Are You a Superchick or just a Barlow Girl?

How do you know they aren't one and the same? Have you ever seen them in the same room at the same time?

Welcome to a special edition of Flashback Friday. In the grand scheme of things, we're barely out of the driveway on this trip down Memory Lane. It really comes down to Two Bands linked by a Single Song.

While acting as a Sparrow Rep during the 2001 Inside Out Soul Festival at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire, my biggest responsibility was pushing new artists. One of those was a self-styled "garage band" by the name of Superchick (sometimes also spelled Superchic[k]). Sisters Melissa and Tricia Brock were picked out of an audience by Max Hsu (I believe it was at a House of Wires Concert). Their first concert was with Audio Adrenaline, the original edition, back in 1999. Rebels with a cause, their first two albums (Karaoke Superstars and Last One Picked) featured shout outs to Police Departments for making them aware of noise regulations.

Nicknamed "Cheerleader Rock" by us here at The Night Beat for Tricia's early shtick of singing through a megaphone, the band gave us fourteen years of encouragement and a band recommendation of their own. 

We met these sisters, Barlow's their last name. Ordinary girls they don't live in the fast lane. They don't rate with the guys that score, cause they don't flaunt what the boys want more.

The song was Barlow Girls, the group Barlowgirl. The sisters in question? Alyssa, Becca and Lauren Barlow. Superchick managed to heighten interest, but the sisters flew under the CCM radar screen for three years, but then when you're this good, you are Never Alone.
I heard the song on my local Christian Radio station. It was pretty hard for the stuff they liked to play, at least that early in the day. Still, that voice. When I found out that this was Barlowgirl, the sisters in the Superchick song, well, I was a fan.

Two Chick Rock Bands competing for the same fans. It was an eye candy match made in heaven. Sadly, dreams like those don't seem to stick around forever. For two bands linked together in history, perhaps it is fitting that they departed together as well. Barlow Girl was first. Maybe I should have seen it, but the deceptively titled Our Journey...So Far , a best set that was beyond perfection, was really, our journey, over. Their official statement was that while seeking God for direction for a new album, they got nothing. Perhaps it was just God trying to say, "whatever you do is fine with me", but they interpreted it as "time to hang it up". 

The writing was on the wall for Superchick when Tricia got married. Sorry, but it's true. Since the woman is the one who has the child, it is usually impossible to tour and have children at the same time. For a solo artist, it's usually not a problem, but a band isn't going to go on hiatus for months at a time. So by 2012 with a family in the making, the possibility of Superchick breaking up was becoming more and more of a reality, because, face it, unlike other bands, Superchick was never going to get a lead singer to replace Tricia.

Fans of Superchick don't have to mourn to hard. Radiate is pop rock enough and maintains the Superchick Snark we all know and love. It will have to do. Hey, if a band can get guys to say they are a "Superchick", they must have done something right. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.