’t set out to create a whole new sound, but still progress within the framework that we already established as the earlier band.”

Within a year Ultraman was back in full force, with original guitarist Rob Wagoner rejoining as well. The four-year stretch from 1999 to 2003 was a productive time for the group that culminated in the release of its third studio album, 2004’s The Constant Weight of Zero.

With Ultraman now in its second life, the group spent the next decade as St. Louis’ elder statesmen of punk. Oh, a legendary hardcore band is coming to town? Better call Ultraman to fill one of those opening spots.

In 2012, Ultraman released a split 10” record with French group Dot Dash, a band whose guitarist originally connected with Ultraman during one of their early European tours. This would be Ultraman’s last release before Wagoner again left the band in 2015.

While 2020 brought a nationwide pause on concerts, the break from worrying about the next live show gave the band the space needed to finally work out a full-length album for the first time since 2004. The writing process was a collaborative one, Jamison says, with everyone pitching in ideas.

“There’s always been a history in the band of not just one person writing the music,” Jamison says. 

Courtesy of the artist.

Courtesy of the artist.

Recorded by Ultraman drummer Gabe Usery at Encapsulated Studios, Dead End Thoughts Under a Crawling Sky comprises 13 tracks of dark, melodic punk rock informed by the group’s nearly 40-year history. It also features the band’s strongest lineup to date, with Ryan Meszaros (the Cuban Missiles) on bass and guitarists Fancher and Tim O’Saben (Fragile Porcelain Mice). The album’s cover, which takes elements of old Westerns, the original Ultraman TV series and Jamison’s own vivid imagination, was drawn by Brad Fink, a longtime friend of the band and part owner of Iron Age Studios.

“I put Brad through a bit of a nightmare. But I also knew he could do it. I knew that once I was able to verbalize it enough, he would get it and do something great,” Jamison says.

Ultraman is set to celebrate the new album with a record release show on August 17 at Red Flag alongside local favorites Petty Grievances and Maximum Effort. As for the future? The band is already set to play an in-store set at Euclid Records in the fall and a few regional gigs outside of St. Louis later this year.

In other words, punk is not dead in St. Louis. And who’s to say it’s not because Ultraman keeps coming back to save the day?  

Pre-order the new album here adgirlfriendrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dead-end-thoughts-under-a-crawling-sky.