I put together the first half of my Charlottesville supergroup in about 10 minutes. The second half took nearly two hours.
You might think that assembling my own band from this year’s Best Of music winners and runners up—Sons of Bill in first place, followed by Trees on Fire, Dave Matthews Band and Sparky’s Flaw—would be simple. Out of the city’s 70 million bands, I had to choose members from only four. Each musician in my stable of rockers kicked like a Clydesdale on stage. And, thank Jagger, they were all attractive. I even found a name that honored the histories of each band: Sparky Matthews’ Sons of Fire.
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My frontmen were the first picked. Will Anderson from Sparky’s Flaw and Blake Hunter of Trees on Fire were considered for their good looks and vocal chops—those dudes have what I call “Prince Syndrome”—but were too innocent and too at ease, respectfully. Instead, I opted for two of the endearingly raucous Sons of Bill: brawny James Wilson on vocals and his jazz-savvy brother, Sam, on lead guitar. Besides, Dave Matthews seems like the kind of guy that would take a “break” from the band to record a solo album. Pffft.
I didn’t omit all of DMB, of course—violinist Boyd Tinsley and currently inactive sax player LeRoi Moore added some nice texture to the group. For my drummer, I picked Paul Rosner from Trees on Fire, a man who knows how to accent a song with a snare and high-hat. DMB’s Carter Beauford knows the skins, too, but I decided to bank on a younger musician for the heavy work; I made Beauford an extra percussionist.
Then I began to struggle. First, there wasn’t a woman to be found on my list of musicians—no bombastic Arethas, no witchy Stevies, no riot grrls. Second, I realized that there wasn’t an interesting bass player among these bands save for Stefan Lessard, whom I disqualified for fear of a DMB coup. Third—and perhaps most important—I realized that very few supergroups are ever worthwhile. I wanted the Traveling Wilburys, but I became worried I would wind up with Velvet Revolver.
I decided that I needed a bit more sweetness, so after a break for coffee and some Motown records, I started fresh. Will Anderson and Blake Hunter became back-up vocalists, two Temptations to temper James Wilson’s country grammar. I handed the bass guitar to Alex Hargrave of Sparky’s Flaw and Trees on Fire’s Rob Mezzanotte got rhythm guitar duties. I almost decided on Mezzanotte’s bandmate Justin Esposito as my rhythm guitarist, but Esposito also plays violin and accordion, so I decided to give him that vaguely flattering “multi-instumentalist” title.
In the words of Radiohead, “You do it to yourself./ That’s what really hurts.” This was your doing, Charlottesville—you picked the acts and I did the best I could. But in the end, there were too many musicians left over, not to mention whole bands I’d been unable to use. Could Sparky Matthews’ Sons of Fire hold its own on a bill with another hybrid band, like The Six Nice Divorcees? Could they outperform my powerful indie rock-metal combo, which would either be called Birdfang or Horselips? Maybe after a year with Sparky Matthews’ Sons of Fire, you’ll vote for some new acts next year.
