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Majesty Crush

American indie rock band

Summary

American indie rock band

Field	Value
name	Majesty Crush
background	group_or_band
origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
genre	Shoegaze, dream pop, indie rock
years_active	1990–1995
label	Vulva, Chameleon/Dali, Davies Productions, Ché Trading, Numero Group
spinoffs	P.S. I Love You, Astrobrite
associated_acts	P.S. I Love You, Astrobrite
website	https://majestycrush.bandcamp.com/
past_members	Hobey Echlin
Odell Nails III
Mike Segal
David Stroughter

Odell Nails III Mike Segal David Stroughter

Majesty Crush was an American indie rock band influenced by the shoegaze genre popularized in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, they formed in 1990 and broke up in 1995. The band's lineup consisted of lead singer David Stroughter (1966-2017), bassist Hobey Echlin, guitarist Michael Segal, and drummer Odell Nails III.

History

Majesty Crush served as the opening act at shows in the early 1990s for such bands as Chapterhouse, Curve, Mazzy Star, Royal Trux, and The Verve. The band recorded a demo and released it locally as A Vintage Crushed by Your Own Feet in 1991. The band self-released the Fan EP the following year. The song "No. 1 Fan" from that EP picked up significant radio airplay on Windsor, Ontario's 89X, and led to Majesty Crush signing with Dali Records, a Warner/Elektra subsidiary at the end of 1992.

The band began recording their debut album in January 1993, later released as Love 15, on September 28, 1993.{{cite news

The band planned to tour nationwide and possibly to England after the release of Love 15, but their momentum came to an abrupt halt when Dali folded within a month of the album's release.

David Stroughter went on to form the band P.S. I Love You.{{cite web

In 1996, a Majesty Crush live performance was released as P.S. I Love You. About 50 of the first copies were credited to the group, but the rest of the copies were credited to P.S. I Love You.

In 2009, Full Effect Records released the compilation album I Love You in Other Cities: The Best of Majesty Crush 1990–1995. OC Weeklys Dave Segal remarked that the album "offers 14 reasons why we should still care about this footnote in shoegaze-rock history." AllMusic's Heather Phares called it "a good retrospective of a band that just may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time." Laura Witkowski of Metro Times said the album "feels like the work of a superfan, one keen to share his excitement for a band deserving of more attention than it received."{{cite news

In 2017, Stroughter was killed by Los Angeles police officers after a slow-speed chase. The confrontation stemmed from two domestic incidents earlier in the day.

In 2020, Third Man Records chose "No. 1 Fan" as the lead-off track of its Southeast Of Saturn compilation, focusing on the best under-discovered early 90s ethereal and shoegaze bands from Detroit and its surrounding areas. In 2023, the surviving members entered into an exclusive license deal with the Numero Group, which would begin remastering and reissuing various tracks in preparation for Butterflies Don't Go Away, a compilation of their discography, released on March 29, 2024.

In 2025, Numero Group began releasing more Majesty Crush material not featured on Butterflies: a digital reissue of the Sans Muscles EP, two songs from the P.S. I Love You EP, and live tracks "Crushed" and "Party Girl", that was originally released on the demo cassette A Vintage Crushed by Your Own Feet and also appeared on I Love You In Other Cities, culminating in a full Live EP.

Musical style and lyrical content

While incorporating the same lush, dreamy sound as other shoegaze acts of the time, the lyrics of Majesty Crush songs set them apart from other artists of the genre. Stroughter's often strange and obsessive lyrics cover such subjects as stalking Jodie Foster ("No. 1 Fan"), torture ("Boyfriend"), heroin ("Horse"), a female cashier at an adult book store ("Sunny Pie"), actresses ("Uma"), tennis stars ("Seles") and Italian porn stars ("Cicciolina").{{cite news

Discography

Albums

Love 15 (1993, Chameleon/Dali; 2023, Numero Group)

Compilation albums

I Love You In Other Cities: The Best of Majesty Crush 1990-1995 (2009, Full Effect)
Butterflies Don't Go Away (2024, Numero Group)

EPs and singles

"Sunny Pie/Cicciolina" (1991, Vulva)
A Vintage Crushed By Your Own Feet Demo EP (1991, Vulva)
"Purr/Grow" (1992, Davies Productions)
Fan EP (1992, Vulva)
Sans Muscles EP (1994, Vulva)
Split with Spare Snare (1995, Ché Trading)
P.S. I Love You (1996, Vulva)
"Boyfriend" (2023, Numero Group)
"Cicciolina" (2023, Numero Group)
"Horse" (2023, Numero Group)
"Feigned Sleep" (2023, Numero Group)
"Sunny Pie" (2023, Numero Group)
"Worri" (2024, Numero Group)
"No. 1 Fan (EP Version)" (2024, Numero Group)
"Space Between Your Moles" (2024, Numero Group)
"Gemini" (2025, Numero Group)
"Everybody's Bored"/"Gemini" (2025, Numero Group)
"Party Girl" (Live in 1991)" (2025, Numero Group)
"Crushed" (Live in 1991)" (2025, Numero Group)
Live EP (2025, Numero Group)

References

"Officer Involved Shooting of David Stroughter".
Echlin, Hobey. (February 6, 2017). "David Stroughter, 1966-2017: A remembrance".
Henry Boyer. (2023-09-11). "9/27/1993 David Stroughter and O (Odell Nails III) of Majesty Crush on the show 89X {{!}} Interview".
(2024-04-26). "Majesty Crush: Butterflies Don't Go Away".
Henry Boyer. (2023-08-10). "9/10/1995 Majesty Crush last ever gig (1994-1995 lineup) at the Magic Bag (Ferndale, Michigan)".
"David Stroughter (P.S. I Love You) interviewed by Keith Mckinnon (Klefsigns Television)".
"Southeast of Saturn – Third Man Records – Official Store".
(2024-01-29). "Majesty Crush Announce Career-Spanning Double-LP Butterflies Don't Go Away".
Group, Gary Graff {{!}} {{!}} For MediaNews. (2024-03-29). "Detroit '90s band Majesty Crush gets its due with new compilation".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

american-dream-pop-musical-groups american-shoegaze-musical-groups indie-rock-musical-groups-from-michigan musical-groups-established-in-1990 musical-groups-disestablished-in-1995 musical-groups-from-detroit 1990-establishments-in-michigan 1995-disestablishments-in-michigan american-indie-rock-groups the-numero-group-artists

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