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?

that chameleons thread reminds me that, for some reason, i have no interest in new music by old bands who get back together after years apart. or seeing them live. i don't really know why. i DID go see chameleons in the late 90s at JC Dobbs in philadelphia because i thought it was such an unlikely thing and i got to go with my best friend from high school and we both loved the chameleons in the 80s. but that was pretty much the only time i was excited for something like that. i did go see the pretty things in philly in the 90s. but i had no great hopes for that. it was fine. but that's it. that's the extent of my reunion fever. oh wait i WAS excited to see the Adolescents in 1986 or 1987. but to be fair they had only been out of commission for about 4 years. the straightedge kids were so bored by them. i was the only person jumping up and down for "amoeba". and i DID write a 10 out of 10 review of Monotheist by Celtic Frost for Decibel Magazine which was a genuine reunion, but let's be honest, it was a reunion between two people and only one of them was the true creative genius behind the music. and that's it. and i have next to no interest in past legends or shadowy figures and cult favorites dragged out on tour by jack white or devendra banhart or some superfan garage/psych musician. no offense to linda perhacs. i just don't care. i feel like a meany. i'm happy that other people care and get to see their heroes. i DID go see Jandek here but only because it seemed like it was going to be a bizarro david lynch kinda thing and he did not disappoint on that score. it was his "country" show. BUT, it should be noted, Jandek never stopped making music. he had just never gone out and played live. he wasn't a revival act. just a world-class oddity.
wait, i did see steely dan in saratoga when they first started playing live again. i went with my brother and my parents. that was really kinda the reason to go. my parents lived near there. but it was a genuine reunion thing. they were great. they didn't sound any different than they had on album in 1980. i never listened to their reunion albums though.

this is the show i saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6SzZygqS_4

No. No.

being a metal fan is good. people never really go away. it might take them awhile to make another album, sometimes years, but that's only because so many of those people have day jobs.

Mission of Burma were incredible live around 2008 or so, I’m not really a fan of their records tho

I don’t really like any of the new Slowdive stuff, it sounds differently melodically/harmonically and there’s not enough chorus pedal

i listened to that new MBV album once.

Now that one was awesome imo

for what it's worth, i did enjoy The Friends Of Rachel Worth. i didn't listen to any of the new feelies stuff though. i figure it sounds like the feelies. who i worshipped in the 80s. they still play around here all the time and i never go.

to me, that MBV thing sounded like...demos? but maybe i should hear it again.

anyway, there ARE exceptions. i have heard latter-day stuff that wasn't bad. but 9 times out of 10 i don't even listen to them.

i wouldn't say that i don't care but after lukewarm new records from bands like mazzy star, kitchens of distinction, and jamc, i think a better way of putting it is that i'm not enthusiastic about new material by reconvened/reconciled groups. i still care, i just didn't have the same expectations going into why call it anything that i did going into strange times.

i think there are times when new material after a period of dormancy can be really good and help cement what made them great the first time around. examples for me would be mbv, the feelies, and yeah, even the chams found out a pretty cool path the second time around.

and slowdive. pretty much the standard for how to reunite and still be really damn good.

maybe i'm just not the best fan either. there are bands who i love and i haven't even listened to all of their albums. i kinda take things as they come. every once in a while i will seek out a discography on Youtube and listen to the albums i haven't heard.

and ATCQ. pretty much the standard for how to reunite and still be really damn good.

scott, that's a good point...
listening to as much catalogue music as i do, i've come across bands like this (breakup, long gap, reunite) and i'll just listen straight through.

and yeah, there's always a noticeable downgrade. always.

(subtopic: bands that reunited and were better than the initial run? portishead the only one that comes to mind)

imagine me getting through the dan's catalogue for the first time and going gaucho straight into two against nature. "third world man"->"gaslighting abbie." i knew the context of it, but still if you want to hear some seriously jarring sonic hijinks, try that transition lol.

xpost YES PK!

American Music Club made some good records after they reunited. Eitzel had been very active during the 10 year hiatus though.

lol I'm often not even interested in even hearing a band's 3rd album much less their 12th (or their first after a 20-year gap or whatever). But exceptions abound — latter-day Psychedelic Furs and Belly albums weren't great, but they were good and it was nice to hear them again. Live shows are a different thing though. Again, they can be variable, but I've really enjoyed late-career shows by lots of people: Diana Ross, Nile Rodgers, George Clinton, Wanda Jackson, Neil Young, Dylan, lots more. In those shows, of course, the less new material they're playing the better (though there are exceptions to that, too).

