Bands reuniting
Good idea, or no?
I have mixed feelings about it. I guess it depends on the band. When Jane’s Addiction reunited a few years back, I thought about going to see them play. But the show I saw them do in 1988 is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, and I didn’t want to mess with that memory by seeing them again, and not having it be as good.
Soundgarden reunited recently. Another band that was so excellent live back in the day–they actually opened for Jane’s Addiction at that show. I don’t have any interest in seeing them live now. (Although if someone were to give me a ticket, I’d probably go!)
I recently saw Floor, a band that broke up awhile back. I’d seen them live once and they blew me away. They’ve reunited to do a tour and seeing them again was almost as good as the first time. Probably because they’re playing the same small venues as when I originally saw them. (I say “almost” as good because the line up doesn’t include the second guitarist who would sing harmony, and their vocal harmonies were what put them over the edge–that and how they tune their guitars.)
Another legendary band has recently reunited–sort of. Kyuss were a stoner rock band that spawned a whole slew of stoner bands in the 80s. I mean they inspired a whole scene. Kyuss had different line ups, including different drummers and bassists, but always the same singer–John Garcia, and always the same guitarist–Josh Homme (who is now in Queens of the Stone Age). John Garcia has reunited with Brant Bjork on drums (who also played in Fu Manchu for a long time) and Nick Oliveri on bass (who also played in QotSA for quite awhile, as well as the Dwarves), but no Josh Homme. I think I read somewhere that Garcia said it’d never be a Kyuss reunion without Josh, so instead of calling it Kyuss, they’re calling it Kyuss Lives.
They’re doing a tour and recording a new album. And I think it could be really good.
So what bands do you wish would reunite? Which have reunited that were a disappointment to you, and which weren’t?
Posted on May 2, 2011, in Music. Bookmark the permalink. 31 Comments.
I know it’s only been a couple of weeks, but I really wish LCD Soundsystem would reunite…
The Shins are rumored to be back together after splitting last year, but whether or not they’ll ever get around to putting out new music is up to James Mercer. Mercer’s project with Dangermouse, Broken Bells, was oddly disappointing and dissatisfying.
Isn’t LCD Soundsystem basically just James Murphy? I imagine at some point, Murphy will decide to record music again, and that it will sound something like LCD Soundsystem, whatever he decides to call it.
Not exactly a break-up, but I’d love to see another Postal Service album. I’d gladly trade that for every future Death Cab album for the rest of history.
BTD Greg, I believe James Murphy said that he may very well record under the LCD Soundsystem monicker in the future. Basically he said that he’s retiring LCD as a touring and full-length album producing entity, but may put out some songs here or there if he feels like it.
Susan, I loved Floor the other night. I love the tones they get out of there guitars and Steve Brooks is such a ham it makes it that much more fun. They played pretty much every song from the self-titled album they put out (which is the only recording of theirs I have) which was great, since I was familiar with most of the songs in their set. I didn’t realize that they were thinking about putting out a new album. Hope it’s good.
For the most part I’m not that interested in bands reuniting, especially if it’s after a long hiatus. I really wouldn’t go too far out of my way to see the Pixies now, but would have loved to have seen them in the late 80′s. I’m just not interested in seeing a bunch of old fogies trying to recapture something that’s long gone, and I don’t like the reunited band to be the image that stays in my and others’s minds, rather than they way they were in their prime. Besides, it’s very rare that a band reunites after a long time and puts out any compelling new material. It’s mostly just a tour of them replaying their greatest hits.
There are some reunions that sound good mostly because they seem so unlikely to happen, like Husker Du or The Smiths. And I was really happy about the New York Dolls getting back together mostly because I knew Arthur Kane and how much it meant to him to be able to play with them again and relive that part of his past with a new perspective on life.
You knew Arthur? That’s rad.
I don’t know if Floor are thinking of putting out a new album. It’s Kyuss that is rumored to be doing that.
I’m mixed on reunions. I loved that old VH1 series where they found old 80′s bands that had broken up with bad blood and tried to reunite them. Some (Flock of Seagulls) were great wheras others (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) weren’t.
All that said an other old 90′s VH1 cliche is the washed up band that “comes back for one more try.” Typically this involves an embarrassing album. (Cars or Cult anyone?) I really don’t want to go to some washed up Casino in Nevada to listen to some band from my youth. It’s like meeting some old girlfriend after 15 years. It’s better to just remember the way you were when you were both 21.
Of course there are some good bands that are still doing good stuff but just not commercial. Technically they didn’t break up so much as do other things. So I’d love to see Soundgarden again. Arguably Chris Cornell has been as creative as ever. I’d really like to see Dire Straights. (Mark Knopfler has put out a few albums the last decade that were very good) Of course Knopfler says he doesn’t want to and doesn’t even like the early stuff. Still, it would be great.
Most of the bands I’d like to see again never truly broke up. Yeah Led Zepplin broke up but let’s be honest, they’ve “reunited” so many times it’s as if they never did. I’m glad they never called themselves Led Zepplin though given the death of the drummer and the fact they are so much older. Pink Floyd was great post-Waters although the short reunion with Waters was pretty bad. Supposedly Gilmore and Waters still have a bit of tension. Gilmore’s latest tour was a de facto Floyd tour though in that most of the band was with him and he played a lot of Floyd stuff in addition to his solo stuff.
The one group I’d truly like to see reunited though is The Police. Supposedly a few years back at Sundance they all got on stage and performed some impromptu stuff together. It was totally unplanned and they didn’t even know they’d all be there.
I liked the Frankie GTH episode because it was so real. They refused to go along, or at least some of them did, and we found out they punched each other the last time they were together. Awesome.
The Smiths. Oh, please, please, please. Not ever going to happen though. Too much bad blood from past lawsuits concerning royalty checks to Joyce & Rourke. Maybe Marr & Morrissey could get together without them. They could bring Craig Gannon back into the fold and then it would be a reunion involving 2 1/2 former members. In fact, I think I’m going to wikipedia Gannon while I’m thinking about it to see what he’s up to now.
Ah, I read your post too quickly Susan. Well I might pay to see Kyuss Lives (I think they need to put an exclamation point at the end of their name), but would prefer it included Homme.
Clark, The Police did a full-on reunion tour back in 2007-8.
Susan, as for Arthur, <mormonspeak>I was his home teacher for a bit, maybe a year before he died</mormonspeak>.
Dang, how did I miss that?!?! Oh yeah. I’ve been busy the past four years.
They do actually use an exclamation mark, Mike:
http://www.kyusslives.com/
Mike, you aren’t the guy who did the documentary on him, are you?
@Clark: The Police performed for the final time as a group on Elvis Costello’s show “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…” on the Sundance Channel back in ’08, the day before their final concert at MSG.
During the interview with Costello, Stewart Copeland made it clear that he was the driving force behind them reuniting for the tour, and he would never stop trying to get the group back together. However, Andy Summers and Sting were just as adamant on the show in saying that The Police are finished and will never record or tour again.
Summers and Sting had a lot of personality issues – which is what broke the band up originally.
Man. I wish I hadn’t been so ridiculously busy the past few years. I’d have loved to have gone to that concert.
Me too. I knew about it at the time but couldn’t afford it. I did get to see Sting just after the Police broke up, when he’d done his first solo album. That was excellent.
Have you seen the movie about the Police that Copeland did? All done from his home movies. It’s pretty cool. He’d videotape himself playing drums live. Totally awesome.
(And I think it was Mike’s bishop who made the Arthur movie, Clark.)
I get the idea that Johnny Marr doesn’t really like Morrissey all that much, though he’s never actually came out and said it. In fact, I have a hard time thinking anyone who’s been around Morrissey really cares for the guy.
Are you talking about New York Doll, Susan?
No it wasn’t me, but I was in that ward at the time. My bishop and home teacher were prominently featured in the film and Greg, who made the film, later became bishop. I remember leaving Arthur a voicemail congratulating him on getting back together w/ the Dolls and heading out to do that first show and then next thing I know he’s dead. It was so crazy, no one saw it coming. He was an awesome guy.
