:: MySpace gained a million users.

:: The latest from The Mars Volta, The Malkin Jewel, is available for streaming. Thank goodness At the Drive-In is getting back together.

:: Listen to and watch the lyric video for Meshuggah’s Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion.

:: Uncle Jesse is determined to ruin the Beach Boys reunion.

:: While you were punching in your credit card number to buy tickets to see At the Drive-In, Pussy Riot was getting arrested for protesting in Red Square.

:: There might be a CBGB reopening, so everyone can complain about how it’ll never be like the original.

:: Marky Ramone took time from his food tour in Italy to dispute a recent leather jacket auction.

:: The touring drummer for Journey, Deen Castronovo, was booked on charges of “coercion, assault, criminal mischief, interfering with making a report and harassment.”

Not long after I found out that At the Drive-In was reuniting for Coachella, I found out that we’re getting a Refused reunion at Coachella, too. My head is ‘sploding.

Here are some words from the band about why we’re getting a Refused reunion. Man, I just typed “Refused reunion.” Anyway, here are those words:

We never did The shape of punk to come justice back when it came out, too tangled up in petty internal bickering to really focus on the job. And suddenly there’s this possibility to do it like it was intended. We wanna do it over, do it right. For the people who’ve kept the music alive through the years, but also for our own sakes.

We feel that you deserve it and we hope the feeling is mutual.

See you in the pit.

That’s right, At the Drive-In is reuniting! We don’t have a lot to go on right now, but it looks like the band will at least be playing Coachella.

Words can’t begin to describe what I’m feeling right now.

I’m back. It’s been a while. It has been a combination of busyness, sickness and laziness. When those three get together, it’s like a Voltron of not getting columns written… or something.

Anyway, let’s get down to brass tacks. I didn’t listen to any of your musical suggestions, because they were so long ago and I forgot what they were. So let’s start again this week. Let me lay down the ground rules for those of you that are new to the table: suggest a band or artist that I should listen to. Genre matters not; the only criteria is that should be relatively new. I’d say in the past five years or so. I pretty much know about all the old, good shit. Now it’s time to get down with what the kiddos are listening to.

A couple of weeks ago I went and saw Dashboard Confessional on his Swiss Army Romance 10th anniversary tour. The logic in deciding to go to this concert show (I can’t bring myself to call any musical event a concert, it’s just not in my punk rock blood) seemed pretty flawless for my old ass. A band I used to love when I was 18 performing the album that made me love them in the first place?

What could go wrong?

Almost fucking everything.

Read the rest of this week’s Old and Jaded.

Artist: At the Drive-in
Album: Relationship of Command
Release Date: Sept. 12, 2000
Label: Fearless/Grand Royal

At the Drive-in‘s One-Armed Scissor, the single off of their mammoth swan song release, might be like the Kennedy assassination for post-rock bellwethers — they know where and when they first heard the jagged start-stop intro on mainstream radio. They immediately began to map out a clear trajectory for the band’s sojourn toward selling out-dom to a major label (or was Grand Royal too major?), using an indie rock-approved, telemetry-guided magic bullet. Something like that.

If you can push aside the mental fog of my awkward, mixing analogy, just try to understand one thing: Drugs can and will hurt you. But before they do, they will elevate your artistic output to godlike levels. This band is exemplary. I will explain this.

But first let’s return my muddled prose concerning our nicotine-addled record store rat. After the song ends with Bixler-Zavala’s gonzo-rage peaking, the DJ is wondering what in tarnation his program director is thinking, and he slips out a slick Freudian, betraying his ignorance of the bombast that just preceded him. Our elitist hero rolls his eyes as the DJ tries to explain the goofball sonics he just heard, and our hero clicks off just before the first bass buzz note of the new Korn song slapped through.

So that’s kind of like the Zapruder film (OK, I’ll stop it) that serves as an overture for this tragic scenario. ATDI festered in the underground before starting to get really, really big for almost no discernible reason. On the verge of breaking through, they promptly broke up — again for no seeming cause. They did offer a few explanations, but I believe they can ultimately be linked back to the two afro dopeheads.