Portishead a good exception to this rule, as mentioned above.

Does anyone rate any of the Wire albums after The Drill? I always mean to check them out since Wire were always one of my favorite bands. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I do think a distinction should be made between reunion tours and reunion albums. I guess I'm far more skeptical of the latter. Jesus Lizard on their reunion tour was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Some people love the stuff Wire did when they reformed for the second time but not not so much when they became the Colin Newman Band.

i saw reunited television and ny dolls just about every time i could with no regrets. television w/o lloyd was a comedown but verlaine had those magic fingers. the johansen/sylvain dynamic was enough to keep that band interesting, plus watching steve conte learn how to handle the thunders spot was also instructive for me and i'm guessing for him.

i've seen a zillion free summer shows with remnants of bands and, i dunno, they're fun. they give you a little window onto greatness. sometimes greatness itself is almost too much for me. i might go see don felder later this summer. in the park.

I think it’s true in most cases that what reformations are usually disappointing. Always a pleasure to be proved wrong, last two Arab Strap and EBTG albums are their best imho. New Crowded House album is a lovely, sunshine tinged treat, though maybe it works better when there’s a talented singer songwriter calling the shots.

does colin newman ever tour as just colin newman? his five albums from the 80s are some of my favorite albums of that decade. if he ever did a Commercial Suicide In Its Entirety Tour i might even go see it...

haven't heard any nu-wire though.

for what it's worth, i did enjoy The Friends Of Rachel Worth.

I was going to mention the Go-Be's when I read your OP.

Wire's Read and Burn EPs from the early '00s are first-rate, up there with their best. So is 2011's Red Barked Tree

does colin newman ever tour as just colin newman? his five albums from the 80s are some of my favorite albums of that decade. if he ever did a Commercial Suicide In Its Entirety Tour i might even go see it...

haven't heard any nu-wire though.

No point, he's in complete control of Wire since Bruce Gilbert left.

Loved seeing Wire in their first US tour of the new millennium when they still had Gilbert in the lineup. The albums since are solid, but nothing displaces the 70s-80s Wire in my heart. And yeah, Newman's A-Z is one of my favorite solo albums by any ex-band artist.

Dinosaur Jr has had a very strong reunion. Their 2000s albums are just as good if not better than their 80s 90s stuff.

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

after lukewarm new records from bands like mazzy star, kitchens of distinction

I had no idea there was a new Kitchens album, totally bypassed me. I guess it was 11 years ago.

I like the new Slowdive stuff, it is different but incredibly good, it feels like an evolution

There's really only one legitimate AMC reunion album, the second was called AMC at the insistence of Merge. It's actually the better of the two though.

I think all of the Wire albums are good but it's gotten a bit samey. At least they don't suck.

I don't thin Portishead count; that wasn't really a reunion, I feel like they were just dormant for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if another album showed up in six years.

I think the MBV album is excellent and again, a case of not really reuniting, it's just getting on with the work.

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

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

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.

it's very interesting how age is perceived in rock music vs. jazz

also ilm has always kinda had this nostalgia is bad thing, i think because by staying current on charlie xcx we can stave off the inevitable slide towards oblivion. i don't see it as good or bad it's a very normal human emotion experienced by everyone, sometimes it's there in your heart and sometimes it's not.

"it's very interesting how age is perceived in rock music vs. jazz"

i explained how i felt on this thead somewhere. i don't treat genre musicians the same as i do rock and pop musicians. country/folk/bluegrass/metal/blues/etc seems like stuff you can do forever. and many do without stopping.

four of them (Wondermints) toured with The Beach Boys on the 50th anniversary tour.

This is because the 50th anniversary tour was Brian's band (plus Mike's then-guitarist/bandleader Scott Totten standing behind him, and drummer John Cowsill - the latter a huge complement). Members of The Wondermints have been the core of Brian's band since 1999, which is a quarter of a century. Five months in 2012 is a) less than that, b) nearly half that time ago, and c) not current.

Sorry, guess I misunderstood your post. I knew they played in his band and were on his version of Smile, but hadn't realized they ever toured with the mothership so was sharing the new to me info.

lol Totten and Cowsill both got fired last year. so by that measure, the current touring Beach Boys in entirety is: Mike rasping, Bruce playing a small probably-unplugged Casio, and John Stamos coming out to guest on a few songs, a few times a year.

xp :)

would be kinda cool if they leased the name to a group of beach-y dreamboats who could shred and sing like angels. more people should think of doing things like when they become decrepit.

