We're getting the band back together

The rock reunion has long been the subject of scorn and ridicule, and for good reason. Jane's Addiction seemed to embody everything that was great about alternative music in the '90s while they were around: they were dark and depraved, but catchy and expansive. Daring, artsy, funny, devil-may-care-- and then, at the height of their popularity following the release of Ritual de lo Habitual and the first Lollapalooza tour, they broke up. Much as I knew I was going to miss them, I had to kind of admire them for going out on top.

And then they reformed for a reunion tour with Flea on bass because original bassist Eric Avery was the only with sense enough to leave their legacy alone. And Jane's Addiction is only one example in the endless parade of bands that are flogging their crusty reputations to make a buck.

But a really odd thing has been happening over the past few years: A handful of significant alternative bands from the '80s and '90s have been reforming and putting out records that, while perhaps not the classics that their early stuff is, are vibrant, current and excellent albums that deepen and refine their earlier efforts.

I could be wrong, but it seems like the trend really began with Wire, who put out the LP Send back in 2003, garnering a 7.5 from Pitchfork and even then only because they'd already released most of the album on two previous EPs.

Then came Mission of Burma, the Boston stalwarts who re-formed to put out OnOffOn, then arguably bettered that already solid comeback effort with last year's The Obliterati.

Now, just this past week, Dinosaur Jr's Beyond arrived in my box. This disc even looks like an old Dinosaur Jr record, complete with handwritten band name and title on the front cover. The album's also resolutely lo-fi, and it sounds like they J. Mascis and company picked up right where they left out.

Of course, I'm not hear to review Beyond, which will happen later when I've gotten more familiar with it, but rather to talk a little bit about what makes bands like Wire, Mission of Burma and Dino Jr able to come back to relevance (well, at least critical relevance) when Jane's Addiction put out Strays, which basically sucked.

Music fans of an older generation are enamored of pronouncing rock and roll dead. They point to things like classic rock songs in car commercials as a sign of the death of rebellion in rock and roll, as if that were what rock and roll were about. Now, I'm not going to argue that rock songs in commercials is a good thing per se, but I think we have to face facts and acknowledge that rock and roll stopped being rebellious a long long time ago, and consider the fact that it may just have grown up, and more gracefully than a lot of boomers have managed.

For groups like Wire, Mission of Burma and Dinosaur Jr, I really don't think rock was some kind of tool to be used against the man. For Wire, it was maybe a way to rail against the mores of upper class England. And for MOB and Dino Jr, it was maybe a way to carve out their own niches in New England (which, let me tell you, is harder than it looks), but I think these bands were primarily interested in the freedom granted them by the idea of being in a band, by the idea of making something personal into something they could share.

But I guess maybe I doubt that that separates them from Jane's Addiction. Again, we've circled back into a discussion of authenticity, which is something I'd generally like to avoid whenever possible. I don't believe my ideas about who's realer than who are very illuminating.

Maybe-- just maybe-- what lets a band hold on to whatever made them great in the first place is as elusive as what made them great. It probably works better for bands that were ahead of their time than bands that were distinctively of their time-- for instance, a lot of Jane's Addiction's stuff now sounds awfully tinny and metally and kind of bombastically huge in a way that hasn't held up very well, whereas Wire and MOB made albums in the early '80s that sound like they could have come out yesterday.

To continue down that line, I have little doubt that Fugazi could reform five years from now and put out a great record. I doubt the same could be said for Smashing Pumpkins.

I'm still working on it. Dinosaur Jr review to follow soon.