“Isn’t it great to see the Jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder back together again,” blink-182’s Mark Hoppus joked as his band — together again — took the stage at the Grammy Awards to present the trophy for Best Rock Album to Coldplay. “We used to play music together, and we decided to play music together once again,” added Travis Barker. The bottom line: “Blink-182 is back.”

A statement released just after their Grammy appearance reads, “Hi. We’re blink-182. This past week there’ve been a lot of questions about the current status of the band, and we wanted you to hear it straight from us. To put it simply, We’re back. We mean, really back. Picking up where we left off and then some. In the studio writing and recording a new album. Preparing to tour the world yet again. Friendships reformed. 17 years deep in our legacy.”

The band leave things with the words “Summer 2009. Thanks and get ready…”

The band has been officially on hiatus since February 2005; since then Tom DeLonge has gone on to form Angels & Airwaves, while Hoppus and Barker put together +44. In November 2008, after the jet crash that nearly killed Barker, Hoppus blogged that the threesome had resumed communication. “In the midst of everything else that has happened lately, Tom, Travis, and I have all spoken together,” he wrote. “First through a number of phone calls, and then a couple of weeks ago we all hung out for a few hours. … We’re just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking.” The band’s next album would be their first since 2003’s blink-182.