E-Mail This Article to a Friend Season of the witches Strange reunions and dizzy debuts BY MATT ASHARE

It’s 2004, and the record industry still can’t seem to figure out what to do about digital downloading. And in the end, that’s much bigger news (or the lack thereof) than any one release. But it isn’t stopping any of the major labels from pretending it’s business as usual as they start dropping some biggies in anticipation of the summer touring season. Topping the list is Aerosmith’s new Honkin’ on Bobo (Columbia), which hits stores March 30. The disc, which dovetails nicely with the just-released Eric Clapton Robert Johnson tribute Me and Mr. Johnson (Warner Bros.), takes Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and the rest of the guys back to their roots in the blues. There’s one fresh Tyler/Perry tune mixed in; the other tracks are covers of classic blues tunes like "Baby Please Don’t Go," "Eyesight to the Blind," and "Road Runner." It’s nothing anyone who’s seen the band live hasn’t heard before, but this is the first time they’ve dedicated almost an entire album to cover tunes. (See Ted Drozdowski’s feature in Arts for a full report.) Also on March 30, we’ll have a chance to gauge the impact of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl slip when the breast-baring diva releases Damita Jo on Virgin. The disc draws on the usual suspects from the song-doctoring world, including Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Babyface, Kayne West, and Dallas Austin. And though its release been delayed from February to April and now May, word has it that Maverick has settled on May 18 as the date for Alanis Morissette’s new album, which is still titled So-Called Chaos.

With OutKast setting the tone for hip-hop crossover collectives, the timing may finally be right for Dilated Peoples. This group, who’ve always kept one foot planted in old-school turntablism, have gone all out to appeal to a broad audience with Neighborhood Watch, which is set for release by Capitol on April 6. They brought the Alchemist on board for a little production help and producer Kayne West into the house for some guest vocals. There are also cameos by Planet Asia, Defari, Phil Da Agony, and Devin the Dude. Back on March 30, the underground and very politicized rap outfit Dead Prez deliver their second album; called RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta (Columbia), it’s sure to be full of praise for the current Bush Administration . . . On a more proven mainstream note: Eminem’s posse, D12, are back with the imaginatively titled D-12 World (Interscope) on April 27.

VH1 is making a mint these days peddling nostalgia not just from the ’70s but also from the ’80s. Which could bode well for Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, the duo who are better known to those who’d like to rule the world as Tears for Fears. They’re back together again and gearing up for their first release in more than a decade (Orzabal kept the Tears for Fears name alive without Smith up through 1996, with ever diminishing returns, until he finally threw in the towel). Everybody Loves a Happy Ending (Arista) comes out April 6. Although the return of Blondie drew more attention than anyone, including the band, had any reason to expect, it doesn’t appear to have been anything compared with the reception they received overseas. That’s why their first album in five years, The Curse of Blondie, has yet to be made available here in the US, even though it’s been out for a while in Europe. On April 6, the disc, which includes an homage to Joey Ramone, will appear here on Sanctuary. Another blast from the not-so-distant past, Smiths singer Morrissey, is ready to release You Are the Quarry (also on Sanctuary) on May 18. Word has it that this one’s a harder-hitting, less-melancholy album than his previous solo work — he even retained Blink-182/AFI/Green Day mixmaster Jerry Finn to produce it. I’m guessing Morrissey’s idea of an upbeat album is a little different from your average person’s. And proto-punk survivor Patti Smith makes her Columbia debut April 27 with trampin’, whose title track has her daughter making her recording debut as a pianist.

One of the strangest albums coming out this spring is Good News for People Who Love Bad News. The second Epic release by the Issaquah (Washington) band Modest Mouse, it’s due April 6, and if it doesn’t convince the folks at Epic that they’re in over their heads with this outfit, nothing will. Not only does it include cameos by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and some fiddle playing and upright bass, but it was produced by Dennis Herring, whose past work has included hard-to-market albums by Camper Van Beethoven and Throwing Muses. Another band who’ve somehow held onto their major-label (Warner Bros.) deal, the Flaming Lips, remixed one of the disc’s tracks along with help from their long-time producer Dave Fridmann.

Also on the strange-but-true-front: former Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, who also did some time in Smashing Pumpkins before Billy Corgan broke that band up, is now a solo artist. Her homonymous Capitol debut, which includes backing accompaniment by Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Josh Homme, Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, and Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, is scheduled for May 18.

A LOT OF BIG LOCAL NEWS has been coming from the West Coast as of late, with the Pixies reuniting to play the Coachella festival the first weekend in May and LA resident Lou Barlow and Jason Lowenstein mounting a semi-unplugged reunion tour using their old Sebadoh name (they’ll be at T.T. the Bear’s Place April 25). Even more tantalizing is the May 4 date for the new Mission of Burma studio album. The reunited Burma, who have been honing their chops at festival gigs here and there, recorded 12 brand new songs and three older tracks that had never gotten proper studio treatments for ONoffON (Matador). Although there’s no indication that the Blake Babies, who reunited a couple years back, have anything more in the works, frontwoman Juliana Hatfield is gearing up to put out her first solo album since 2000, when she released Beautiful Creature and Juliana’s Pony: Total System Failure on Rounder’s Zoë imprint. Her new In Exile Deo sticks more to the pop singer-songwriter feel of Beautiful Creature than the noisy grunge of Juliana’s Pony — it even features string arrangements, along with Peter Adams on keyboards, Josh Lattanzi on bass, and Damon Richardson and Steve Scully on drums. It’s set for May 18 on Zoë. That’s also the date Touch and Go have settled on for the release of the second album by the New Year, whose line-up sports Bedhead brothers Matt and Bubba Kadane along with former Come guitarist Chris Brokaw. Called The End Is Near, the disc puts Brokaw behind the drum kit, a job he used to have in the slo-core outfit Codeine.

Two deserving local bands will be taking a stab at reaching a national audience this spring. Runner & the Thermodynamics make the leap with a homonymous disc on the indie label Ace Fu. The CD comes out March 30; the band will celebrate with a T.T.’s show on April 10. Piebald are taking a similar route by releasing their new All Ears, All Eyes, All the Time May 18 on the punk label SideOneDummy. On a somewhat more ridiculous note: local boy Jordan Knight, in what seems a desperate attempt to revive his career, revisits the past on Jordan Knight Performs NKOTB: The Remix Album (Empire Musicwerks). For those of you too young to remember: NKOTB is trying-to-be-hip shorthand for New Kids on the Block. The disc is intended to whet fans’ appetites for a new Knight solo album due sometime this summer, but no one’s holding his or her breath.

Oh, and if the new acoustic Godsmack EP, The Other Side, leaves you wanting for some of the band’s harder stuff, you’re in luck: original Godsmack guitarist Lee Richards has a new band called Dropbox, and they have a full-on electric-guitar-fueled homonymous debut set for April 13 release on Sully Erna’s Realign Universal imprint. Erna himself plays drums on nine of the disc’s 12 tracks, and the first single sounds an awful lot like a brooding, Alice in Chains–style Godsmack anthem.