In the past few weeks, I’ve heard the term “Supergroup” bandied about a lot more than usual. There have been debut releases from Dead Weather (featuring members of White Stripes, Raconteurs, Queens of the Stone Age, and The Kills) and Tinted Windows (featuring members of Hansen, Smashing Pumpkins, Fountains of Wayne, and Cheap Trick). There have been announcements about the formation of new groups like Drummer (featuring members of Black Keys, Beaten Awake and Six Parts Seven) and The Almighty Defenders (featuring Black Lips, King Khan, and BBQ). There has been a Broken Social Scene Reunion (featuring members of Stars, Metric, Feist, Do Make Say Think, Apostle of Hustle, Green Day, Naughty By Nature, Bono, The Brazilian National Soccer Team, Color Me Badd, New Kids on the Block, and Barack Obama). But I’m here to set the record straight. These are not all supergroups, no matter how many times Pitchfork uses that word.

See somewhere we got confused. Someone accidentally said “Supergroup” instead of “Side Project” and everyone got all mixed up – we thought supergroup sounded better, more legitimate. So we dropped side project (except when referring to Spencer Krug), and substituted a name that implied that these bands could fly. False.

There are certain criteria that a supergroup must meet. As usual, I’d like to give my two cents about what really makes a supergroup super.  Super. Continue reading →