Live, remix albums for Xmas

Need a gift for the '90s fan in your life this holiday season? Well, between now and December 25, these will appear on store shelves (well, at the few stores that still stock CDs):

*A Live live album. There are also two new tracks on it, including the song "Forever," which oddly reminds me of the Kiss 1989 single "Forever" (which was written by Michael Bolton!)

* A Foo Fighters live at Wembley Stadium DVD

* A Filter remix album, less than a year after Filter's fourth album flopped.

* A Stereophonics greatest-hits. Living in the UK in 1998-99, the Stereophonics were big stuff. They're still huge over there.

* And my personal favorite, a Vanilla Ice covers album in which Mr. Too Cold, Too Cold does covers of several rap classics from the early '90s. Included are "Baby Got Back," "Jump Around," and "Insane in the Brain." Oh, and four different versions of "Ice Ice Baby."

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?

New Filter May 13

Filter's album, Anthems for the Damned, comes out May 13. The first single will be available on iTunes in April. (stream the first single here)

Filter is playing some radio station concerts in April, May, and June, and then go to Europe. Last month they were in Kuwait to play the Operation Myspace concert with Jessica Simpson. (huh?) Anyway, apparently the band's old bass player enlisted in the Army after they broke up the last time, and joined the group onstage. Read Spin's report on it here.

The new album is expected to sound like typical Filter, with Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit apparently contributing guitar.