This week in reunions... Blur! STP! Phish!

* If, like me, you couldn't find enough change in your couch to get over to England for the Blur reunion, you can watch rehearsal footage from the comfort of your own computer desk.

* Stone Temple Pilots, who are back on the road for a bit this summer, are ready to record a reunion album, due in 2010, with Don Was, of Was(Not Was) fame, producing. Was produced some of the later Rolling Stones albums.

* This guy thinks maybe Phish should have stayed broken up.

This week in reunions... Phish! Blink! Limp! Aqua?!?

* Phish's reunion tour has begun, and the band will have a new album by the end of July. Catch a YouTube clip of one of the songs here. Wait... do Phish fans actually care about their recorded music? I thought they were all about the live show only.

* Blink-182 played a surprise mini-set at a T-Mobile party in Los Angeles. If you want to see bad cellphone footage of it, go here. If you want to read an interview with Mark Hoppus where he talks about Twitter and the tour, go here.

* Speaking of bad cellphone footage, if you want to see the Limp Bizkit reunion tour live from Latvia, go here. Early word on the European tour is that Wes Borland is really phoning it in (which isn't really that surprising).

* Aqua are back together, with a new song ... about the 1980s, which mostly just namechecks a bunch of stuff from "I Love the 80s." I think Bowling for Soup did it a bit better, but this is the band famous for "Barbie Girl," so whatever.

This week in reunions...

With only a trickle of reunion news over the holidays, this week's post is more like this month in reunions, but whatever.

* The biggest news of the month (for this site) is that Tonic are getting back together for a national tour and a new album sometime this year.

* Rage Against the Machine, on the other hand, have been back together for nearly two years, but don't expect to ever hear a reunion album, Tom Morello says.

* Lance Bass thinks an 'n Sync reunion might happen. My wife and all her high school friends are pumped.

* Blur are back together, playing Glastonbury, and maybe playing Coachella in the US.

* Hey, remember Dexter Freebish? They're back together and working on a greatest hits. Did they have hits?

* The Phish reunion tour kicks off in June. Dates here.

* And last but not least, Tommy Lee says he's getting his homies together for another Methods of Mayhem album. Awesome? Here's 1999's "Get Naked" (NSFW lyrically and visually):

New this week... Reel Big Fish, Duncan Sheik

Last week's release schedule was so light, I skipped it. So here are the albums new in stores this week (and last):

Trey Anastasio, Original Broadwalk Style- Live album, previously only available on the Phish singer's website.

John Frusciante, The Empyrean- the Chili Pepper guitarist's 10th solo album. Really. Haven't heard the other nine? You're not missing much.

The Odds, Cheerleader- Canadian power-pop band who had brief success in the US in 1998 with "Someone who is Cool:"


Reel Big Fish, Fame, Fortune, Fornication- Oh, my. It's a covers album, including their versions of hair metal songs, John Mellencamp, and "Brown-Eyed Girl."

RZA, Afro Samurai Resurrection- Wu-Tang Clan mastermind does an anime soundtrack, with guest spots from a lot of other Wu-Tang alums.

Duncan Sheik, Whisper House- album intended to be a sampler for the next Broadway musical from the Adult Top 40 fave turned Tony award-winner.

Swervedriver, Mezcal Head- remastered version of the shoegazers' 1993 album, with 4 bonus tracks.

Thom Yorke, The Eraser Remixes- I believe this originally came out in vinyl last spring, but now it's available on CD. As you can guess, it's remixes of songs from Yorke's solo album.

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.

This week in reunions...

*Undeterred by half-empty amphitheatres, long-winded, rambling stage patter, and loogies thrown at bass players, Stone Temple Pilots have tacked on some late October dates to their reunion tour, including three shows in Mexico.

* This is completely unconfirmed, but Tonic may be getting back together. At least, that's what some dude who went to a private concert put on by Emerson Hart says. If it does happen, it would probably be 2009 or 2010.

* Alice in Chains plan to go into the studio in October with new lead singer William DuVall to record their first album in 12 years. Then again, they were supposed to be recording back in February, so I'll believe it when I hear it.

* And... Phish got back together. But just to play for a buddy's wedding.

This week in reunions...

* Blur bassist Alex James says the band will eventually get back together, though probably not anytime soon.

* First, Trey Anastasio said he and the other members of Phish have been "talking," only four years after they broke up and presumably stopped talking. Then keyboardist Page McConnell told ArtistDirect that the band will meet before the end of 2008 and "discuss options." Then Billboard.com said a reunion album has already been planned, with Steve Lillywhite producing (Lillywhite declined comment). Then I lost interest.

* Don't look for the original lineup of Fuel to get back together this year, if only because ex-lead singer Brett Scallions is sitting in the Jim Morrison chair for Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger's Riders on the Storm project, which is touring Europe next month.

* The reunited Rage Against The Machine have still not produced any music, but they are playing several European festivals, then Lollapalooza in Chicago in early August, followed by possible protests at both the Republican and Democratic conventions.