To wit: After their sudden collapse, At the Drive-In got their mitosis on and split into two very different bands. The druggies formed the meandering, incomprehensible Mars Volta, while Hajjar and Ward (the latter having one of the most distinct rock voices of the decade) did the wonderfully plucky Sparta. Now do you see where substance abuse will get you, and where you go when you do things right?

There, I said it. I was also the second gunman.

I was lucky enough to see Split Lip/Chamberlain during one of their three initial reunion shows a few months back. It really was one of those evenings where you come away from a show in awe.

And tonight the band has decided to make at least one more foray into live shows at New York’s Bowery Ballroom with freaking Walter Schreifels opening.

Even though Split Lip got back together a little bit before the recent rash of reunions, it’s easy to lump them into that group. It’s also easy to feel like plenty of those folks are just trying to make a grab at some cash (which is exactly what Cedric Bixler-Zavala said an At the Drive-in reunion would be, if it ever happened).

Not so for the boys from Indiana who called Doghouse Records their label home. “We were very careful about those things. We all always thought about the way things could be perceived or seen,” frontman David Moore recently told Buzzgrinder when discussing the appearance of insincerity on the part of bands getting back together.

Read more about how Split Lip/Chamberlain got back together.

As if having new Coalesce material wasn’t reason enough to change your pants, the ability to own said material on vinyl certain is. That’s why someone should pre-order the OXEP 12-inch for me, today being my birthday and all.

The only crappy part is that you can’t order any of the clear version of the record. Don’t know why, they just said so. I’m assuming those might be for the band to sell, but that’s just a guess. Anyway, here’s the breakdown of what was pressed:

• 100 Clear
• 500 180GM Black
• 500 White/Silver Split
• 500 Silver

And speaking of vinyl that might make a good birthday present for bloggers with horrible taste in music, you could also purchase:

• Guided By Voices – Suitcase 3 12-inch
• Cave In – Planets of Old 12-inch
• At the Drive-in/Burning Airlines split seven-inch picture disc
• Young Widows – Old Wounds Strawberry Dipped Sky 12-inch
• Mount Eerie – Pts. 6 & 7 10-inch and book
• Ted Leo/Zach Galifianakis – Fiona Apple split seven-inch
• Country records circa 1965-1974

The rock ‘n’ roll knows no age — or genre, for that matter.

For better or worse, band reunions are happening at a faster pace than at any other time we can remember, perhaps due to the internet recreating interest on formerly-defunct artists’ discographies. Or it could be the bad economy. Musicians have to eat, too, you know.

So the Buzzgrinder staff would like to add to the pile of buzz by suggesting some other long gone — or not so long gone — bands that should reunite, in the hopes that they may be resurrected.

At the Drive-in
After Cedric Bixler-Zavala said that an ATDI reunion might happen — for the right amount of money — people were doing a lot of pants-changing. Until, that is, we talked to Jim Ward and his words made us a good bit less hopeful of a reunion. We’ll see though. Let’s just hope All Tomorrow’s Parties or Pitchfork have a big enough checkbook.

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
I mean, really, Ryan? We all know you were made to play music. You are probably going crazy sitting at home hugging Mandy Moore. It was quite obvious that you were the happiest you’ve ever been with the Cardinals, so why not give them a steady paycheck and get back on the road?

Damn the Machine
It’s not often that one comes across a prog rock band that writes actual songs and not inaccessible borefests of virtuosity. Ex-Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland graced us with DTM’s only album and it’s hard to pinpoint what he was actually going for here, but the identity crisis only fueled the unorthodox song structures that were strangely radio-friendly. Extremely overlooked.

Read more about bands we want to see again.

It’s always awesome when punk rockers go country — or at least alt-country. Or folk. Or just punk with an acoustic guitar. And that’s what happened last year when Lucero‘s Ben Nichols, Hot Water Music‘s Chuck Ragan and Avail‘s Tim Barry got together with a few other friends for the inaugural Revival Tour.

Well, it’s back for a second year, and there are a lot more folks involved this time around. Granted, not everyone is playing every show, but with a mix including Ragan, Barry, Jim Ward (At the Drive-In/Sparta/Sleepercar), Steven Brodsky (Cave In), Kevin Seconds, Dave Hause (The Loved Ones), Joey Cape (Lagwagon) among others, you know it’ll .

Plus it kicks off here in Louisville at Skull Alley! Represent!

See the Revival Tour dates and lineup.