* In the week's most exciting news, Spacehog are back together and working on an album, their first since 2001. Track their progress here. I like Spacehog: 1998's "Mungo City" is very under-rated. And the lead singer used to be married to Liv Tyler.
* Blink-182 are working on an album, which may or may not be out before they play a run of European shows beginning in mid-June.
* Stone Temple Pilots, who have been back together for enough time that it may not really be a "reunion" anymore, may be putting out another album this year. Scott Weiland may be putting out a Christmas album this year, too. In the meantime, the band's touring Australia in March.
* That Oleander reunion album may be out by April. Maybe.
* Cold are back for the first time since 2005. You might remember them as the Limp Bizkit associates whose label paid a fortune to let them open up for Weezer, whereupon they got regularly booed off the stage. Rivers Cuomo later wrote their biggest hit, "Stupid Girl." Anyway, they're touring beginning March 15, and here's the first single off their new album.
* Soundgarden are going to record a new album. In the meantime, a live album recorded in 1996 comes out next month. Here's an interview with Kim Thayil, where he mentions the band may be doing some more live dates, depending on Matt Cameron's Pearl Jam commitments.
* Unwritten Law are getting ready to release their first album since 2005, and they're doing some dates on this summer's Warped Tour.
* Blur are getting together to record every now and again, Graham Coxon says. But he also says to expect new material around 2017.
* Eve 6, who broke up in 2004 after the disappointing performance of their third album, have very quietly reunited, with two of the three original members (guitarist Jon Siebels is still missing). Their Myspace page shows a few college shows this spring and there are vague promises of a new album coming this year.
* One of the bands I considered for the "Who Should Reunite?" feature, the Verve Pipe, are actually (and unexpectedly) back together with a new children's album and an acoustic tour in February. Get more info here.
* Oleander are back together, and set to release an album this spring, their first since 2003. Fun fact: some acquaintaces of mine once got to open for Oleander in Lawton, Oklahoma. That's the most exciting thing I remember about Oleander.
* The reunited Sublime is going to have to call themselves something different.
* Days of the New are readying their first album since 2001. Given that Days of the New has been just Travis Meeks since he fired the rest of the band during recording sessions for Days of the New II, it's hard to call this a reunion, however.
Given the big news of the Soundgarden reunion this month, and the successful reunion tours last year from Alice in Chains, Blink-182, the Cranberries, Stone Temple Pilots, Blur, and Sugar Ray, I got to wondering: what big bands from the golden era of grunge still need to reunite? A partial list:
1. Bush. Probably the biggest rock band of the '90s yet to get back together, though not for lack of trying. Gavin Rossdale has been making noise about a reunion in recent years, and if you believe Internet rumor, his 2008 solo album Wanderlust was intended to be a Bush album until ex-guitarist Nigel Pulsford refused to participate. The only other member besides Rossdale who's still active in music is drummer Robin Goodridge, who is in the Stone Gods with the former members of the Darkness.* Odds of reunion: not great, unless Rossdale wants to "reform" Bush with some session musicians.
2. 10,000 Maniacs. While some version of 10,000 Maniacs is still together and touring sporadically (centered around the original bass player, keyboard player, and drummer), we're of course referring to a reunion of Natalie Merchant with her first band. One complication to a possible reunion: lead guitarist Rob Buck, who wrote most of the band's best songs with Merchant, died 10 years ago. In addition, Merchant's spent most of this decade dormant, so if she really wanted to do a reunion, she probably would have cashed in by now. Odds of reunion: Pretty low. Merchant has a new album coming out in March (her first in 7 years), so if this were to happen, it certainly wouldn't be this year.
3. Belly. One of my favorite bands of the '90s (their second album is a lost classic), they broke up in 1996 and lead singer Tanya Donelly has pursued a sporadic solo career since then. Ex-bassist Gail Greenwood is still active in music, and the Gorman brothers, the band's guitarist and drummer, are supposedly commercial photographers now. Odds of reunion: better than the first two. Although I wonder how many people besides me want to see them back together.
4. Smashing Pumpkins / Everclear / Hole. All three bands are technically "still together," though in reality they've become solo projects for their respective lead singers. An actual, all-original-members lineup reunion tour might be pretty cool (Lesser bands from the era like Sponge and Seven Mary Three fit in this category, too).
5. Jesus Jones / EMF. Because hey, why not?
* Interestingly, the rights to Bush's '90s albums are now owned by Kirtland Records, the label run by the ex-drummer of Deep Blue Something. When Trauma (home to Bush, No Doubt, and the Flys) went belly-up, Kirtland bought the Bush master tapes at auction. obtained the Bush master tapes (thanks for the correction, Tami).
* As announced on Twitter by Chris Cornell, Soundgarden have returned after 12 years away, Audioslave, and that God-awful Cornell solo album with Timbaland. No word on what the reunion entails yet, but expect a tour of some kind. If you go here, you can enter your e-mail address and then watch an old music video.
