Radio Free Punknews

Check out the Punknews Music page to stream all sorts of new music from recent or upcoming releases. Our latest additions include:

• Half of the new album from Elway

Also, don't forget to check out the new 7-inch from Some Sort of Threat and the latest release from Rumspringer.

We've also expanded our podcast empire to something that will eventually resemble a network. Be sure to check out the original Punknews Podcast (subscribe via RSS or iTunes), Adam's Ontario showcase Some Party (subscribe via RSS or iTunes), and Greg Simpson and Greg Moore's Two Gregs One Podcast.

June 23, 2013

Hello everyone and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back in the week in Punknews. I'm Brittany Strummer 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:

• We gave you, the readers, a chance to ask the legendary Larry Livermore some questions.
• Vice gave us some insight on why the word "'punk' is a totally stupid word".
• In an effort to attract the younger and older audience, Warped Tour have offered free admission for parents.
• Some issues arose at the Amnesia Rockfest.
• We had a chat with Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory.
• Dennis Lyxzén of Refused and The International Noise Conspiracy announced his new project, INVSN.
• The Transplants streamed their new album, In A Warzone, in its entirety.

With that, we hand over this Sunday evening to the Punknews community, where anything is possible, from the next amusing-then-overwrought meme, to the creation of bands and message boards, to alienating sports chatter. So talk amongst yourselves, spin some tracks in the Navel Gazing turntable.fm room and we'll see you Monday morning

The People Must Have Something Good To Read

In the past few weeks we've spoken with a number of bands. Don't miss out on these interviews:

• Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory
• We hosted a live Q&A with Larry Livermore
• Ryan Rockwell of Mixtapes
• Dan Vapid
• Ezra Kire of Morning Glory
• Erik Funk of Dillinger Four

Tonight We're Going To Give It 35%

Punknews content is syndicated to a handful of your favorite social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Join our Last.fm group and contribute your listening habits to our weekly charts. All of our high definition video footage can be found at Vimeo.

Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:

Q: How much time does John spend researching and writing his features?

A: It really depends on what I want to go into on the feature and how well I know the band. For example, my Chuck Dukowski piece, which I was pretty proud of, really only took about 30 minutes for the interview, one hour to transcribe, and about 1.5 hours to write, so it really only took about 3 hours total.

By contrast, my World/Inferno piece, which I think might be my personal best so far, took a lot longer. The interview was much longer, and I had to do a lot of research to get the timelines correct, as well as a lot of wading through different sources which contradicted each other. For that one, I'd say the research alone was like 8-12 hours. Though, the actual writing went pretty quickly as once I had the facts, the story pretty much filed in its own story. It probably only took like 90 minutes to write.

Further, my Crass piece, which I think was likely my most informative feature, took a fair amount of research as I had to do a fair amount of interviews and actually went through a bunch of documents. I liked how that one told a story through hard facts, but also had a personal side. I sot of feel that it was a little mish mashy at the end, though. That was probably about 2 hours of interview, 6 hours of research, and 3 hours of writing.

BRAG ALERT: I think my personal favorite, though, not necessarily the best plotted piece, but my favorite to do, was my FLAG piece. I think it did a really good job of describing all the personalities in the band, and I think it's really the first piece to really do portraits of most of the people I interviewed. That had a lot of interviews (about 5-7 hours) and a lot of transcribing. the actual writing zipped by, though. I don't know how long it took, because it was a blur, but probably like 2-3 hours.

Thanks for the interest!

-John G

P.S. A lot of people, for some reason, got upset that the FLAG piece and the WIFS were listed as an "interview" and not as a "feature." Those people, for some odd reason, were really bothered by the fact that those pieces "were not interviews, but were features." Those people were wrong and had no idea what they were talking about. An interview-feature is a type of interview. So, it is both a feature and an interview. they are not mutually exclusive. Refer to "The Rolling Stone INTERVIEW" or "The Esquire INTERVIEW" and you'll see the same type of article. What those people were expecting was a "Q+A" style interview, which is only one type of interview, and is actually a newer form of interview than the feature interview. But more importantly, why were people so unnerved by mere diction? That's an odd thing to get one's panties in a twist over. There are children starving around the world, you know.

Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow @aubinpaul, @adamwhite, @howtobepunk, @johngentile, @dante3000, @ameliaaacline, @kiraface, @mcflynnthm, @kidecono, @wackymondo and @BrittStrummer's every move at Twitter. A few of the new fathers on staff have even started a punk dad blog.

Where else are you online? Share your links below and keep connected with the Punknews community.

Radio Free Punknews

Check out the Punknews Music page to stream all sorts of new music from recent or upcoming releases. Our latest additions include:

• The new 7-inch from Some Sort of Threat
• The latest release from Rumspringer

Also, don't forget to check out the debut full-length from Galactic Cannibal and a new song from Brain Attack.

