I’ll admit that my wife and I have been watching CBS’s “Rockstar: Supernova.” We watched “Rockstar: INXS” last year and like most, we were disappointed in the choice of JD. This year is a much different deal. This conglomeration of sidemen from other bands fronted by an unknown is, in my opinion, less a less cohesive idea than taking an established band missing a lead singer. I thought the rumor that Van Halen was going to be the next bad on “Rockstar” was a good one. Who cares about any of the members of Supernova aside from Tommy Lee? Gilby fricken’ Clarke– wasn’t he fired from GnR before Slash? Jason Newstead who was hired on to replace legendary Metallica bassist Cliff Burton isn’t a first-tier member of that band, either.

To add insult to the injury (from the car accident that this show is), they couldn’t even come up with an original name for the band. “Man, that name “Supernova” sure is cool!” Enough so that two other bands picked it– one of which is still around! The one that is still around is suing the band and the producers of the show. The original Supernova has been recording since 1989. The rules about band names that I remember is that a band has to provide proof that they have been performing under that name. If they have CD’s dating back to ’89 that should be a simple win. Depending on how the ruling turns out the Rockstar folks may need to pick another name!

There is also another band in New Jersey called Supernova who perform Bon Jovi covers. I think that this band might have more claim to the name than Tommy Lee does as well!

Coincidentally, I managed a website for a band out of Portugal for a short period of time called– you guessed it– Supernova in 1999. I met a guy who managed artists for a couple of Portuguese record labels through the In/Flux Mailing list– which was a listserv of DJ Shadow fans talking about music. He sent me some promos and white label stuff which included a couple CD’s from the Portuguese Supernova. At the time, they were being positioned as being Post Rock, which they kind of fit into. Their first album Storafile released in 1996 sounds a lot like the Breeders. Their follow up record called The Atari Series #1 was a deconstruction of some songs they were working on, including remixes. I think this album sounds a lot like Stereolab. I liked them enough to offer to help them get a website up– which they were pretty excited about. There was supposed to be a follow up to the Atari Series, but the band broke up in 2000. All that is left is an obscure reference on the Internet. Here are some tracks for you to listen to:

Body from Storafile

Modem from The Atari Series #1