The Bus

Thought exercise here. You've been asked to form the new Traveling Wilburys
for this century. Here are the rules:

1. The group must nominally be a rock supergroup. It doesn't need to be roots / folk oriented rock like the Traveling Wilburys but it still needs to be a rock group (punk, metal, hard rock, soft rock, alternative, indie all work).
   
2. The group must have five living members, all of which found most of their fame after 1990. For example, Beck is OK: he was a performer since the late 80s, but was not really known until the mid-90s. Phil Collins would not be invited.
   
3. At least one of the members needs to be from the US. At least one of the members needs to be from the UK.
   
4. The Jeff & George Rule. At least two of the artists need to be from well-known groups.
   
5. The group should aim to be commercially and critically well-received.
   

That's it.

We will vote and the winner gets a Seal of Approval.

The Bus

Here's my entry:

Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend)
Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)
Adam Granduciel (The War on Drugs)
Georgia Hubley (Yo La Tengo)
Thom Yorke (Atoms for Peace)

Abob Teff

Bob Dylan played by Andy Samburg

Jeff Lynne played by Danny Masterson

Tom Petty played by Tilda Swinton

Roy Orbison played by Clark Duke

George Harrison played by Jon Hamm

Sorry, in the movie thread.

E Unit

Sorry, I don’t thoughts or exercises.

james2025a

I am missing the movie element of this thread?

Shamus McAnally

I'll give this a shot. I actually love this idea. (I answered almost this same question probably 14 or 15 years ago on another forum. I'm curious what my answer was back then.)

In that the OGTW had multiple lead singers, I tried to use this to guide my choices, in addition to finding enough people that had abilities to play multiple instruments and maybe have them trade "jobs" for different songs.. (Lastly, I went for pure hard rock with some influences from punk and pop.)

Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge)
Brandon Urie (Panic! At The Disco)
Butch Walker (solo)
Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters)
Richard Ashcroft (The Verve)

(That British part threw me because I'm not as up on Brit contributions after the 80's as I'm sure many others. But I love Ashcroft's voice. Hopefully he can rock out with everyone else. And maybe Myles will pick up a few tricks along the way and eventually be able to switch with everyone else. How cool would that be? Switching instruments, and of course, lead vocals, between songs multiple times during a show.)

auto

I’ll give it a shot:

Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs)
Mike Patton (Faith No More)
Britt Daniel (Spoon)
Annie Clark (St. Vincent)
Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz)

pjflyer

Dave Grohl
Jeff Tweedy
Polly Jean Harvey
Sturgill Simpson
Will Oldham

covenant

Dave Grohl
Jack White
Justin Hawkins
Thundercat
Johnny Stevens

musick

Matt Berninger (The National)
Win Butler (Arcade Fire)
Sufjan Stevens (Sufjan Stevens)
Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)
Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons)

Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) fill in alternative to Mumford

Ky-Fi

Bono
Noel Gallagher
Michael Stipe
Johnny Marr
Chrissie Hynde

Hazel Motes

Alex Ebert
Jim James
Nathaniel Rateliff
Devendra Banhart
Dave Grohl

Josh-da-man

Corey Taylor
Robert Smith
Gerard Way
Lzzy Hale
Randy Blythe


BONUS:

Traveling Deadburys:

David Bowie
Chris Cornell
Layne Staley
Prince
Lemmy

Josh-da-man

I thought about Grohl, but he's like the Middle Square. Too obvious.

The Infidel

Jack White
Dave Grohl
Colin Hay
Paul Simon
Tommy Shaw

EDIT: I originally had Peter Frampton, but decided I can see more of a Wilbury in Colin Hay.

rw2516

Billy Corgan
Eddie Vedder
Jason Bonham
Jack White
Joe Bonamassa

mphtrilogy

David Byrne
Michael Stipe
Chrissie Hynde
Billy Joel
Elton John

musick

I'm thinking many need to go back and read the Phil Collins rule

sauce07

Jim James (My Morning Jacket)
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk)
Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
Ryan Adams
Liam Gallagher (Oasis)

TomOpus

This could be a good reality show...just to watch them try to get one song written and recoded.

Josh-da-man

That rule should probably be amended. The Traveling Wilburys included Roy Orbison, who, at the time in 1988, was more of an industry veteran than Dylan, Petty, Harrison, or Lynne.

I think there should be one older pre-90s performer allowed, if not required.

creekdipper

This is a good party game, but there's really nothing that could be analogous to the The Wilburys under the OP's rules.

Dylan and Harrison had been icons for decades, and Orbison's legacy went back even farther. Tom Petty was a major artist. Jeff Lynne was the only one who might not have been known as well to the casual fan unless they were familiar with ELO.

The TW were the rock/pop equivalent of The Highwaymen. You have to have a supergroup made up of superstars recognized primarily as solo artists or ones who were household names due to the extreme popularity of their group in the public consciousness (Beatles, Stones). The Pistol Annies woudn't qualify; the group consisting of Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton would. Or The Three Tenors in opera terms.

There have been lots of groups made up of jamming friends (Derek & Dominos or assembled from other groups (Golden Smog, Velvet Revolver, Jack White's group whose name escapes me, etc.). Lots of bands interchanged members or added artists from other popular groups (Eagles, for instance). But most of them picked people who specialized in particular instruments to form a band (ELP, Cream) or weren't that well-known as solo artists beforehand (CSN).

To come up with an analogous group, you almost have to have people on the level of Springsteen, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Bono, Sting, etc. who are recognized by mainstream audiences for their public exposure.

If I were picking on sheer musicianship, I'd include people like Mark Knopfler and Richard Thompson.

creekdipper

Under the current rules, I'd pick

Dave Grohl
Eddie Vedder
Noel Gallagher
Billie Joe Armstrong
Dave Matthews

Not because they're necessarily favorites (don't care at all for Vedder or Armstrong) but because they fit the well-known persona compared to a lot of better singers/musicians.

On second thought, I'd swap out Grohl, Vedder, and Armstrong for Chris Isaak, Jack Johnson, and Jack White.

The Bus

I'll be honest I placed the Phil Collins rule in there just to make sure the thread wasn't filled with obvious choices from earlier decades. Your points, creekdipper, are valid. Under my rules it's not really an analogous band.

I like all these lineups.

slop101

I picked one person from each "region".
Kind of a hodgepodge, but could work.

Paul Weller (UK) - vocals/guitar/keys
James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) (Wales) - vocals/guitar
Glen Hansard (Ireland) - vocals/guitar
Geddy Lee (Canada) - vocals/bass
Dave Grohl (US) (ubiquitous, but we need a good drummer who can sing) - vocals/drums