Chavez - Biography
It's perfectly okay to not know who Chavez are. It's also fine to have never heard of the bands in which the members of Chavez got their start, the bands that made Chavez, some say, a supergroup. What is worth knowing is that Chavez have reformed and are rumored to be making their first album after a 12-year absence. The New York quartet gained notoriety through stunning live shows and an angular, muscular assault on the traditional rock formula. The members have since been involved in unlikely projects in the entertainment industry (one of them co-wrote the Paul Walker vehicle, Joy Ride, with J.J. Abrams). Although they never officially broke up, they are now officially back. This is great news to their fans (of which there are many), uninteresting to those who don't know who they are (of which there are many more) and a crushing blow to those who were praying that Billy Corgan would disband The Smashing Pumpkins once again and reform Zwan (Chavez's lead singer was in Zwan).
In late ‘80s New Jersey, Matt Sweeney began playing and singing in the band Skunk. After that band released their second album, 1991's Laid, they broke up and Sweeney moved to New York. It was there that he became a member of Wider, along with drummer James Lo — formerly of the underground New York noise rock band, Live Skull. After releasing one single, Wider disbanded in 1992 and Sweeney started jamming with Clay Tarver, an ex-member of Boston cult band Bullet Lavolta. Lo soon asked the duo if they needed a drummer and joined them, as did bass-player Davey Hoskins. Chavez recorded a demo in 1993 and released it as a 7” single on Matador called “Repeat the Ending,” with the B-side, “Hack the Sides Away” on July 25th, 1994.
Scott Masciarelli, a longtime friend of Sweeney's, had moved to New York two months prior to the single's release and replaced Hoskey on the bass. Masciarelli (né Scott Marshall) was also an aspiring actor and the son of Gary Marshall. Chavez quickly established themselves as an energetic live band and soon they were the toast of New York's underground music scene. The band worked with various producers for the recording of their first album, including John Agnello, who had worked with Screaming Trees and Dinosaur Jr. Also involved in the making of the LP were Bob Weston (Sebadoh) and Bryce Goggin, who mixed Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
The group received critical acclaim for the debut full-length, Gone Glimmering (1995 Matador). Chavez were playing shows with their friends in Guided by Voices and Shellac and winning new fans, pleasing both math-rock devotees, prog-rock fans and those who just enjoyed loud, punishing punk. On October 17th, 1995, they followed up their debut with an EP entitled Pentagram Ring (Matador), which included the popular single from their beginning, “Repeat the Ending.”
Ride the Fader (Matador) followed on November 5th, 1996. Despite the fact that the album was universally hailed as being tighter and more focused than the original, Chavez more or less dissolved at that point. Masciarelli decided to concentrate primarily on his film career and moved to Hollywood. He was not a stranger to the industry, having appeared in all of his father's projects. He eventually directed a feature, Keeping up with the Steins, which was released in 2006 and starred his father Gary.
After Ride the Fader, the band did make occasional live appearances together but no member regarded Chavez as a day job any longer and the three members who did not move to Hollywood moved on to other projects. Lo remained devoted to music, playing drums in various groups, including The Sands. Before working with J.J. Abrams on the Joy Ride script, Tarver directed two episodes of the Comedy Central show, The Upright Citizens Brigade and also directed the award-winning Got Milk? commercials. Sweeney, who had also worked as a publicist throughout his time in Chavez, joined Guided by Voices for a period before getting scooped up by Billy Corgan as a guitarist for the ex-Pumpkin's new project, Zwan. It was a second supergroup for Sweeney, additionally comprised of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, Paz Lenchantin from A Perfect Circle and David Pajo from both Tortoise and the experimental band Slint, to whom Chavez were often compared. After releasing one album, 2003's Mary Star of the Sea, Zwan resulted in an ugly break-up. Sweeney next appeared on Will Oldham's 2005 album, Superwolf.
The legacy of Chavez gained attention the longer the band stayed quiet. The members of the band recall the group's popularity running out of steam in the mid-‘90s. However, it seemed that, since they had made two great indie rock classics, all they had to do was move on from the band and allow their cult status to swell. On October 10th 2006, Chavez received the reissue treatment when Matador put out both their albums, their EP, their 7” and a DVD as the box set, Better Days Will Haunt You. The set was met with great reviews and hailed as an appropriate re-introduction to a band most people were never introduced to in the first place. Apparently surprised by the warm reception of the box set and their renewed popularity, Chavez, who never considered themselves broken up in the traditional sense, began writing new material together and playing live dates for the first time in years.
