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 wasn't aware of the Big Star Quintet. Apparently it's Jody Stephens, Mike Mills, Chris Stamey, Jon Auer and Pat Sansone.

Aside from the White Stripes I don't think there's many in that crop for whom reunions would even be a big deal. The Knife?

I was going to say the Strokes but I think they are still together

Magma are a pretty good example of this, arguably their two best studio albums came since reuniting

Yeah Magma are the rare example for me where I listen to their latter-day albums as much as the 70s stuff.

Aside from the White Stripes I don't think there's many in that crop for whom reunions would even be a big deal.

My Chemical Romance?

Wire are onto their third "life", although I think they're dormant at the moment.

Mind you, bands tend not to split anymore, they just go on hiatus..

mark that's a good point and another example of how the 'pixies precendent' has affected band reunions. i've long held onto the idea that the only reason outkast was doing live appearances/coachella about a decade ago is because they (specifically dre) saw how lucrative/legacy building it was for the pixies, so figured why shouldn't we get in on that?

i suppose there's no reason to officially split up now unless people hate each other and money can make things like that more palatable too.

I've seen the Breeders 3x now in the past 5-6 years and they are MILES better than they were in the 1994-1995 era.

I think if Sonic Youth got back together that would be a big deal.

I have been wrong about many things but I highly doubt a Sonic Youth reunion will ever happen.

Thurston's health aside, there remains a toxic stain that even a healthy stream of large European/USA/Japan festival offers would not wash away.

i think the white stripes reforming is more likely than sy at this point. not saying that can't/won't change, but that hatchet would require a crater for proper burial.

those canterbury bands seem to keep putting out well-received records even though they have no original members -- soft machine, gong...

mark that's a good point and another example of how the 'pixies precendent' has affected band reunions. i've long held onto the idea that the only reason outkast was doing live appearances/coachella about a decade ago is because they (specifically dre) saw how lucrative/legacy building it was for the pixies, so figured why shouldn't we get in on that?

― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Monday, June 3, 2024 1:37 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

outkast taking their cues from the pixies incredibly unlikely

like outkast didn't need some old indie rock band to understand how lucrative an outkast reunion would be, also they are o another plane of popularity, i'm sure there were offers from promoters all the time

I mean, Frank Black did immediately fuck off and play the flute for the 20 years since the 2004 reunion. Imagine if he stuck around and made like four albums that were absolute dogshit

sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad! no doubt were awesome at coachella!

i will say that no matter what, it's always cool to see the actual humans that played on an album you loved play that music live in person with their actual hands and we should support our favorite artists no matter how old they get.

Reunions that would probably be huge--

R.E.M.
Dire Straits
Talking Heads
The Smiths (sadly)
Genesis (w/Peter Gabriel)

a fugazi reunion would break livenation/ticketmaster

ship has definitely sailed on Genesis (Collins can't play or sing anymore) but I did see Steve Hackett decently which I thought was pretty close to seeing PG-era Genesis, probably moreso than what the original lineup could cook up

those canterbury bands seem to keep putting out well-received records even though they have no original members -- soft machine, gong...

partly I think this is because these bands were never huge to begin with, and so they have the luxury of not needing to meet commercial expectations and can rotate in passionate and talented musicians on a regular basis.

I think you get better musicians in bands like that too because it's not like say joining Yes where you know what the repitoire is gonna be and will have to be dealing with a bunch of stubborn vets, Gong never had any 'hits' really but they do have a specific vibe and you can find dudes to capture that vibe

i think i bought the first two frank black albums out of love for the pixies? didn't play them much. he's probably made 20 records since then. i have no idea.

i just played last splash for the first time in decades a month or two ago and i was surprised by how good it sounded to me. though i'm more of a pod person. i didn't hear anything after last splash. and never heard that amps album.

i listened to Belly too! sounded good. i was a huge throwing muses fan. i feel guilty if i think about how much 21st century kristen hersh music i haven't listened to.

Breeders All Nerve and Throwing Muses Sun Racket are both terrific 21st century albums. Worth the time.

Aside, still hoping for another new Loop release.

Yeah. Loved Breeders "All Nerve" - I don't think I saw my purchase of it as a particularly nostalgic one but maybe it was?

As a diehard Pod lover (and indifferent to Last Splash) I think Breeders’ Title TK is their best and All Nerve is superb.

idk how you guys can't believe that the pixies reunion was "influential."

also maybe one for the controp thread but i prefer nubreeders to og breeders/mk2.

(side question: what is the case with them anyway? the biggest hit came shortly after the og lineup was no more)

you know which reunion wasn't great? jafferson airplane. i put it down to the drummer. they used that john mellencamp guy. i know xhuxk likes that guy but he is a clobberer. they didn't need a clobberer. kenny aronoff.

*jefferson*

That reunion gave us this tho:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0gnnVcOLNc

Jet aircraft!

Also, as I shared on the "Planes" thread a while back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbKB8GEp-L8

Pixies were the huge $$$$ reunion that a lot of these bands looked at, yes. But I have to think they were following Mission of Burma who reunited a couple years before they did. I was so happy to catch Burma, it didn't feel like they were doing it just for money because how much would there even have been? They went on to put out a couple very decent "reunion albums"- but they truly felt like a going concern.

I think another vector in the equation is: how much of a commercial enterprise were these bands to begin with? I mean you see some of these post-rock bands that were pretty much only playing basements in their heyday now selling like, tote bags? No new music, but lots of merch and an Amex pre-sale.

I mean for me it's Slowdive having the clearest glowup. I saw them on all three American tours in the first run and the final time was at Cal State Fullerton in their smallish student pub, maybe fifty to a hundred people there for the show at most? And in these reunion years I always see them playing to the low thousands on their own and possibly more at festivals. I don't begrudge them any second of it because it was a last fucking laugh against a whole crew of people -- here and in the UK -- who resolutely mocked and derided their approach just for existing, when as a good friend of mine argued back in 2000 or so, in the end correctly, that they would likely be the more influential-as-such shoegaze band in the end because they had a more accessible way in for people than MBV did turned out to be utterly correct. And if TikTok helped and cemented it, I have no problem with that either, and both reunion albums have been lovely.

I really want to like those albums

I think a band making an album after being continuously together for 25 years together and a band that was together for 10 years then broke up and then reuniting 15 years later and making an album again both have roughly the same success rate. In both cases the albums are generally not that good, but there are plenty of exceptions.

andre heavily implied that the outkast reunion was because they (or at least one of them) needed the money and he really hated doing it

I guess we'll see about acts that had their heyday in the 2000s/2010s. Aside from the White Stripes I don't think there's many in that crop for whom reunions would even be a big deal. The Knife

daft punk? that's it though, no one at a certain level of success really breaks up anymore, they just gradually get worse and replace half their members until no one really cares anymore. bands like bloc party or franz ferdinand probably could be doing successful reunion tours around now if they'd broken up like a decade ago instead of continuing to limp on.

a wrens reunion would probably be reasonably successful though not enough for most of them to take time off from their day jobs and it's not going to happen.

another reunion that'll never happen (given the failed attempt 20 years ago) but would be pretty huge is cocteau twins.

Apparently 75% of the Sex Pistols are reuniting in August, but it's for a benefit show, not a full tour, so maybe permissible?

There’s something rotten going on with this Sex Pistols reunion — and for once, it’s not Johnny. The punk progenitors have two new performances on the books without lead singer Johnny Rotten, who’s practically synonymous with the band. Now that’s anarchy in the U.K.! In his place is English punk singer Frank Carter on a break from his band the Rattlesnakes. The rest of the lineup, at least, is original: drummer Paul Cook, guitarist Steve Jones, and bassist Glen Matlock. The shows are fundraisers for London’s historic 400-cap venue Bush Hall, which was Cook’s childhood go-to, and will take place August 13 and 14. The band — billed as Frank Carter and Sex Pistols — plans to run through the Pistols’ sole album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

I guess I’m mainly a Souvlaki mega fan. I like the other stuff just fine, love some of the Pygmalion demos that were canned. But Souvlaki is so haunting and phantasmal. The reunion albums just sound like a band. Even just for a day sounded like an ocean disguising itself as a band

I saw the Sex Pistols at the Phoenix Festival in 1996, I had just turned 17, they were fine.

do people still go see belle and sebastian in 2024? i mean do they sell out big places. i know they tour. i have no idea about them or their touring history or when they even last put an album out. but i know they played dates here recently.

i love Souvlaki to death. i have always listened to the u.s. version with the extra? different? tracks on it. since whenever that came out. i do like the first album a lot. never listened to the third. listened to some of the reunion stuff on Youtube but never went back to it. i can totally believe that they are awesome live at this late date.

Belle & Sebastian appeared on the Simpsons this season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9ZU0fGoQ00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmhrky7ZJTA

There is something to the fact that the same show has had Michael Jackson and Belle and Sebastian appear on it.

homer simpson, smiling politely.

it won't happen, but a Spacemen 3 reunion would be amazing.

Agree but im also hopeful for sonic boom’s second career as sunglasses model

do people still go see belle and sebastian in 2024? i mean do they sell out big places. i know they tour. i have no idea about them or their touring history or when they even last put an album out. but i know they played dates here recently.

Belle and Sebastian have gone through some lineup changes over the years, but they've never broken up AFAIK. That said, while they've continued to put out albums every few years, I feel like nobody except the die-hards really cares much about anything they've released in the past decade. Based on recent setlists, they haven't *entirely* surrendered to becoming a nostalgia act, but they only play two songs from their most recent album, and the majority of the set is made up of tunes from 1996-2006.

(I thought about seeing them in Kalamazoo a few weeks ago with friends who live there, and the main reason I didn't is that the show was on a Monday.)