After a nearly 11-year hiatus, Crowded House is reuniting for a full-fledged tour as well as a new album.

The ensemble is in the process of auditioning new drummers to replace Paul Hester, who committed suicide in 2005. Crowded House's final show was performed on November 24, 1996 in Melbourne, and it recently was issued by Capitol on CD and DVD as Farewell to the World.

The only confirmed tour date is at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Source MusicBoxOnline

Howie Edelson from IceBergRadio reports that Al Green has just released a revamped and expanded version of his 1975 collection Al Green's Greatest Hits under the new title Definitive Greatest Hits. The new 21 track set includes such classic hits as "Let's Stay Together," "Tired Of Being Alone," "Take Me To The River," "I'm Still In Love With You," "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)," "Love And Happiness," and many more. A deluxe edition is also available and features a bonus DVD of performances that span the past 35 years.

The full tracklisting to Al Green's Definitive Greatest Hits: "Let's Stay Together," "Tired Of Being Alone," "Take Me To The River," "I'm Still In Love With You," "Look What You Done For Me," "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)," "Love And Happiness," "Keep Me Cryin'," "Call Me (Come Back Home)," "Livin'For You," "Let's Get Married," "Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)," "L-O-V-E (Love)," "You Ought To Be With Me," "Oh Me, Oh My (Dreams In My Arms)," "Full Of Fire Back Up Train," "I Can't Get Next To You," "Belle," and "Perfect To Me."

Also included is a six-track bonus DVD featuring performances from 1972 and 1978, as well as a recent performance on VH1 Classic. The songs included on the DVD are "Let's Stay Together," "You Ought To Be With Me," "Love And Happiness," "Simply Beautiful," "Rainin'In My Heart," and "I Can't Stop."

We asked Green if it's hard to pick and choose songs from throughout his career for greatest hits collections: "It's hard to kind of narrow 'em down, 'cause they all your children, see? It's like my kids. I can't say I like this one better than I like that one, because that would be preferring one over another. So, it's like 'I'm Still In Love With You,'you know, I like that, too, but I like, still like 'Let's Stay Together.'I like 'Love And Happiness' because I wrote it."

Source IceBergRadio

IceBergRadio reports that America is back on the charts with their first Top 100 album in nearly 25 years. The group, which includes co-founders Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, has just released a double-disc set, Here & Now, which debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at Number 52 -- making it their highest charting debut in three decades.

The new collection features a dozen new tracks co-produced by Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and Fountains Of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger. The second disc features a recent live performance of the group performing their multiplatinum 1975 album History/America's Greatest Hits in its entirety. Included are such legendary America hits as "Sister Golden Hair," "Ventura Highway," "A Horse With No Name," and others.

Gerry Beckley told us that although their current producers come from out of the modern rock scene, they were very respectful of America's body of work: "They were constantly going back to the earlier albums; Homecoming, and Hearts and things, and referencing those to just see if it lined up. But the effort was not to make a 'retro'sound, but to make a timeless sound. And I think that they felt that's what we had captured before and that's what we were after this time. So to be honest, we never went, 'Whoa, this seems left-field.' I think we were really in agreement."

America kick off their next set of dates on March 9th in Glenside, Pennsylvania at the Keswick Theatre.

Source IceBergRadio

David Bowie is releasing a Eighties Greatest Hits Album, which is a bit of an oxymoron some cynical journalist will no doubt claim.

The shape-shifter has collected together 19 of his favourite tracks recorded between 1980 and 1987 and has called them, perhaps unsurprisingly, 'The Best Of 1980/87'.

Together with a DVD of 15 videos the package will be shipped out en masse to record stocking emporiums so you can get your grubby little hands on them on 19 March.

Source Gigwise

Pearl Jam will play 13 shows in Europe in June and will not, as has been claimed, appear at this summer's Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. The band will play six headlining shows and appear at seven festivals, beginning June 8 in Lisbon. The trek runs through June 29 at Belgium's Werchter Festival.

According to a spokesperson, the band, which toured extensively in 2006 in support of their self-titled debut for J Records, has no other shows scheduled for 2007. "Historically, there have been five years or so between our visits to Europe, so it's a treat to go back again so soon," says band manager Kelly Curtis.

There is, however, new Pearl Jam music at radio, in the form of a cover of the Who's "Love Reign O'er Me." As previously reported, the song will appear in the upcoming Adam Sandler film "Reign Over Me" and will also serve as the A-side of the holiday single sent to members of Pearl Jam's Ten Club fan organization.

Ten Club members will get first crack at tickets via a pre-sale, via which some shows begin going on sale today (Jan. 26). General public onsales and opening acts have yet to be announced. According to the band's Web site, the entire floor area for a June 18 gig at London's Wembley Arena will be reserved for fan club members.

Here are Pearl Jam's European tour dates:

June 8: Lisbon (Passeio Maritimo Alges)
June 9: Madrid (Festimad)
June 12: Munich (Olympichalle)
June 13: Katowice, Poland (Chorzow Stadion Slaski)
June 15: Italy (city/venue TBA)
June 16: Vienna (Nova Rock Festival)
June 18: London (Wembley Arena)
June 21: Dusseldorf, Germany (LTU Arena)
June 23: Tuttlingen Germany (Southside Festival)
June 24: Scheebel, Germany (Hurricane Festival)
June 26: Copenhagen (Forum)
June 28: Nijmegen, Holland (Goeffert Park)
June 29: Werchter, Belgium (Werchter Festival)

Source Billboard