Happy holidays

Merry Christmas from all your friends at Tied to the '90s (oh, and the Crash Test Dummies, too.)

Oh, Billy... Pumpkins abandon albums

It's been a bad decade for Billy Corgan thus far. Zwan acrimoniously broke up while working on an aborted second album, his solo album couldn't break 75,000 in sales after most of the Smashing Pumpkins' records went multi-platinum, and while the Pumpkins' comeback album Zeitgeist did go gold, a lot of people saw it as a disappointment and a cash-grab (especially considering the only original members involved were Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, who was in Zwan). This year, he's made headlines for playing setlists that are upsetting to the fans.

And now Billy says the Pumpkins won't make albums anymore, just singles. The trend's already started, with "G.L.O.W.", from earlier this year. It's done fairly well on the modern rock charts, getting up to #11.

What do you think? Are albums as dead as Mr. Corgan's making them out to be? Or is Billy just frustrated by a decade's worth of diminishing returns?

Pearl Jam reissue campaign begins

Pearl Jam are re-releasing their debut album Ten with a whole boatload of stuff, including out-takes, demo tracks, a remix of the entire album, and new artwork. It's all part of a series of reissues leading up to the band's (gulp) 20th anniversary in 2011.

We haven't really talked much about Pearl Jam on this site. I'm a fan, but not a huge one; you'll find Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, and the 2006 self-titled album in my collection, but that's it. I find them fascinating, though, because they could have been (and probably were) the biggest band in the world, capable of playing stadiums wherever they wanted, and they essentially threw it all away (conspiracy theorists will tell you intentionally).

Toadies play live

Today's fun video link: watch the Toadies play "Possum Kingdom," live from Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas.

Who would you pay $10 to hear?

Jill Sobule, author of the original "I Kissed a Girl," self-funded her forthcoming album by getting advance donations from people.

Who would you pay $10 to hear with the expectation of getting an album six months later? I'd pony up a Hamilton for a Nixons reunion album. Post your thoughts below.

Here's Sobule's "Supermodel."

New this week... Dave Matthews Band

Not a whole lot in stores this week, as things start slowing down before Christmas.

* Crash Test Dummies, Collections - greatest-hits compilation with a different tracklisting than last year's Best of.

* Dave Matthews Band, Live Trax Vol. 13- two-disc set recorded in June in St. Louis.
* Dave Matthews Band, Live at the Mile High Music Festival- three-disc set recorded in July in Denver. This is the first album not to feature saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died earlier this year. Includes a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer."

* Shawn Mullins, Live At the Variety Playhouse- the "Lullaby" guy releases a live album, recorded in Atlanta. Also available as a DVD.

* Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chroniclessoundtrack - primarily orchestral score, though new castmember Shirley Manson (of Garbage) does some vocals on a couple of songs.

* Yes Man soundtrack - soundtrack to the new Jim Carrey movie. Features 9 tracks by Eels. One, "Man Up," is new.

This week in reunions...

* The Manic Street Preachers are reuniting (in a fairly creepy way) with missing guitarist Richey Edwards. Edwards, who is presumed to have committed suicide in 1995 (a body was never found, and there have been sporadic sightings in out-of-the-way locales like Goa), will be providing the lyrics to the songs courtesy of an old notebook. Edwards was officially declared dead a couple of weeks ago.

* Kerrang! magazine in the UK claims Faith No More is getting back together. The missus should be happy, as she recently discovered "Epic" thanks to Rock Band.

* The Creed reunion tour rumors continue. Apparently, somebody is offering them a lot of money to do some shows.

* OMG, you guys. Kevin Richardson rejoined the Backstreet Boys for one special encore song in LA last week.

Jimmy Eat World to perform Clarity live

I am so angry that this isn't coming anywhere near me.

Jimmy Eat World will perform their 1999 album Clarity in its entirety at 10 shows in the spring. Find tourdates here.

Claritywas re-released a couple of years ago with bonus tracks. Seriously, if you haven't heard it, go over to a (legal) mp3 service and start with "For Me This is Heaven."

New BTE in 2009

We've reported several times with National Enquirer-like histrionics about the goings-on in the Better than Ezra camp... Kevin Griffin's possible solo album, people missing from public service announcements about hurricane awareness, etc. etc.

But now comes word from Griffin's myspace page that a new BTE album is coming in spring 2009 (although it's not finished recording yet).

Griffin also did an interview with Alternative Addiction in which he states that half the album is finished, with the rest to be recorded in January. The album could come out in May, although a few tourdates have already been announced for March.

