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... The Wallflowers

* With Jakob Dylan back in the fold, the Wallflowers are touring in June and July. No new album as of yet, though be honest: do you know anyone who's bought one of their albums since 1998? I didn't think so.

* Taking a page from the Everclear playbook, Evan Dando is releasing an all-covers album with the Lemonheads, and going on tour in June. This isn't really a reunion, because only Dando remains from the band's '90s heyday.

* The Limp Bizkit reunion tour starts... in eastern Europe. The band will be playing arenas and festivals in Latvia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Bulgaria, among other places, this summer. No word on a new album or a US tour.

* The Alice in Chains reunion album, which we first heard about in February 2008, is now supposedly coming out in September. For real.

* Oh, and Creed is getting back together. But I don't really want to talk about that.

Jakob Dylan on tour

Erstwhile Wallflower Jakob Dylan has announced dates for a summer-long North American tour, featuring a series of runs built around summer festivals. His new album, Seeing Things, came out Tuesday. What I've heard of it so far (and you can listen for yourself here) takes the concept of solo album to its logical conclusion, with very little instrumentation other than Dylan and his guitar. No idea how Dylan's band, the Gold Mountain Rebels, will factor in to these shows: will he perform the solo stuff by himself and the Wallflowers hits with the band? Will he play Wallflowers songs at all?

I've actually heard the first single off this album, "Something Good This Way Comes," a fair amount on the radio, and I like it. The whole album is very sweet and soft, with a lullaby-like quality. You can hear it for yourself on Letterman tonight and Leno July 15. He'll also be on Austin City Limits sometime later in the summer or fall, as well as the NPR program Mountain Stage.

Jakob Dylan tour dates:
June 15 - Bonnaroo, Manchester, TN
June 16 - Workplay, Birmingham, AL
June 17 - Music Farm - Charleston, SC
June 18 - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta
June 27 - Metro, Chicago
June 28 - St. Andrews Hall, Detroit
June 30 - Wood Songs, Lexington, KY
July 1 - Kentucky Theatre, Lexington, KY
July 3 - Lafayette Square, Buffalo NY
July 4 - Rothbury Music Festival, Rothbury, MI
July 5 - Western Gateway Park, Des Moines, IA
July 6 - Summerfest, Milwaukee
July 10 - Ottawa Bluesfest, Ottawa, ON
July 13 - Winnipeg Folk Festival, Winnipeg, MN
August 2 - Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI
August 9 - Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Edmonton, AB
August 17 - Folks Festival, Lyons, CO
August 30 - Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle
September 26 - Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, TX

Spring album preview: Weezer, Jakob Dylan, more

According to Weezer's website, the band is done mixing their sixth album and it should be released in June (probably June 10). First single "Pork and Beans" goes to radio and iTunes this Tuesday (April 24). Here's the tracklist. This comes on the heels of Rivers Cuomo's home recordings CD, which I did not purchase (heard some of it was pretty good, though).
Go here for a recent photo of the band, where Rivers looks like Jake Gyllenhaal's character in Brokeback Mountain and Brian Bell looks like Desmond from Lost.

Other upcoming albums this spring:

1. Apparently the Wallflowers are no more, as Jakob Dylan is releasing a solo album May 13. (Rolling Stone claims it's not coming out until June 10). Rick Rubin produced, and a three-song teaser is up on iTunes now. He's also playing most of the summer festivals as Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels.
Seems like as good an excuse as any to post this. Watch as Bruce Springsteen absolutely destroys the Wallflowers at the MTV Awards (in '97?).

2. Also working on a solo album is Mark Kano, lead singer of Athenaeum. Remember Athenaeum? 1998's "What I Didn't Know?"*

Anyway, check out his MySpace blog for more info.

3. Butch Walker is recording with a trio for the first time since Marvelous 3. The group is called 1969, and Alternative Addiction has the scoop here. Bonus: they claim to have met at a party at Corey Haim's house in LA. Nice.

4. According to the new Rolling Stone (the one with Jack White and Mick Jagger on the cover), we can also expect new albums from Portishead (Third, out April 29), Barenaked Ladies (Snacktime, out May 6), Old 97s (Blame it on Gravity, out May 13), The Cure (as yet untitled, scheduled for June 3), Alanis Morrissette (Flavors of Entanglement, out June 10), a "15th anniversary edition" of Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville (out June 24), and Ben Folds (as yet untitled, out in August).

5. And don't forget the new Filter May 13 and the Gavin Rossdale solo album June 3.

*Apologies for the Veronica Mars video, but it was that or a Draco and Hermione fan fiction video. Did the band not make a legit video for this song?