Supercute!

Supercute! was an American indie teen-pop band/project from New York City primarily led by its founder Rachel Trachtenburg along with co-founder Julia Cumming. The band had acquired notable press attention and toured several times in the U.S. and Europe with English singer-songwriter Kate Nash. The band is now defunct though its members have continued to perform in other projects. In a 2011 profile for Nylon Magazine, Cumming called Supercute!'s songs "ukulele rock operas".^[1]

From 2011 through 2013, the pair started co-hosting an Internet talk radio show named Pure Imagination on the Progressive Radio Network about politics, art and music that was aimed primarily at fellow teens.^[2]

History

Rachel first met Julia Cumming (born January 16, 1996^[3]) in 2003. Julia is the daughter of Alec Cumming, a longtime friend of and occasional bassist for the Trachtenburgs, and Cynthia Harden, a noted epileptologist.^[4]

Kate Nash (a UK-based singer/songwriter who had first toured with the Trachtenburg Family in 2008) encouraged them and in the summer of 2009 Trachtenburg enlisted Cumming and June Lei to form a group. They gained positive reviews for their appearance at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon ^[5] and began to play local venues with similar minded bands.^[6] The three were especially noted for their homemade space-age outfits, on-stage hula-hooping, and interesting cover choices.

By the end of 2010 Lei left the band and Supercute! became a duo project of Trachtenburg's and Cumming’s. Olivia Ferrer, daughter of Guns N' Roses drummer Frank Ferrer, performed extensively with the band throughout 2011 and into 2012 on keyboards and bass, making her live debut in 2011. Delilah Brierley, then a resident of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, also began to make appearances as an alternate Supercute! member at the time. Eventually, several members were added and then departed.

Supercute! recorded a song, "Superrookie!", for the September 2011 debut of Tavi Gevinson's online magazine, Rookie,^[7] which was later released as a flexi disc accompanying the 2012 Drawn and Quarterly book release of Rookie Yearbook One.^[8] In 2012 Trachtenburg and Cumming recorded a full album in London but only two songs have been released from these sessions. At one point the two created a Glam rock cover band (Terry Tinsel) ^[9] largely as an homage to the controversial Gary Glitter. Supercute! split up for good in 2013, as the band pursued other interests and projects.

Members

• Rachel Trachtenburg – ukulele, drum pad, vocals
• Julia Cumming – guitar, ukulele, bass, keyboards, vocals
• June Lei – keyboards, ukulele, vocals (2009–10)
• Olivia Ferrer – keyboards, bass, backing vocals (2010–12)
• Delilah Brierley – keyboards, backing vocals (2011–12)
• Heather Boo – bass (2011, 2013)
• Jacqueline Russo – drums (2011–12)
• LuLu Laurette Prat – bass, backing vocals (2012–13)
• Ruby Tanja – drums (2012–13)
• Rosie Slater– drums (2013)

Discography

EPs

Supercute!
EP by Supercute!
Released	2010 (2010)
Recorded	2009-2010
Genre	Indie pop Psychedelic pop Anti folk
Alternate cover
Hard copies of the EP featured homemade covers.

• Supercute! (2010)

1. "Candy City"
2. "Not To Write About Boys"
3. "Haunted Hostel"
4. "Misty Mountain Hop" (Led Zeppelin cover)
5. "Hula Hoop Song"
6. "Supercute!"

Flexidisc

Supercute!'s "Superrookie!" and the Dum Dum Girls' "I Don't Care" were included on a "Rookie Tunes" flexidisc in Rookie Yearbook One, a book edited by Tavi Gevinson and published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2012 [isbn 978-1-77046-112-3].^[10]

Single

"LoveLoveLeaveLove" b/w "DumbDumbs" (2015 - released via Bandcamp) ^[11]

Other songs

• "Brand New Key" (Melanie Safka cover) ^[12]
• "Lolita Ya Ya" (cover of a Nelson Riddle theme for Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film Lolita ) ^[13]
• "Coming Up" (with R. Stevie Moore) ^[14]

External links

• Supercute! at Bandcamp

References