Music Eclectic Company

Like a lot of musicians, Supersystem's Rafael Cohen had a “eureka!” moment when he first heard Aaliyah's “Are You That Somebody.” “Everyone my age remembers where they were when they heard that song on the radio,” says Cohen of Timbaland's startling, game-changing 1998 track. “You'd wish the DJ would play it over and over.” At the time, guitarist/singer Cohen, Pete Cafarella, and Justin Destroyer (a candidate for “coolest indie rock name of the month”) comprised the abrasively experimental Washington D.C. band El Guapo. But adventurous singles from Tim, the Neptunes, and OutKast made the band “sick of doing pretentious shit,” claims Cohen. “We realized that we wanted to make songs with verses and choruses and hooks.”

With the addition of drummer Josh Blair, El Guapo morphed into Supersystem, a groove machine whose second album, A Million Microphones (Touch and Go), is an assured combination of Timbaland-style electronics, stealth melodies, and the staccato guitar picking of Cohen, a fan of West African bands like Guinea's Bembeya Jazz National. The album stands head to toe with any recent dance-punk record, but, as Brooklyn resident Cohen notes, “that's a community that no one wants to be a part of anymore. We're a straightforward pop/rock band, and proud of it.”

Rob Kemp
Photo by Cody Smyth
For more of our Fall Music Preview, pick up the August/September 2006 issue on newsstands now.

A Million Microphonesis in stores today on Touch & Go Records.