Who's left to reunite?

Given the big news of the Soundgarden reunion this month, and the successful reunion tours last year from Alice in Chains, Blink-182, the Cranberries, Stone Temple Pilots, Blur, and Sugar Ray, I got to wondering: what big bands from the golden era of grunge still need to reunite? A partial list:

1. Bush. Probably the biggest rock band of the '90s yet to get back together, though not for lack of trying. Gavin Rossdale has been making noise about a reunion in recent years, and if you believe Internet rumor, his 2008 solo album Wanderlust was intended to be a Bush album until ex-guitarist Nigel Pulsford refused to participate. The only other member besides Rossdale who's still active in music is drummer Robin Goodridge, who is in the Stone Gods with the former members of the Darkness.* Odds of reunion: not great, unless Rossdale wants to "reform" Bush with some session musicians.

2. 10,000 Maniacs. While some version of 10,000 Maniacs is still together and touring sporadically (centered around the original bass player, keyboard player, and drummer), we're of course referring to a reunion of Natalie Merchant with her first band. One complication to a possible reunion: lead guitarist Rob Buck, who wrote most of the band's best songs with Merchant, died 10 years ago. In addition, Merchant's spent most of this decade dormant, so if she really wanted to do a reunion, she probably would have cashed in by now. Odds of reunion: Pretty low. Merchant has a new album coming out in March (her first in 7 years), so if this were to happen, it certainly wouldn't be this year.

3. Belly. One of my favorite bands of the '90s (their second album is a lost classic), they broke up in 1996 and lead singer Tanya Donelly has pursued a sporadic solo career since then. Ex-bassist Gail Greenwood is still active in music, and the Gorman brothers, the band's guitarist and drummer, are supposedly commercial photographers now. Odds of reunion: better than the first two. Although I wonder how many people besides me want to see them back together.

4. Smashing Pumpkins / Everclear / Hole. All three bands are technically "still together," though in reality they've become solo projects for their respective lead singers. An actual, all-original-members lineup reunion tour might be pretty cool (Lesser bands from the era like Sponge and Seven Mary Three fit in this category, too).

5. Jesus Jones / EMF. Because hey, why not?

* Interestingly, the rights to Bush's '90s albums are now owned by Kirtland Records, the label run by the ex-drummer of Deep Blue Something. When Trauma (home to Bush, No Doubt, and the Flys) went belly-up, Kirtland bought the Bush master tapes at auction. obtained the Bush master tapes (thanks for the correction, Tami).

Happy inauguration day

As the festivities ramp up in DC (the inauguration is set to begin as I write this), I thought I'd share some highlights from President Clinton's 1993 inauguration (well, MTV's 1993 Inaugural Bash, but whatever):

First, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills team up with Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen to form the short-lived supergroup Automatic, Baby:

Great version of that song, though Mills' harmonies are a bit off at the end.

Then Stipe jumped up on stage with 10,000 Maniacs to do "Candy Everybody Wants:"


And to think, the man being sworn in today is younger than Michael Stipe, and only two years older than Natalie Merchant.