Opinion: Why I refuse to be too cynical about reunions

If 2012 is the last year we have on this planet, then at least the musicians are helping us go out with a bang. Over the past few days a spate of reunions have been announced, including the ‘always rumoured, never happening’ reformations of At the Drive In and Refused.

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Live Review: Rage Against The Machine @ Finsbury Park, London

Live Review: Rage Against The Machine
Venue: Finsbury Park, London
Date: 6/6/10

The story of this show practically writes itself tonight. Rage Against The Machine take to the stage to make true on their promise of a free show if they defeated the X-Factor juggernaut for the Christmas No.1 spot. Meanwhile Simon Cowell, the antichrist to the 40,000 vociferous music fans present here on a muggy London night, is taking to the BAFTA awards stage, receiving plaudits for his contribution to television. Despite Rage telling us otherwise, perhaps we didn’t make history at all?

Album Review: Street Sweeper Social Club

Album Review: Street Sweeper Social Club
Album: Street Sweeper Social Club
Label: Warner

Ever get the feeling that history just repeats itself, over and over again? Soldiers are still fighting in the desert, the world’s economy has come to another grinding halt and another British summer flies past with weather as depressing as last years. About the only truly original thing to happen in the past twenty or so years is the election of a sort-of black president, and even that is turning out to be the same as it ever was.

EP Review: One Day as a Lion – One Day as a Lion

Artist: One Day as a Lion
EP: One Day as a Lion
Label: Anti

Zach de la Rocha is angry. Clearly he’s still really pissed off about war and lots of other ‘bad stuff’. The kind of thing parents are trying desperately to protect their knife wielding, bastard children. It’s been a long time since the Rage vocalist wrote some new material (if you forget the forgettable contribution to Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 9/11) and rather disappointingly it seems that his muses remain pretty similar to the things he was rapping about on Battle of Los Angeles, which was released a rather unbelievable nine years ago.

Opinion: Old Bands New Again

The Police. Rage Against The Machine. My Bloody Valentine. Stone Temple Pilots. Even the Spice Girls. It would seem that the last year has seen an influx of old bands deciding that retired life just doesn’t do it for them, and have decided to lean upon the crutch of their older legends and restart their careers. The vast amount of reunions that seem to be popping up all over the place is the subject of this article. Well, I say article – I mean rant.

I was gutted when RATM split up. Well, that’s not really true, but I certainly felt like I was missing out on something when I got into them soon after they’d called it a day and gone their seperate ways. But when I heard the news of Audioslave’s split, and the subsequent rumours that abounded on the internet concerning a possible reunion of the revolutionary quartet, I took to the hype with a sense of dissapointment, and certainly never grew as excited as I thought I would be.

RATM: Political protest sell outs.

I think the main problem here is the clear matter of money. The lyrics Zach de la Rocha wrote around ten years ago, about freedom and fighting the man all seem contradictory when you consider that RATM have just become another group who have given into the temptation a financially lucrative comeback tour can offer. Since the band came back to Coachella just over a year ago, they have been touring all over the place, and are now set to play a load of new festivals this year which are set to be a nice little money spinner.

But they aren’t the only ones doing it, and I think my biggest concern with this desire to see old bands reforms is that it asks the question – are we finding new music just can’t replace these bygone eras of music, or is new music just shit compared to what there used to be? Furthermore, are artists just now announcing their retirement tours as a money grabbing concept, then coming back in a blaze of glory a few years later to top up the coffers? I think the trouble is that peopel are more than willing to see these old legends come back in the vain hope that they will be able to experience what they may have initially missed out on.

It’s sad to have to say this, but realistically this stuff is what makes the world go round.

But for me, seeing bands such as RATM reform almost turns me off them completely. I went from being so excited just by listening to their live album, to finding the music now has lost a lot of its passion now that I’m really aware of the money grabbing nature of the men in the band, which I think is a great tragedy for any band or music venture. The big question to the artists is this – are you willing to sell out your ideals for a quick buck? Unfortunately, you can bet your house that most will say yes.