Here's 1996's "King of New Orleans," which hit #5 on the modern rock charts.

Solo albums and side projects update

Lots of your '90s favorites are working on side-projects and solo albums right now. Here's a round-up:

* Paul Doucette, drummer and now guitarist in Matchbox 20, has a new solo album under the name The Break and Repair Method. Tracy Bonham helped out on it. Matchbox are recording a new album soon, to be released at the end of 2009.

* Robby Takac, bass player from the Goo Goo Dolls, is involved with an electronica/dance project called Amungus. Didn't see that one coming.

* Black Lab singer Paul Durham has released an album of covers on Amazon.com's mp3 service under the name Mirror Ball Associates.

* Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing fame has a new solo album. Two of the guys from Semisonic helped out on it. He's on tour now.

* The dude from Sister Hazel just put out his first solo album. Sister Hazel is working on a new album to be released in 2009.

* J.R. Richards from Dishwalla is working on a solo album with John Mellencamp's drummer and the guitarist from Ednaswap, among others. Look for it in 2009.

New this week... Collective Soul

Time for a new feature here at Tied to the '90s. New this week... is designed to let you know what's out right now from various '90s artists.

In stores December 9:

* Collective Soul, Afterwords- this actually came out in 2007 as a Target exclusive. It's being re-released this week to all retail outlets with three Ed Roland solo tracks as a bonus. From the Amazon samples, it sounds like they're Roland with a drum machine, so don't take this as evidence of a forthcoming solo album.

* Mark Kozelek, The Finally LP- dude from '90s shoegazers Red House Painters cobbles together a bunch of odds 'n sods (mostly covers)

* Pavement, Brighten the Corners(Nicene Creedence Edition) - the indie slackers' 1997 album is re-released with beaucoup de bonus tracks.

* Stereophonics, Decade in the Sun- career retrospective from the band that pretty much defined Britpop in 1998-99 (even if nobody in the US cared by that point). Available in one-disc and two-disc "deluxe" editions.

Duncan Sheik takes a break from musicals to tour

Seriously, did you know Duncan Sheik was a Broadway playwright now? He has TWO Tony Awards. Crazy. Anyway, he's on tour. See dates here.

Here's Sheik's 1997 Adult Top 40 hit "She Runs Away."

Win some stuff from Filter

Go here if you want to win copies of Filter's most recent album Anthem for the Damned and the new remix album, plus a guitar autographed by Richard Patrick. Second prize is some dog-tags and an autographed poster.

This week in break-ups... Blind Melon loses a lead singer

So Blind Melon's second lead singer (the guy with the creepy Shannon Hoon tattoo) is now Blind Melon's ex-lead singer, according to their blog. The band fired him right before embarking on a lengthy US tour, which is now cancelled. According to one of the commenters on this post, a new lead singer may have already been settled on.

Blind Melon's comeback album For My Friends charted at #133 earlier this year, but didn't spin off any hit singles. They just finished a tour of Canada.

The great lost Live track

In 1995, Live could do no wrong. Rolling Stone named them band of the year. Their second album, Throwing Copper, had four monster hit singles and hit #1. The demand for Live material was so great that radio programmers went back to their first album and started playing "Pain Lies on the Riverside" in heavy rotation (at least that's what they did in Oklahoma City).

Five albums of varying quality later, Live are... still huge in Belgium and the Netherlands. In the States (despite the support of Chris Daughtry, among others), they've spent the last two summers playing package tours with other '90s bands.

Then last month, Kevin Smith put out a movie called Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I haven't seen it yet, but plan to; it's still playing in most major cities. And apparently, toward the end, there's a song called "Lift Me Up" used in a crucial scene. And it's fantastic.


Near as I can piece together from the internets, the song was left off of Throwing Copper, and held for the follow-up (which became the much darker Secret Samadhi). Smith heard the track in '95 and wanted it for the quite excellent Mallrats soundtrack, but the band wouldn't give it to him. Fast-forward to 2008, and the song's still never been released.

So... what's the problem? This is a hit single no matter when it comes out. Zack and Miri doesn't have a soundtrack, and the song's not on Live's new live album. So we may have found the great lost '90s song. Go here or here if you want to learn more, or obtain a (mediocre-quality) copy for yourself.

New this week... Bloodhound Gang, Weiland, and more

Time for a new feature here at Tied to the '90s. New this week... is designed to let you know what's out right now from various '90s artists.

