Much like Communism, credit cards, and Calvin Coolidge, supergroups have always sounded great in theory but in practice leave much to be desired. Bringing musicians from big bands together may appear to be a stroke of genius, but it too often descends into money-grabbing conventionalism.
Nevertheless, despite their existence as mammoth cash-cows, supergroups have always oozed "coolness," whether it’s Velvet Revolver’s licks and lovers or A Perfect Circle’s passion and power. The latest group to acquire the ‘super’ prefix is Tinted Windows, which features James Iha and former members of Cheap Trick (Bun E. Carlos), Fountains of Wayne (Adam Schlesinger), and err Hanson (Taylor Hanson). Apparently, the band seems to have decided to forget the music, drop the “cool” pretense, and focus their efforts entirely on making as much money as possible.
At least previous supergroups were made up of musicians who were in vaguely respectable bands. But Hanson? Guys, come on -- when making a supergroup, you need to at least have consumers thinking “Damn that’s cool” (like Slash and Scott Weiland in a band together, for example). People are just going to see ‘Tinted Windows’ and think “Hmmm, where are my Smashing Pumpkins CDs?”
Anyway, the "supergroup" has already recorded an album and will be playing at SXSW -- although, if they value their dignity it would probably be best to avoid Austin completely. I doubt they’ll have too many people rocking out to “MMMBop” with chugging guitar lines.
