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

* 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...

* Rage Against the Machine, as previously noted, are touring this summer, but apparently not working on any new music together. Frontman Zack de la Rocha finally (after 10 years) will release an album July 22 called One Day as a Lion. Oh, wait, it's an EP. So it's taken him 10 years to do five tracks. Wow. You can listen to collaborations with Trent Reznor and DJ Shadow that have already appeared here. Meanwhile, Tom Morello will release his second solo album, The Fabled City, on September 30. To recap: since RATM broke up the first time, Morello has made three Audioslave albums and two solo albums. De la Rocha has put out a soundtrack contribution, an online-only single, and an EP.

* Shudder to Think are back together for the first time since 1998 for nine shows scattered throughout the summer and fall, including appearances at August's Virgin Festival in Baltimore, September's Virgin Festival in Toronto and October's Virgin (sorry, Voodoo) Festival in New Orleans. Get all the dates here. Don't remember Shudder to Think? Here's a taster, "Nine Lives."



* Sadly, it doesn't look as if the Get Up Kids (who broke up in July 2005) are getting back together anytime soon, what with keyboardist James Deewees releasing a new album with Reggie and the Full Effect and (maybe) joining My Chemical Romance, former lead singer Matthew Pryor doing kids' music with the Terrible Twos, and guitarist Jim Suptic rocking out Replacements-style with the Blackpool Lights. But hey, a guy can dream, can't he?