Supergroups!

Sometimes friends from two or more bands get together to record together. Here are some examples of some great rock supergroups!

1. Mad Season - Above

A grunge supergroup of sorts consisting of the late, great Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) on vocals, Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) on guitar, John Baker Saunders (The Walkabouts) on bass, Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees) on drums, and Mark Lanegan (also of Screaming Trees) on a few songs. This album has a strong blues feel and should please fans of all respective groups, especially Alice in Chains fans. The songs are much mellower than any AiC's songs I have heard and similar to the Jar of Flies EP. The most popular song from this album was River of Deceit, which was inspired by Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Sadly, John Baker Saunders death and later Layne Staley's hindered any plans of a followup.

2. Dali's Car - The Waking Hour

A musical collaboration between Peter Murphy (solo, Bauhaus) and Mick Karn (bassist of Japan). In 1984, shortly after Bauhaus broke up Peter Murphy recording this album with Mick Karn. The album only consists of 7 tracks and diehard Peter Murphy fans are seriously missing out. A great addition to any postpunk collection. Neither spent much time together because of both their schedules and sent tapes back and forth. There were plans for a follow up album in 2010, but sadly Mick Karn passed away from his long battle with cancer. The recordings will come out this year in 2012 around July, the InGladAloneness EP, consisting of 5 songs. I cannot wait to hear it!

3. Temple of the Dog - selftitled

Mother Love Bone was a band fronted by Andrew Wood who died of a heroin overdose. After his death, his roommate Chris Cornell (Soundgarden vocalist who released an embarrassing album produced by Timbaland), reached out to the former members of Mother Love Bone, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament (who would later form Pearl Jam). Eddie Vedder (who would form Pearl Jam also) and Matt Cameron (who would later drum for Soundgarden) also perform on this album. This was basically the beginning of Pearl Jam. Temple of the Dog only released this one album as a tribute to Andrew Wood. Much like the above mentioned Mad Season album, it is much calmer than Soundgarden's material with a strong 70s rock sound. Eddie Vedder himself sings with Chris Cornell on the most known song, Hunger Strike. Pearl Jam to this day still performs Hunger Strike. It would be interesting to see Temple of the Dog record another album but obviously the members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden are a bit busy these days.

4. Pailhead - Trait

Released in 1988, and one of Al Jourgensen (Ministry, Revolting Cocks) many sideprojects, this particular one is a collaboration between him, Paul Barker, Bill Rieflin (both also of Ministry) and famed punk vocalist Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Embrace, Fugazi) A mixture of industrial and hardcore punk, this is not to be missed. One of the main reasons why this collaboration is so strange is the fact that Ian basically started the straightedge punk movement and Al Jourgensen is famously into drugs. This predates the band Lard, which was a collaboration between Al and Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys)

5. Eyes Adrift - selftitled

Currently out of print but released in 2002, Eyes Adrift consists of Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) and Bud Gaugh (Sublime). A nice mixture of rock, country and punk. Krist and Curt also worked together on Nirvana's Unplugged performance where Nirvana coverd 3 Meat Puppets songs. Eyes Adrift broke up shortly after this album flopped. Curt and Bud would later work together on the band Volcano also featuring former Sublime member Michael Happoldt.

edit: I just realized I forgot one very important one. The Glove!

6. The Glove - Blue Sunshine

Released in 1983, The Glove was a musical collaboration between Robert Smith of the Cure and Steve Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees. 1982 was an exhausting year for Robert Smith. The Cure had just released Pornography, and right after Robert Smith join Siouxsie and the Banshees. During this time both Robert and Steve went off to record one album as The Glove. Robert Smith was prohibited from singing on other's albums (though he does vocals on two songs here), so they got Budgie's (of Siouxsie and the Banshees) girlfriend to do vocals on the tracks here. This highly sought after album was rereleased (as all Cure albums are being rereleased) and included Robert Smith doing vocals on most of the tracks. These songs are very psychedelic and should only be searched for by diehard Cure fans. Musically and lyrically I would put it somewhere in between Pornography and The Top.