Mister Heavenly @ Rhythm Room

Over the past 40 years, the term "supergroup" has taken a beating. Acts such as The Traveling Wilburys and The Highwaymen defined the term: a group of established music legends teaming up for kicks. Nowadays, the term gets applied to just about any combination of semi-notable songwriters. Mister Heavenly falls...

By Christina Caldwell

September 1, 2011

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Over the past 40 years, the term "supergroup" has taken a beating. Acts such as The Traveling Wilburys and The Highwaymen defined the term: a group of established music legends teaming up for kicks. Nowadays, the term gets applied to just about any combination of semi-notable songwriters. Mister Heavenly falls somewhere between the two extremes. If you weren't paying attention to music in the past decade, you might not be intimately familiar with Islands, The Unicorns, Man Man, or even Modest Mouse. But together, former members of each of those bands create what they dub "doom-wop." The band garnered headlines for the temporary inclusion of twee heartthrob Michael Cera, but its music is the real star. Mister Heavenly's debut record, Out of Love, is equal parts Beatles charm and Elliott Smith dreary-dreaminess, and the band is not at all afraid to drop some hard rock when necessary. Calling Mister Heavenly a supergroup may be a stretch, but who cares when the tunes are this good?

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