In stores December 2:

*Bloodhound Gang, Playlist Your Way - a greatest hits album, apparently only available at Circuit City (which is going out of business in most of the country). Neither allmusic nor the Circuit City website has the tracklisting, but you'd have to assume it'll include 1996's "Fire Water Burn" and 2000's "The Bad Touch."

* Rivers Cuomo, Alone II: The Home Recordings- even more cassette recordings and demos from the prolific Weezer frontman. From the snippets I've heard, these sound a lot more unfinished than the Alone album from last year.

* Gin Blossoms, Playlist Your Way - see the Bloodhound Gang entry above. Again, tracks weren't available, so I don't know how this is going to be any different from the Blossoms' existing greatest hits.

* Al Jourgenson, Wicked Lake soundtrack- the dude from Ministry soundtracks a horror movie.

* Moby, Last Night Remixed- a track-by-track remix of his album from earlier this year.

* Soundtrack - The Punisher: War Zone- features Rob Zombie, Slayer, Slipknot, and Static-X.

* Scott Weiland, Happy in Galoshes- the second solo album from the troubled Stone Temple Pilots / Velvet Revolver singer. Extensively covered elsewhere on this site, so we'll just move on.

* White Zombie, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie- boxset with all five of the band's studio albums, plus some extra tracks that only appeared on soundtracks and tribute albums. Hardcore fans may be disappointed to find there aren't any remixes included.

Touring tidbit of the day

Weezer and Oasis may be touring together this spring!

Foo Fighters do reality TV

If you like Top Chef (and I gotta be honest, I'd never heard of it until I read this), then tune in in tonight on Bravo, because the Foo Fighters are going to be judging a Thanksgiving dinner cookoff.

Oh, and the episode was apparently taped this past summer. So that turkey is probably really dry and stringy by now.

This week in reunions... Blur! Blink-182! No Doubt! Get Up Kids!

Whole lot of reunion news this week. Let's get to it...

* Damon Albarn said this afternoon on the BBC that Blur will be reforming to record new material in 2009.

*The members of Blink-182 are "talking," says Mark Hoppus, following drummer Travis Barker's plane crash. Does this mean a reunion? Probably not. Angels and Airwaves haven't failed enough for Tom DeLonge to come crawling back; they just got done opening for Weezer.

* If this post on The Get Up Kids' website is true, then the rumors of a reunion tour in '09 are also true. Awesome.

* Also gearing up to tour in 2009 is No Doubt, according to Billboard. The band is also set to put out a new album, its first since 2001's genre-hopping Rock Steady. The last time we heard much from No Doubt was the greatest-hits album in 2003 and a tour in 2004. Since then, Gwen Stefani's put out two solo records, neither of which I liked.

* Jane's Addiction, with all four original members, played another surprise show at a club in Los Angeles, their third this year. Their bassist hints that "rehearsals" have been taking place. Hm...

* The Meat Puppets, with both brothers back in the fold, are touring in December and January. Get dates here. Everybody remembers "Backwater," but do you remember the Puppets' other modern rock hit, 1995's "Scum"?

Yeah, me neither. Allmusic says it hit #28, but I'm guessing it was only there for a week based on the strength of "Backwater" and then fell off. I'm sure I've never heard that song, and I'd never seen the video until I found it on YouTube. Fairly cool video, though.

Coldplay cover Flaming Lips

At their show in Oklahoma City last week, Coldplay covered the Flaming Lips' 1999 single "Waitin' for a Superman":

Win tickets to Oasis in NYC

Go here if you want to win tickets to see Oasis at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The contest ends Dec. 7.

Get a free Everclear mp3

If you go over to Everclear's website, you can get a free mp3 of their new song "Jesus was a Democrat." It's a Christmas song. Or maybe an election song. I'm not sure.

In other Everclear news, they have a new drummer, Tommy Stewart, formerly of Fuel and Godsmack, and they've been touring military bases in Iraq. Also, Art's really pumped about Obama.

Scott Weiland gets incoherent

Click here if you want to watch Scott Weiland struggle to answer simple questions and generally come off as a lost, broken individual. Sad. Oh, and his new album comes out next week.

UPDATE: Happy is actually getting fairly decent reviews. Spin liked it.

UPDATE 2: Weiland was a little incoherent on the American Music Awards:


In other '90s stars-struggling news, click here if you want to see photos of Nine Inch Nails playing in front of a half-empty arena in Columbus, Ohio. Anecdotal evidence suggests this has been pretty common on the fall tour.

