am i really the only person who doesn't care about reunions/reunitings/new music by old bands, like, at all? is there something wrong with me?

I saw a Diodes reunion a few years ago. (You mean you hadn't heard they broke up?) Not good.

The only band whose reunion work completely turned me off has been the Pixies.

i don't want to put words into scott's mouth, but pixies are the first thing i thought of when reading the thread title. idk how scott feels about them, but for me, pixies are the quintessential argument against band reunions.

I was quite happy to finally see them on that first reunion tour but the albums are honestly not good.

I'm a massive Codeine fan and have been very happy that they've reunited twice to go out on tour and just do the old stuff, with no new material. This is how reunions should be done.

I'm also a big Van der Graaf Generator fan and I have to admit that all four of their post-reunion albums have been distinctly lacklustre. Again, I wish they'd reunited just to play the old stuff. But that's not Hammill's way.

I was definitely like this in my teens/early-mid-20s and then kind of got with the program once ATP starting doing nostalgia stuff. Now I look back and see all that stuff as lost opportunities where I missed seeing a bunch of performers due to my own smugness, most notably James Brown, the Police and Rage Against the Machine,

i was like that too for a while and same as Whiney. like, not all reunions are built alike - Carcass got back together and put out two new classics and I'm so glad for them to be back in my life again. Exhorder, meanwhile, I'm glad to see live, but I really don't like their new output at all.

I don't care about motivations either. I'm about to see a reunited Slayer in October that are purely doing it for the money but they're the reason I'm as into metal as I am, I would literally spend half of my word processing class manually typing up their song lyrics and printing them out just about every day. seen them 16 times, and seems like what will probably be a rare opportunity to see them one last time (for the 17th time). but I don't want them to ever get back together for real and record, because it will suck.

likewise, Satan somehow managed to reunite after decades of being known as the NWOBHM band that put out that one legendary album, a forgettable one, and faded into obscurity, and are now churning out stuff just as good album after album.

I saw Wire in 2000-2001 when the Read & Burn EPs were just coming out (you could only buy Read & Burn 02 at the shows) and they were great.

I never saw the point of Steely Dan live, period. Steely Dan were a studio project.

Slayer were incredible live when Lombardo first came back (and I'd seen them with Bostaph just the year before, so I had a clear frame of reference).

I wish I'd gone to see the reunited X with Billy Zoom at some point; I only ever saw them with Tony Gilkyson on guitar.

yeah, like i said, metal bands feel different to me. like they can just pick up where they left off and its no big deal. Carcass will always rule and i like the new stuff fine. it's Carcass music!

i have ignored all reunion pixies stuff. i was definitely a big fan.

need to say again, for some reason i have always gotten a big kick out of OTHER people's fandom. i like that they get excited by it. seeing old bands. hearing new material. sheesh, if you are a hardcore punk fan, you can see so many bands from the past on the regular. and i never poo poo on a fan's excitement for someone. i love ned's pictures of old 4AD stalwarts playing live on his FB. i loved all those people too. i just don't need to see them now. for whatever reason. could be freudian. a fear of death. who knows?

there are people who come in the store who NEVER miss seeing Wishbone Ash when they come around! i think its awesome. i know a guy who has seen the Cowboy Junkies 200 times! its cool.

"I never saw the point of Steely Dan live, period. Steely Dan were a studio project."

they were good live! like seeing a really good jazz big band. with one hit after another.

X's Alphabetland is a great album, straight-up. It's not in the league of the first three, but it's still a great album. Similarly, I hope that The Breeders eventually release a follow-up to All Nerve

I never was very big into blues, but Buddy Guy is out there touring at age 87 and I think he might be the last of the old school big dogs still in the game. And it kind of seems like we should all go see Buddy Guy

The Pop Group were tremendous live in 2015-2016 and the two albums they made then (Citizen Zombie and Honeymoon On Mars) are very good.

The Zombies reunion was amazing, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen

The Homosexuals reunion was kinda strange

I didn’t know Wire ever broke up, I thought they just had a resurgence in popularity

Silver Apples’s comeback (just Simeon) was great

Did ESG split up? I saw them in 2014 and it was incredibly good

In contrast, I didn’t enjoy Dino Jr.‘s comeback but I don’t think I was a fan to begin with. Pixies reunion wasn’t my bag, idk why, I think Frank Black’s solo material kinda gave away the game or something and the original fascination I had with them was diluted by that. Did not enjoy The Stooges comeback at all

Oh, another big comeback for me was Vashti Bunyan. That was great and Lookaftering is great

The reunited Hum album was outstanding, a 10 out of 10.

