For the 50-year anniversary of the band, The Monkees is reuniting with an album titled Good Times! with writing contributions from Noel Gallagher, Rivers Cuomo, Ben Gibbard and others.
The album marks the band's first collection of original material since 1997's Just Us, according to Rolling Stone, and it marks the anniversary of the debut of the band's first single, "Last Train To Clarksville," as well as the Monkees' television series.
It's exciting to see the collaboration of such an iconic rock band pairing with some of today's top indie acts from Oasis to Death Cab For Cutie. But it seems that during the writing process, Cuomo forgot the audience he was writing for.
"We all agree that the lyrics in the Rivers Cuomo song needed to be aged up a little," Micky Dolenz, drummer and lead singer of The Monkees, told Rolling Stone. "It sounds like it's about a little girl and I'm 70 years old, so Rivers is re-writing the lyrics."
Those kinds of lyrics may have been more appropriate in the band's youth, but with Dolenz being 70 and Peter Tork, bassist and keyboardist, pushing 74 soon, it starts to look a little unsavory. Thankfully, they all realized that and are going back to the drawing board.
Dolenz elaborated to say that Ben Gibbard's song, "Me & Magdalena," and Zach Rogue's tune, "Terrifying," are both complete, they are just wrapping up Cuomo's song and Gallagher is still crafting lyrics for his contribution to the project. Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne is producing Good Times!.
"They're all keeping with our sensibility," says Dolenz. "I just keep calling it that jangly guitar pop sound, though I used to call it 'progressive bubblegum.'"
According to the band's website, the tour kicks off in May in Fort Myers, Florida and extends into October with stops all across the country. For a full list of dates click here.
