- Austin Chronicle
The typical Austin rock band rehearses twice a week, plays one show
a month, and makes
headlines once in a blue moon. Superego is not your typical Austin
band.
Superego was initially conceived as an excuse for mutual admirers from
some of Austin's most
infamous indie-rock groups to get together at their favorite dive for
a few unstructured jams, in the
context of a loosely-arranged multi-act hootenanny. Like a twisted
cross between the Last Waltz
and the Gong Show, the exhilaration of these musical melees soon proved
addictive--to participants
and witnesses alike--and Superego fed the habit as the house band at
the Hole in the Wall's
legendary Rock & Roll Free-For-All every Sunday for nearly 7 years,
before passing the torch to
new hosts Telray in March of 2001. Their final show as
house band, a star-studded tribute to the
Band's Last Waltz concert, broke all attendance records at the club
and left not a dry eye in the
house.
"There's no better way to spend your Sundays," said the Austin Chronicle,
"Superego wrecks the
place."
The current 6 piece all-star line-up of Superego continues to play a
steady stream of Austin club
dates and is currently working on their fourth full-length release
due to hit stores in time for the 7th
Annual Free For All Music Festival in September. Their 1996 debut
Mellow, Robust, Satisfying boasted
16 decidedly non-formula pop arrangements of Superego originals, performed
by the band with a
plentiful scoop of their local cronies. The follow-up release
My Bad hit town with a big lo-fi bang in late '97.
Their third album Oh Yes My Friend, released in '99 and featuring
guest performances by members of
Fastball and Sixteen Deluxe, was called "an extension of the camaraderie
that glues Austin's
musical community together" by Texas Monthly.
Superego has sonically accosted unsuspecting new fans at regular roadshow
bookings throughout
Texas and Louisiana, as well as showcasing their thermo-dynamic live
sound at the South by
Southwest conference in Austin and the North by Northwest conference
in Portland, Oregon.
Superego also checks in with tracks on several compilation albums.
The Rock & Roll
Free-For-All CD series remains high on the charts in local indie shops;
Homegroan Vol. 4 was
put out by local station K-NACK, plus their live cover of "Left of
the Dial" is on So What? a
Replacements tribute album.
Superego has had extensive airplay, interviews and live performances
on several Texas stations
including: KROX, K-NACK, KLBJ, KGSR, KVRX, KOOP, KUT, & KUTX.
A self-directed
video for the single "No Way to Know" is on cable programs nationwide
and Austin Music
Network features several full-length Superego sets. Superego
has been seen and heard on several
MTV productions including Indie-Out, Austin Stories, and Trippin' the
Americas, and the band's
web fanzine is on-line at :
www.io.com/~superego.
Superego: Use as directed. Can be habit-forming.