Supagroup is a rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 band from New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

. They were formed in the mid-1990s by brothers Chris Lee and Benji Lee from Anchorage, Alaska. Both were students at Tulane University and started playing together as SAP or Shit Ass Punks. Previously, Chris had played bass in New Orleans sludge rock band, Critical Dump. Unlike their name suggests, Supagroup is not a supergroup, as none of its members have ever reached a celebrity status. However, the Lee brothers claim to be distantly related to the martial arts legend Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...

. Because of this, Supagroup's albums have had martial arts imagery and Supagroup has used the slogan "Kung Fu Rock n' Roll." Chris Lee married former White Zombie

White Zombie

White Zombie was a Grammy Award-nominated American heavy metal band. Based in New York City, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band. White Zombie are better-known for their later heavy metal-oriented sound...

 bassist Sean Yseult

Sean Yseult

Sean Yseult is an American rock musician. She has played various instruments with different bands over the years, most notably her bass work with the band White Zombie. Her father, Michael S. Reynolds, was a noted biographer of Ernest Hemingway...

 on January 12, 2008.

The group has enjoyed some success touring around the nation. In early 2003, the band won the New Orleans regional poll in The 2nd Annual Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards

The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....

 for their song "She's Hot (I'm On A Roll)". Although the band has not reached popularity, their single "What's Your Problem?" has had airtime on the local New Orleans New Rock station 106.7 The End

KKND

KKND better known as "Power 102.9" is a Rhythmic Contemporary outlet serving the New Orleans area. The Cumulus Media station is licensed to Belle Chasse, Louisiana and broadcasts its format at 102.9 MHz with an ERP of 4.7 kW...

 KKND and Q94.5 The Q

KFRQ

KFRQ is a radio station broadcasting an active rock format. Licensed to Harlingen, Texas, USA, and broadcast out of McAllen, Texas, the station serves the lower Rio Grande Valley area. The station is currently owned by Entravision Holdings, LLC....

 in McAllen Texas where they headline with Vince Niel of Mötley Crüe July 15 2007. Most reviews of the band in the press are quite positive. In 2004, the band toured with Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...

, opening for his shows. During the shows Supagroup received a standing ovation

Standing ovation

A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim...

, something Alice Cooper claims hasn't happened since Guns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...

 opened for him. The band commonly calls their followers supagroupies

Groupie

A groupie is a person who seeks emotional and sexual intimacy with a musician or other celebrity. "Groupie" is derived from group in reference to a musical group, but the word is also used in a more general sense, especially in casual conversation....

.

The band's first album, Planet Rock, was self-produced and self-released on their own Prison Planet label. They followed that with a live album. In 2001, Rock and Roll Tried to Ruin My Life, produced by Jack Endino

Jack Endino

Jack Endino is a producer and musician based in Seattle. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino worked on seminal albums from bands such as Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Nirvana...

, was released in a limited quantity. 2004's self-titled album was produced by Benji Lee and Trina Shoemaker

Trina Shoemaker

Trina Shoemaker is a mixer, record producer and sound engineer responsible for producing/engineering and/or mixing records for popular bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Something for Kate, Nanci Griffith and many more....

. The band's 2007 album, Fire for Hire includes a number of studio versions of songs that first appeared on their We Came to Rock You live album, as well as songs influenced by the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

.

Supagroup has released two music videos: one for "What's Your Problem?" from 2003's Supagroup album, and one for "Let's Go (Get Wasted)" from 2005's Rules album. The "What's Your Problem?" video features Supagroup band members rocking with midgets and a young woman, whom the song is fictitiously written about. The video for "Let's Go (Get Wasted)" features clips of Supagroup playing on the Krewe of Saturn's Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...

 parade route and later at One Eyed Jack's, a music venue in New Orleans's French Quarter

French Quarter

The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...

.

The current lineup has Chris Lee singing and playing rhythm guitar

Rhythm guitar

Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

, Benji Lee playing lead guitar

Lead guitar

Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

, Brewer Brian Broussard playing bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, and Leon Touzet playing drums

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

 and percussion

Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

.

Albums

• Planet Rock (1996, Prison Planet Records)
• We Came to Rock You: Live at the Mermaid Lounge (1999, Prison Planet Records)
• Rock and Roll Tried to Ruin My Life (2001, Prison Planet Records)
• Supagroup (2003, Foodchain Recoreds)
• Rules (2005, Foodchain)
• Fire for Hire (2007, Merovingian/Foodchain)
• Hail! Hail! (2011)

Singles

• "When in Rome" 7" (2001, Telegraph Company)
• Supersuckers vs Supagroup split CD (2003)
• "What's Your Problem" promo DVD (2004)