Pages tagged “reunion”

The British Invasion may be long over, but The Kinks still know how to (really) get us going. Rumors have been buzzing for a while now on the possibility of a reunion, and it's starting to look like it just might happen.

Close your eyes and try to imagine the following: peanut butter without jelly. Beer without alcohol. She without Him. Doesn't work right? Well, that looks to be where the Jackson 5 reunion is headed, with the buzz-kill news that Michael Jackson will not be participating in the new 2009 album or tour.

The tradition of the Coachella Festival in Indio, Calif. reuniting bands is now legendary. As the story goes, the festival organizers were having a hard time getting a headlining band in 2001, so they found a friend to convince Jane's Addiction to get back together and play. Since then, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Pixies, Bauhaus, Gang of Four, Rage Against the Machine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine have all rejoined for the festival.

A month after Ben Folds Five played together live for the first time in eight years for MySpace's Front to Back concert series, the social networking behemoth has made good on its promise to post video of the reunion show in its entirety. Kristin from Michigan, we bet you are totally squealing right now.

An introduction to the loved—and loathed—jamband, on the occasion of its recently announced reunion...

Sure, some of their fans are obnoxious, stoned idiots. Rich-kid runaways strung out on MDMA and just enough misconstrued New Age philosophy to make them unbearably self-righteous. And, yes, the band’s hour-long atonal vamps on a song called “Tweezer” make most people want to take said grooming tool and remove their ear drums.

After dropping hints earlier this summer, Phish has announced plans to reunite for three dates in Hampton, Va. next March, with additional cities and venues to come later in 2009.

One song into Ben Folds Five's first show in eight years, the regrets were already pooling up. "If I'd known about this gig, I'd have sequenced the album differently," Folds heaved, grabbing for a water bottle as the last notes of "Narcolepsy" were swallowed by the crowd's applause. Fair enough: The song works beautifully as the opener of The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, the band's last album, which they played in its entirety last night at UNC Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall at the behest of MySpace and for the benefit of Operation Smile. But in terms of ideal set-list artistry, it would probably be slotted towards the end of the night, allowing its performers to ease in to its crashing highs and lows with some less manic fare. For a band that hadn't performed together in upwards of eight years, minus the rehearsals they surely held in preparation for last night, it was an ambitious public re-debut.

I'm hitting the road in a few minutes, heading up to Chapel Hill, N.C. for Ben Folds Five's first live show in eight years, which I still kind of can't believe is actually happening.

North Carolina native Ben Folds has a huge surprise for fans in his home state: his defunct band, Ben Folds Five, will reunite for a one-time Sept. 18 show in Chapel Hill, N.C. and play the entire track list of the band's 1999 (and final) album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Tickets go on sale Sept. 8 at Etix.com.

Shocking news hot off the wire this morning: five bands that broke up before 1980 have not reunited. Oh yeah, and the Faces want to get back together again.

Since being harvested from Minneapolis R&B band Flyte Tyme by Prince in 1981, The Time has broken up and re-formed somewhere around four times (we lost count after the third line-up change), the most recent of which was its gig filling in for Toni Braxton at the 50th Grammy Awards this past February.

Update: In the midst of the rumor tidal wave, Phish keyboardist Page McConnell issued a personal letter about his thoughts on a Phish reunion. The letter, dated yesterday (June 26), says McConnell and his former bandmates have talked about "the possibility of spending some time together."

"Currently many of us have plans and projects already in the works," wrote McConnell, "most notably Mike [Gordon, Phish's bassist], who made a great album and is about to hit the road in support of it. Given that I might not even see some of the guys for the next six months, I would say that the announcement of a reunion is premature. However, later this year we hope to spend some time together and take a look at what possible futures we might enjoy."

McConnell also said he feels closer to his former bandmates now than ever before in their relationship. After the break up, the band members were not talking for about two years, McConnell says, but now the men are looking forward to seeing each other, "hopefully with no distractions."

(Thanks, brad!)
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The waves of speculation surrounding a Phish reunion are growing steadily wider, newly encompassing über-producer Steve Lillywhite. According to a report at Jamtopia.com, a reunion is in the works and Lillywhite will be working with the beloved jam band in the studio. When? Soon, say the rumors, but there are no definite dates in the rumor pool.

Conventions for movies are nothing new; they offer obsessives a chance to dust off their favorite costume and nerd it up with others who have just as much of a fixation over their media of choice. Now, a reunion, that's a little more classy. It seems that an anonymous member of the production team of The Shawshank Redemption knows this, because they've organized a get-together for the movie's cast and crew.

There must be something in the bottled water that tour buses keep on board. It seems that Reunion Fever, already rampant, has claimed another victim in Phish's lead singer and guitarist, Trey Anastasio.