The Songs for Slim benefit EP from The Replacements hits radio and digital outlets next week, but the first taste of the in-studio reunion hit the web today, thanks to Pitchfork’s premiere of the new ‘Mats cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s “I’m Not Sayin’” — one of four cover songs recorded by Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson.
The Call — best known for their ’80s radio hits “The Walls Came Down,” “I Still Believe” and “Let the Day Begin” — will reunite this spring for their first concerts in more than 20 years, with Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club filling in for his late father Michael Been, who died of a heart attack in 2010.
Four years since retiring the live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails, frontman Trent Reznor this morning announced he is resurrecting the band with a new lineup that includes King Crimson guitar whiz Adrian Belew and former Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery, and will mount a U.S. arena tour this fall and dates worldwide in 2014.
The Ocean Blue gave fans an early taste last fall of two tracks — “Blow My Mind” and “A Rose is a Rose” — off its first new album in 13 years, and now, with that record, ‘Ultramarine,’ due out in March, the band has premiered another song, “Sad Night, Where Is Morning?,” which you can stream here.
Steve Wynn today revealed that The Dream Syndicate — which reunited last year for a series of concerts in Spain celebrating the 30th anniversary of ‘The Days of Wine and Roses’ — will play what he’s billing as the band’s first U.S. show since 1988 when it performs this summer at Wilco’s Solid Sound festival.
The reconfigured Big Country — with The Alarm’s Mike Peters filling in for the late Stuart Adamson and the new addition of original Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes — will release a new album titled ‘The Journey’ this spring and embark on a world tour that will hit the U.K., Europe and North America.
The ‘Last Splash’-era lineup of The Breeders — Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs, and Jim Macpherson — have confirmed a rash of new North American and European dates on their tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of that album. 4AD Records plans to release a deluxe 20th anniversary reissue in April.
After raising more than $100,000 through an auction of limited-edition, autographed 10-inches, The Replacements will release their Songs for Slim benefit/reunion EP to the masses beginning March 5, when the 5-song set will be sold digitally to be followed on April 16 by a commercial 12-inch pressing.
It’s been nearly a week since the Coachella lineup was unveiled, and there’s little elaboration on one of this year’s surprises: the unlikely reunion of the Violent Femmes for the two-weekend California festival this April, something once thought impossible because of the bad blood engendered over a Wendy’s TV commercial.
The Specials have begun announcing dates for the first leg of this year’s North American tour, confirming shows via their Twitter account in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco on either side of the band’s planned performances at the South By Southwest festival in March.
The Ocean Blue — best known for 1989′s Echo & The Bunnymen-like debut single “Between Something and Nothing” — will release ‘Ultramarine,’ the band’s first new album in 13 years, this March, then play “shows throughout the U.S. starting in April,” according to a post on the group’s Facebook page.
Bob Geldof will rejoin The Boomtown Rats for the first time since the band split in 1986 to play the U.K.’s Isle of Wight Festival this summer, saying in a statement on the fest’s website, “We were an amazing band and I just feel it’s the right time to re-Rat, to go back to Boomtown for a visit.”
The Replacements — namely Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars — raised more than $100,000 to help pay medical expenses for their ailing former bandmate Slim Dunlap through the just-completed 10-day auction of 250 limited-edition, 10-inch vinyl copies of the band’s 5-song reunion EP.
With an April tour of the U.K. expected to be announced Wednesday, The House of Love is now previewing two tracks off its upcoming sixth album, ‘She Paints Words in Red,’ on the band’s official Facebook page. Currently streaming are 1-minute samples of opening song “A Baby Got Back on its Feet” and the title track.
Paisley Underground mainstays Rain Parade have reunited after 25 years, performing Saturday night at The Earl in Atlanta during a benefit concert to raise money to help Bobby Sutliff, singer/guitarist/songwriter for ’80s contemporaries The Windbreakers, who was seriously injured in a car accident last summer.
You can’t say they’re not persistent: Organizers of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival apparently continue to make offers to land a reunion of The Smiths to headline the annual festival, with Morrissey reporting this week that he has yet again turned down an offer to have the defunct indie giants top the 2013 bill.
The auction of 250 autographed copies of The Replacements’ much-buzzed Songs for Slim benefit/reunion EP — billed as the first new release from the ‘Mats since 1990′s All Shook Down — kicks off Tuesday morning and will run for 10 days, after which the EP’s five tracks will be commercially released as digital downloads.
The Specials finally are making good on a promise to tour the U.S., today announcing they’ll play two dates at the South By Southwest festival in March as part of the first leg of a larger North American visit — but the shows will not feature co-vocalist Neville Staple, who is leaving the band due to “ill health.”
Pigbag, the short-lived U.K. funk-infused post-punk act best known for its jam “Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag,” returns this March with ‘Year of the Pigbag,’ the first new record in three decades from the newly reformulated act. Check out the horn-fueled track “Disco Mama” from the comeback album.