More Nixons

Ex-Nixons singer Zac Maloy has three songs on the new David Cook album (more on that later this week), which gives me an excuse to post some more Nixons videos. Here's "Wire," live from South by Southwest.

Not sure why it's cut off like that.

And it's a good time to tell you that the Nixons finally have a Myspace page. Find it here. Does this mean that the guys are talking again (their breakup was rumored to be pretty ugly back in the day) and there might be a reunion? Well, given that the drummer is now with Seether and Maloy has been writing songs with the Jonas Brothers, probably not. But man, were the Nixons awesome. I was in a band in high school in Oklahoma, and all we ever wanted to be was the Nixons.

And for the record, the original "rockin" version of "Sister" was better than the radio hit version.

This week in reunions...

* There are two new songs from the reunited Mighty Mighty Bosstones up on their Myspace page. One is a cover of the Broadway chestnut "Impossible Dream." Seriously.

* Blur's Damon Albarn tells the Guardian that he's been hanging out with estranged guitarist Graham Coxon, and that we might see a Blur reunion at some point. Also, apparently the drummer from Blur ran for city council in London (and lost).

* Stone Temple Pilots have written some new material, but they're not likely to be recording it anytime soon, Scott Weiland tells Spin. A lawsuit filed by Atlantic Records trying to ensure any new STP is released by them is to blame. Meanwhile, the band has scheduled two more dates on the reunion tour: a New Year's Eve show in LA, and a New Year's Day show in Vegas.

Local H + E6 = AWESOME

Local H are on tour with ELECTRIC SIX, one of my favorite non-'90s acts (my musical taste didn't entirely end in 2000), and I'm going to tonight's show in Atlanta.

I saw Local H once before, in 1998 at a giant multi-band thing in All Sports Stadium in Oklahoma City. I was thinking it was the HORDE tour, but this page says they were never on the HORDE tour. So I dunno.

Anyway, here's 1998's "All the Kids are Right," one of the band's three modern rock hits. Can you name the other two?

Links of the week

1) Alternative Addiction has a nice new feature called AA Classics, where you can hear audio links and get more information on bands that may have unjustly fallen off the radar. First up, Oleander, who I kinda liked in '98-'99.

2) Billy Corgan apparently berated the crowd at a Smashing Pumpkins 20th anniversary show in New York City last week, then only played two or three of the hits. Folks are mad.

3) If you're interested in purchasing the upcoming Scott Weiland solo album Happy in Galoshes, it's available from Newbury Comics with an autographed booklet.

Ryan Adams covers Alice in Chains

Here's a video of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals on the radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic recently. They start with one of Adams' best tunes, "Come Pick Me Up," then segue into an interesting country-rock cover of Alice in Chains' "Down in a Hole." What do you think?

Live, remix albums for Xmas

Need a gift for the '90s fan in your life this holiday season? Well, between now and December 25, these will appear on store shelves (well, at the few stores that still stock CDs):

*A Live live album. There are also two new tracks on it, including the song "Forever," which oddly reminds me of the Kiss 1989 single "Forever" (which was written by Michael Bolton!)

* A Foo Fighters live at Wembley Stadium DVD

* A Filter remix album, less than a year after Filter's fourth album flopped.

* A Stereophonics greatest-hits. Living in the UK in 1998-99, the Stereophonics were big stuff. They're still huge over there.

* And my personal favorite, a Vanilla Ice covers album in which Mr. Too Cold, Too Cold does covers of several rap classics from the early '90s. Included are "Baby Got Back," "Jump Around," and "Insane in the Brain." Oh, and four different versions of "Ice Ice Baby."

New Third Eye Blind next week

If you've been anxiously awaiting new Third Eye Blind (and let's be honest, if my Google analytics scores are right, you haven't been), next week brings the release of the Red Star EP, a digital-only taster for the band's fourth album proper, due in 2009. It will have three new tracks, and some unspecified "video content." If I can get it on Amazon MP3 with my Pepsi Stuff points, I'll let you know next week how it is.

Hootie, Horton Heat, and a bunch of country stars

If you're in the southeastern California desert in April, why not head over to Stagecoach, the big country festival? Darius "don't call me Hootie" Rucker will be there flogging his country album, the Reverend Horton Heat (have they gone country, too?) will play a set, Kid Rock will be there, and then there's a bunch of acts readers of this site probably don't care about.

Here's the video for the Rev's only modern rock-charting single, 1994's "One Time for Me" (which barely crept in at #40):

This week in reunions...

