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"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)