We've also expanded our podcast empire to something that will eventually resemble a network. Be sure to check out the original Punknews Podcast (subscribe via RSS or iTunes), Adam's Ontario showcase Some Party (subscribe via RSS or iTunes), and Greg Simpson and Greg Moore's Two Gregs One Podcast.

June 16, 2013

Hello everyone and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back in the week in Punknews. I'm Brittany Strummer 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:

• The Bouncing Souls released a video for the song "Comet".
• Rancid announced a series of dates with Tim Timebomb and Friends and The Interrupters.
• The Replacements were revealed as the mystery headliner for Riot Fest.
• Anti-Flag announced a 7-inch vinyl series.
• The Lawrence Arms finished tracking their anticipated new album.
• We sat down with Erik Funk of Dillinger Four.
• AFI released another teaser video of material that may appear on a new release.

With that, we hand over this Sunday evening to the Punknews community, where anything is possible, from the next amusing-then-overwrought meme, to the creation of bands and message boards, to alienating sports chatter. So talk amongst yourselves, spin some tracks in the Navel Gazing turntable.fm room and we'll see you Monday morning

The People Must Have Something Good To Read

In the past few weeks we've spoken with a number of bands. Don't miss out on these interviews:

• Ezra Kire of Morning Glory
• Erik Funk of Dillinger Four
• Thomas Fekete of Surfer Blood
• MC Mana Eini
• Scot Vogel of Terror's interview with James Carroll of Make Do and Mend
• Rob Aston of The Transplants

Tonight We're Going To Give It 35%

Punknews content is syndicated to a handful of your favorite social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Join our Last.fm group and contribute your listening habits to our weekly charts. All of our high definition video footage can be found at Vimeo.

Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:

Q: What's your favorite photo?

A: One of the great things about punk is the plethora of pics from all eras and so many of them have such character. One of my favorites is the photo of Billy Idol, Siouxsie Sioux, and Debbie Juvenile from an early Sex Pistols show.

It's great because it says so much about the people and the scene at the time. Look at how young Billy Idol is. I think this was before he was in Chelsea even, but you can just tell, by that hair and that sneer that he's going to be a rock star. When you think about it, how crazy is it that the sometimes roadie for the Sex Pistols went on to sell many, many, many, many more records than they did.

Then look at Siouxsie. Her shirt, which I think was made by Vivienne Westwood, shows two gay cowboys. Even today that shirt would be a real jaw dropper in public. Plus the concept of two gay cowboys is a really neat idea of commenting on concepts of masculinity. I wonder if that shirt was even more wild back then, of if society (or more specifically, the art/music scene) is actually more conservative now than it was in the mid -70's.

Likewise, Debbie Juvenile's swastika shirt is just as interesting. (Of course we all know that Nazis are bad, evil people.) But, what is Debbie saying by wearing it? Is she just trying to shock? Is she saying that symbols themselves only have the power that you give them and that the swastika actually means nothing? Is she commenting on the evils of countries? Is it in bad taste to just wear a symbol? Is bad taste just a small sin, or is it signifying of deep character flaws?

Who knows and I don't think there is one answer. Likewise, you could never wear that shirt today. I wonder why that is? (I'd also like to point out, that I think in the UK, the swastika is perceived slightly differently then in the USA. In the USA, the swastika seems to represent the horrors of racism. But, in the UK, while it means that, I think it also represents the army that bombed and killed many Britons. I think in that the swastika as perceived in the UK would be analogous to how the Taliban is perceived in the USA right now, though I could be wrong).

What I love about these old pictures is that they raise any many questions as they answer.

-John G

Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow @aubinpaul, @adamwhite, @howtobepunk, @johngentile, @dante3000, @ameliaaacline, @kiraface, @mcflynnthm, @kidecono, @wackymondo and @BrittStrummer's every move at Twitter. A few of the new fathers on staff have even started a punk dad blog.

Where else are you online? Share your links below and keep connected with the Punknews community.

Radio Free Punknews

Check out the Punknews Music page to stream all sorts of new music from recent or upcoming releases. Our latest additions include:

• The debut full-length from Galactic Cannibal
• A new song from Brain Attack

Also, don't forget to check out a new song from A Secret Policeman's Ball, a new song from Light Years, the latest release from Places to Hide, a remastered EP from MxPx, and the new EP from Careers in Science.

We've also expanded our podcast empire to something that will eventually resemble a network. Be sure to check out the original Punknews Podcast (subscribe via RSS or iTunes), Adam's Ontario showcase Some Party (subscribe via RSS or iTunes), and Greg Simpson and Greg Moore's Two Gregs One Podcast.

June 9, 2013

Hello everyone and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back in the week in Punknews. I'm Brittany Strummer 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:

• Bad Religion and Propagandhi both celebrated the 20th anniversary of their iconic releases Recipe for Hate and How to Clean Everything respectively.
• NOFX's Fat Mike and Rocket from the Crypt's Atom Willard joined forces with Against Me! for their new album.
• We unveiled the dates for the Red Scare Across America tour with Masked Intruder, Elway, and Sam Russo.
• We sat down with Rob Aston of The Transplants.
• Russ Rankin of Good Riddance and Only Crime began a writing for the Washington TImes.
• It was reported that Ian Watkins of Lostprophets will stand trial in November for charges against him concerning sexual child abuse.
• The Ataris were added to the Vans Warped Tour.