Honestly, you are onto something there. They should follow the Dead model at this point, start slowly roping in young ringers one by one and fading the old guys out. Might as well ramp up the money printing machine for the next generation, even when no original members are left in a touring state.

the anti-nostalgia angle has a twinge of gatekeeping to it that comes off kinda boomer-y...

as kids are taught today: don't yuck people's yum.

i also explained on this thread somewhere that i am totally all for people loving reunions and i love a fan's enthusiasms and love for their faves. i think its cool. and i think old bands should do what they want to do!

i'm a fan of fandom. i like watching it from afar. i like movies about it. and i like hearing documentary accounts by fans OF their fandom. its fun and interesting. i don't do any public fan worship. conventions. boat cruises. jukebox musicals. i am a homebody fan.

tempted to watch that Nickelback documentary that includes Nickelback talking about all the hate for their band. i think its on Hulu.

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

I think all bands should be made to get back together whether they like it or not

Went to see Mike's Beach Boys a few years ago and to be honest it was fun x3. Good band, decent setlist choices, and the only hilarity was when they did Summer In Paradise and Mike's ridiculous solo song Pieces Brothers, a tribute to George Harrison. Genuinely funny with great clipart on screen. Also got a handshake off Stamos, despite leaning in to try and get to Mike or Bruce

I think all bands should be made to get back together whether they like it or not

lol why is it ok for metal bands and not rock bands? so it's ok for Judas Priest to still be a band but not ZZ Top?

I mean...9 times out of 10 nobody wants to see an 'aging band', it's code for one of a few things:

1) "wow, the vocalist really fucking sucks now" - 95% of the time

2) "they are recording new music and playing it, fuck that." - 3% of the time

3) "this is embarrassing, they're playing a tractor pull" - 2% of the time

----------------------------

#1 is usually my hang-up. I don't expect 70 year old singers to sound like they did in their 20s, just that they sound enjoyable. don't care if they lower keys of songs either (Sabbath did when I saw them). but sounding outright bad, well...that's hard for me to get past.

#2 = ehh, some people want a setlist that matches up with one from 1988. though I can understand it if the entire set is going to be songs you don't know or care for.

#3 = who the fuck cares where they're playing, are you that sad to see your former heroes at a low in popularity and thus dont' want to be seen or associated with their lameness? go out and rock!

would totally see ZZ Top tbh.

also the King Crimson show from 2021 was maybe one of my favorite shows of my life.

Thought it was funny when Mark Eitzel said his fans are tired of hearing him sing "I've Been A Mess" but he just keeps singing it because he loves to

I saw King Crimson in 2017 and they were amazing. The thing is, they really were as anti-nostalgic as it's possible to be. Fripp assembled a new lineup that was nothing like any previous lineup despite featuring former members, and the songs were completely re-arranged for the new band. "Yeah, we're playing that — but it sounds like this now, and if you don't like it, there's the door."

lol everyone is such a tough guy, it's ok to just want to see a band do some old songs that meant something to you in a certain time in your life

re question upthread about rock vs jazz (and maybe why metal gets a pass) - isn't squeamishness re some ageing rock/pop acts really because those genres (by broad brush definition) are so deeply associated with teenage dreams & preoccupations?

like I know I have a totally indefensible reluctance to watch New Order in 2024 looking like normal sixty-something humans - because I was so in love with their beautiful inscrutable promo pix, and their tunes that somehow seemed to capture how I felt about love and life in my teens and early 20s

king crimson and zz top played for so long by the same people made it folk music. you can play folk music forever.

I saw Brian Wilson live some years ago and lol upper mississippi OTM as fuck about the inevitable slide towards oblivion thing, his voice was really shot and he was visibly depleted which made me think "wait but I listened to his '03 live album, he was super old then too but in fine form", which lead to me doing the maths on how long ago 2003 was, that Wilson had continued aging since then and so have I and so will I and *existential scream*

the anti-nostalgia angle has a twinge of gatekeeping to it that comes off kinda boomer-y...

Yeah a big part of the kneejerk sentiment comes from my parent's appaled reactions at seeing old names from their youth come back playing the same old songs and looking the worse for wear/like they were doing it for the money. And this is partially why my dad later in life gravitated towards exactly the styles scott lists - bluegrass, country, the blues - because there were previous models for old dudes playing that stuff.

