This week, while interviewing yet another of my punk rock heroes, the legendary Grant Hart of Minneapolis punk-poppers Husker Du, the conversation turned to the inevitable: will there be a Husker Du reunion?

You can read next week’s Live in the Clubs story to find out the answer to this question, although the following quote from him, about band reunions in general, will probably clear things up:

“I think, in a certain way it — sometimes other people have done it, and it cheapened their legacy. Like the music was important enough to die for at one point in time, and now it will just be part of the investment portfolio or something.”

I only bring this up because, as I’m sure most music fans have noticed, there’s been a rash of reunions lately, from all genres of music. Just off the top of my head, this decade has seen reunions from The Police, Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots, Phish, The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., The Meat Puppets, Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes, The Smashing Pumpkins (if you want to call it a reunion), The Dead Kennedys sans Jello Biafra (again, does this count?) and Mission of Burma. And I’m sure I left out a ton.

These bands all broke up for differing reasons — artistic differences, personal differences, boredom, lack of commercial success, dead band members, et cetera. Many of the principals went on to successful (or not-so-successful) solo careers, all the while with die-hard fans clamoring for these reunions.

This year seems to be the return of the ’90s — we’ve got Creed, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit and No Doubt all hitting the road again, and in most cases threatening new albums. The first two on that list are heading to SPAC this summer.

I’ve been watching this develop with some amusement for the past few years, but all I can say now is enough already. Are we really so nostalgic that we need reunions from bands that haven’t even had time to develop a legacy? I mean, I can understand The Police, and I’m biased towards Dinosaur Jr., but does the world really need the triumphant return of Limp Bizkit’s tone-deaf, frat-boy rap-metal?

I guess there’s nothing really new about artists crapping all over their own legacies, in all mediums (I’m glaring in your direction, George Lucas). And some bands don’t even have to break up to do that (Weezer, anyone?)

And in many occasions, the reunions work — I submit last year’s excellent Police and Elvis Costello pairing at SPAC, although getting in and out of the venue was a nightmare, and ultimately made the whole evening feel like a bit of a let-down. Dinosaur Jr.’s new album matched the original trio’s first three, in my opinion.

But for every successful reunion, there’s the (arguably) awful ones. I’ll probably get a lot of flack for this, but when I saw the Pixies in 2004, they were far less than spectacular, with openers Mission of Burma wiping the floor with them. And replacing dead members with ringers (Alice in Chains), even if they’re related to the deceased (Led Zeppelin), just isn’t cool.

With all the hype and bandwagon jumping going on, I’m definitely starting to think twice about wishing that my favorite, way-past-their-prime bands would get back together. Although if Bob Mould and Grant do decide to revive Husker Du for a few extra bucks, I’ll be first in line.

What do you think about this reunion trend? Any that you’d like to see? Seen some good ones, or bad ones? Leave a comment below.