So tonight I bitch about supergroups in music.
There's really nothing I hate more than a supergroup. I always found them to be nothing but an easy way to capitalize off multiple band's fame in order to fuck over a wider spectrum of fans with generally the same shit they play in their original bands. You would think that if four or five genius minds from various bands collaborated they would...you know...try something new right? Maybe diversify a bit and try and turn their respective genre on its ass?
No?
Usually you get the same exact product you would from all four of their bands, just in a diluted. seemingly money driven, muddled result that you piss away $15 dollars on (who am I kidding here, no one pays for music anymore) and ends up on the bottom of your cd rack for an eternity as the supergroup dissolves and the members go back to where the they belong.
Example time;
- The Glove - Brain child of goth mopes Steven Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees) and Robert Smith (The Cure), they proceed to collaborate and make...more depressing goth music with no redeemable value. I love Disintegration and I love Kaleidoscope, so what the hell happened here?
- The Traveling Wilburys - George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and two other guys who wrote Beatles-esque songs for Bob Dylan to mutter to. No Paul, no John, no deal.
- Damn Yankees - A guy from Styxx, a guy from Night Ranger, and Ted Nugent. I'm stopping there.
- A Perfect Circle - Trent Reznor, the singer from Tool, and other 90's alt-rock gods making the same gloomy shit, and this is coming from somebody who is one of the biggest Trent Reznor marks out there. Those who really know me know I don't worship anything as closely as I do him (maybe William Gibson), and I still think this sucked.
- Tapeworm - See above. It was the same idea and just as bad
- The Transplants - Rancid + Blink 182 = musical-dysentery. It's a fact, Google it.
- Velvet Revolver - Guns 'n Roses minus Axel. 21st century 80's cock-rock. Slash has sweet hair though.
- Damnocracy - While they have the most clever band name in music history, I'll let the VH1 show explain the rest of this.
- Chickenfoot - Really? Just look at the name? And it's got Sammy Hagar. If you need an explanation for this go fuck yourself with barbed wire.
Ok, so that's a really big list of bad. I understand that music is as diverse as the people who speak its language. Just like in life, musicians work together to create new things. It's inevitable, and I get that, but for the love of god make something dynamic, make something new, make something that merits your pairing with three other famous douchebags so you get more of my money to roll around in.
Now I know there is going to be someone who says there are good supergroups out there, and for that asshole, I'm going to now steal their spotlight.
Temple of the Dog, the 90's grunge-child of guys from both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam created an album that somehow mixed the sheer raw intensity of Pearl Jam with the eloquence that is Soundgarden. Awesome.
Lagwagon, NoFX, Swingin' Utters, and No Use for a Name gave us Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. A supergroup cover band that played punk rock covers of virtually everything.
Multiple figures from the Post-hardcore (whatever that means) scene got together to create The Sound of Animals Fighting, and you know what? It sounds odd and great.
Speaking of odd and great, no one does avant-garde metal quite like Faith No More's Mike Patton. Him, the singer from The Melvins, and the drummer from Slayer formed (aguably) the best avant-garde metal band ever with the Fantômas.
Look at that, four amazing supergroups. Compare that to nine bad groups above. Bad groups double the amount of good in this scenario.
But I could be wrong here, of you could simply have a dissenting opinion. If you do comment this so we can argue into the night.
Oh, and I saved my last example for last. Example number ten is the Psychopathic Records, Insane Clown Posse loving Dark Lotus.
Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment