New Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams, who was huge in the UK in the late '90s but never really came over here in a big way, is back with a new song called "Bodies."


I dig it. There's a part in the middle that reminds me of Enigma, or perhaps that Benedictine monks album Chant. (did you know that album went triple-platinum? Seriously?)


P.S. Yes, I'm aware that Noel Gallagher quit Oasis. No, I'm not that interested. Noel quit once before, around 2000, and the band released another album two years later. Noel was talking about the band taking a hiatus after the summer tour anyway. I've got $20 says they patch things up eventually.

More reunions: STP, Filter

Following in the recent lead of the Smashing Pumpkins, two more '90s acts have announced activity for 2008, joining the comebacks of the Counting Crows and R.E.M. (see below).

According to multiple reports, Stone Temple Pilots are getting back together for a summer tour. So far, only one date has been announced, May 17 at a festival in Columbus, Ohio, but you would have to assume they'll play multiple summer festivals, just like Rage Against the Machine did last year. No word on what this means for Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland's supergroup with half of Guns 'N Roses; they're supposed to be touring Australia this week, though at last report Weiland was back in rehab. From what I've heard, both album sales for the band's last record Libertad and ticket sales for the supporting tour were weak, so who knows. Slash is saying publicly that recording on Velvet Revolver's third album could begin in April prior to the STP reunion.

What does seem more concrete is that the other STP-related supergroup, Army of Anyone, is pretty much dead, because the DeLeo brothers are back with STP, and singer Richard Patrick says he's getting Filter back together for their first album since 2002's weak-selling The Amalgamut, which failed to go gold (Filter's first two albums both went platinum). Filter are also playing the same festival in Columbus.

All this, of course, got me thinking about Talk Show, the band formed during a prior Weiland rehab stint that was STP with a new lead singer (who sounded oddly like Liam Gallagher). I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Talk Show open up for Aerosmith in the OKC in December of 1997, and they were pretty good. But, their album didn't sell, Weiland's solo album didn't sell either, and Stone Temple Pilots got back together for two more records (not as good as the first three, in my opinion) and a greatest hits set, before breaking up again in 2003.

Here's Talk Show's one hit, "Hello Hello:"

Since '03, the DeLeo brothers have produced an Alien Ant Farm album (which flopped), and formed Army of Anyone, whose single album did not chart. Drummer Eric Kretz has not done anything since STP broke up (according to AllMusic), and sadly neither has Dave Coutts, the lead singer of Talk Show. He's really the Gary Cherone in this whole mess, isn't he?

Considering that both Velvet Revolver and Army of Anyone have been doing STP songs live, there's clearly still a market for the band. Whether or not any new music is forthcoming has not yet been revealed.

R.E.M. is back

After the quite lackluster Around the Sun in 2004 left even the diehards (like me) deflated, R.E.M. have been on a campaign to win back our hearts. First was a series of live rehearsals in Dublin, Ireland last July, where new material was premiered and reworked in response to audience reaction:

(That's an early version of the new single, by the way).
Then the REM Live album came out last fall, showing that the Around the Sun songs weren't as bad as we thought, just overproduced on the album.
On January 1, the band premiered ninetynights.com, which has different footage every day.
And in a strong effort to court the indie community, they premiered their new single "Supernatural Superserious" on Pitchfork. Listen to it here.
It's great, right? Like the perfect blend of 1994's Monster with 1987's Document (two of their most rocking albums). British critics who have heard the whole album are comparing it to Green Day's American Idiot. Others say it's the natural follow-up to 1996's criminally-underrated New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
Whatever it is, I can't wait. I'm going down to Wuxtry Records in Atlanta to pick up my copy, because it's the place where the band recorded their very first demo in 1980. If you can't wait, either, check out this "trailer" for the album:


R.E.M. plays the Langerado Festival in Florida and South by Southwest in March, then embarks on a US and Canadian tour with Modest Mouse and the National in June.

Counting Crows are back

Over at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, they've got a couple of mp3s from the new Counting Crows album, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings, out March 25.
And... I'm not that impressed. The faster track, "1492," dates to at least 2000, and possibly as far back as 1997. The softer song, "When I Dream of Michaelangelo," deliberately echoes a 1996 hit, "Angels of the Silences."

Make no mistake, this is almost surely Counting Crows' last shot at being a big-time mainstream band, and not a cult nostalgia act. Their last big hit was almost four years ago and was a goofy, out-of-character pop song from a Shrek soundtrack. The hit before that was a Joni Mitchell cover with Vanessa Carlton, from 2003. To find the last time a real, sounds-like-Counting-Crows song was all over radio, you have to go back to 1999 and "Hangin' Around."

Now they still have a fanbase: they did a tour of minor-league baseball stadiums last summer with Live and Collective Soul (here's "Hangin' Around" from Tulsa with Graham Colton helping out:)


When you consider every one of their original albums has hit the Billboard Top 10, and a live album released last June managed to land at #52, maybe they'll be OK. Or maybe that's a sign that, like REM, Pearl Jam, or Tori Amos, they've got a fanbase who will buy anything the first week. Look at their sales figures:
1994: August and Everything After - 7x platinum
1996: Recovering the Satellites - double-platinum
1998: Across a Wire: Live in New York - platinum
1999: This Desert Life - platinum
2002: Hard Candy - gold
2004: Films about Ghosts (best of) - gold

Now consider that their live performances in the last few years can charitably be called erratic (I personally witnessed Adam Duritz have some sort of on-stage breakdown during a show in Atlanta in the summer of 2005, and have heard other stories), the long layoff and the fact that many of the hardcore fans were turned off by the Joni Mitchell cover and the Shrek song. And this might not turn out so well.

Now, supposedly Duritz has dropped 50 pounds and conquered his demons, and the band is ready to retake their spot atop the pantheon. I hope it happens. When they were at their best, they were a great band. Maybe they can be again.