Also sorry for all of the mormonspeak, but it’s kind of on topic.
That really was an awesome film, Mike. I love that version of Come Come Ye Saints and Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief that the Dolls did. I still regularly play it in my iPhone mix for the car. Johansen’s gravely voice and then the harmonica really gave it a cool vibe.
Susan I started watching it but somehow it didn’t click with me so I didn’t finish it. (It was on TV) Probably it was just the mood I was in. I have to be in the right mood for most documentaries. I ought try again sometime. Do you remember the name Susan? I’ll see if it’s available on Netflix. Before I had just encountered it while flipping channels.
The name of it is Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, I think.
Another good music/band doc is the one about Rush. Beyond the Lighted Stage.
Clark, for me the song that really reminds me of the film is The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.” It was somewhere around the end of the film and now I can’t hear it w/o thinking of Arthur.
I used to always think it was a terrible idea but the Pixies got back together and I saw them 3 times post-reunification and every show was really great. Maybe it wasn’t the same kind of magic as before but it was some kind of magic, that’s for sure.
Mostly though, I feel like there is so much new good music to be consumed, I don’t really care if anyone I loved before gets back together. I’m heartless like that.
I agree with amri. Reunited bands are almost never as good as they were before they split. The Velvet Underground live album from the 1990s was disappointing. So was the Big Star album from the 00s. The only good one I can think of was the Soft Boys album, but the Soft Boys were never really that much different from what Robyn Hitchcock has been doing for his entire career.
I will argue that there are a lot of good, current bands out there. Those who say rock is dead are just not paying close enough attention.
Mainstream, gets-played-on-the-radio, hard rock is dead.
I saw the Pixies on I think the Tonight Show of all places just prior to Conan leaving. They really were great reunited. That’s a great exception to the rule.
Susan, I saw a recent Rush documentary somewhere that was very much more a look back. But it dealt with the main guy’s experience losing both his only daughter and wife in a very short time. It also mentioned his relearning how to drum in a different way. I’ve never been a big Rush guy (which in Nova Scotia in the 80′s really put me outside the norm), but I really loved that documentary.
That’s the one I meant, Clark. I loved how they were all such dorks, not your typical rock stars at all.
And the drummer hates to be fawned over by fans. I know a guy who is a humongous Rush fan, and he was telling me about how one of his friends managed to meet the drummer, Neil. His friend knew Neil usually stayed at the venue a long time after the show, then rode his motorcycle to the hotel. So he stayed there late and followed him when he finally left. He managed to get in the elevator at the hotel the same time Neil did and talked to him–just kept it low key, saying something like “great show tonight”. Kinda funny.
Funny that Rush is being brought up, as they’re one of the few bands dating back to the early 70′s that doesn’t need to reunite because they’ve never broken up (although they’ve certainly taken time off).
I’d like to see early 70′s Genesis back together, with Peter Gabriel on vocals. A lot of talent in that band.
My favorite band, Savatage, is dead, but I got to see most of the key players play together about a year ago–everyone but the vocalists. Generally, these guys do two simultaneous Christmas tours and break into two separate groups to do so, but this time the core members of the band played non-Christmas music on the same stage, including a handful of Savatage songs. I’d still really like to see the whole band reunite. I’ll keep dreaming.
I have a good friend who was a frequent guest of the Bluebird Restaurant in Logan. Too bad he missed Neil Peart’s visit, as he’s a big Rush fan.
http://www.neilpeart.net/news/august_09.html
I wonder if anyone there recognized him, or if Neil Peart is obscure enough that he can get away with anonymously dropping into places like that.
He’s probably obscure enough that no one noticed. If they recognized him, they probably thought there was no way it would be him, and wrote him off as someone who looks like him.
Great story, btw, his blog is interesting!
Most reunions don’t live up to expectations. But there are exceptions, like Dinosaur Jr. Pavement hasn’t made any more records, but their reunion show was all kinds of fun. I’d like to see Fugazi back together. And Warrant.