Aug 14, 2018

Sickest SUPERGROUPS of Rock

Over the years there have been dozens of bands and artists who decide to take a break from their day jobs to take a breather in a side-project or alternative creative different direction.

While some artists have become their own stand alone project (From First to Last & Skrillix or (Andy Black & Black Veil Brides), others reach out to musical colleagues to create the sickest supergroups.

I scattered music history to find some of the sickest punk rock supergroups. While rock history is littered with some of the most FAMOUS supergroups of all time, Journey, Cream, Stone Temple Pilots, I focused on ONLY the ones who have more than one punk or pop-punk member in them.

Mass Mental

Starting out in 1995 the band had a diverse array of members including that of: Suicidal Tendencies, Danzig, Snot, Janes Addiction and Metallica. The band had a brief run due to a dispute with their record label Earache Records over their persuasion to them to record a hip-hop album. The band united years later in 2014 after a surprise "instruMENTAL" reunion at a series of 2014 Tenacious D shows. The guys even headlined the Warwick & Framus Open Day 2014 in Germany as well as doing a show at the legendary Whiskey a Go Go in Hollywood in August, 2014. In 2016 the band played a series of London shows, later releasing a limited-run 150 copy print of How to Write Love Songs specifically for the shows.

Members:

Robert Trujillo - Bass (Metallica)

Armand Sabal-Lecco - Guitar (Paul Simon)

Benji Webbe - Vox (Skidred)

Brooks Wackerman - Drums (Bad Religion)

Whitfield Crane - Guitar/Vox (Ugly Kid Joe)

Stevie Salis - Ld Guitar

Former Members:

Lynn Strait - Vox (SNOT)

Steve Perkins - Drums (Janes Addiction)

Steve Castillo - Percussion (Queens of the Stoneage)

Daniel de los Reyes - Percussion (Chicago, Zac Brown Band)

Roy Mayorga - Drums (Stone Sour)

Doc Coyle - Guitar (God Forbid)

Brant Bjork - Guitar (Che')

Mark King - Bass (Level 42)

Angels & Airwaves

Straight off of the hiatus of blink-182, former guitarist/vocalist Tom Delonge formed Angels & Airwaves in 2005. Affectionately known as AVA (named after daughter), Tom Delonge reached out to punk rock pals Adam Willard former drummer of The Offspring, Ryan Sinn; former bassist of The Distillers and longtime former band mate David Kennedy of Boxcar Racer.

Their first album “We Don’t Need to Whisper” was a hugely anticipated record since nobody heard anything from blink for nearly 3 years. s band members came and went in AVA, Delonge & Kennedy didn’t go skimpy on the talent replacing Ryan Sinn with Matt Wachter of 30 Seconds to Mars & and Adam Willard with drummer Ilan Ruban of Paramone & Nine Inch Nails.

Teenage Time Killers

Created in 2014 by My Ruin guitarist Mick Murphy and Corrosion of Conformity drummer Reed Mullin, this insane punk rock/hardcore supergroup is comprised of a metric shit ton of unofficial members who took part in recording the band’s debut album “Greatest Hits Vol. 1”.

The list of members include:

▪ Dave Grohl - bass (Foo Fighters)

▪ Greg Anderson – guitars (Goatsnake)

▪ Brian Baker – guitars (Bad Religion/Dag Nasty)

▪ Pat "Adam Bomb" Hoed – bass (Brujeria)

▪ London May – drums (Danzig)

▪ Mike Schaefer – guitars

▪ Mike Dean – bass (Corrosion of Conformity)

▪ Corey Taylor – vocals (Slipknot)

▪ Randy Blythe – vocals (Lamb of God)

▪ Matt Skiba – vocals (Alkaline Trio/blink-182)

▪ Neil Fallon – vocals (Clutch)

▪ Jello Biafra – vocals (Dead Kennedys)

▪ Lee Ving – vocals (Fear)

▪ Mike “IX” Williams – vocals (EYEHATEGOD)

▪ Tommy Victor – vocals (Danzig)

▪ Karl Agell – vocals (Corrosion of Conformity)

