what bands pulled off a successful reunion? which ones did not?
janice cf: successful: the aislers set! black tambourine! the softies! unsuccessful: pavement at matador 21.
ed shelflife: good: aislers set, black tambourine, pipas, small factory, devo. bad: peter hook / joy division, omd, gang of four.
james dump/yo la tengo: mission of burma; no one else.
michael white: the stone roses were successful because they had nothing to live up to: they were awful then and are awful now. alternately, prefab sprout’s reunion was unsuccessful because it never happened.
daniel handler: the soft boys did it really well, but nobody noticed, nextdoorland is one of my favorite pop records of the last decade. the go-betweens made their best albums post-breakup, there, I said it, rachel worth and oceans apart are even better than before hollywood.
gaylord cf/wfmu: I was not only pleasantly surprised but also genuinely pleased with the recent beach boys reunion and album. the primitives’ reunion show and album were also pleasurable. I’m holding out hope for the upcoming mike-present/davy-free monkees concert.
gordon the fan modine: really enjoyed the feelies at ATP. any reunion is successful. good on those who can muster and make it happen, I say.
stephen the real tuesday weld: did: blur. did not: paul mccartney.
corin tucker: I saw the go-gos, which was great. pavement was fantastic, the portland show was great.
the legendary jim ruiz: I finally got to see honeybunch in brooklyn, loved it!
hannah grass widow: I’ve seen the raincoats and the vaselines in the past few years and they were amazing! we played a show with zounds and I was really excited but those guys were kinda weird. they got our name wrong when they thanked us for playing and it was an overall disappointing experience especially because “demystification” is one of my favorite songs. oh well.
stephin the magnetic fields: throbbing gristle. the spice girls.
dawn cf: successful: black tambourine, lois, small factory, codeine. not successful: pavement @ matador 21.
shaun brilldream: the only band I’ve seen pull it off are the pixies.
matt lorelei: I was skeptical of going to see gang of four years ago at the warfield but it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. they delivered. also, the aislers at bell house were as tight as a band could hope to be at any time. ridiculous.
clarissa cf: successful: mission of burma: great because they never claimed to be kids, & got better at listening to each other; unrest: great because all they have to do is show up and do what they do, and time freezes. not successful: any band that once prided itself on having new material all the time and no longer bothers to come up with any.
fran cannane: the buzzcocks were pretty good. I am looking forward to even as we speak playing in november in sydney.
joe pines / foxgloves: the commotions 2004 and black tambourine 2012 both seemed to know when to leave people wanting more. I would like to note for posterity that archie moore introduced “dream baby dream” by telling a brooklyn crowd: “hey, new jersey, here’s a bruce springsteen song for y’all!”
tim dagger: good: mission of burma, scratch acid, dino jr.
bridget st john: successful: the aislers set.
pete paphides: pentangle. that was pretty unbelievable. their london lyceum show was one of the best shows I’ve seen by anyone.
ian musical chairs: did: soft boys, go-betweens. did not (sadly): VU, television.
andrew eggs/talk it: in the last couple years I’ve seen the vaselines, the dismemberment plan, and pavement. all shows were pretty good!
gail cf: did: black tambourine! small factory! did not: the pavement boys got me down. if you really hate each other, don’t do it.