SoundProof - SoundCheck: Reunion Tours Return

Reunions from Zeppelin to Eric's Trip are on the rise. What makes today's reunions unique from those of the past? Is it too simple to see it as being a cash grab in a 21st century context? And where does the love of music fit in? If you've read Milan Kundera's first novel, The Joke, you might remember the ending when the two old friends and former bandmates Jaroslav and Ludvik finally reunite over a folk festival jam session in former 1960s Czechoslavakia. Although Kundera was probably interested in shedding light on themes with more gravitas, his book does a remarkable job in helping us understand the reason behind the Jackson 5 getting back together.

In the book, Kundera writes: "At first everyone agreed and seemed almost relieved: they too felt that their passion for folk music deserved a more intimate atmosphere. But then the bass (the inspector of cultural affairs) pointed out that we had promised to play until nine; the Comrades from the District Council were counting on us, the manager of the restaurant too; that was how things had been planned; we had to fulfill our obligation; otherwise the whole organization of the festival would fall apart; we could play out in the fields some other time."

The last few years have been epic for reunions: The Jackson 5 (I really can't believe this one!) … The Police, A Tribe Called Quest, Led Zeppelin, Dinosaur Jr., Eric's Trip, Rage Against the Machine, My Bloody Valentine, Love & Rockets, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Verve, the Moldy Peaches, and certainly countless well-loved local bands that have never sold a 7'' outside their hometown or had their songs swapped enthusiastically in the endless TradeCon of music blogs.

So the editors of Soundproof put to me the question: What's so special about now?

What is special is that a lot of college-radio friendly bands that burned bright and burnt out in the 1990s are back, at least for a little while. But is there anything that sets these reunions apart from Diana Ross & The Supremes, or Genesis, or The Who? Are all these groups that were part of the 'alternative' scene in the 1990s really any different from those equal parts bloated and slick 'mainstream' groups? Or is that a long-dead framework from the long-dead '90s?

That's where Kundera's book provides general understanding; a reunion in the 1960s in a communist country is strikingly similar to one in a 21st century capitalist society, meaning they might just follow the same patterns everywhere. A reunion takes place for socio-economic reasons, in our case, the need to make money. Moreover, once a reunion takes place, the musicians often find themselves responsible to a lot of people. But, just as important, there are many personal and creative reasons for reuniting, those which are hard to measure but are still very present.

* When I began doing research it was easy to find commentators focusing on the economic incentive behind a reunion. On an episode of the Ongoing History of New Rock for radio station 102.1 The Edge, broadcaster Alan Cross put forward his own reunion theory: "More often than not, it's the potential for potloads of money. Musicians often don't have a lot of portable skills. They've spent their whole lives and their entire beings making music. If they can't do that anymore, what else is there?" This position certainly hits close to home for a lot of artists. In an interview for Paperheart, former Eric's Trip and Elevator singer Rick White explained the primary motivation for the first Eric's Trip reunion in 2001: ''Elevator had left Subpop and Tara (his wife) and I were living in downtown Toronto, and were very broke. So was Julie (Doiron). That was the initial reason.''

A reunion guarantees an audience for a lot of bands, and might even generate more interest in younger fans that could never have seen them the first time. Or at least that's what backers of these reunions expect, and with good reason. For instance, the first My Bloody Valentine shows at the 3,000-seat Roundhouse in London, the Apollo in Manchester and Barrowlands in Glasgow sold out — just as for the initial reunion dates for Arcade Fire — in 15 minutes or less.

One big element driving the economic incentive behind reunions today is the growth of huge European-style festivals in North America, particularly Coachella, which started in 1999. Since 2001, they've brought together Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Gang of Four, The Stooges, and last year Rage Against the Machine and Jesus & Mary Chain. Even if reunited bands don't come together for a Coachella performance, they usually find themselves playing at a big festival somewhere. Dinosaur Jr. played Pitchfork, A Tribe Called Quest did Bumbershoot, The Verve and Love & Rockets are doing Coachella this year, and Smashing Pumpkins were on Toronto Island for the Virgin Music Festival last September.

