Reunions/Reformations, Super Groups, New Projects?

[carl]

O.K., which do you prefer and which gets your ears to "perk up" most?

Are you a fan of a group reforming for promised albums and tours?

Are you a fan of a reunion of a band, might not record, but planning a few shows (or even just one show)?

Are you a fan of the Supergroup?

Are you one who most enjoys an artist deciding to branch out into new ideas?

I personally get a kick out of Supergroups, though the vast majority of the time they turn into complete shit. I just find them fascinating.

Of these, I kind of prefer the reunion one off thing and the new projects the most. The reforming is usually just a front for a "greatest hits" package and always feels a little sad, even if new material proves to be pretty good, you just know the band will never recapture the "glory days" again.

[Gav Ruadh]

I think that as long as the act isn't "pissing on their legacy" for want of a better phrase, then any plans they have deserve a look and listen.
There are a fair few acts, I won't bother with names, that are unfortunately dragging their own name through the dirt with by coming out as a shadow of their former selves.

I'm always interested by new and fresh ideas. Just so long as it's not blatant bandwagon jumping. (Memories of many bands I liked that tried to cash in on the trends in the 90's spring to mind lol). Evolve by all means, just don't try cloning yourselves on newer acts.

Supergroups can never live up to their promise I find. Just because you like all the guys when they were in seperate bands, doesn't mean that united they'll make much of interest.
Although when you see an awards show and guys from various bands come together and do a cover tune, that's usually something cool to watch ironically.

I find that I'll have the most respect for an act if they acknowledge what they have done before but try and push it forward to make it much broader.
I'm also of the opinion that if the "idea" and spirit of the band is there, it can still continue with less than half of it's original members.
There are a few exceptions however where everybody in the band is essential to it; Stray Cats and Queen are two that spring to mind.
Guns N Roses and Hanoi Rocks are two acts that aren't disgracing themselves with new releases, but I'd still prefer the original line ups.

Then there are the incarnations of Queen, Thin Lizzy and Slade doing the rounds where I think, "C'mon! Ya can't do it without Freddie/Phil/Noddy?!"

But if people are buying the records and seeing the shows still, i guess they have to be doing something right! haha

[carl]

I only partially agree with you on the Stray Cats. I agree that Slim Jim and Lee Rocker are important, but the Cats always have been all about Setzer. Phantom, Rocker and Slick proved how vital he was to that outfit working. His two solo releases of the time did respectable business and still hold up fairly well. Then there is the fact that his Orchestra is going strong still, while Lee Rocker has numerous releases out there, but not many know they exist. When Setzer does the full Rockabilly thing with his Nashvillans, you don't really notice you aren't listening to the Cats. Well, you might, but that is more because Bernie Dresel is 100% better than Slim Jim. But even being the unabashed Setzer fanatic that I am, I will admit that I would frown on him naming a band The Stray Cats without the other two guys. But knowing him, there is no way in hell he would ever dream of doing that.

Now, as for GnR and Hanoi not pissing on the past, that is opinion. IMO Hanoi Part 2 was more or less crap.

Never liked GnR, so no comment.

Queen on the other hand I have mixed emotions about. I agree, nobody on earth can replace Freddie. Nobody. Especially not that twit Paul Rogers. I never liked Bad Company to begin with. Total shit.

But ya know...I understand where Roger and Brian had to be coming from. Those are their songs also. They wrote them, they recorded them, they toured with them. If you ever see old interviews with the band, Freddie was NOT a very lovable guy. He didn't trust anybody (except Mary) and he didn't seem to really love anybody. So there is a chance that Brian and Roger love the SONGS more than they loved Mercury. The giant loss in their life may have been losing the tunes and losing being able to play them again. It might sound harsh, but anybody who has been in a band knows how much you can love a piece of music, know how much you can love playing a riff, know how much you love sharing that piece of music. Queen didn't break up, it was taken away from them. IMO the worst thing they did was getting a crappy singer to handle the parts of a one of a kind singer. But by doing that, they actually insured that the memory of Freddie would survive that much more.

Now, if I was their manager, and I had a say, I would have told Brian to sing the songs. He is actually pretty close to Freddie at times. He might not be able to hit the heights, but he could pull it off and the fans would have nothing bad to say about it. Plus, in that situation, I would lay money on it that Deacon would have joined up with them also.

[chrisdamien]

All this action on the board! ;D
Let's see...

O.K., which do you prefer and which gets your ears to "perk up" most? As usual I can't make my answers short and I haven't yet decided on this, so I will go through the rest of the questions and maybe I come to a conclusion. LOL

Are you a fan of a group reforming for promised albums and tours? Most bands who do this are never able to live up to their past. There is just something about the energy you have when you are young that is kinda hard to recapture later in life. The bands who come closest to recapturing the magic are always those where the members have been active musicians since the band broke up. If you give up on music, take a different job and then come back years later and try to recapture it it will never be the same.

A new album is crucial for me. I'm not expecting it to be as good as my favourite record by the artist, which I heard for the first time as an easy-to-impress 12 year old, but I am expecting some good songs. Hanoi did alright with 12 Shots IMO, AHT was a piece of shit and then they totally outdid themselves with Street Poetry that is easily better than at least one of their original albums as well.
Most reunions are not that good, but still. There HAS to be new music for the reunion to be interesting for longer than the first greatest hits tour.

Are you a fan of a reunion of a band, might not record, but planning a few shows (or even just one show)?
Yeah, that's cool as well. They are usually not that good though, cause the band hasn't played together for long in a live setting, but the excitement is surely there. Now if they start going on tour without new music because the planned one off gig was successful, I'll only see them once.

Are you a fan of the Supergroup?
The idea is intriguing, but I figured out a long time ago that it doesn't translate well. All Supergroups I can think of have been complete and utter shit. The reason is that none of the members wanna use their best songs for the supergroup. They are all expecting someone else to bring in the good songs and you end up with a sub standard release of everybody's fillers. Usually the performance is also a little stiff as they don't really know eachother as musicians yet.
The idea is great though and if a supergroup would take it seriously and offer up the great songs and rehearse enough to get it to really ROCK, it could be one of the coolest things ever.

Are you one who most enjoys an artist deciding to branch out into new ideas? That's ok. If I like the new stuff I'll buy it. Like with the Newlydeads. If I think it's crap I'll leave it alone.
Then again I've never been one to bother with bands "destroying their legacy" either. I have no problem saying that a band was great until so and so year and not interesting since and to me the past and future can't really destroy the past anyway.
BUT if the music is vastly different one should change the bandname.



I guess I prefer reunions with new music