Incubus announced last June that the band would be taking a one to
two year hiatus. The band said they will use the downtime to
pursue other projects and reunite when the time felt right. "A
lot of people would say culture moves too fast and you need to
remind people, but I would argue there's not any rush," frontman
Brandon Boyd said. "Maybe they'll be a sex scandal or an
arrest or something to keep us in the news."
It's
not often that you hear a band who's still signed to a label and
working on a new album for that label say that they think the label
"dropped the ball" in promoting their last record. The poor
promotion didn't stop Red Jumpsuit Apparatus from selling over a
million copies of their debut album, nor will it stop them from
releasing their follow up sophomore effort Lonely Road on the same label on February 3rd. If the response to the
first single is any indication, this album will be a huge success in
spite of the label as well.
After
a ten year hiatus, Alternative Rock veterans Candlebox returned with
a brand new album in 2008. Lead singer Kevin Martin explained
that the band initially broke up in 2000 to escape their contract
with Maverick, only to find out that Martin was still contracted to
the label, where he would be stuck for another three years. It
wasn't until 2005 when the band got together to compile a best of CD
that they started talking about reuniting.
Possibly one of the most anticipated new albums of 2009 will be the
upcoming new album from Vertical Horizon. The album has easily
been over six years in the making, and according lead singer Matt
Scannell, it's a record that almost never happened. "There was
a time when I wasn't really sure if we would be moving forward as a
band," Scannell told Alternative Addiction in November.
Luckily the band has reunited, and a new album entitled
Burning the Days is slated for a spring 2009 release.
Rumors of Weiland's reunion with Stone Temple Pilots
made a top 5 news story last year, so it would only be expected that
the rumors coming to fruition would land as the biggest story of
2008.
In August of 2007, Weiland told the Washington Post that there
"could be a better final chapter" with STP. In early 2008, the
book on Stone Temple Pilots was officially re-opened when the band
announced plans to play a number of shows together in the summer.
Originally expected to be just a break from fronting Weiland's other
band, Velvet Revolver, the departure was made permanent after a very
peculiar show the band played last March in Glasgow, Scotland when
Weiland announced to the crowd (and his unsuspecting band mates)
that this would be the last Velvet Revolver show. The band
would play just three songs that night, before Weiland left the
stage, and ultimately the band.
Velvet Revolver is still in search of a replacement for Weiland, and
asked to be released from their record label last fall.
Meanwhile, Stone Temple Pilots spent much of 2008 out on the road,
with dates scheduled into 2009. After the tumultuous history
that Weiland has with the members of Stone Temple Pilots there's no
telling how long this reunion will last, but the reunion of this
essential alternative rock band was easily one of the most memorable
things of 2008.