* Despite the fact that she just lost custody of her daughter, Courtney Love is forging ahead with the Hole reunion-that-doesn't-include-any-original-members-except-maybe-the-drummer. Go here and you can hear about 10 seconds of instrumental music from the forthcoming Nobody's Daughter. Love has also taken to Twitter again, and three Hole dates in Europe have been announced for February.
* Despite some last-minute legal threats from Bradley Nowell's family, the Sublime reunion actually happened. Spinner says about 15,000 were in attendance for the big show featuring new vocalist Rome Ramirez, who was only 8 years old when Sublime's self-titled album came out. The show was officially advertised as a Sublime "celebration," so maybe that's how they'll get around the proposed lawsuits. Or the surviving members of Sublime could take the Nowell family's advice and just reunite the Long Beach Dub All-Stars.
* OMG, ladies... Lilith Fair IS BACK! Here's the lineup so far.
* Scott Weiland tells ArtistDirect that Stone Temple Pilots are working with between 10 and 18 songs for their next record, which could be out around Christmas. Meanwhile, Weiland kicked off his new clothing line with a solo set in LA last week, and STP are doing a handful of dates in October.
* Sublime are reuniting for Cypress Hill's Smokeout Festival in California in October. Not included in the reunion is lead singer / songwriter / guitarist Bradley Nowell, because he's, you know, dead.
* The Cranberries, who never officially broke up but hadn't played any shows or done any recording since 2003, will be touring the U.S. at the end of the year. Expect to hear new songs, old hits, and songs off lead singer Dolores O'Riordan's non-charting solo album (autographed copies still available here for only $9.99!). Generally, when the lead singer announces that the band's getting back together within a month of their solo album coming out, that's a sign the solo album didn't do too well.
* The Toadies reunion continues on. They toured the UK for the first time ever and are about to head back into the studio for a new album, to be released in 2010.
* According to this interview with Tony Kanal, the No Doubt reunion album might be awhile. Apparently, they wrote together but hadn't actually recorded anything before the giant summer tour. And by "wrote together," Kanal means that there are "seedlings" of songs but no actual songs written yet.
* So, in case you haven't been paying attention, Courtney Love said she was getting Hole back together, which surprised her old bandmates. One of them, guitarist Eric Erlandson, claimed he and Hole made an agreement when they broke up 7 years ago that neither of them could tour or record as Hole without the other. Well, Love has taken to Twitter and claims that a) that's not true, and b) Erlandson was stealing from her. And yes, if you're keeping track, this is the 325th person Love has accused of helping to take all her money in the late '90s.
* Alice in Chains' new album comes out in about a month, and apparently Elton John is playing piano on the title track, "Black Gives Way to Blue," a tribute to Layne Staley. The first single off the album, "A Looking In View," is #27 this week on the rock charts and #38 on the alternative charts.
* The Butthole Surfers have been playing sporadic reunion dates of late, and now they're doing a full-fledged tour, September 24 - October 31. This is the late-'80s lineup reunited, but I'm assuming they still play "Pepper."
* Tonic very quietly put out a greatest hits set last month. There aren't any unreleased songs on it, but there are a couple of live and acoustic tracks. The band, which reunited a couple of months ago, is touring a bit this summer and working on new material.
* Not sure how long this Blink-182 reunion is going to last, given that Tom DeLonge spent the days before the tour starts working on the third Angels and Airwaves album. He says it sounds like Pink Floyd's The Wall and will include a film. Oh, boy...
* This has little to do with the semi-ongoing Stone Temple Pilots reunion, but I've been on vacation (sorry about the length between posts), and while waiting out a rain delay at a Kansas City Royals game a couple of weeks ago, the guy on the PA put on a mix CD containing tracks from both of Scott Weiland's solo albums. Now that's a super-fan.
* Blur's reunion concert in Hyde Park, London was quite well-received (click that link for the setlist and some photos). A new, two-disc greatest hits is out now in the UK and gets released at the end of this month in the U.S.
* Sunny Day Real Estate, the Seattle band who strongly influenced emo, then gave the Foo Fighters half of its original line-up, are back together for a fall tour. Get dates and some YouTube clips here.
* Courtney Love, as you may know, has been working on her second solo album for quite some time. Initially, it was supposed to be co-written with ex-4 Non Blonde Linda Perry, who's become a songwriter for hire for Pink, Christina Aguilera, and others. Then it turned into a "return to rock" album, with Billy Corgan stepping in to co-write a bunch of songs. Now, it's apparently going to be a Hole album. Problem is, the other members of Hole are a little confused about what's going on. Guitarist Eric Erlandson told Spin that, based on the break-up contract signed by himself and Love in 2002, there is no Hole without him, and he hasn't been contacted to participate. Bass player Melissa Auf Der Maur says she's been contacted by Michael Beinhorn, the guy who produced Celebrity Skin, but not by Courtney, and she's not sure what her role's going to be (the NME says she'll record backing vocals on the album, then play bass on tour). Drummer Patty Schemel quit the band during the recording of Celebrity Skin, but then played drums on Love's first solo album and was most recently drumming for Juliette Lewis, so she's probably in.
