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September 23, 2005
Low C out on CD, DVD and 7" vinyl
Supergrass will release their second single from new album 'Road to Rouen on 24th October 2005.
'Low C' will be out on CD, DVD and 7" vinyl. The DVD contains videos for the Road to Rouen singles 'Low C' and 'St. Petersburg'. Make sure to check the video for Low C. The DVD also includes a live recording of new track 'Lady Jane and John Coltrane'.
Here are the full tracklistings.
Posted by adriaan at 04:47 PM
September 21, 2005
Supergrass joined by mice during recordings of 'Road to Rouen'
The members of Supergrass suffered a barrage of problems as they recorded their new album 'Road to Rouen, after a herd of mice set up home in frontman Gaz Coombes' piano, contactmusic.com reports.
Supergrass decided to record their latest album, which is set for a North American release on Tuesday (27 SEP), in a French barn, and nature soon got the better of them when they attracted a large number of unwanted visitors.
Frontman Gaz Coombes says, "It's a really good way to make an album. The only problem was mice started living in my piano. I think they were playing songs when we weren't around. They're gone now. I got a French farmer to shoot them."
Posted by adriaan at 04:59 PM
September 13, 2005
Supergrass swim with the mermaids!
NME runs another story on the 'Low C' video: Supergrass have taken to the water with 'The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy' film creators to make the video for their new single, 'Low C'.
Director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith came up with the idea of supporting the cause of the 'Mermaids' of Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida. The 'Save Our Tails' campaign was started by the citizens of Weeki Wachee to help prevent the springs and mermaids from extinction at the hands of the local authorities.
Director Jennings said: "I went to Weeki Wachee as a kid and have always wanted to go back. When we heard the song it seemed to fit perfectly with the place, the people and the cause. It was all shot in documentary style rather than the traditional music video approach. Luckily the local people were extremely friendly and gave us total freedom to shoot what we wanted. We even held a Save Our Tails party at the local bar and it turned into one of the best party's I have ever been to! Supergrass played two sets and joined in with the local band too!"
'Low C', the second single from the band's new LP 'Road To Rouen', is out on October 24th on DVD, CD and 7" vinyl.
Posted by adriaan at 07:52 PM
September 12, 2005
Star: "Commercial suicide never sounded this wonderful"
Another review of Supergrass' latest, Road to Rouen, can be found in the The Star Online (Malaysia):
For its fifth album, Oxford's finest Supergrass has delivered an adventurous sounding long player that may well put the band at odds with its Britpop loving fanbase who still pine for the youthful exuberance of early hit singles like Caught by the Fuzz and Alright.
With a jokey title like Road to Rouen - which has to be among the worst puns ever used as an album title - one can be forgiven for assuming that the band has reverted back to the happy-go-lucky, adolescent pop played to perfection at the high of Britpop over a decade ago.
But with tasteful nods to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, a lot of the songs on Road To Rouen have a mellow, melodic theme to them that gets better with repeated listens.
Rousing opener Tales of Endurance (Parts 4, 5 &6) boasts a long, acoustic guitar intro that segues seamlessly into a funky groove while melancholic lead single St Petersburg aches with the kind of melodic sumptuousness rarely heard on a Supergrass song.
Elsewhere, Roxy, with its elegant string and brass arrangements and haunting melody, is immediately accesible while Road to Rouen and Kick in the Teeth adroitly prove that the new, improved Supergrass can indeed rock out with the best of them.
On this kind of stellar form, Supergrass seems light years ahead of its contemporaries.
There may not be any rabble-rousing singles to tear the roof off the local indie disco but then again, it's not that type of record. As a "mood" album, Road to Rouen works brilliantly.
In fact, commercial suicide never sounded this wonderful. The most underrated band in Britain just keeps on getting better.
Posted by adriaan at 12:59 PM
September 05, 2005
Pitchfork review Road to Rouen
Pitchfork reviewed the new Supergrass album 'Road to Rouen' and gave it a 7.2 rating. Here's the review:
Nothing makes you feel older than a band whose career you've followed almost from the start releasing a greatest hits album, but that's what Supergrass did last year. Bands that get old tend to get all "mature," and the last thing a band like Supergrass needs is maturity-- their best songs thrive on youthful energy and a naive appropriation of influences you didn't know could be mixed together.