― brimstead, Sunday, June 2, 2024 3:03 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

good call, forgot about that one

and maybe controp but I think Surgical Steel is the second best Carcass album after Heartwork, and it's close

Ugh, so many others too. Liquid Liquid. Young Marble Giants. Great reunions! wish both of them had made some new recordings

Silver Apples is still the only non-festival gig my wife has ever been to.

Stooges reunion live was sick tho

I wonder if Reunion ever reunited. They could just update the lyrics to their one song every decade or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16kh-AP4OCU

Bailterspace coming back was a treat, I have to say.

i love ned's pictures of old 4AD stalwarts playing live on his FB. i loved all those people too.

Yeah Miki Berenyi's show last night was quite lovely. It was interesting hearing how the trio did various old Lush songs -- no drummer, all preprogrammed, and enough different in the overall arrangements (as opposed to basic pacing) to engage my interest, while the many new songs were very good.

Meantime perhaps relatedly I finally saw David J solo a month back and that was a really lovely show. The Jane's/Love and Rockets tour isn't coming to SF but honestly I couldn't care less about that.

Stooges reunion live was sick tho

It really was. I was lucky enough to see one of the earliest shows, in NYC with both Asheton brothers and Steve MacKay, plus Watt on bass of course. It helped that Iggy had never stopped touring (and never stopped playing a lot of those songs), but they really did sound amazing.

i saw one of the original stooges' last gigs (academy of music 12/31/73) and several of their reunion gigs and by just about any reasonable measure the reunion shows were better. i remember the older one better though. i was an impressionable kid.

good reunion shows i've seen: the stone roses, neutral milk hotel, pavement, slowdive

i've never been to a bad one but i also haven't been to any where the band is mostly playing terrible new material

reunion albums are pretty hit & miss and probably tend more towards misses. off the top of my head slowdive, hum, actq and the afghan whigs (though that wasn't really a full reunion) have all produced good-to-great new material but there's been plenty of others that are mediocre-to-terrible like mbv and blur

i expect if pavement recorded a reunion album it would probably be excellent since malkmus never really fell off that much but he's got no interest in that

Stooges reunion live was sick tho

Mm I did only see them once at a festival, and was non-plussed. Primavera 2005 iirc. Wish I’d seen them another time!

oh yeah, reunion Crowded House doesn't do it for me either.

nb there is now a second, slightly better reunion Crowded House with a different lineup

Seefeel’s 2010 album destroys their 90s output for me. I keep waiting for them to follow up.

i admire a project like Cindytalk. which starts out as one thing and then the guiding spirit of the thing just takes it into multiple directions over the years. there must be other examples of that. of course its easier if you are cult-y and nobody really knows your music in the first place.

in a way, seefeel is like this. 2010 seefeel could have sounded like anything really. i don't think i even heard 2010 seefeel. i definitely liked 90s seefeel.

Let us now praise famous bands that never went away even if they were done long before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9n_eOKqSsU

(He don’t care!)

i'll bet those bands like weezer sure are glad they didn't break up years ago because now they are basically touring jukebox musicals who make millions. rolling nostalgia parties for 90s kids. doesn't even matter what their new records sound like. and no offense to them but the same is true of dinosaur too. or neil young. they keep cranking the records out though.

When Skot Cared About Reunions: Little Feat Fuckin' Rocked Tonight!!!!

The Jane's/Love and Rockets tour isn't coming to SF but honestly I couldn't care less about that.

I honestly really wish this were coming here!

Miki show last night was good, not a patch on the Lush reunion show obviously but I thought her attitude made up for it. Bonus: I stood right next to her through all of the Lol/Budgie set. She was getting mighty high. I had to restrain myself from asking for a selfie.

"When Skot Cared About Reunions"

they never really stopped though did they? or maybe they did for a bit after lowell died. in any case, when i saw them that night it was every original member other than lowell and it certainly didn't feel like some greatest hits rehash. though they did play every song that everyone loves.

The only quasi-reunion I'm sad I missed was FLAG even though they also had the dork from All playing guitar.

i know i just told my sad story about seeing the re-formed 1986 adolescents and being the only one who seemed into them but i saw black flag in 1986 and they were fine but they already seemed...old. it didn't help that we had to sit through gone and painted willie before being able to hear the 4000th rendition of "gimme gimme gimme". but i was way into thrash at that point and they were not Slayer.

(to give the kids their due, Verbal Assault played after Adolescents and kicked Adolescents ass all the way out of the state of Connecticut. they fucking ruled. youth and fury beat experience and superior pop hooks that night.)

band reformation acceptability index is really complex equation imo - factors include, was band inherently about being young & beautiful, how many OG members participating, is there new music, is new music good? was there something they did live that was hard to replicate on record?

I have been pretty undiscriminating re this and seen lots of terrible old boomer bands reformed, and also gone through intolerant phases where I have refused to see bands I quite like (particularly post-punk bands for some reason)

as a poster above noted, at the best (or even in the midst of a terrible gig) you might get a little glimpse into why a band was great

when Laughing Clowns reformed I went to heaps of those shows and it was a really interesting experience - even if it clearly was different from seeing the band in their heyday I still learned loads about their dynamic that vastly enriched my appreciation of their recorded work

lukewarm new records from bands like mazzy star

WRONG

“I never saw the point of Steely Dan live, period. Steely Dan were a studio project.”

This is exactly what my dad said before he saw them live in 73, they completely fucking smoked apparently.

When Skot Cared About Reunions: Little Feat Fuckin' Rocked Tonight!!!!🕸

I definitely got some goosebumps last week clicking through videos of Jane's kicking off their tour. Definitely probably a heavy % of nostalgia for where and when and with whom I heard those songs first. Doesn't hurt that they are great songs, written and anchored by the one member who usually isn't there...

I'm getting older, they are getting older, the songs are getting older. I'm just glad that they are willing to bring out the photo album so I can flip through it one more time.

(Not sure I will be able to pay to see it live but who knows!)

I would go see the Janes/L&R tour — I love both of them and have never seen either — but the only places close to me don't work with other commitments. Ah well. Let's just marvel that it's still possible for Jane's Addiction to have an OG member reunion.

my lifelong obsession with live music is partly fuelled by not seeing Jane's in 1991 when I had the opportunity

I gotta say the two times I saw the reformed band (2003 without E.Avery and 2010 with him) - I went in with zero expectations other than ticking a box - and both times were really exciting and moving and satisfying on a level that I can't really explain

actually I saw them last year too with Josh Klinghoffer - and it was really cool too (although perhaps it didn't have that spiritual dimension - I think partly because they were supporting Smashing Pumpkins and playing in a barn)

i never thought about age when i was young. when i first heard all the classic rock bands they were still in their 20s and 30s and they all just seemed like "adults" to me. i had no idea how old anyone was. when i bought Hell Bent For Leather rob halford was, like, 27 or 28 years old. but he SEEMED ancient to me because he had a beard. so, i just figured people in metal bands and classic rock bands were old and would keep doing what they were doing because some of them had beards and that was their job as an adult. with punk and new wave it really seemed like kids/young people were making the music. especially with hardcore. and i just never thought in a million years they would still be doing it in their 50s and 60s! i mean, if you told me in 1980 that adam ant was going to be singing "ant music" onstage when he was 70 it would have blown my mind! whereas by 1980 the rolling stones already looked like they had been playing for a thousand years. charlie watts looked like he was 100 to me back then. so, maybe that is the difference to me for some weird reason. it just doesn't make sense to go see Love & Rockets even though i still worship Bauahus and L&R and ToT to this day. they feel stuck in time to me. of their moment. or i am stuck in that time when i hear them. too much cognitive dissonance for me to hear them sing those songs in 2024. Madonna yes. she makes sense. Bauhaus no. i dunno. it really makes no sense. its my own weird brain. but, like i said, i'm happy for all the cure fans and duran duran fans and depeche mode fans. i guess i just can't see them as classic rock.

