Toadies Deliver || May 9, 2008

News has been trickling out of the Toadies camp ever since they self-leaked footage of a new album being recorded a few months ago. The news has ramped up recently as well--they're performing at an upcoming Stars playoff game, they're starting their own music fest at Possum Kingdom Lake, they're announcing more tour dates... the next step seems obvious.

Wedged into today's Dd spam folder, right between "Keira Knightley Stunning photo!!!" and "Now You Can Enhance Your Sex Life at the Lowest Prices," was an anonymous tip with just the word "Toadies" in the title.

The new Toadies album will be officially announced to the public on Monday, May 12, 2008.

The new album will be called No Deliverance and will be released on August 19, 2008.

There will be a new website for the album, www.nodeliverance.com. It will be up and running on Monday.

Site's not up yet, but an Internet whois on nodeliverance.com shows that Kirtland Records, the band's label, has snatched the name up, so this seems to check out. Additionally, the anonymous e-mail had this to say:

The Toadies are playing Lollapalooza this summer. The show will be officially announce [sic] on Monday, May 12, 2008.

Details to come.

So there you have it--1994 is back at Lollapalooza (NIN, Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead). The e-mail also included a statement about how the Toadies street team is supposed to keep these bits of news private, but, well, the street team isn't that hard to sign up for. None of this is entirely shocking; the Toadies, in only a few "comeback" concerts, have already outpaced the Burden Brothers in terms of crazed fans and interest, and the band's previous hang-ups about record labels have to seem irrelevant and petty this many years later. If they're happy getting the band back together, good for them, and good for DFW music--you can't tell me that renewed interest in the area's biggest mid-'90s mainstream rock success is a bad thing. It's not the local music breakout dream for some, but the Toadies are a big-deal gateway drug. Bring it on.

The only question that remains: Who's the new bassist? The team had a notice on their MySpace page asking if people wanted to be the guy/gal "playing those catchy bass lines," but that blog post has since vanished. We know Lisa Umbarger's never playing in a band with Todd Vaden Lewis, but is Baboon's Mark Hughes not returning? I guess we'll find out at Game Three of the Stars/Red Wings series.