So I was hoping for a mid-life crisis on Road to Rouen, the band's fifth album. The terrible pun in the title is a good start, but they're still mellowing, settling into their success and putting their swagger in a less visible place. They're good enough songwriters that they can survive slowing down a bit, but there's no question that this is Supergrass' least-exciting album yet.
Granted Road to Rouen does have a fistful of killer moments during its brief under-40 runtime. You get the swamp-rocking title track and its companion "Kick in the Teeth", which together make up the album's late-energy burst. "Road to Rouen" is stuffed with nasty descending riffs and volume pedal swells to back up Gaz Coombes' blue-eyed soul croon. On an album that resides mostly in slower tempos, it becomes clear just what a great singer Coombes is: He has a rich, nuanced voice that sounds great shouting or navigating a delicate melodic phrase.
"St. Petersburg" is something of an underwhelming lead single, a mid-tempo shuffle on which everything from the piano to the vocal is merely workmanly; the most interesting thing in the song is its stretchy string arrangement, which twists and pulls like taffy. It doesn't seem like something that would make the Supergrass Is 20 compilation in 2014. More likely candidates include album opener "Tales of Endurance (parts 4, 5 & 6)", a song that plays a lot like something from the band's self-titled third album, with a lengthy intro of acoustic strumming, piano. and echoing slide guitar. Trumpets and strings break in to announce the groove and the band slinks through a darkly funky verse, finally exploding after a second orchestral interlude into a big, stomping chorus with shades of "What Went Wrong (In Your Head?)".
Unfortunately, Supergrass doesn't really ever harness any of the momentum they create on individual songs to make a truly great LP, throwing away the peak they reach on the epic, six-and-a-half-minute power ballad "Roxy" on a meaningless, jokey interlude called "Coffee in the Pot". There's a lot to love here, and Supergrass is still a killer band when they get in their groove, but there's definitely a noticeable lack of the hunger that once dripped from their music, no sneer to bring it all crashing home. Road to Rouen will get its spins in my house, but I'm crossing my fingers for the mid-life crisis next time out.
-Joe Tangari
Posted by adriaan at 12:01 AM
September 04, 2005
Road to Rouen review from X-Press Online
Supergrass have, album by album, abandoned their stronghold of quirks and humour for a walk through the broader and more sombre big wide world. It hasn't always worked as well as the funny stuff, but it has occasionally worked better, and Road To Rouen possesses a little from column A and a little from column B. Surprisingly 'soft' as far as Supergrass go (even some of their past dark moments had a slight musical 'heaviness' to them) there is a hobo cabaret feel to much of this that likens it to sucky iconographic figures as Tom Waits, al eit without the gin-ravaged vocal cords. Within this common theme can also be found mild detours, such as tremolosoake instrumentals and the occasional upbeat 'fun' moments, but all things considered, Road To Rouen is easily Supergrass at their most grumpy. The lack of an overt pop leaning makes the album significantly harder to enjoy on initial listens than previous Supergrass records, but after a while your brain and ears stop waiting for The Monkees and begin to understand just what it is this ambitious album is designed to achieve. The price for such ambition will undoubtedly be a cold reaction from those fans who like Supergrass for their ability to bring a smile to the ol' face, but does I Should Coco really need re-writing just for laughs?
MIKE WAFER X-Press Online
Posted by adriaan at 07:37 PM
September 02, 2005
Supergrass to support Foo Fighters' Earls Court show
Supergrass and Millionaire will support Foo Fighters on December 18 at Earl's Court show in London. Tickets are going fast, get them via www.seetickets.com.
Posted by adriaan at 02:07 PM
September 01, 2005
New Supergrass tour dates added
New Supergrass tour dates have been added. Check the tour page for a Supergrass gig in your area.
Posted by adriaan at 01:58 PM