I would have expected old ILX to be more anti nostalgia because the let's-push-things-forward urge for musical trends to advance was much stronger then (tho tbf I still remember many of old ILX's most vocal poptimists drooling over seeing, haha, Brian Wilson live), but right now it feels like that narrative has exhausted itself entirely, ppl either don't believe music will advance anymore or more reasonably they believe that it never really did like people used to assume it did, Charli XCX hardly a new kid on the block now either and I don't really see many posts repping for artists that are.

I could well have said this upthread and perhaps multiple times.

Booked tickets with a friend to see Tindersticks later this year. "What do you think they'll play?" wondered friend.

Having checked, their last tour was almost entirely their last two albums with a few other songs ... and there seemed something endearing about this even if only a handful of those new songs would be counted as "favourites".

I think they do seem to do "events" that include more old songs (eg. concerts with strings etc).

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say. I've had wine.

anonymous people coming to a venue near me. john etheridge i kinda know. that's about it.

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/454395712_10162048328367137_9004239916635237318_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=UM2X65pRRXAQ7kNvgFFQ7GC&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AYAkf8yU_eHyRX5s6Q8G-99HH6ZXQuqh56a5QCeHYkUATA&oe=66B73F50

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/454494232_10162048342622137_6127866425981948265_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=bd9a62&_nc_ohc=u2_wy4HbcCwQ7kNvgFGzsgB&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AYD0N8-ADEUhY6CQWptZ76bOF3IvaEF7IvzCSA5LbdWRBg&oe=66B74D1E

To be fair the last original member of Soft Machine (Mike Ratledge) left in 1976. And Daevid Allen said those guys could carry on with the name! It's about as authentic as going to see Skynyrd nowadays though, true.

The Gong guys I mean, don't think he gave a shit about Soft Machine since he got rebuffed at customs that one time and had to go back to France and invent whatever you call that stuff he did

imagine going to see howlin wolf play spoonful and little red rooster in his later years and proclaiming "this nostalgia is so depressing!"
Yeah, I think comparing Howlin' Wolf in the flesh at any point in his career to Squeeze or the English Beat live in the 2020s is a little silly.

I will say that the Soft Machine live album from 2020 (Live at the Baked Potato) was very good.

The lineup there was:
JOHN ETHERIDGE - guitar
THEO TRAVIS - sax, flute, Fender Rhodes electric piano
ROY BABBINGTON - bass guitar
JOHN MARSHALL - drums

But Babbington has since retired, replaced by Fred Thelonious Baker.

...and John Marshall has died, replaced by Asaf Sirkis.

im p sure you'd only need the brothers g to make a gajillion dollars and call it a reunion tour. they aint stupid. they will do it soon.

― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, 12 June 2024 16:12 (two months ago)

😎

Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0) at 3:03 6 Aug 24

I will say that the Soft Machine live album from 2020 (Live at the Baked Potato) was very good.

The lineup there was:
JOHN ETHERIDGE - guitar
THEO TRAVIS - sax, flute, Fender Rhodes electric piano
ROY BABBINGTON - bass guitar
JOHN MARSHALL - drums

But Babbington has since retired, replaced by Fred Thelonious Baker.

Soft Machine just seems like a band now that can carry on indefinitely with new people replacing the oldsters as they retire/die.

Secretly kurt s is the opening act and backing band for them bros. Surely.

Britain noshes its yobs

the kinks should open.

and if you think Oasis are going to play stadiums with Tony McCarrol on drums…

― bae (sic), Friday, June 14, 2024 1:06 AM (two months ago)

😎

threatening to come to a venue near me. not a tribute act? i don't think???

https://sheatheater.org/calendar/calendar_20067_full.jpg

Seems to be Rudy Sarzo, Jizzy Pearl and a couple of other blokes. Their last album was called Hollywood Cowboys, of course it was. Please report back!

i scared...

jizzy pearl...good grief. oh he was in love/hate. i remember them.

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

https://www.stereogum.com/2047136/dio-hologram-concert-review/columns/sounding-board/

jizzy pearl...good grief. oh he was in love/hate. i remember them.

he also took over in Ratt for a while

of course he did.

Saw Love/Hate open for Skid Row in something like 1991. Seb got his dick out and wiped his arse with a copy of the Daily Star. I missed my train and slept at Gatwick airport. Good times.

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