* Jane's Addiction (with all four original members) played a surprise set at a Mexican bar in Los Angeles last week. If you're counting, this is the second surprise reunion this year.

* Not really a reunion, since they've never officially broken up, but the Beastie Boys were working on a new album, until they took a break last week to do a Get out and Vote tour. The Boys released an instrumental album in 2007, but their last with-vocals album was 2004's To the 5 Boroughs, which I don't remember hearing much about. Now that I think about it, the last Beastie Boys single I remember hearing on the radio was either "Intergalactic" or "Body Movin," off 1998's Hello Nasty.

*So, you know how the lead singer of Alter Bridge and Mayfield Four might front Led Zeppelin for a reunion tour next year? Well, that might also lead to a Creed reunion. Yeah, I'm not that excited, either. Meanwhile, Chris Cornell is telling people that he hasn't officially been asked to front Led Zeppelin, but he might be interested if they ask. You know, just in case they ask.

Your American Idol goes '90s update

As we previously reported here, American Idol winner David Cook has been working with an all-star cast of alt-rock luminaries, including members of Collective Soul, the Nixons, and Our Lady Peace. The first single, "Light On," was co-written with Chris Cornell. The album is out in two weeks, and while the complete list of songwriting credits isn't available, we do know that one track, "Avalanche," was co-written with Kevin Griffin of Better than Ezra.

Also wanting to get in on the action is AI runner-up David Archuleta; he's got a cover of Robbie Williams' "Angels" on his album, out next week. It's a little treacly.

I have managed to ignore every American Idol alum thus far (though the missus likes Carrie Underwood, and I enjoy Butch Walker's take on "Since U Been Gone"). I might have to buy this David Cook album, though.

New Weiland video

The video for the new Scott Weiland single, "Paralysis," is now up. View it here.

Is it as good as his other solo video, 1998's "Barbarella"?


I don't know; that one was a little more high-budget and high-concept.

3EB singer weighs in (twice) on the death of the album

Third Eye Blind (as we've mentioned before here) are close to releasing their fourth album. It'll be called Ursa Major, and it should be out in February.
So lead singer Stephan Jenkins was speaking at a music conference in San Francisco*, and said he thinks albums are soon to be obsolete. Idolator reported on this, and then there was a lively back-and-forth in the comments section, including a lengthy follow-up from Mr. Jenkins himself. It's a highly recommended read... and what do you think? Are bands going to go just to releasing singles on iTunes, or is there still value in the album for some? My personal belief is that as long as albums can be resold on Amazon if you run into a cash crunch, you're better off spending your money on a physical product than on something digital.

*I wonder how much artists get paid to give speeches at events like this? I saw Art Alexakis deliver a keynote address at a similar event in Cincinnati in 2004. He even brought an acoustic and played "Heartspark Dollarsign" after he predicted the music industry would fall apart (which he was right on about).

This week in reunions

*Swedish pop combo Ace of Base are working on a new album. I knew a kid in junior high who thought he was hilarious when he would sing the chorus of "All that She Wants" as "A-all that she wants / is another baby / so she can get more welfare." I think maybe his dad listened to a lot of Rush Limbaugh in the car.

*As previously mentioned, James (the Manchester band that bridged the gap between Stone Roses and Oasis) are back. There's a nice interview with Tim Booth here. James are touring arenas in the UK in December; no word on American dates (little known fact: Third Eye Blind's first big tour was opening up for James in 1997... impress your friends with that one).

*As Stone Temple Pilots' reunion tour winds down, Scott Weiland's second solo album has been pushed back to November, and a supporting tour has been pushed back to early 2009. If you want to hear the first single, "Paralysis," go here.

Celebrate Halloween with the Flaming Lips

If you live in OKC (I don't, but I used to), why not spend your late October with the Flaming Lips and their weirdo parade? The second March of 1000 Skeletons will take place October 25.

Chris Cornell blogs about his dreams

Chris Cornell's been blogging in the run-up to his new album Scream, and this recent entry was fascinating. Seems Cornell had a vivid dream about Layne Staley (of Alice in Chains) and Andrew Wood (of Mother Love Bone), both long-dead of heroin addictions. It's a really, really interesting little essay, and comes highly recommended.

Meanwhile, Cornell has added a Canadian tour for November (find dates here), and you can obtain a (legal) mp3 of the title track off his new album, "Scream," here.

Billy Corgan sings about wrestling

The new Smashing Pumpkins song, "G.L.O.W.", has leaked, and apparently it IS about '80s ladies' wrestling! Who knew?

