This week in reunions... Sugar Ray

* Jane's Addiction's tour with Nine Inch Nails only just started, and already the band is feuding with bassist Eric Avery, who stayed away from the previous two reunions. Oh, and Perry Farrell tore a calf muscle in his leg and will have to perform on crutches.

* Sugar Ray are back together; you may remember that lead singer Mark McGrath took some time out to host Extra, host a Pussycat Dolls-themed reality show, and appear on an episode of Law and Order: SVU. Their new album Music for Cougars comes out July 21, and they'll be on tour most of the summer. Listen to the first single, "Boardwalk," here.

* The Wallflowers will indeed have something to promote on their summer tour: a greatest hits album with two "previously unreleased" tracks.

* Rancid have a new album, out June 2, though I'm not sure if it counts as a reunion. Their last album was in 2003, and since then they've done a variety of side projects and solo albums. But they toured in '06. So... regardless, the new album's called Let the Dominoes Fall.

* The dates from the Blink-182 reunion tour have been released, and it starts July 24. Weezer, the All-American Rejects, and Fall Out Boy are opening on various dates.

This week in reunions... Jesus Lizard

* The Jesus Lizard are back, and playing the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this summer. If you're like me, and only vaguely remember the band, get a primer (and a couple of YouTube videos) here.

* Jason Newsted rejoined Metallica for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction a few weeks ago.

* Jane's Addiction have recorded two new tracks which were originally demoed in 1987, with Trent Reznor producing. They're on a new box set.

*The three guys in Soundgarden who aren't Chris Cornell got up on stage with the dude from Tad (remember Tad?), and played a couple of songs in Seattle last month. Since it's 2009, you can of course find grainy YouTube videos of the performance here.

This week in reunions... Limp Bizkit

* Limp Bizkit have returned... somewhere in South Dakota, there's a guy throwing a party because of this news.

* Jane's Addiction are back together for sure, and are spending the summer touring with Nine Inch Nails, this according to Trent Reznor.

* No Doubt have announced a 45-city reunion tour, beginning May 3. Expect to hear the hits, as there's no word that a reunion album will be out by then.

* Faith No More (minus original guitarist Jim Martin) are reuniting for a European tour, their first major run of shows since the band petered out in 1998. No US dates, though.

* Just to whet the appetites of everybody for this summer, Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon appeared on stage together at the NME Awards last week and performed "This is a Low," their first joint appearance since 2000. This makes a great excuse to post "The Universal":

New this week... Spin Doctors

Another light week in the shops, and it doesn't look like a great release week January 20, either. But here's what's new in stores:

* (hed) p.e., New World Orphans- new album from one of the last rap-metal bands still standing.

*Playlist: The Very Best of the Spin Doctors- amazingly, this is the FOURTH greatest hits album from the Spin Doctors, and all of them contain the same mix of tracks off the band's first three albums for Epic (and nothing from their fourth or fifth albums). The most recent greatest hits, Super Hits: Spin Doctors(which appears to be aimed at the truck stop market) only came out in November. This new one's got 14 tracks, most of them off the first album, but including the semi-hits "Cleopatra's Cat" and "You Let Your Heart Go Too Fast," off the second album.

* Hotel for Dogsoriginal soundtrack - contains a solo track from Rancid's Tim Armstrong (and two tracks by Lisa Kudrow)

* Underworld: Rise of the Lycansoriginal soundtrack - features remixes of songs by the Cure, Perry Farrell, Puscifer (Tool singer Maynard James Keenan's side project) and Deftones, among others.

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.

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.

News bites: Filter, Darius Rucker, more

Sorry for the lack of updates, but it has been slooooowww around here. Not much news to report. Here's what has trickled in:

* Filter's comeback album Anthems for the Damned tanked pretty hard (peak of #60 on the Billboard 200, their lowest chart placement ever, and no songs on the Modern Rock charts), but they're doing a headlining tour this fall and releasing a live album and a remix album.

* Darius Rucker's country single has made the Top 10 on the country charts. We previously discussed the '90s-going-country phenomenon here.

* Meanwhile, Perry Farrell is modeling clothes now.

Last week in reunions...

This is very old news, apparently, but I was sorting out old e-mails, and found the item that Jane's Addiction reunited for a show with all four original members (which had never happened before). Where was I? Oh, right, the other side of the country. If you're so inclined, pictures of the gig are here.

A pre-reunion took place with Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Flea, and Travis Barker (of Blink-182) in an impromptu Jane's-covering supergroup.

Also back together are Swervedriver, who I saw in the spring of '98 with Hum. They were unimpressive. This also qualifies as old news, because apparently they played Coachella.