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Superette

Biography

Dave Mulcahy‘s first post-Jean Paul Sartre Experience band was the unfortunately short-lived Superette, who sprung up in Auckland in 1993. With Mulcahy taking guitar and vocal duties, he pulled together former Blue Marbles duo Ben Howe (Bass) and Greta Anderson (Drums/Backing Vox) to record the rough, thematically scary, but thoroughly charming Rosepig EP. From here the band became known as one of the better live pop-rock acts around New Zealand, and where one of the defining bands (along with The 3Ds) that turned me on to New Zealand bands.

They expanded the tracks on their earlier release to the fully-fledge debut Tiger in 1995, which still remains one of my very favorite albums – mainly due to the fact that over the twelve stellar tracks, not a single song drags. Over the common theme of murder, and the psycho-analysis of well-known murderers, the album retains a dynamic pop hook.

Tiger carefully flows between the more up-beat earlier numbers (such as ‘Touch Me’ and album high-light, the Anderson-penned ‘Saskatchewan‘), through to the album closing slower numbers (notably ‘Funny Weather‘ and the charismatic ‘Waves‘, which made a big impact on Harry Sinclair’s ‘Topless Women Talk About Their Lives‘ feature film movie-score), without ever missing a beat.

Sadly after touring the album for the best part of a year, Mulcahy decided to move on to his own pressing solo career, leaving Ben And Greta (the moniker they took from that point on) to soldier on for themselves. Since Mulcahy left, Ben And Greta released the charming single ‘Creep Around The House’ (with Howe on vocal duties), but the duo seems to be more interested in their other pursuits. Ben Howe has gone on to form the Arch Hill record label, which released ‘Creep Around The House’, Mulcahy’s solo debut Oddy Knocky, as well as the debut from Ben’s new band Fang, entitled The Origin Of The Species.

Superette reformed for a couple of shows in 2003 and 2006, and the album got the deluxe reissue treatment in 2018 which included demo’s for a proposed (but not completed) 2nd album.

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