Here's the 1999 line-up of Hole on Letterman, doing their last big modern rock hit, "Awful":
* If, like me, you couldn't find enough change in your couch to get over to England for the Blur reunion, you can watch rehearsal footage from the comfort of your own computer desk.
* Stone Temple Pilots, who are back on the road for a bit this summer, are ready to record a reunion album, due in 2010, with Don Was, of Was(Not Was) fame, producing. Was produced some of the later Rolling Stones albums.
* This guy thinks maybe Phish should have stayed broken up.
* Phish's reunion tour has begun, and the band will have a new album by the end of July. Catch a YouTube clip of one of the songs here. Wait... do Phish fans actually care about their recorded music? I thought they were all about the live show only.
* Blink-182 played a surprise mini-set at a T-Mobile party in Los Angeles. If you want to see bad cellphone footage of it, go here. If you want to read an interview with Mark Hoppus where he talks about Twitter and the tour, go here.
* Speaking of bad cellphone footage, if you want to see the Limp Bizkit reunion tour live from Latvia, go here. Early word on the European tour is that Wes Borland is really phoning it in (which isn't really that surprising).
* Aqua are back together, with a new song ... about the 1980s, which mostly just namechecks a bunch of stuff from "I Love the 80s." I think Bowling for Soup did it a bit better, but this is the band famous for "Barbie Girl," so whatever.
* 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:
* 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.
* 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.
* The Jesus Lizard are back, and playing the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this summer. If you're like me, and only vaguely remember the band, get a primer (and a couple of YouTube videos) here.
* Jason Newsted rejoined Metallica for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction a few weeks ago.
* Jane's Addiction have recorded two new tracks which were originally demoed in 1987, with Trent Reznor producing. They're on a new box set.
*The three guys in Soundgarden who aren't Chris Cornell got up on stage with the dude from Tad (remember Tad?), and played a couple of songs in Seattle last month. Since it's 2009, you can of course find grainy YouTube videos of the performance here.
* The big (and inexplicable) news of the week is that Sublime are getting back together, minus (of course) deceased singer / guitarist / songwriter Brad Nowell. Now, on one hand, I can see why the two surviving members of Sublime would want to do this. They never got to tour behind their phenomenally-popular self-titled album (three hit singles, five-times-platinum), because Nowell died of an overdose shortly before it came out. So they left money on the table that tribute bands like Badfish and Wrong Way are now taking (seriously; Badfish - A Tribute to Sublime comes through Atlanta fairly regularly and plays pretty big venues. There's a market for this stuff). But at the same time, how can they possibly need the money? This is a band who have released three greatest-hits albums this decade, all of which have charted in the Billboard Top 200, and two of which have gone gold. Their spin-off project, the Long Beach Dub All-Stars, released two decent-selling albums and did the theme song to Joey. This is worse than Alice in Chains getting back together, because Jerry Cantrell's harmonies and guitar work were at least half of the appeal of that band. This is more like watching the Jimi Hendrix Experience without Jimi.
* No Doubt don't want you to consider this upcoming tour a reunion. Because they never broke up, you see. Although since 2002, Gwen Stefani has made two platinum solo albums while the other three guys backed up Scott Weiland, and No Doubt didn't tour or record. But it wasn't a break-up. Cause it was never official. This is like if your wife moves out and you see other people, but after she moves back in, you don't want to call it a reconciliation, because you never got divorced. Meanwhile, you can get the band's entire catalog in digital format if you buy a "premium ticket" to the upcoming tour.
* Meanwhile, Mr. Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale, is embarking on a solo tour beginning in late March, and apparently has been making noises about a Bush reunion at the end of 2009. This is a little surprising, given that Rossdale's solo career is just now gaining traction (after his debut album looked like a flop, "Love Remains the Same" caught on as a single around Christmas).
* And the Jayhawks are reuniting to do some shows, though not under the name "The Jayhawks."
* Limp Bizkit have returned... somewhere in South Dakota, there's a guy throwing a party because of this news.
* Jane's Addiction are back together for sure, and are spending the summer touring with Nine Inch Nails, this according to Trent Reznor.
* No Doubt have announced a 45-city reunion tour, beginning May 3. Expect to hear the hits, as there's no word that a reunion album will be out by then.
* Faith No More (minus original guitarist Jim Martin) are reuniting for a European tour, their first major run of shows since the band petered out in 1998. No US dates, though.
* Just to whet the appetites of everybody for this summer, Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon appeared on stage together at the NME Awards last week and performed "This is a Low," their first joint appearance since 2000. This makes a great excuse to post "The Universal":
* Earlier this week, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker claimed to be both doing solo albums, but then they appeared on stage at the Grammys just now with Tom and announced that they're back. A visit to Blink-182.com reveals that a summer 2009 tour is in the works.*
* Stone Temple Pilots are once again dormant, while Scott Weiland supports his solo album and clothing line.
**And speaking of the Grammys, how awesome was Dave Grohl drumming with Paul McCartney?
