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It's old news now, I'm sure, but here it is:
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http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=10672
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Supergrass Are Born Again
Muppets and good timing help Supergrass to a fresh start
"Britpop." For most bands unfortunate enough to be packaged under the label in 1995 (the exceptions being Blur and Oasis), the tag was the equivalent of receiving a lethal injection to your career in the good old U.S. of A. The whirlwind romance for Brit bands followed a specific template: a band was touted as the next big thing by British press, hoovered up by an American label and promptly packaged as the epitome of uber-Euro-cool for consumers. But as the three young members of the Oxford trio Supergrass can attest, the romance hit the rocks when it came to radio airplay and sales figures in the States -- or rather, the lack thereof. In their homeland, the group's '95 debut I Should Coco and it's bouncy single "Alright" (with its exhuberant "We are young!" chorus) was a smash; over here, it was greeted as...well, frontman Gaz Coombes puts it best: "Another Britpop band."
"And that wasn't your guys' fault really," Coombes explains via phone from a tour stop in Paris. "I think it's forced on by the British media and how they portray a lot of the bands. That's what happens when you're put in a pigeonhole. So I think the more people listen to our music, they'll realize that we're not any kind of particular band. We can do all sorts of things."
Sure enough, they never were just another Britpop band. Barely out of their teens when I Should Coco was released (Coombes was nineteen, drummer Danny Goffey twenty-one, and bassist Mick Quinn twenty-four), they churned out an effervescent mix that seemed equal parts Small Faces, Buzzcocks and Beatles, displaying a maturity well beyond their years. Critics and anglophiles dug it, at least, and their stateside fortunes seemed to be looking up by the time they released 1997's more ambitious In It for the Money; at one point the band was even offered an opportunity to appear in a Steven Spielberg-spearheaded Monkees-esque cartoon series (they turned it down). But America seemed to have room for only one major U.K. crossover success story in '97, and it went to another Oxford troupe called Radiohead.
Ah, but that was all in the Nineties. It's a new decade: Oasis and Blur (and Radiohead, for the moment) have kindly stepped out of the American consciousness, and Supergrass are back for a third go-round with a new album (the fresh-start-sounding-titled Supergrass), a new U.S. label and a new lease on life, courtesy of a Muppet-infused video for the first single, "Pumping on Your Stereo." Touted as a "Breaakthrough Video" on MTV, the clip aptly captures the patented party-in-a-box infectious Supergrass pop sound as well as their spontaneity and goofball chic.
"We had all these scripts that came in for 'Pumping,' and that was the one that caught our eye," says Coombes. "It had these mad pictures on it of us with our heads superimposed on massive puppets and we just thought, 'Oh that's a bit mad. We'll give it a shot.' And then the [Jim] Henson people got involved, and that was even better 'cause we all grew up on Sesame Street and Muppets and all that business."
An eye-catching video isn't the only thing going in Supergrass' favor on their third album. For the first time, their schedule permits them to tour the American market coinciding with their new release, something of a rarity for British bands because of promotional commitments back home and in Europe. Credit that opportunity to the album's delayed release stateside, hitting racks here six months after it's U.K. debut. Coombes attributes the hold-up to "label problems." While on Capitol Records, Supergrass felt they were taking a backseat to higher-profile releases by the likes of the Beatles and Queen. But after their move to Island Def Jam in the States, Coombes optimistically reports that "everything's looking good."
"It's nice we kind of held it off for a little while," he says. "We could concentrate on Europe and the U.K. and Asia then, so now we can just come straight over and give it a good shot over there."
But having learned from experience that the path to success in America is hard fought, Supergrass aren't expecting the type of fame and rewards promised them five years ago. As they embark on their tour (which kicks off April 28 in New York), Coombes is realistic about what role the band could play here, which seems limited as both Quinn and Goffey have become fathers in recent years.
"I'd just like to see a lot of people at the shows and see people enthusiastic about it," Coombes says. "It's really hard to sort of want big, platinum records in the States and stuff because it sort of doesn't happen with bands like us. We'll never be a massive touring band because of sort of family situations and stuff, so it's good to do what we can."