▪ Pete Stahl – vocals (Queens of the Stoneage)

▪ Vic Bondi – vocals (Articles of Faith)

▪ Aaron Beam – vocals (Red Fang)

▪ Clifford Dinsmore – vocals (Blast)

▪ Phil Rind – vocals (Sacred Reich)

▪ Tairrie B – vocals (solo)

▪ Tony Foresta – vocals ( Municipal Waste)

▪ Trenton Rogers – vocals

▪ Pat Smear – guitars, bass (Germs)

▪ Woody Weatherman – guitars (Corrosion of Conformity)

▪ Jim Rota – guitars. (Fireball Ministry)

▪ Jason Browning – guitars

▪ Nick Oliveri – bass (Queens of the Stone Age)

▪ Jonny Webber – composing

Me First & the Gimmie Gimmies

This supergroup was turning classic rock hits into punk rock cover tunes long before the “Punk Goes...” series was ever born. Starting in San Francisco in 1995, a group of punk rock pals working exclusively as a cover band interpreting their favorite classic rock hits into rapid-fire ink rock tunes. First covering 2 John Denver tunes in 95’ the group ended up releasing their first full length “Have a Ball” in July of 1997. Each album had a different theme, focusing on topics from singer/songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s to covering country tunes throughout the decades.

Current members include Fat Mike of NOFX, Joey Cape of Lagwagon, Spike Slawson of Swinging Utters, Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters, & David Raun of Lagwagon & Good Riddance while past and touring members include Jay Bentley of Bad Religion, Eric Melvin of NOFX & Scott Shifett Of Face to Face, The Offspring & Foo Fighters.

Transplants

If you've ever seen the Garnier Fructis commercial, then you've definitely heard of Transplants. Forming in 1999 with Tim Armstrong of Operation Ivy & Rancid sending some hiphop beats he had made on Pro Tools to his best friend and roadie Rob "Skinhead" Aston, asking him if he could spit some lyrics on the tracks. As the project grew so did its members, as Tim recruited Vic Ruggiero (The Slackers) as well as fellow Rancid bandmates, Matt Freeman & Lars Fredericksen while soon followed blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.

In 2002, Transplants debuted their self-titled album which saw guests from the likes of Davey Havoc of AFI, Brody Dalle of The Distillers and many more throughout the album.

The band picked up steam and singles DJ, DJ & Diamonds & Guns became favorites among MTV music video circulation as well as gaining their Garnier commercial success. The band did a stint on the Warped Tour in 2005 and went on a small temporary hiatus in 2003 so Travis could work on the new blink-182 album where the band picked back up and followed up with 2005's Haunted Cities. After the tour wrapped up for Haunted Cities, the band went on another hiatus and picked back up in 2010 with their EP Take Cover in the works.

Foxboro Hot Tubs

While this band is technically Green Day including their entire rhythm section under a different name, it still deserves a spot on this list. They formed in 2007 with the idea that they "love to play music and be spontaneous, and after a few late night jams and a few too many bottles of wine, we were inspired to record some rockin' eight-track recordings" The band was basically a total secret while only releasing the tunes without showing the members. However speculation started to seep out in the Green Day community who quickly caught on to the ruse. The guys anticipation built up so much that they ended up even landing TV spots on shows like Last Call with Carson Daley, even despite them not playing huge venues & sold-out arenas. On April 23, 2010, the band played their first new song since 2008 at a show in New York City called "Fuck Time". On October 31, 2009 during the 21st Century Breakdown WORLD TOUR as Green Day, the band performed a brief set as Foxboro Hot Tubs before the support band as a Halloween surprise at the Manchester MEN Arena.

Revernd Strychnie Twitch aka Billie Joe Armstrong - Vox
Mike Dirnt - Bass
Tre Cool - Drums
Frosco Lee - Ld Guitar
Jason Freese - Keys, Sax, Horns
Kevin Preston - Rhythm Guitar

Gods Of Mount Olympus

Already interviewed in a previous blog, Gods of Mount Olympus (GOMO) brim to the top with punk rock history stemming with members from Street Dogs & Unwritten Law and start with its roots with members of Lagwagon and Scorpios broadway operas, the dynamics of this band have nothing short of unique in sound.

