Hello everyone and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back in the week in Punknews. I'm John G filling in for Brittany Strummer this week (she told me that she is "too punx to fool with the internet" this week) and I'll be your guide through some of the juiciest, most popular and otherwise noteworthy stories from the last seven days. Remember, every Punknews story is built from tips from our wonderful, good-looking readers, so get to submitting. Here's what got the strange, slow and old community talking this week:
- Fugazi is putting out their demo tape. Pffft. Hipsters. Amirite?
- We debuted the new single by Sick of it all and it is AWESOME.
- Against Me! is putting out a live album, a documentary, a book, and some sort of salad shooter.
- Oh, Morrissey! You scoundrel!
- Somehow, the new Rancid tribute LP has more bands on it then there are Rancid songs.
- We reviewed a bunch of records from 1994!
Click below to check out this past week's collection of new streaming music, features and interviews. You'll also find our new weekly Q&A and where you can find the Punknews staff to yell at on Twitter. Talk amongst yourselves and we'll see you Monday morning.
Tonight We're Going To Give It 35%
@Punknews I didn't know that Danny DeVito was in a band.
– orgcorepunker (@orgcorepunker) August 16, 2014
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Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:
Q: If Toby Keith showed up at your door late at night and begged "Teach me everything you know about punk rock," but you were unsure if he was genuinely interested or just fucking with you, what would you do?
A:This actually happened to me once before. Here's what I did. when Toby Keith showed up at my door, he asked me to "teach me about the best punk rock music there is." But, the way he was smiling, I was unsure if he was serious, or just messing with me, like the time the jock high school kids came over to us in middle school at lunch and asked to play dungeons and dragons
Anyways, with Toby, I realized that it was a no-lose situation. If he actually did want to learn about punk rock, we were set. If he was just being a douche bag (I know, hard to believe) then I was actually going to fool him.
Acting as if i was unaware of his ploy, I played for Toby Bad Brains, DK's, Clash, Pistols, Black Flag, Ramones-all the classics. Even though I was pretty sure he was messing with me, I just played those bands and said something like "Oh, this is band XYZ. They were important because ABC. A lot of people like them because they did DEF. You might like them, you might not."
I never once said, "You HAVE to like this band or else you are stupid." instead, I acted as if I was just making him AWARE of the bands to educate him. Rarely, does saying something like, "If you don't agree with me on this band then you don't know what you are talking about" attract new fans and rarely (if ever) does it hold true.
So, at the end of the day, I sent Toby home, never once trying to dispel his facade. I was hoping that even if he was trying to mess with me, my true enthusiasm for the bands would encourage him to check out the classics. I didn't really care what he thought of me, because, hey, it's Toby Keith, right? But, if I got him to check out 'Plastic Surgery Disasters,' then my job was done.
Moral of the story- learn the classics and never try to act "Too cool" towards someone because they don't know much about a band you love. Use it as an opportunity to teach. Punk rock is about inclusion, not exclusion.
Even Toby Keith can come in the clubhouse if he wants.
-John G
Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow @aubinpaul, @adamwhite, @johngentile, @kiraface, @Brittastrophee and @BrittStrummer's every move at Twitter.
The People Must Have Something Good To Read
In the past few weeks we've spoken with a number of bands and artists. Don't miss out on these interviews:
- Dexter Holland of The Offspring
- Shawna Potter of War on Women
- Helios Creed of Chrome
- Homeless Gospel Choir
- Spraynard
- Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die
- We'll Do It Live with Chris 2 of Anti-Flag
Previous Story
New Review Update: July 15, 2014Next Story
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Mustard Plug cover Fugazi’s "Waiting Room" in Massachusetts
The Old Firm Casuals in the studio
Rancid, Descendents, Circle Jerks, War On Women, Propagandhi, more on upcoming D.O.A. tribute comp
YOU can buy Lars Frederiksen's guitars
Dixxon sponsors upcoming Social Distortion shows
Dinoslug (feat. Members of Against Me! ex-Direct Hit!) release EP
Lou Koller of Sick Of It All posts update on cancer battle
Kepi Ghoulie criticizes Dixxon clothing for being far right, gets Punk Museum to drop collaboration