I did buy a ticket to see Sisters of Mercy this fall, but Eldritch is technically undead so ...

yeah, makes sense.

i did love that chameleons reunion show i saw in philly. oh god they were so fucking good. it used to be on youtube but i don't see it now. but that was like 25 years ago! and they are playing there this summer. i will still never forgive them for not playing "swamp thing" though. so perverse.

speaking of hardcore, i did take my kid to see Negative Approach here in town. they were okay but i was mostly afraid that john brannon was going to have a stroke. he's also kinda undead like andrew eldritch though. the most memorable thing about that show was lou barlow saying to me "how can you let your beautiful boy slam dance like that?" and i was like eh its not boston in 1982, lou, its greenfield mass in 2018. despite being an influential pioneer of american hardcore lou is not a fan of mosh pits.

Jizzy missed out never having the opportunity to join a GNR tribute with Izzy and Dizzy.

They could do a Thin Lizzy tribute - Izzy, Dizzy & Jizzy's Lizzy. Imagine the arguments over the name order!

I saw "Jizzy Pearl's Love/Hate" (are there multiple versions of Love/hate touring?) open for the Dio hologram in 2019.

Opening for a hologram is surely the nadir of anyone's career, it can't get lower than that surely?

Muppet Show
And
Spinal Tap

Legendary musician, artist, record label executive, and philanthropist Herb Alpert has announced he will reform his iconic Tijuana Brass Band for the first time in over 40 years for a string of US tour dates in 2025. With an all-new lineup, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass & Other Delights will commemorate the 60th anniversary of his historic album Whipped Cream & Other Delights performing hits like “The Lonely Bull,” “Spanish Flea,” “Taste of Honey” and “This Guy’s In Love With You.” The tour will also include a once-in-a-lifetime performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater on March 31st celebrating Alpert’s landmark 90th birthday.

hemorrhoid cream and other delights

Isn't every birthday a once in a lifetime celebration?

How is he 'reforming' the band if it's an all-new lineup? Thta's just forming a new band with the same name as the old one.

The difference between re-forming and reforming

Just 10 geriatrics in a room

i.e. ILX

lol

Apparently there was no “Tijuana Brass” at the time of Whipped Cream; Herb’s records to that point were him multitracking trumpet parts with LA “Wrecking Crew” session players.

Really enjoyed Alpert's interview on Jesse Thorn's Bullseye podcast a few years ago.

Odd personal connection I have: my sister's father-in-law wrote "Tijuana Taxi" and was part of the Tijuana Bress and Baja Marimba Bands

is Panchiko fwiw!
― really looking forward to wearily scrolling past all your posts (Champiness)

them, yeah

it's weird seeing old stuff that catches on because i listen to it and i'm like "yeah that's alright" and there's tons of other stuff from that era that nobody's heard of and to me, you know, like hazeldine or whatever could go viral at any time. but it won't i guess because they hear and see that stuff in ways that people my age didn't. if i'd heard panchiko in '97 i probably would've said "yeah they're pretty good". maybe it just takes time for something like that to stand out. because i think it does, honestly, it just wouldn't have been obvious in '97 that it stood out.

― Kate (rushomancy), Tuesday, June 4, 2024 6:07 PM (eleven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

caught a few minutes of panchinko’s set tonight (I was there for alison’s halo, who was the last opener. the story is pretty crazy — a few random high school friends produce 30 copies of a demo CD, no one really ever hears it, they disband and live otherwise normal lives…then 20 years later someone finds a copy in a used bin and it somehow goes viral, the guys reunite and live out their rockstar dreams in their forties. should be an extremely mediocre movie.

their music wasn’t bad though. sort of a heavier refracted radiohead vibe. they were tighter than I’d expect and their lead singer really was pretty commanding. I saw him taking pictures with kids all throughout the alison’s halo set. kids seem to know who he is.

that’s the other thing — probably my first show where I really realized I was cooked. most of the people there were under 25, maybe a majority being under 21. (almost everyone was there to see panchiko.) I’m 35 and felt kind of weird being there

Hey, I was one of those OG Alison's Halo fans, I didn't know about their rediscovery, well deserved.

If you feel weird at 35 wait until you're over 50! But at that point you won't give a shit and you'll just enjoy being in the crowd.

https://i.postimg.cc/gkxs7MMj/IMG-2647.webp