Green Day musical headed to Broadway

The Green Day musical, American Idiot, will reportedly premiere on Broadway in 2010. This makes me feel unfathomably old.
Here's a preview:

The great semi-lost Soul Asylum track

About a year ago, Kevin Smith dug up an old Live song from the Throwing Copper sessions for one of his movies that turned out to be as good as any of their hits (Go here for a refresher).

Well, there are a lot of great lost songs out there. Here's one by Soul Asylum called "Success is not so sweet," written around the Grave Dancer's Union days.

According to this interview with Dave Pirner, the band played the song once live, didn't get a great crowd reaction, and went on with their lives. They dragged it back out, re-learned it off of a bootleg of that show, and ended up recording it for 2006's The Silver Lining. So I guess file this one as only semi-lost. But couldn't you hear this on the radio circa 1994?

Coming to your town: the grunge tribute tour

The "Sounds of Seattle" tour, featuring Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden tribute bands, may be coming to a city near you beginning Nov. 6. As the AV Club points out, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains are on tour now, and Chris Cornell still plays a lot of Soundgarden songs in his solo shows. So what's the point? Maybe if there was a Nirvana tribute, but alas, Nevermind has dropped off the tour.

This week in break-ups... the Verve (again)

* The Verve, who got back together in 2007, have broken up, again. This makes the third time, and once again, the problem is that everybody else in the band apparently hates Richard Ashcroft. The guitarist and bass player have started a new band with the lead singer of Goldfrapp, and Ashcroft is presumably returning to his milquetoast solo career. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure how big a loss this is; last year's reunion album, Forth, didn't exactly set the world on fire.

* Noel Gallagher quit Oasis after a screaming row with brother Liam in Paris; this conveniently came at the end of a year-long world tour and just before a scheduled hiatus. Apparently, Noel smashed up Liam's acoustic guitar during the fight, Liam didn't invite any of his band members to his wedding, and Noel is angry about Liam's clothing line. Liam appears to want Oasis to continue, and semi-hired guns Andy Bell and Gem Archer (all the non-Gallagher original members of Oasis have been gone since 2000 or so) are supposedly willing to carry on. The Times of London predicts the band will turn into Britpop's first heritage act, touring around festivals and state fairs playing the old hits.

* That Red Hot Chili Peppers hiatus just keeps on stretching out. Fresh off his supergroup Chickenfoot, drummer Chad Smith now has a solo project called Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats. Their new album is all prog-rock instrumentals (get an autographed copy here, or if you'd rather, try to win a copy here). Here's an interview with Smith where no mention of the Chili Peppers is even made. That can't be a good sign. Meanwhile, Flea played bass for Thom Yorke's solo shows in Los Angeles recently.

That new Alice in Chains album is a little freaky

I'm back, briefly. No major goings-on in the Peepers household, just haven't really had anything to say.
Then I heard some of this new Alice in Chains album:


We're positive Layne Staley's dead, right? And there's a new lead singer? They're not singing with old tapes of Layne like Nat King Cole's daughter did, right?

News bites: 311, Radiohead, Travis, Pumpkins, Guster, more

Sometimes stuff happens that's not really worthy of its own item. For instance:

* 311 are touring in November and December. Their most recent album Uplifter hit the Top 5 and has thus far spun off two modern rock hits: "Hey You" and "It's alright."

* Thom Yorke of Radiohead is working on a couple of new solo singles, which will more than likely be released on vinyl and digital download.

* Travis, who were very briefly one of the biggest bands in the world (remember when Coldplay were the next Travis?) are doing an acoustic tour across the U.S. from October 8 to November 12. It's being billed as a "chronological acoustical journey." Could be fun.

* That teenage kid who auditioned for the Smashing Pumpkins' drummer chair is apparently now a full-fledged member. Meanwhile, Billy Corgan is doing a solo tour with the Spirits in the Sky, a backing band that includes D'Arcy Wretzky's ex-husband on drums.

* The harmonica dude from Blues Traveler who used to be fat needs another new hip.

* Apparently the theme this year is "10th anniversary tours for albums that came out in '99." Jimmy Eat World and the Get Up Kids both did it. Now Guster is planning to play Lost and Gone Forever in its entirety at various clubs in October.

This week in reunions... Sublime! The Cranberries! No Doubt!

* Scott Weiland tells ArtistDirect that Stone Temple Pilots are working with between 10 and 18 songs for their next record, which could be out around Christmas. Meanwhile, Weiland kicked off his new clothing line with a solo set in LA last week, and STP are doing a handful of dates in October.

* Sublime are reuniting for Cypress Hill's Smokeout Festival in California in October. Not included in the reunion is lead singer / songwriter / guitarist Bradley Nowell, because he's, you know, dead.

* The Cranberries, who never officially broke up but hadn't played any shows or done any recording since 2003, will be touring the U.S. at the end of the year. Expect to hear new songs, old hits, and songs off lead singer Dolores O'Riordan's non-charting solo album (autographed copies still available here for only $9.99!). Generally, when the lead singer announces that the band's getting back together within a month of their solo album coming out, that's a sign the solo album didn't do too well.

* The Toadies reunion continues on. They toured the UK for the first time ever and are about to head back into the studio for a new album, to be released in 2010.

* According to this interview with Tony Kanal, the No Doubt reunion album might be awhile. Apparently, they wrote together but hadn't actually recorded anything before the giant summer tour. And by "wrote together," Kanal means that there are "seedlings" of songs but no actual songs written yet.