Supergrass’ New Side Project

Covers albums are pointless things, a signifier of two things: (1) A band has run out of creative steam but realise they should release something. See efforts by Rage Against The Machine and Guns’n’Roses for examples of this. (2) A band is doing so well that they now have the misguided notion that it’s their responsibility to improve other people’s music cos, like, they can. I can’t actually think of any examples for this one, so I’ll just use Guns’n’Roses again. I have an abundant dislike for covers albums. I love a good cover, don’t get me wrong, but in a live set, on a b-side, not on a proper album and not when there’s a whole fucking album of ‘em. Some great covers that stick out are Radiohead’s epic reworking of Can’s angular ‘The Thief’, or Smashing Pumpkins plaintive take on Stevie Nicks’ ‘Landslide’; both immense and both better than the originals. One that’s fucking awful: Gene’s take on R.E.M’s ‘Nightswimming’, which Martin Rossiter actually thought was better than the original. Course he did. Tosser!

Anyway, with my fully-rounded, thought-out theories on covers already cemented, what on earth am I expected to make of Supergrass’ new project, or, to be precise, Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey and uber-producer Nigel Godrich’s new project, The Hot Rats, who are a covers band? Supergrass are one of the great British pop bands of the last 15 years and, whilst their recorded output has never really matched up to the glistening guitar-pop potential of their first two albums, they’ve done that without making any missteps on the way. But The Hot Rats just feels all wrong. It has its roots in The Diamond Hoo Ha Men, the glam-rock alter-egos Gaz and Danny set up to promote ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ when bassist Mickey Quinn was recovering from a broken back. The Diamond Hoo Ha Men had its merits, though; aside from the very functional reason that they were doing it as a duo because Mickey was out of action, the live shows were great fun, with Supergrass songs stripped-down and sped-up alongside some choice covers, and spawning tongue-in-cheek rockumentary ‘Glange Fever’.

All of that was totally in keeping with the sort of “ISN’T-THIS-FUN!” spirit that’s pumped through Supergrass’ history, the feeling that, behind the ace songs, they’re never taking themselves entirely seriously; they might share a manager, but Radiohead they’re not. Diamond Hoo Ha Men would chuck a cover of ‘Beat It’ into their set – so far, The Hot Rats have unveiled covers of Gang Of Four’s ‘Damaged Goods’, The Velvet Underground’s ‘Can’t Stand It’, The Kinks’ ‘Big Sky’ and Sex Pistols’ ‘EMI’. Hardly inspiring choices, are they? I mean, it looks like not taking their music seriously and forming a covers band has led to Supergrass taking their covers too seriously. Argh, brainhurter! And why isn’t Mickey involved? We’re not aware of any broken backs ruling him out this time, so maybe he just thought the idea was cack. Listening to the covers, he would’ve been right – one-dimensional and bereft the sort of ADD Supergrass bounce, The Hot Rats’ sound like a bad idea from the off. A bad idea with access to the world’s best producer, too. It’s a shame – Gaz and Danny are such talents that it’d be nice to see them spending their Supergrass downtime doing a worthwhile side-project, either embracing ‘Diamond Hoo Ha”s full-on glam stomps, or maybe revisiting the rustic folkiness they hinted at on ‘Road To Rouen’. But, no, instead they’ve turned their attention to doing covers of songs that no-one really cares about anyway. An idea, perhaps, that really didn’t have to be shared with the wider world…

I bet a Velvet Underground fan emails me to disagree with the second-to-last line.