Lead singer/pianist Brian Wahlstrom (Scorpios) started the idea for the piano eccentric band back when he toured with Joey Cape (Lagwagon) and his band "Bad Loud" all while warming up to Billy Joel tunes before their set. Combining fast punk beats and piano riffs was Brian's vision, so getting a drummer was key. He enlisted long time friend and Street Dogs drummer, Paul Rucker who then recruited Steve Morris (Unwritten Law) to play guitar and then Matt Riddle of No Use for a Name to play bass. The punk rock supergroup debuted their self-titled EP via Bird Attack Records in 2018 which unleashes one of the most unique, epic, punk rock sounding albums you'll ever hear.

The Network

This is Green Day's SECOND time on this list. Going under stage names and wearing masks similar to Slipknot, 2003 brought The Network, a trippy, pop-synth supergroup comprised of members of Green Day as well as 80's band DEVO. The Network signed under Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day's label Adeline Records in 2003 releasing Money Money 2020 later the same year. The band was shortly after Money Money was released due to Billie Joe's distinct voice even after saying in many interviews "Fuck The Network". Later rumors of an album releasing in 2008 were dismissed, however it seems as though Fox Boro Hot Tubs picked up right where The Network left off.

Band Identities:

Fink (Billie Joe Armstrong) - Vox

Van Gough (Mike Dirnt) - Bass

The Snoo (Tre Cool) - Drums

Balducci (Jason White) - Rhythm Guitar

Z - (Chris Dugan) - Keyboards

Captain Underpants (Reto Peter) - Keytar

Dr. Svengali (John Roecker) - Band's Manager

Fantomas

Fantomas began at the collapse of alt-rock band Faith No More swinging metal/grindcore tunes composed by former Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton. Patton sent demos to pals in the intent to form a supergroup to Buzz Osbourne of The Melvins, Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle and Igor Cavalera of Sepultura. Cavalera declined the offer but humbly reccomended Slayer's Dave Lombardo for the job who accepted. The band released their first slew of tracks through Patton's indie label Ipecac which quickly peaked the interest of prominent labels due to Patton's success in Faith No More. The band toured in 2005 with Terry Bozzio of Frank Zappa while Lombardo was touring with Slayer.

As of late nothing has been heard from Fantomas other than 2017's rumors for the band to reunite marking their first performance since 2008. The guys did however release a boxset in 2014 on limited run entitled "Wunderkammer" featuring the band's entire discography including vinyl and tape cassette.

A Perfect Circle

Having a number of line-up changes over the years which all included members from genres of all walks of life, A Perfect Circle's sound is difficult to pinpoint, although their generic title has been given "alt. rock."

Starting in 1999, the band was conceived by former guitar tech of NIN, Fishbone & Tool, Billy Howerdel. Billy met Maynard Keenan (Tool) in 1992 while Tool opened for Fishbone (yeah, seriously) and the 2 became friends since then. The 2 hooked up and Keenan settled on being in the band, despite Billy's original idea of a female vocalist. The 2 started searching for new members like some kind of movie montage, enlisting bassist Paz Lenchantin, former Failure guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and Primus drummer Tim Alexander. The guys played a slew of LA shows and in 1999 jumped to the larger scale of things, playing the Coachella fest.

Van Leeuwen later left the band in 2002 where they enlisted friend Danny Lohner while Marilyn Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez replaced Lenchantin in 2003.

James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins joined the band in 2003 for touring support, but became a permanent member in 2010 and Alexandar left the band and was replaced by Devo & The Vandals drummer Josh Freese who left in 2011, replaced by current member Jeff Friedl. The band also sees touring support from Failure's guitarist Greg Edwards.

In 2017 the band announced that they will start writing for their newest forthcoming LP entitled Eat The Elephant as well as a US tour to follow. Four singles were released from the album prior to its release in April of 2018.

If you just skimmed through this. Watch the vid I did on the supergroups!