Coming to your town: the grunge tribute tour

The "Sounds of Seattle" tour, featuring Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden tribute bands, may be coming to a city near you beginning Nov. 6. As the AV Club points out, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains are on tour now, and Chris Cornell still plays a lot of Soundgarden songs in his solo shows. So what's the point? Maybe if there was a Nirvana tribute, but alas, Nevermind has dropped off the tour.

This week in reunions... Toad the Wet Sprocket

* For the second year in a row, Toad the Wet Sprocket have reunited to do some summer dates. Just like last year, don't expect a new album. I contemplated going to see them here in Atlanta this Sunday, but tickets are $35, so... probably not.

* Not sure if this qualifies as a reunion, given that all three bands have kept going for the last decade in varying combinations (most with just the lead singer remaining as an original member), but Seven Mary Three, Sponge, and Days of the New are doing a package tour this summer, mostly in casinos and small clubs. I've got some Seven Mary Three content I've been meaning to put up; I'll try to do that soon.

* Stone Temple Pilots are back at it this summer, for a couple of weeks at least; they're touring the northeastern US and Canada from July 7-18. Meanwhile, Scott Weiland's doing some West Coast solo shows this month.

* Oh, and LFO are back together, but right now it's just for one show in New York. And I don't care what you think, this song was pretty good:

Weezer, Blink-182 touring together this summer

No dates yet, but apparently Weezer will be opening up for the big Blink-182 reunion tour, says Buzznet.

In other news, Rainn Wilson and Rivers Cuomo have recorded a cover of the Joan Osborne hit "One of Us." Fast-forward to 4:50 or so if you want to miss all the idle chitchat:

Package tour update: Collective Soul / Live / Blues Traveler

As predicted here, it appears the Live / Collective Soul / Blues Traveler package tour is on. Live Daily has the full set of dates; the tour starts July 4 at Red Rocks near Denver (with Blues Traveler headlining), and ends August 17 at Chastain Park Amphitheater in Atlanta with Collective Soul headlining.

Live, Collective Soul, and the Counting Crows toured minor-league ballparks last summer. Counting Crows have now graduated to the opening slot on the summer Maroon 5 tour.
Blues Traveler released a pseudo-greatest hits album last fall consisting of re-recorded, semi-acoustic versions of all their hits. Live have a new album called Radiant Sea which is mostly live tracks, with a couple of new studio tracks tacked on; their last proper album was 2006's Songs from Black Mountain. Collective Soul's 2007 Target-only album Afterwords is still getting a pretty big push at Target, at least the ones I go to in Atlanta. It features the single "Hollywood," which is a pretty good little song.

As with all Collective Soul songs, it sounds a bit like a robot helped write it (or at least produced), but that's part of the CS charm for me.