After a quiet spring, second half of the year looks big

We haven't had a lot of news to report so far in 2009, other than the Better than Ezra career resurrection. But a whole slew of albums are set to come out by Christmas by a lot of your favorite artists. Among them:

* Third Eye Blind, Ursa Major - recently pushed back from June 23 to August 18.

* Our Lady Peace, Burn, Burn - out today, with a large Canadian tour and short US tour to follow. I've already got my tickets for the Atlanta date.

* Vertical Horizon, Burning the Days - out August 11.

* Alice in Chains, Black gives way to blue - out September 29, but the first single, "A Looking In View," is available now on iTunes (or listen to it below). First album without Layne Staley.


* Pearl Jam, Backspacer - out September 20. The band premiered a song off it on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last month.

* Collective Soul, Rabbit - out August 25. First single "Welcome All Again" just hit radio and is available on iTunes as well. Go here if you want to hear a clip of another song off the album, "Staring Down." After two self-released albums, this one's coming out on Roadrunner Records, more famous for metal bands and Nickelback.

News bites: Vertical Horizon's new sound; Dinosaur Jr.'s too loud; the return of D'Arcy Wretzky

* Vertical Horizon's new album, their first since 2003, will be happier and dance-influenced, says frontman Matt Scannell.

* Dinosaur Jr.'s new album is apparently too loud (it's not that you're too damn old). A problem with the manufacturing increased the dBs too much, and you can return it if you so please for a new one and a free ringtone.

* Why is it still called the Smashing Pumpkins if it's just Billy Corgan and a bunch of no-names? Because Billy says the music he's writing still sounds like the Smashing Pumpkins.

* Meanwhile, ex-Pumpkins bassist D'Arcy, who hasn't been heard from in a long time, called a Chicago radio station to rave about the Monkees a couple of days ago.

* The Deftones had a new album about ready to go, but in the wake of bass player Chi Cheng's brain injury, they're shelving it and recording something new.

Bowl game roundup

According to this post over at Idolator, not only is the drummer from Vertical Horizon now drumming for the summer-nostalgia-tour staple the Doobie Brothers, but freaking Smash Mouth are scheduled to play the national championship game tomorrow night.

Wow. As if I didn't hate the BCS enough. At least get Fastball, or the Flys, or something.

This week in solo albums...

* Spin.com has a stream of "Paralysis," the first single off Scott Weiland's second solo album, Happy in Galoshes, out Nov. 25.

* Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace has an album influenced by spoken-word poetry, The Hunters Lullaby, out now. It's self-produced, recorded on vintage equipment, and doesn't sound much like OLP at all. Our Lady Peace should have a new album out soon, according to this article. A new song was premiered at a festival in (you guessed it) Canada this summer.

* Matt Scannell of Vertical Horizon has put out a limited-release album with '80s shlockmeister Richard Marx. Vertical Horizon are expected to put out a new album later this year.

* Mark Kano of Athenaeum is still working on a solo album, his first recorded output since 2001 (we previously reported on this here). No word on release date yet.

* John Hampson of Nine Days (now an English teacher), is also working on a solo album. It might be out by the end of the year.