JOLIE LASH
(April 22, 2000)
***********************
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=10672
***********************
Supergrass Are Born Again
Muppets and good timing help Supergrass to a fresh start
"Britpop." For most bands unfortunate enough to be packaged under the label in 1995 (the exceptions being Blur and Oasis), the tag was the equivalent of receiving a lethal injection to your career in the good old U.S. of A. The whirlwind romance for Brit bands followed a specific template: a band was touted as the next big thing by British press, hoovered up by an American label and promptly packaged as the epitome of uber-Euro-cool for consumers. But as the three young members of the Oxford trio Supergrass can attest, the romance hit the rocks when it came to radio airplay and sales figures in the States -- or rather, the lack thereof. In their homeland, the group's '95 debut I Should Coco and it's bouncy single "Alright" (with its exhuberant "We are young!" chorus) was a smash; over here, it was greeted as...well, frontman Gaz Coombes puts it best: "Another Britpop band."
"And that wasn't your guys' fault really," Coombes explains via phone from a tour stop in Paris. "I think it's forced on by the British media and how they portray a lot of the bands. That's what happens when you're put in a pigeonhole. So I think the more people listen to our music, they'll realize that we're not any kind of particular band. We can do all sorts of things."
Sure enough, they never were just another Britpop band. Barely out of their teens when I Should Coco was released (Coombes was nineteen, drummer Danny Goffey twenty-one, and bassist Mick Quinn twenty-four), they churned out an effervescent mix that seemed equal parts Small Faces, Buzzcocks and Beatles, displaying a maturity well beyond their years. Critics and anglophiles dug it, at least, and their stateside fortunes seemed to be looking up by the time they released 1997's more ambitious In It for the Money; at one point the band was even offered an opportunity to appear in a Steven Spielberg-spearheaded Monkees-esque cartoon series (they turned it down). But America seemed to have room for only one major U.K. crossover success story in '97, and it went to another Oxford troupe called Radiohead.
Ah, but that was all in the Nineties. It's a new decade: Oasis and Blur (and Radiohead, for the moment) have kindly stepped out of the American consciousness, and Supergrass are back for a third go-round with a new album (the fresh-start-sounding-titled Supergrass), a new U.S. label and a new lease on life, courtesy of a Muppet-infused video for the first single, "Pumping on Your Stereo." Touted as a "Breaakthrough Video" on MTV, the clip aptly captures the patented party-in-a-box infectious Supergrass pop sound as well as their spontaneity and goofball chic.
"We had all these scripts that came in for 'Pumping,' and that was the one that caught our eye," says Coombes. "It had these mad pictures on it of us with our heads superimposed on massive puppets and we just thought, 'Oh that's a bit mad. We'll give it a shot.' And then the [Jim] Henson people got involved, and that was even better 'cause we all grew up on Sesame Street and Muppets and all that business."
An eye-catching video isn't the only thing going in Supergrass' favor on their third album. For the first time, their schedule permits them to tour the American market coinciding with their new release, something of a rarity for British bands because of promotional commitments back home and in Europe. Credit that opportunity to the album's delayed release stateside, hitting racks here six months after it's U.K. debut. Coombes attributes the hold-up to "label problems." While on Capitol Records, Supergrass felt they were taking a backseat to higher-profile releases by the likes of the Beatles and Queen. But after their move to Island Def Jam in the States, Coombes optimistically reports that "everything's looking good."
"It's nice we kind of held it off for a little while," he says. "We could concentrate on Europe and the U.K. and Asia then, so now we can just come straight over and give it a good shot over there."
But having learned from experience that the path to success in America is hard fought, Supergrass aren't expecting the type of fame and rewards promised them five years ago. As they embark on their tour (which kicks off April 28 in New York), Coombes is realistic about what role the band could play here, which seems limited as both Quinn and Goffey have become fathers in recent years.
"I'd just like to see a lot of people at the shows and see people enthusiastic about it," Coombes says. "It's really hard to sort of want big, platinum records in the States and stuff because it sort of doesn't happen with bands like us. We'll never be a massive touring band because of sort of family situations and stuff, so it's good to do what we can."
JOLIE LASH
(April 22, 2000)
