Super Groups You've Never Heard Of

...or at least I hope you've never heard of.  Otherwise, what would be the point of writing something about them?

Degobah

The first super group on today's roster are the one-album wonders, Butter 08.  Butter 08 is said to have sprung out of an extremely drunken sound session while recording Cibo Matto's "Know Your Chicken".  The group is made up of Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Russell Simins, Skeleton Key's Rick Lee and graphic designer Mike Mills (not to be confused with the R.E.M. bassist of the same name).  Their first, and only LP is a thing of beauty, a sort of "You got your Blues Explosion in my Cibo Matto" moment, and "Degobah" is just one of a album thick with excellent tracks.

The Ambitions Are

Next, we have The Golden Palominos, who aren't so much a group as a mission-impossible style team of musicians assembled by Anton Fier. Over the years they were making music, the roster included R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Cream's Jack Bruce to PIL's John Lydon and Syd Straw,  T-Bone Burnett, Numbers Band singer Robert Kidney, artist/producer Don Dixon, singer/songwriter Peter Blegvad, Matthew Sweet and Flying Burrito Brothers alum Sneaky Pete Kleinow.  "The Ambitions Are" comes off their last album, with a relatively sparse line up:  Fier, ex-Psychedelic Furs guitarist Knox Chandler, and vocalist/lyricist Nicole Blackman and falls nicely into that wide swath of my music collection for "Songs of Contempt and Self Loathing".

Rhinoceros

Last of all, I planned to do a bit about the Utah Saints, though after getting my facts straight, it seems that Michael Stipe and Chuck D's contributions to Two fall more into the category of "Featuring" than a real merging to form a super group.  Still, I love "Rhinoceros" and I just feel like tossing it in here as a freebie.

xoxo,
W.