The Great Lost Supergrass Album

So, Supergrass had pretty much finished their 7th studio album, tentatively titled Release The Drones. I never knew this...in fact...

Release the Drones is the unreleased seventh studio album from English rock band Supergrass. The band publicly announced their decision to split on 12 April 2010 leaving the album incomplete.
In early 2010, the band revealed that the album had been influenced by krautrock bands such as Can, and drone music, and that the members had swapped instruments on several tracks during its recording. Singer Gaz Coombes said of the approach to the album: "This record's actually been very collaborative. It's been cool to try something different and chaotic." Coombes stated that the album was "nearly finished", and it was scheduled for released in May.
The album was to be their first for the Cooking Vinyl label, but the band's split, announced in April 2010, cast doubt on whether it will still be released.
According to bassist Mick Quinn, the proposed tracklist (although not in any specific order) for the album was to be as follows:

"Tractor Man"
"Strange Echo"
"Release the Drones"
"Sleeping Dogs"
"S.O.R"
"Rock the Boat"
"Hip Replacement"
"Run, Run, Run"
"Market Place"
"Who Could Know"
"Out of Africa"
"Shakey"
"Headlights"

Shame. It would have been interesting to hear this. Hopefully it will see the light of day. I miss this band. But I see Gaz is working on his solo album.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-12731030

After severing musical ties with his Supergrass bandmates, one of Oxford's most successful musicians, Gaz Coombes, has gone solo.

"Supergrass finished for a reason. I felt we weren't firing and I wasn't enjoying the time in the studio," he said.

It is a simple enough explanation, and after 17 years together perhaps a reasonable one.

Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey and Mick Quinn formed Supergrass in Wheatley in 1993. They split in April 2010 during the making of their seventh studio album which has never been released.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Gaz Coombes now wants to move on, and for his latest musical venture he is going it alone. Just him.

"I didn't want to be in a band and have been playing pretty much all the instruments. It's been great. I've been uncovering a new voice and it's a strong voice," he said.


Gaz's brother is working with his own band Charly Coombes & The New Breed
Ten songs have been recorded at Gaz's studio in Oxford, the city that is synonymous with Supergrass. And there is another strong link to his past. Sam Williams, who produced the band's most successful album, 1995's I Should Coco, is behind the desk again.

"We've always had a connection and it's helped me be spontaneous. I've written and recorded the songs as I've gone along. It sounds different to Supergrass but there's still that energy," the 35-year-old said.

Gaz still keeps up with new acts coming out of Oxford and on Saturday night was in the audience at the Jericho Tavern to watch brother Charly's band Charly Coombes & The New Breed.

"He's been supportive of everything I've done," said Charly, who himself had a spell in Supergrass. "But he's always honest about the music, even if it's harsh."

 

One day it'll be released in some form or other and I want it!
I mean like I have ALL the albums on vinyl!
Good luck to Gaz doing something for himself.

 

Supergrass goes Krautrock? Rather hard to imagine, but intriguing.

 

Same here.

 

The Hot Rats (Gaz and Danny) still exist, which makes me think that they had differences with Mick.

In Paris, on July 7, they will perform as part of a Velvet Underground tribute. Also in the band, Colin Greenwood (Radiohead) on bass, Nigel Godrich and Nicolas Godin (from French band Air).

http://www.cite-musique.fr/anglais/evenement.aspx?id=11929

Frankly, with such a strange and un-Velvet like line-up, the only VU album they could really perform would be Squeeze.

 

I'll buy any note of music Gaz records, whether with Supergrass or without. Tremendous, unique, criminally underrated talent. Can't wait to hear the solo stuff, and agree 100 % with the OP about wanting to hear the Release The Drones stuff sooner rather than later.

 

That very well could be. I had found a couple of other interviews...one with Mick where he said he thought Supergrass would reform in the future. The other was another with Gaz where he said reuniting would desecrate the Supergrass name.

 

Well, I don't know the music of Supergrass besides Gaz Coombes playing on the album "Anutha Zone" by Dr. John.

