Supergroups have existed for a very long time, and they haven’t died out yet. Personally, I think the 1990s were a pretty underrated era for rock supergroups. Quite a few standout acts made excellent music during that decade. Let’s take a look at just a few supergroups from the 1990s that I think could have kept charting with a bit more luck.
The Breeders
The Breeders was formed back in 1989 by Pixies bassist Kim Deal, The Perfect Disaster’s Josephine Wiggs, Slint’s Britt Walford, Carrie Bradley, and Throwing Muses’ Tanya Donelly. The lineup has changed a bit through the years. Kelley Deal replaced Donelly in the early 90s, and more lineup changes have occurred in the last couple of decades. You just can’t beat that OG era, though, when “Cannonball” made it high on the charts in 1993.
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That song would be the band’s only song to make it to the Hot 100 chart, and I think that’s majorly unfair. They deserved more recognition back then and still do today.
Mad Season
Some serious grunge legends came together to form the alt-rock supergroup Mad Season. This supergroup was made up of Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), Layne Staley (Alice In Chains), John Baker Saunders (The Walkabouts), Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees), and, later, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees).
The group was originally only together for a couple of years. They were forced to go on hiatus due to scheduling issues and Staley’s drug abuse problems. They only released one album in 1995, titled Above, and their only major single was “River Of Deceit”. If things had worked out with the band, they definitely would have scored more hits. I’m sure of it.
Temple Of The Dog
This is probably the most well-known of all rock supergroups from the 1990s. Temple Of The Dog consisted of some big names in rock, including Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), Matt Cameron (Soundgarden and Pearl Jam), Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam), Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), and Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam). The group was formed by Cornell as a tribute to Andrew Wood, his friend and frontman of the band Mother Love Bone, who died far too young.
The result was a really solid band with one very good self-titled album from 1991. I understand why the group didn’t carry on sans a few reunions. But, judging by two of their three singles charting on the mainstream charts, I know they would have continued to be successful if they had released more material.
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