To which the South West Correspondent throws his arms up in the air and says ‘I don’t know’. I am well and truly stumped this week. Here is a CD that I don’t remember buying. I don’t remember reviewing and I don’t remember ever listening to. I know NOTHING about this band. I don’t know where they are from; I don’t know who the singer is, whether they released anymore records or whether or not they are still going. So over to you guys….Anyone got any more info on Supermodel? By the way if you read this at work, be careful when you Google ‘Supermodel Haircut’.
So what do I know about it and them… well I can tell you is that this not the Australian/New Zealand band of the same name doing the rounds at the moment (thankfully). Secondly, the song is quite good, in the punky pop style that was big for about a week in 1995/6 (see 60ft Dolls, Three Colours Red and China Drum for other examples). Thirdly, the bands previous single was called ‘Penis Size and Cars’ and that bizarrely was covered by Sophie Ellis Bextors old band ‘theaudience’ who have their second reference in this column in two columns. Finally, this record appears to have been a hit in Finland. So big up to the Finns, when I say hit, it may have got to Number 34 in the Finnish Charts and sold 9 copies.
mp3 :Supermodel – Haircut
a PS from JC
I found the sleeve of this single on t’internet:-
I was able to find out they were signed to Fire Records. The discography consisted of three singles and one LP:-
Penis Size and Cars – BLAZE 96
Haircut – BLAZE 99
No Second Coming – BLAZE 104
Clumba Mar – BLAZE 56
According to the entry on last fm:-
Supermodel were a lo-fi band from Staines, United Kingdom who were signed to London’s indie Fire Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia in the United States.
The NME described their Teenage Fanclub-style debut Clumba Mar as a “brand new invention, ELO-fi”, and the band toured by running their own nights called ‘The Apple Club’.
Guitarist, Wolsey White and singer/guitarist Triani went on to forge successful careers as producers, whilst drummer Lindsay Jamieson and bass player Chris Anderson went on to play in Departure Lounge.
More recently Jamieson has been a member of Ben Folds and Anderson performs as Crayola Lectern.
Any readers able to add more?
Oh and here’s theaudience version referred to above:-
mp3 : theaudience – Penis Size and Cars*
*blatant attempt to drive up traffic by attracting the casual perverts.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I know I have a couple of their singles, I think I picked them up solely because of the theaudience cover of Penis Size And Cars (which I believe came about because theaudience head honcho Billy Reeves used to do their PR – clearly not very successfully…). I think this is one of them, but I’ll try to locate the other…
Further to the previous comment, check your inbox.
I Googled ‘Supermodel haircut’ and got lots of boring pictures of models with trendy haircuts. What are you googling to get unsuitable for work results?
Anyone interested in theaudience’s unreleased second album?
You might be interested to know that I am the singer from Supermodel and I run a Helsinki based record label called Soliti that releases Cats On Fire (the band you posted yesterday). I also have mixed a couple of their albums too. And I did a stint playing guitar in the Audience (a few shows)
Supermodel released three albums and were ace, If I say so myself.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Supermodel
didn’t have any hit in Finland BTW!
Best
Nick Triani
Triani – are you anything to do with the ace and wonderfully named Finnish Band Gim Kordon?
Always thought the link was “Hannan”.. Prior to SUPERMODEL Linds played in JIM JIMINEE with Nick Hannan whose brother Patch drummed for THE SUNDAYS then THE AUDIENCE.. Liked SUPERMODEL live.. Reminded me of PAVEMENT meets NECTARINE No 9…Which in my book is pretty good.. My book being “I like PAVEMENT & NECTARINE No 9” Liked them better live (as in most things) There was a song “You Gotta Gun..” Which if I remember correctly had very few lyrics other than ‘You gotta gun.. You’re gonna use it’ but I’m all for minimalist lyrics (ya man Nick maybe can confirm).. Which had Linds doing some odd backing vocals.. I’ve got the album somewhere & would recommend it.. Mainly as it has car doors slamming at the start (I don’t know why I find that appealing, I just do..) & a song whose intro is to THE SEX PISTOLS ‘Holiday In The Sun’ as NIRVANA’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit..” is to THE WOLFHOUNDS ‘Anti Midas Touch..’
Yes Tim, Gim Kordon is on the label.
Hey Fruitier, of course we knew Nick Hannan (he did record a pre-Supermodel band called Juicy Fruit)…
anyway, hope things are a bit clearer….