10/23: THE “SUPERGROUP” SUPER SATURATION
Seems like just about every day I am hearing about a new “supergroup” of sorts being put together. A group of musicians who have other main bands getting together to make an album. This is yet another by product of the shrinking record business. If you aren’t selling any real copies of your albums with your main band, maybe be in five bands at the same time and combined there might be some sales? Or maybe even have a hit with the side band (if that were to ever happen the main band would likely be abandon no doubt). I am not judging these artists for doing these things. I would never begrudge anyone doing what they can to make a living and survive in a business where 10,000 copies sold gets you top 10 on Billboard and sadly off the charts three weeks later in many cases. The truth is some artists making great new music are selling around 2-5000 copies. Some even less. So I get the multi tasking. I also have to laugh at how criticized a guy like Mike Portnoy was for taking this approach a few years ago. Guess what? Now it’s the norm and Mike having a few bands seems more than normal. Almost everyone is doing it. I miss the days when seeing your favorite band or musicians was a once a year very special thing. This all feeds in to the over touring and over exposure of some artists. Some are actually hurting their draw they play so often. Some are going less is more and actually getting paid better for playing less. Again, everyone does what they have to in order to survive, I get that. But what is frustrating about some of these “projects” is the almost total lack of real support for them. As fans we get invested in this stuff, buy the music (hopefully), and then sometimes don’t even see a live show happen. Then a month later we are hearing about another band with some of the same members to buy that release! It’s getting hard to keep up with all of this and it’s my job to do so. So I can’t even imagine how convoluted it must be to the casual rock fan to sort out. Some of these bands are good and have the right intentions. They actually all get in a room, work together, and try and make a real run with it. Others are a bunch of tracks emailed back and forth by guys that never even met or were ever in the same room, cut together with pro tools, throw it out and see what happens. These are often bad and dilute the scene and often have no chemistry or shot at success. I personally was directly involved in one of these projects that worked, The Winery Dogs. Those guys made the band a priority, all recorded and wrote together, and toured their asses off the promote it (and made an amazing album!). Now in down time they are all doing some other stuff but will reconvene in 2015 to continue. But sadly I see so many of these bands jam the pipeline and you can just tell it’s never going to happen. No real label support, no chemistry, no live shows, no great songs. Just throw some names together and see what happens. I hope we get more things like The Winery Dogs breaking through (relatively speaking as far as rock is concerned these days), but the formula I am seeing for so many of these bands does not bode well for that to happen. I’m curious to read your comments as a rock fan what you think of all these bands and are you bothered when you buy the music and it never goes beyond an album release? As always all opinions welcome.
What a topic and to see all the responses tells me this is a great topic. I am 53 and when you look at the life of a rock-n-roll band in its heyday the lifetime of the band is probably like a NFL running back about 3-5 years. Groups like the Beatles and Zepplin were around about 10 years. Only a few make it past the 10 year mark and we are talking Aerosmith, Rush and AC/DC even though major change in that band when Bon Scott died. Not sure what the answer is and sort of sad as I only attended one concert this year and that was because a neighbors son was playing in the band Electric Citzen which is a very good group but not sure how you get their music out to the public. Wish I had the answer but I guess I will just wait to see Rush again which is not bad but this time no new album planned so even they may be getting that last cash grab and can’t blame them one bit.
The best supergroup of them all are rocking the heavens. Bon Scott, Randy Rhoads, Cliff Burton & John Bonham.
What about Glen, Ace, and Joey Kramer another supergroup
RIP to Jack Bruce, one of the original “super group” members from Cream. Bruce was one of the best rock and roll bassists ever, a huge influence across the spectrum of music and really was the driving sound behind Cream, in spite of having two other icons (Eric Clapton on guitar and Ginger Baker on drums) being part of the band.
Sad day for music fans.
I have an idea for a new Supergroup. It’s would be called Metal Titans. Rob Halford on vocals, Zakk Wylde on guitar, John 5 on guitar, Rex Brown on Bass and Vinnie Paul on drums.