Yet, there are some Great Lost Albums I would love to listen to, such as "Give 'Em the Slip" by Edie Brickell's band The Slip from 1996, the Shirley Manson solo album that never came out, the full-length of Howie B's "Skelf" project that never came out on MoWax Records in the early 00s, Eurythmic Dave Stewart's album from circa 2007 that he canned despite having posted several songs from it on his myspace page and the fans liking them. There are also the many shelved albums Del Shannon recorded during the 80s which would be very interesting. As would John Fogerty's "Hoodoo", but that one seems to be in bootleg limbo forever as the master tapes were reportedly destroyed.

However, I'm happy that the following albums did make it out of the vaults on CD:
Rod Stewart - Once in A Blue Moon
John Wesley Harding - Adam's Apple
Holly Palmer - Tender Hooks
Tonio K - Olé

and of course this list would be incomplete without starring:

Brian Wilson's Smile!

 

Well, that last post sure was irrelevant.

 

Well, all I meant to say was that there are quite a few more "Great Lost Albums" that are more than deserving of seeing a release on CD and if there really is a trend going on currently of releasing an artist's "Great Lost Album", I'm all for it.

 

I knew Hoffman Forums would have a post about this album.

I only just recently found out about this album, they should finish it and release it:

http://www.childrenofthemonkeybasket.com/RTD/Through_Glass_Darkly.html
Promontal sample from the time


Going Up (an outake from "Tractor Man sessions")

 

Sorry for the thread bump but I'm a massive SG fan and have been hoping this album has finally leaked...no such luck

 

With Oasis releasing their reissues now maybe Supergrass will do the same?

 

We could only hope. I just wanna hear this final album.

 

Things must have been pretty bad to have packed it in with one final album about ready to go.

Release the Drones. A great and timely album title.

 

I did love Gaz album, but still...

 

They didn't finish it. I have somewhere all the twitter updates mick Quinn posted during the period detailing the album progress, will dig them out for you!

 

Oh and it was Danny that bailed on the album I seem to remember.

 

My mate has that Howie B Mo'Wax project.

 

Thank you very much for your reply. That's interesting indeed. Are there any other tracks than what was released on the 2 singles "Comin At Ya" and "Fish", that is their A-sides, plus "Eperiment" and "I Can't Comprehend"? If so, where might I be able to find those tunes? Please send me a message. Thank you.

 

I'll have a word with him and try and sort something out.

 

Thank you.

 

Ok, thought I'd shed some light here. Having followed Mick on Twitter for some months before they split, I have all the names of the songs recorded for Release The Drones:

Release The Drones (title track)
Sleeping Dog – raw 50’s feel with grand piano
Up Stairs (Working Title)
Market Place
Strange Echo - Featuring Oxford Youth Choir
Hip Replacement - Lyrics by Mick
Shakey - 'sounds like walking through an electronic jungle.' Includes a vocoder
Tractor Man – Gaz on drums, Danny on bass and Mick on ‘Dick Dale’ guitar
Who Could Know
S.O.R
Boss - Featured a choir so could be an early name for Strange echo?
Out Of Africa - Rob plays a Vox Organ – lyrics by Mick and Danny
Headlights – guide vocal by Mick, one of Robs tunes.
Run, Run, Run – guide vocal by Danny
Rock Das Boot
Glockenspiel

Next To You – Police cover recorded in 2009

First days recording was 17th April and by May 2009 they had 11 backing track ideas. Many periods of recording over the course of the year. The album was co-engineered by Gaz an POM

Mick started out enthusiastic in May 2009:

"Release the Drones going to sound enormous, ambitious, experimental and tricky to play."

But these were the most telling of all Mick's tweets back in Nov 2009:

"Working on 'S.O.R.' @ home today but spoke to Gaz this morning and Danny's having another meltdown about the album, shame.."

"Writing lyrics for 'Shakey' has resulted in a band meltdown on the will to live or at least finish the album."

Release Date was scheduled for August 2010. Mick was thinking about artwork back in October 2009.

Hope that helps!

 

Still wish they'd just ****ing release it already!

Another favorite band of mine, Mansun, had finished most of their 4th album before they split but didn't release it. A massive fan petition shortly after caused them to finally release it on the great Kleptomania box set.

Maybe the same would work with Supergrass?

 

I think they need to rerelease all their albums in Deluxe editions first - one of the only Britpop bands who haven't done it yet. Their B-sides deserve an audience.

X-Ray in particular had amazing B-sides better than some of the album cuts....

I feel like Supergrass are getting forgotten which is a shame.