This week in reunions...

* Hum are playing a one-off show New Year's Eve in Chicago. Given that they're now rolling in Cadillac money, they probably don't need to do a full-fledged reunion at this point.

* Robbie Williams is getting back together with his record company and putting out a new album. I'm mildly interested. Want to see how huge Williams is in Europe? Watch this:


That is roughly 70,000 people singing along at the top of their lungs.

*File this under "probably not happening," but there's a rumor out there (started by the lead singer of Twisted Sister) that Myles Kennedy (formerly of '90s also-rans Mayfield Four and currently of ex-Creed supergroup Alter Bridge) will front Led Zeppelin on a tour. The guy's got a good voice; check out Mayfield Four's only charting single, "Eden":

Weirdness in the House of Love

Which Kurt Cobain-related story is weirder: the German performance artist who allegedly plans to smoke Cobain's ashes, or his daughter's suicide-themed Sweet 16?

Courtney Love, meanwhile, who may or may not have had gastric band weight-loss surgery, has been listening to Elastica, Drugstore, and the new REM recently. Will any of these influences show up on the long-in-production second solo album? No idea. Will anybody actually care about the album given the complete tabloid craziness that appears to have taken over the Love/Cobain household? That's a better question.

This week in reunions

* Finally, some exciting reunion news. Letters to Cleo are reuniting for shows in LA and Boston. Drummer Stacy Jones, who left the band in 1997 to drum for Veruca Salt and later became frontman for American Hi-Fi, will be back behind the kit. Since they broke up, lead singer Kay Hanley has provided the voice of Josie for the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack, performed in Jesus Christ Superstar opposite Gary Cherone of Van Halen, and released a couple of indie solo albums.

Here's my favorite Letters to Cleo song, 1995's "Awake":


* As previously hinted at a couple of times, Phish are getting back together for a 2009 tour. Shows start in March.

* Completely and totally unconfirmed, but James Dewees of Reggie and the Full Effect apparently announced at a show in Chicago last month that the Get Up Kids would be touring in the spring of 2009, possibly in conjunction with a DVD to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Something to Write Home About.
Interestingly, the Reggie dates were billed as the band's final tour. Meanwhile, TGUK lead singer Matt Pryor has done an acoustic record and toured in August billed as the singer/songwriter from The Get Up Kids. Hm... stay tuned.

Links roundup

* The Smashing Pumpkins are putting out a DVD (OK, interesting...) But it's a compilation of footage from an 11-night residency on their 2007 tour. (and... no longer interested).

* Simon Jones of the reunited Verve gives us a guide to Manchester. I lived in Manchester in 1998-99, right after the Verve broke up and Oasis moved to London, when the biggest musical act in town was the still-relatively-unknown Badly Drawn Boy (and maybe the Space Monkeys). It's a cool city with a truly amazing musical history, from New Order to the Smiths to the Stone Roses to James to Oasis and beyond, including great newer bands like Doves.

* Early reviews of the Chris Cornell / Timbaland collaboration are... not positive. The phrase "career suicide" is bantered around a bit.

* The L.A. Times gets into the early-'90s controversy over Juliana Hatfield's virginity (I previously discussed this here). Her memoir is finally out; you can get it here (or her new CD, How to Walk Away, here).

* And finally, check this blog out. Forgotten Treasures specializes in out-of-print '90s albums. They've got stuff I never even heard of; some of it's surprisingly great for being so obscure.

Butthole Surfers continue return with short tour

The Butthole Surfers appear to be slowly ramping back up. After a summer tour of the Northeast and Europe, then a one-off in their hometown of Austin last month, the complete original line-up will do four shows in October:
October 22 - Granada Theater, Dallas
October 23 - Meridian, Houston
October 24 - One Eyed Jacks, New Orleans
October 26 - Voodoo Festival, New Orleans*

Back in the fold are bassist Jeff Pinkus, who played with the band from 1986 to 1994, and second drummer Teresa Taylor, who was in the band from 1983 to 1989.
The Surfers then head to Minehead, England for the annual All Tomorrow's Parties festival in December.

(*So yes, if you're counting at home, this means REM and the Butthole Surfers will share the same stage on the Sunday of the festival. The Surfers used to famously do an extremely-obscene cover of "Driver 8" live.)

(**Sidenote: do you realize Gibby Haynes is FIFTY now?)

UPDATE: Check out photos from the September reunion show in Austin here.