Majesty Crush’s reemergence on the music radar is not something many would have predicted when the Detroit band broke up in 1995 after a five-year run.

Its story then, like so many others, was one of great promise cut short by cold truths of the music industry. The quartet wasn’t necessarily guaranteed stature as one of rock’s next big things, but it had an undeniable presence at home and growing awareness beyond before things came crashing down.

And now the band is back — in a way.

The just-released “Butterflies Don’t Go Away” compiles Majestic Crush’s lone album, 1993’s “Love 15,” as well as its EPs “Fan” and “Sans Muscles” into a handsomely packaged two-disc vinyl collection. A “No. 1 Fan” EP, led by the group’s 1992 hit, came out in February, and a young fan at Michigan State University has created two YouTube channels dedicated to Majesty Crush, particularly archival performance footage.

“It’s the weird miracles that happen,” says bassist Hobey Echlin, who now resides in Long Beach, California. “We’re kind of, like amazed. We never had this sense of closure or this ability to really see it in its totality.”

In fact, Echlin adds, because of the tragic death of singer David Stroughter in 2017 during a confrontation with Los Angeles police officers, “we all had a bittersweet memory because we got the rug pulled out from under us.

“Now, hey, there’s this record that never really had a chance its first time out, and it’s got another chance. I guess good things do come to those who wait.”

There are actually two stories at work here — Majesty Crush’s initial history and the way kismetic manner in which it’s being recognized now.

Almost heaven

Majesty Crush was formed by Echlin, along with Stroughter, guitarist Mike Segal and drummer Odell Nails, who all hailed from Southfield. With both white and Black members, it did not look like any other rock band in the metro area. And the gauzy, surging and even anthemic urgency of its music didn’t sound like any other, either.

The roots, according to Echlin, were in the post-punk, new wave and alternative music the band members gravitated towards, primarily British bands such as Joy Division, the Jesus and Mary Chain, A.R. Kane and others. Segal, a graphic design student who worked at Play It Again Records, was “our arbiter of taste. He would turn us on to records. That was our guiding light,” according to Echlin, who was in the preceding band Spawn Ranch with Nails and was also a writer for the Detroit Metro Times.

Majesty Crush opened for touring acts such as Mazzy Star, Royal Trux, Julian Cope and The Verve, and it struck up close relationships with other Detroit bands such as Charm Farm and Goober and the Peas.

“We were almost an anomaly, these Brit Pop-sounding guys, but they were Black,” Echlin explains. Majesty Crush’s music has long been classified as shoegaze or dream pop, but that was too easy categorization for a blend that incorporated a wealth of Detroit influences from Motown to the MC5 and beyond.

“We were like, ‘Wow, you can have erotic, emotional lyrics but also noise, and you can make music that’s extremely charismatic,’” Echlin recalls. “I think it’s very Detroit to be drawn to these extremes. I don’t think we were great musicians, and we never considered ourselves songwriters. But we were trying to do something; even if it was minimal it had a certain mood and edge to it, and a certain originality. What we lacked in technical proficiency we made up for in chemistry.

“But it did have melody. It did, in its own naive way, cut through a little bit. We just kinda knew what sounded good based on our — we thought — pretty good taste.”

89X in Windsor began playing “No. 1 Fan,” and Majesty Crush landed a deal with Chameleon/Dali Records, then setting up shop in New York as a subsidiary of Elektra Records. The group recorded “Love 15,” but less than a month after its release, Elektra pulled the plug on the relationship and Majesty Crush was not picked up by the parent company. The group also suffered the misfortune of having an important New York showcase performance scheduled for Nov. 18, 1993 — the same night Nirvana was filming its “MTV Unplugged” episode, a competition no young band could overcome.

“Thirty years ago, it was a hard sell to have a charismatic frontman who was Black in a (rock) band that sounded sort of British, because everything around us was grunge,” Echlin explains. “Even though we felt a post-punk kinship, even with groups like Nirvana, the look and feel of what we were doing, there wasn’t a precedent for it. We didn’t have a niche to fit into. I think if we could’ve kept going, if we’d gone to England, maybe we would’ve become much bigger.

“That was always the dream, funnily enough.”

Instead, the members of Majesty Crush went their separate ways, into other endeavors musical and otherwise. Stroughter moved west and formed another band, P.S. I Love You, while Nails played in a variety of situations, including with Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins, before becoming a prominent entertainment attorney in New York.

The dream had ended — but was not over.

Unexpected legacy

Majesty Crush’s reemergence began in 2018 when Charm Farm frontman Dennis White — an old friend now working as an electronic artist under the moniker Latroit in Los Angeles — contacted Echlin asking if Majesty Crush owned its master recordings and suggesting they might be able to get some media placements for the music. Shortly after that, Stroughter’s sister contacted the bassist, asking the same thing. Echlin and company did not know where the recordings were, however.

Random fate clicked when Echlin received a Facebook message from a woman in Wisconsin saying, “I think I have your master tapes.” It turned out she was the sister-in-law of one of Stroughter’s former roommates in Los Angeles, who had all his possessions — including the tapes — and had in turn died and left them to his brother.

The masters were in hand when Third Man Records contacted one-time Majesty Crush agent Rich Hansen, wanting to put “No. 1 Fan” on its “Southeast of Saturn” compilation of underground Detroit music in 2020. That allowed the band members to put the tapes in the hands of Third Man mastering engineer Warn Defever, whose band His Name Is Alive had played with Majesty Crush, to help get the recordings into proper shape.

Echlin then reached out to Rob Sevier, co-founder of Chicago-based reissue specialist the Numero Group, who he’d interviewed for a story about one of its compilations, “Downriver Revival.” “When I heard Majestic Crush the first time, it felt like I’d been listening to it for years even though it has indelibly unique qualities that I certainly hadn’t encountered,” Sevier says. “That’s kind of the trigger I’m always looking for with these types of discoveries.”

With the Third Man compilation and now “Butterflies Don’t Go Away,” Majestic Crush has, 30 years on, achieved the worldwide notoriety its members barely dreamed of. “I’m getting direct messages from people in Russia,” says Echlin, while numerous bands also are contacting him to praise what they’re hearing.

“What I’m stunned by is there’s these younger people who are actually responding to this and saying this means a lot — and I’m their parent’s age!” Echlin says, with a laugh. They’re also responding to the band’s history, including Stroughter’s battles with mental illness and tragic death.

“It’s bittersweet,” Echlin acknowledges. “Dave would’ve loved all this. In many ways, this is exactly what he wanted was his music to be heard.”

Echlin and Numero’s Sevier say there may be additional Majesty Crush releases — including songs the band played live only — but despite the new notoriety Echlin, Nails and Segal, now a graphic designer in the metro area, feel no pull to put the band back together again in any way.

“We’ve all moved on so much,” Echlin notes. “The story’s out there now — the whole story, all the music. That’s enough for us. We let the past be the past.”