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.
10/23: THE “SUPERGROUP” SUPER SATURATION
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Well in the old days, 60’s and 70’s, the beatles released multiple records each year, Kiss delivered 7 records within 5 years. No time for side projects, side projects were getting hooked on coke and smack. I like the idea of supergroups, but I rarely hear anything astounding from the lineups.
Glen Hughes, Jimmy Page, Slash and Bill Ward that would be a Supergroup
Bought the new Stryper CD, bought the limited edition t-shirt , did Stryper make a tour stop in Philly? Nope, and probably haven’t since the FREE video was filmed at the Tower in the 80’s. Why should I support a Sweet/Lynch project when the singers main gig never hits my town. Some bands under saturate, I had to drive 100 miles to see Fates Warning.
I don’t really care about these extra super groups as far as a release goes. I did buy Brides of Destruction back in the day. I have the Chickenfoot releases and I agree with Eddie on the Winery dogs, but really where I get off is seeing my hero’s at a local club and getting to meet them for $65 bucks. Just did this in Golden Colorado with the Devil City Angels. Now I understand they will be putting some music together, but I doubt they are out on tour losing money. They are playing some of their originals along with 3 songs from 3 of the band members back catalogue. Seeing them open with “Let me go to the show” is a pretty damn unique experience. They have to be making something. I am wondering if touring and putting on a live show IS the way to make money. If you have a good merch table, and some great entertainment packages then maybe you can sell 50 or 60 tickets at a club and still make a living. I certainly hope this is the future of music. the artists living and dying based on the quality of the live show, and the overproduced, over sampled and dubbed music continuing to be free for download.. David Lee Roth once said, “If you can’t go out and do it with a guitar and a light bulb hanging from the ceiling nothing else matters” I agree. At least live we get to see how real the band is. Go out there and get what you pay for. That’s my opinion.
Here are the real super groups hands down, not debatable by any means with some of the greatest musicians and singers/ frontman of all time> The Beatles, The Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix Exp, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath with Ozzy and Dio, Deep Purple with Gillan, or Hughes and Coverdale, Aerosmith, Van Halen With Roth or Hagar, Rush, Kiss with Ace/Peter, Kulick/Singer era, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Queen, Yes, Gun & Roses, Metallica, Dio original line up, Ozzy solo original line up, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, and Countless others I could mention. Newer bands like BCC, Winery Dogs are Fantastic and would have been huge back in the day, too bad about BCC now, Chickenfoot solid band, some others as well it’s hit or miss, but anybody with good ear and understanding of true musicianship, great vocals, stage command, solid albums strong or weak, the above Bands are the Super Groups!!! This Country’s has lost touch with any thing that is good. RAP, POP bubble gum crap, the same male, female singers all sound the same, generic friggin garbage, all this reality music S&#T. Hell even country music has gone to hell, The U.S HAS THE WEAKEST EAR IN MUSIC, Today’s generations are clueless when it comes to music, my sons and nephew even admit we grew up in greatest era of music! They have a true ear for music whether it be hard rock, metal, jazz, bues or classical, they get it unlike most others.