.ng-section1 { font-size: small; border-bottom: 1px solid #C5C5C5; width: 70%; font-weight: bold; padding: 1em 0 0em 2em; } .ng-section2 { font-size: xx-small; padding: 0 0 2em 3em; } Hello everybody and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back at the week in Punknews. I'm Adam White and I'll be your guide through some of the most popular, notable, and otherwise attention getting stories of the past seven days. Each and every Punknews story is built from tips contributed by you fine folks, and here's what got the strange, slow, old people in the community talking… The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday This week's most popular stories Given the line-up each year it's not too hard to see why The Fest has become one of the most important US punk festivals of the year. The official line up hasn't been unveiled by the organizers yet, but flyers are appearing online revealing that bands like Leatherface, None More Black, Less Than Jake, Atom and his Package, Bouncing Souls and Dillinger Four will be among the 250 slated to converge on Gainesville this Halloween. Not to be overshadowed (well, maybe), Liskfest in Irvine, CA will feature bands like Pennywise, Gorilla Biscuits, Strung Out and the Vandals this October. We saw an interesting article this week discussing life without labels for indie bands empowered by the new digital landscape. It's fitting that this came out the same week that Pulley revealed that they were going it alone and parting ways with Epitaph for their next record. I'm sure 30 Seconds To Mars would love to be in that situation, given that their label Virgin is suing them for $30 million.
We had a number of bands speaking out on political issues this week. Anti-Flag's Justin Sane and Chris #2 spoke out on the US elections and music industry. The band also launched a clothing drive with Atticus for their UK shows. Rage Against The Machine announced their free Tent State Music Festival to End the Warto coincide with the DNC Convention. Saul Williams spoke his mind on everything from presidential politics to animal cruelty and more in a letter as well. Maybe everyone would just get along better if we vote in Agnostic Front's Vinnie Stigma for President.
This week saw new tour dates from Bad Religion (Europe, Canada, US), Death Cab for Cutie (US), and the Sword (supporting Metallica). The CMJ music marathon will see appearances from bands like Broken Social Scene, Jay Reatard, Minus the Bear and Parts & Labor. The Mad Caddies talked about their plans for upcoming releases while Of Montreal detaled their new album's unusual packaging. On the audio front we saw country legend Glen Campbell covering Green Day and a full album stream of The Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound. Paint It Black also confounded fans with a link to a high production value video, of sorts for the track "We Will Not."
This week ended on a sad note with the death of the Skatalites' Johnny Moore (1938-2008). We also had troubling news that Jerry Finn has been taken off life support. The producer is currently in hospital following a severe brain hemorrhage last month. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we spoke with John Joseph McGowan of Cro-Mags (interview) and Jonathan Cummins of Bionic (interview). As always we brought you new Streaming Music including, a full album stream from Boston's Deadly Sins, and Resignation Day from Minneapolis' Banner Pilot.
So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from Gaslight Anthem, Lagwagon, The Academy Is…, and Bridge and Tunnel with tours kicking off from As Friends Rust (Gainesville, Europe), Reggie and the Full Effect (Final Tour), and Authority Zero / Architects (US).
Check the Punknews Music page to stream all sorts of anticipated new music including Static Radio NJ's new full length An Evening of Bad Decisions, Think Fast! Records act No Harm Done, the new album from Gainesville, FL-based Anchor Arms, Shot Baker's full length Take Control, two new songs from Nashville, TN's Cactusâs, Quote Unquote act Cheap Girls, blues influenced punk act Bottle Up and Go, Sacramento, CA's Trash Talk, Austin's The Dirty Hearts, the full length East/West from Bridge and Tunnel, Connecticut-based atmospheric hardcore act They and The Children, and Montreal-based skate punks The Real Deal,
A Coastline Ending
Earlier this month, A Coastline Ending released their new full length, In the Name of Progressionâ¦. To celebrate, we've got a prize packaged to give away to one lucky reader.
Terror
Los Angeles-based hardcore outfit Terror are currently on a huge US tour in support of their third full-length release, The Damned, The Shamed, which just hit stores via Century Media. We've teamed up with the label to give away a set of 2 tickets for each week of the US and Canadian dates. Wanna go mosh it up? Well, head over to the band's MySpace page, choose your city and date.
Win a Sakes Alive!! test pressing
Rochester, New York's Sakes Alive!! are gearing up for the launch of their new 7" on Barrett Records. The Act I 7" will feature the tracks "I'm Religious," "Staff Meeting" and "Relax," with 100 copies pressed on transparent green vinyl and 400 on mixed colour marble. The Syracuse based label has a preorder started for the record, with MP3s included. Look for it in stores on August 18th. To celebrate the new release the band is giving prize packs featuring extremely rare test pressings of the new record.
Your trusty Punknews staffers and reviewers have all sorts of projects on the go, everything from poorly spelled and oft neglected blogs to big official world domination schemes. Make sure to check out editor and videographer Chris Moran collection of recordings online at Vimeo, editor Justin August's blog Kinder Words, editor Adam White's blog 2:59, and editor Jesse Raub's short fiction webzine Bitter Press.
Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow Adam White, Jesse Raub and Justin August's every move at Twitter.
We've theorized that you visit other websites out there, and we know it can be tough to leave the calming blue glow of the `Org, so we'll help by infecting the rest of the web with Punknews content. Befriend us on the Punknews.org MySpace page, network on the Punknews.org Facebook group and Punknews.org Facebook fan page, follow us on Twitter, and contribute your listening habits to the weekly charts at the Punknews.org Last.fm group.
Why register on Punknews.org? Registered users can post their comments under articles and reviews. Users can also rate bands and reviews, building recommendations and links between artists for the whole community to share and discover. Your favourite records and artists, latest comments and your own customizable profile will show up on your own personal user page.
Signing up for an account is free, easy and private. With an account you can remain effectively anonymous and your email will address be hidden from everyone. Create your account today!