Supergroups are, in a way, the divas of the band world. They make a big entrance, enchant their already fiercely loyal audiences with their superpowers, and then you never know when they’re going to appear in public next—or if they will at all.
Videos by American Songwriter
boygenius, the latest shooting-star supergroup, has been delighting fans since their formation in 2018. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus ran in the same circles, had played tours together as solo artists, and were nominated for two Grammys in November 2023 for Best Record of the Year for “Not Strong Enough” and Best Album of the Year for the record.
They are, of course, not the first band who created a new entity out of already-successful musicians. Below are five supergroups who came before boygenius.
Wild Flag
In 2006, Sleater-Kinney, the punk rock band with a lot to say, no bassist, and a fiercely loyal following, ceased to exist. Carrie Brownstein’s battery had apparently run empty; the mental and physical demands of being in a recording and touring band led her to a breaking point.
In 2010, Brownstein was ready to return to music. In a blog post for NPR the year before, she wrote: “I’m tired of passive music that allows us to merely sit back. I want music that makes me sit up.” Taking matters into her own hands, she formed the supergroup Wild Flag with Sleater-Kinney’s former drummer, Janet Weiss, Mary Timony from the band Helium, and Rebecca Cole from The Minders.
The band played shows along the U.S. West Coast in 2010 and released their only album, Wild Flag, in 2011. It generally got good reviews and successfully carried the torch of the ‘90s riot grrrl scene into another decade. The four women played their last show as Wild Flag in 2012. Their busy schedules and the fact the band members lived in Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., led to the end of the project.
The Dead Weather
The Dead Weather consists of Jack White and his fellow Raconteur, bassist Jack Lawrence, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita. In 2008, The Raconteurs were on tour with The Kills. White got sick and couldn’t perform, so Mosshart sat in with the Raconteurs and the chemistry was undeniable according to everyone involved.
The supergroup covered Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?” as their first release and their project took off from there. Between 2009 and 2015, The Dead Weather released three albums: Horehound, Sea of Cowards, and Dodge and Burn. Their sound is rooted in blues, but is presented with a particularly dark and distorted twist.
[RELATED: The Meaning Behind boygenius’ Grammy Nominated “Not Strong Enough”]
Broken Social Scene
At the beginning there were only two. In 1999, Kevin Drew and Brandan Canning formed a duo and their work was purely instrumental. Over time, the two musicians decided to add more members whenever they felt an element to their music was missing. They were well-connected in the Toronto music scene, and as arrangements grew bolder—incorporating all kinds of instruments—the band kept growing. As many as 19 musicians have performed together as Broken Social Scene.
Contributors include Leslie Feist, Torquil Campbell from the band Stars, as well as Emily Haines and James Shaw from the band Metric. Broken Social Scene has released five albums and multiple EPs. Their breakthrough came with the second album, You Forgot It in People, released in 2002. 11 years later it spawned a short story contest where authors were asked to submit stories inspired by one of the tracks on the album.
The supergroup seems to have found a concept that works well with everyone’s busy schedules. While Drew and Canning hold down the fort, other members apparently move freely between their work with Broken Social Scene and their own projects in a way that benefits all involved.
The Postal Service
Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie and producer Jimmy Tamborello started collaborating in 2001. They were in a long-distance band relationship. Tamborello recorded instrumentals and mailed them to Gibbard, who added vocals. Jenny Lewis contributed background vocals and was a part of the live band. The Postal Service only released one album, Give Up, in 2003. Despite their short period of activity, two decades later the band still has more than 1.2 million listeners on Spotify each month.
Audioslave
In 2000, the rock band Rage Against the Machine imploded. Frontman Zack de la Rocha had been fighting with the other band members—guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk—and finally called it quits; the band just wasn’t able to make decisions as a band anymore.
Morello, Commerford, and Wilk decided to stick together, however, and were looking for an established singer who would be interested in forming a new outfit. They eventually connected with Chris Cornell, who had already been without a band since 1997, when Soundgarden disbanded.
Between 2002 and 2006 Audioslave released three albums. All of them were commercially successful, and the band received three Grammy nominations, including Best Rock Album for their debut album, Audioslave. In 2007, Audioslave went their separate ways, too, after Cornell made a statement that he was leaving the band because of musical differences and personality conflicts.
Before Cornell’s death in 2017, it looked like Audioslave might make a comeback. In the end, the band members only had time to reunite for a single concert at an event marketed as a protest against the inauguration of U.S. president Donald Trump.
Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for Arroyo Seco Weekend