For the bands themselves, it's where they, ''Get paid the most and play in front of the most people,'' says Tour Manager Justin McGuirk of Fat Possum Records (who released the new Dinosaur Jr. album) … But for music writer Carl Wilson (author of Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the end of Taste) … it's also likely that festival promoters are the only major push for lesser-known groups to get back together. Since festivals ''are curated by someone or a committee of someones, who have a vision or at least their 'wouldn't it be great if …' moments, (then) for many acts that were never super-massive (because promoters and record companies will always be nudging the formerly super-massive), festivals are likely to be the first ones to ask.'' For a festival promoter, a reunited band also provides a distinguishing and profitable feather in the cap.

From a successful festival gig that attracts a lot of attention — as in the case of Rage Against the Machine, who had countless ecstatic fans taking iconic roadtrips across the continent to see them perform — a lot of bands are able to take off on big tours. Rage is in Australia, Dinosaur Jr. is coming to Tokyo, and A Tribe Called Quest went from Mexico to Canada.

Where a delineation can be made is between major label bands and indie-label bands, a line that is perpetuated from when these groups were together the first time. For major label bands (or those trying to break into the majors) there is more pressure from the myriad sources who cash in on a reunion to keep a good thing going: from the booking agents, managers, road crews, and even the scalpers that buy half the tickets at the Roundhouse to be sold for three times the price on eBay. As Wilson puts it, the big major label bands are, ''corporations unto themselves where there's staff to be paid or laid off, exacting contracts with major multinational entertainment companies, etc.'' Rage guitarist Tom Morello's question of whether it is ''a coincidence that in the seven years that Rage Against the Machine has been away that the country has slid into right-wing purgatory?'' makes it very, very easy to be cynical; the reformed band generates mass wealth for its members and hangers-on and acts as that 'corporation unto itself' whose progress no right-winger would ever try and restrict.

On the other side, ''Artists signed to indie labels (usually) … don't have these kinds of pressures'', articulates Toronto critic Michael Barclay (Exclaim!, Eye Weekly). This makes it easier for them to follow their own path when they reunite. But, of course, they're more likely to be broke.

''At this point you do it for love.''
— Joe Dick, Hardcore Logo
What about the love? Besides showing the obligations and responsibilities of a reunion, Kundera's book (and the psuedo-rockumentary Hardcore Logo) also get at the intense and intimate communal experience of making music. It's something that happens through creating music and also being a band, day-to-day, for an extended length of time. As Rick White also said about the last Eric's Trip reunion, "Once we got together, all four of us, we realized that we had a lot of unresolved issues to get out in the open." White says it was the tour that "really helped us (the band) remember that we loved and missed each other and we should still be in close contact because it was us four that really learned how to play together. We were family." The same motivation that propels the drive home at Christmas, old office worker parties, and Facebook also revives bands long-thought-dead. These people were an important part of each other's lives and likely always will be.

Even if he hated lead singer Damon Albarn when he left Blur five years ago, guitarist Graham Coxon still had dinner with his old band a few months back. And now he doesn't hate anyone enough to put a Blur reunion out of his mind. ''I think it's something that might happen when everybody feels ready and that might be years away,'' Ponders Coxon. As Barclay quite rightly mentioned in an interview, ''Another reason all these '80s/'90s bands are getting back together is time: enough water is under the bridge at this point, so why not?" Barclay adds that, "We've all lived through enough rock 'n' roll history to know that never rarely means never.'' My guess is that even musicians themselves have no time — or no one will pay them — for a reunion. They'll still bang it out at a party on a borrowed guitar or rap to each other over the phone.

And although it's rarer than a reunion tour, bands can find themselves inspired to create something new even after many years. Creativity uncommonly works simply as a stream of record, tour, record, tour, and taking time off may be what is needed to find the inspirations bands had when they started. In an interview for VBS TV show Soft Focus, Kevin Shields goes into some detail about My Bloody Valentine's follow up to 1991's Loveless: ''After the late '90s, we didn't want to make a record and didn't really want to make one until a few years ago. And then its taken up to about now. We're gonna do it.'' The album is going to be composite of material recorded in '93, '94, '96 and '97 that took them this long to bother to finish and make into an album.

What becomes kind of ridiculous then is stating that they're even really breaking up in the first place. Unless band members still manage to find ways to alienate each after parting ways, the general rule is that they'll be coming back behind the old banner someday. It's just much more honest to do like rock band Sleater-Kinney who said they're on 'indefinite hiatus.' Economically, personally, and sometimes creatively, there is too much bringing them together for only the most passionate haters to hold out. Which means I should've believed in the Jackson 5 all along.