Let’s keep the reunion ball rolling. But like, really quietly, because we’re talking about Slowdive. Never before has a band so thoroughly earned its confusing name. The British dream-pop group has announced a very short list of Spring tour dates, and has teased the possibility of new studio material.

While a modern listener might give Slowdive a listen and mark them down as derivative, it’s important to remember that their last performance was twenty years ago. Slowdive was amongst the earlier waves of British shoegaze music – a reflective, sometimes abstract brand of effect-heavy rock. Other famous examples include My Bloody Valentine and, more recently, The Verve. But what was once old is new again – and Slowdive might just be maneuvering to put out some new material.

Things have moved relatively quickly for the band ever since their reunion was announced oh, a little more than a day ago. Their first announced gig was the Primavera Festival in Barcelona. Talk about a nice way to get back in the game. The band’s stated reason for touring is to raise some cash before getting back in the studio. Exciting stuff, founding member Neil Halstead had this to say:

I’m super excited. We had our first rehearsal last week, which was fun. We were surprisingly good. Quite a few of the songs came back quickly. The initial impetus was the idea of doing some new music. It seemed easier to do that because it’s not so public. But then we thought it would be good if we could raise a bit of money to make the record, and doing a couple of gigs would enable us to do that. And that’s the way it shaped up – while we’re rehearsing we can see if we’ve got another record in us.

I’m not interested in any critical reappraisal. It’s more about the people who are into it and like the records rather than proving anything to anyone. We’re not getting paid enough for there to be any real financial incentive for doing it. But there are loads of artistic reasons, especially if we can get a new record together.

Slowdive 2014 Tour Dates

May 19: London – Village Underground
May 30: Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Festival