More Pearl Jam reissues coming

The Ten reissue was successful enough that Pearl Jam will reissue Vs. and Vitalogy on March 29 with various studio outtakes, acoustic versions, and covers tacked on. 
These are the two albums that ousted PJ drummer Dave Abbruzzese played on, so congratulations to him on getting a larger-than-normal royalties check this year.

Hole covers Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails

Back from hibernation, with news that Hole (which, recall, is Courtney Love and some people you've never heard of) has been covering Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" and Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" at some of its European tour dates.
Here's "Jeremy"


And here's "Closer,"


And with that, I'm pretty sure the '90s just collapsed upon themselves.

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.

Rock Band and the future of music

As album sales keep falling and the growth of downloadable singles through iTunes and others peters out, is Rock Band the future of music? It seems like a lot of acts are jumping on the bandwagon.

I'm completely addicted to Rock Band and its sequel, Rock Band 2, but I long ago played through all the songs on the discs. Thankfully, there's downloadable content (and there are Pepsi giveaways to get free downloadable content). Just this week, the Rock Band folks made available tracks by Blur, Eve 6, Blind Melon, and the Foo Fighters. Third Eye Blind just re-recorded six of their hits for the Rock Band store, and Pearl Jam will make their new album Backspacer available to download and play on September 20, the same day as the album release.

What do you think? I've certainly spent more money this year on Rock Band tracks than actual recorded music. Have you?

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.

Pearl Jam reissue campaign begins

Pearl Jam are re-releasing their debut album Ten with a whole boatload of stuff, including out-takes, demo tracks, a remix of the entire album, and new artwork. It's all part of a series of reissues leading up to the band's (gulp) 20th anniversary in 2011.

We haven't really talked much about Pearl Jam on this site. I'm a fan, but not a huge one; you'll find Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, and the 2006 self-titled album in my collection, but that's it. I find them fascinating, though, because they could have been (and probably were) the biggest band in the world, capable of playing stadiums wherever they wanted, and they essentially threw it all away (conspiracy theorists will tell you intentionally).