2009: Old And New Music Heroes Return

No matter what style or era of music brings glee to your ears, you may be hitting your iTunes or Amazon this year for the latest of the greatest. There may have been a time when you may have hit a record store for such purchases, but who leaves their house to purchase music anymore?

This year has already gotten off to an incredible start. Dredg, Green Day, Tori Amos, and U2 have already dropped their latest. But hold on, ladies and gents, because the ride is just getting started.

Remember the '90's? Surely it was not that long ago. Of course, people of voting age now may have been born in '91 so maybe the '90's were not all that memorable. For those, I say this is a good time to see what you were missing. For you fans of old-school rap, before it was all money, champagne, and chicks, you have a veritable array to whet your palate. Beastie Boys, Bone Thugs N Harmony (remember them?), Cypress Hill, Diddy (now releasing under Sean "Diddy" Combs - seriously, guy, pick your identity), Dr. Dre, Fugees, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Naughty By Nature, Outkast, Fallon house band The Roots, and Tupac (yes, you read that right. This guy can't be dead) are all releasing in '09. 90's rock swings back in a big way with the returns of Alice In Chains (with 2 albums), Blink-182, Garbage, The Offspring (2010), and Stone Temple Pilots for the hard-rock fans as well as Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20, Our Lady Peace, Rusted Root, Sister Hazel, Sixpence None The Richer, Sugar Ray and Third Eye Blind for those who like their music to go down a little easier. 90's rock staples Collective Soul continue their onslaught of amazing, following the successes of "Youth" and "Afterwords" with the project referred to as "Rabbit" (although guitarist Dean Roland has confirmed on Twitter that this is not the official name of the album). Pearl Jam keep their engines running with "Backspacer" (although the leadoff single, played on Conan O'Brien's first night as Tonight Show host, left a little to be desired). 90's indie vets Barenaked Ladies (sans Steven Page), Blur, and The Flaming Lips will also be returning to the fray, as will R&B throwbacks Ginuwine, Mariah Carey, Maxwell, and Whitney Houston. For the 90's acts that aren't returning, at least their voices will be, with Dolores O'Riordian and Noel Gallagher dropping solo albums.

For you 80's enthusiasts, Cheap Trick, Crowded House, Devo, Extreme, Heart, The Lemonheads, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, and Sting will provide you some new sounds. Metalheads can rejoice as Dream Theater, Killswitch Engage, Megadeth, Porcupine Tree, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra return. For you classic rockers, there's an all-star lineup coming your way. You can look forward to Aerosmith, Black Crowes, Boston, Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople, Joe Satriani, John Fogerty, KISS, Levon Helm, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Roxy Music (original lineup), and ZZ Top gracing your presence with new music.

I promised you newer artists as well, so here they are: Arctic Monkeys, Breaking Benjamin, Cobra Starship, Daughtry, Deer Tick, Elbow (2010), The Fiery Furnaces, The Mars Volta, Muse, New Pornographers, OK Go, Paramore, Spoon, Regina Spektor, The Shins, Tantric, and Tegan and Sara are among the artists with releases on the way. Interpol's Paul Banks releases under Julian Plenti. Collaboration albums include "Horehound" by the Dead Weather (Jack White and Allison Mosshart) and an LP by Discovery (Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij & Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles). Oh yeah, Christina Aguilera, Creed, Kenny Loggins, and Velvet Revolver are back. Y'know, if you cared.

An interesting trend is going to appear in 2009, with artists releasing under multiple bands. This is a far cry from the 90's, when Eddie Vedder was criticized for starting a new band with Stone Temple Pilots (although obviously, Scott Weiland is not quite Eddie Vedder). Big Boi has a solo album underway in addition to Outkast's. Blink-182 side projects Angels and Airwaves and +44 are releasing new albums. Shirley Manson is releasing her own album in addition to Garbage's. Rob Thomas has an album aside from MB20's. Even Ace Frehley of KISS has a solo album coming out, adding to a second trend of band sidemen(and women) releasing albums (keyboardist Bill Champlin of Chicago, bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, bassist Nathan Maxwell of Flogging Molly with his Original Bunny Gang, and guitarist Tony Fredianelli of Third Eye Blind).

I'm sure this has been an overload of information, but it was purposely done that way to show you your options for 2009 (and some for 2010). For a full breakdown, visit Metacritic.

New Artist Watch: Fair To Midland

Serj Tankian can do it all. Best known as the frontman for System Of A Down and for his humanitarian efforts, he's releasing a solo album in the fall, "Elect The Dead". And he has his own record label. A recent discovery on such is the quintet Fair To Midland.

I've only heard the lead-off single, "Dance Of The Manatee", but already I have tingles thinking about what this band can do. They rush in like a sonic cross-pollination of Breaking Benjamin, Evans Blue, and Ra. The vocals jump from pretty to a less high Mars Volta to a melodic growl. The growl doesn't even bother me the way that it could.

The band is selling its image now in a sort of fantasy-book way, as evidenced by their amazingly designed webpage and the lead-off video (which can be found on Page 29 - I'm not kidding). The bio section features lead singer Darroh Suderth with a banjo, of which rock needs more (seriously, listen to "Ty Cobb" by Soundgarden and you won't be able to disagree). I'll be keeping a very close eye on this band, and those of you with harder taste should do so as well.

Slanted spotlight on Elbow to come in the near future. StayTuned!

New Music Alert: Collective Soul

Hollywood

The first single from their upcoming as-yet-untitled new album due in August has hit the 'net (that means MySpace) and will be impacting radio, as much as radio can be impacted these days, imminently as well.

In other CS news, the band will embark on a trifecta bill with Live and Counting Crows, hitting minor league baseball parks all across the country in a series dubbed - are you ready for this - The Rock N' Roll Triple Play Ballpark Tour. Who's the person who comes up with the names for these tours? Thank you, Captain Obvious, for leaving absolutely no confusion about what the nature of the event is (Rock N' Roll) , how many performers there will be (Triple Play), and where it takes place (Ballpark Tour). You got the pun in there, but frankly even that wasn't that good.

New Music Alert: Smashing Pumpkins

Tarantula

Taken from their upcoming album "Zeitgeist," due July 10, their first new studio material since 2000's "Machina/The Machines of God."

Meanwhile, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain (anybody know who else is in the band yet?) have two residences this summer, one in San Francisco and the other in Asheville, North Carolina.

That's all well and great, but where's the full cross-country tour?

New Music Alert: Queens of the Stone Age

"Sick, Sick, Sick"

First single from their upcoming new disc "Era Vulgaris," due June 12 via Interscope. The set follows up 2005's "Lullabies to Paralyze."

New Music Alert: Evans Blue

I am going to try to get these alerts out a lot more often...

But let's get right to it. You can catch the brand new Evans Blue single, "Pursuit," over on their MySpace. The new record, "Pursuit Begins When this Portrayal of Life Ends," comes out on July 24 according to Amazon.

"Pursuit" follows up their 2006 debut, "The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume," which spawned the hit single "Cold (But I'm Still Here)" and an excellent cover of Sarah McLachlan's "Possession."