With that, we hand over this Sunday evening to the Punknews community, where anything is possible, from the next amusing-then-overwrought meme, to the creation of bands and message boards, to alienating sports chatter. So talk amongst yourselves, spin some tracks in the Navel Gazing turntable.fm room and we'll see you Monday morning

The People Must Have Something Good To Read

In the past few weeks we've spoken with a number of bands. Don't miss out on these interviews:

• Scot Vogel of Terror's interview with James Carroll of Make Do and Mend
• Rob Aston of The Transplants
• Mat Miner of Liberator
• Travis Dopp of Small Brown Bike
• Trevor Keith of Face to Face
• Jello Biafra

Tonight We're Going To Give It 35%

Punknews content is syndicated to a handful of your favorite social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Join our Last.fm group and contribute your listening habits to our weekly charts. All of our high definition video footage can be found at Vimeo.

Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:

Q: Do you have a single favorite band? If not, do you mind being asked to pick one? Same for albums.

A: I totally do. THE ROLLING STONES, baby. I have to give insane props to the stones because they ratcheted up rock music by a factor of 90 in the early 60's, merged rock with soul and gospel, have evolved with each release through rock, soul, country, disco, punk, funk, dance, and so much more, and have like a million awesome albums. Plus, they destroy it live.

People like to name check bands that were only around for a few years before breaking up, or only have one or two greta albums, and then say "Just think of what they could have achieved!" (I like those bands, too.) But, the thing is, the Stones DID achieve what their early releases suggested. They achieved that, revolutionized rock music, and then KEPT going for another FORTY years, and kept making awesome music. Not every Stones release is good, but at least they tried and took a lot of risks. A lot of people like to favor flash in the pan bands because that's easy. Joy Division won't ever make a bad album because it's impossible. by contrast, the stones had the guts to keep going and keep trying new things. For me, longevity wins out and man, the Stones STILL rock.

My favorite album is The Stones' Some Girls because it represents so many things. First and foremost, it is an awesome album. But it also shows the stones tackling new styles, like funk-disco, punk, and 70's style country, and making it their own. Plus, "Beast of Burden", baby. BEAST. OF. BURDEN.

The stones doing punk in the late 70's. What could be better, music wise? Nothing.

Also, they released one of the funniest music videos of all time before music videos were even a thing. Just look at how melancholy Charlie Watts looks. JUST LOOK AT HIM!

Close runners up, in no order, and in an incomplee list, would be: AC/DC, Judas Priest, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Ramones, GWAR, Slayer, Lee Scratch Perry, Misfits, Samhain, Danzig, Billy Joel, Elton John, Yellowman, Gnarboots, World/Inferno Friendship Society, Bauhaus, Amebix, Jello and Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Ice Cube, Ice-T, NWA, Public Enemy, Digital Underground, The Coup, Funkadelic, Mikey Dread, Rush, Joy Division, Bad Brains, Mischief Brew, Pink Floyd, Zounds, Frank Zappa, Dwarves, Bob Dylan, Sublime, Led Zeppelin, Mott the Hoople, David Bowie, Celtic Frost, Queen, Ceremony, Stevie Wonder, The Damned, Beastie Boys, Dexys, Peter Tosh, Minor Threat, Rudimentary Peni, Crass, Vivian Girls, Babies, La Sera, Johnny Cash, Choking Vicim/Leftover Crack, Junior Murvin, Max Romeo, Sam Cooke, Frankie Valli, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, The Cure, No Doubt, and MEEEEELLLLLLVVVVVIIIIIIIIINNNNSSSSS!!!!!!

Really, the point of all this is, is to keep your mind open about music. I recommend giving everything a chance and if you don't like it, revisit it later. I used to hate Parliament/Funkadelic and now I'm a maniac. I find that at some points in your life, you just don't have the experience to be able to appreciate what a certain band is doing at a certain time in your life and you can't hear their intentions. Would you believe that I used to not like the Melvins? It's crazy, but true. When I first heard Houdini, I thought it was boring. I came back to "Nude with boots" years later and it totally clicked. Man, I am glad that I kept an open mind and re-checked.

Don't waste time hating music. Keep searching for those golden jams. There are more than a life times worth out there.

-John G

p.s. I am still trying to appreciate Hot Water Music and their ilk, and man, I am just not getting it at all. We are on like year five here of me just hearing a bunch of sedate guys with throaty voices sing about things that I don't care about. Same with Jawbreaker. I feel like everyone in that band has an iron deficiency. Same with bands like Captain, We're Sinking and all those guys. But, hell, I could be wrong. Maybe those bands ARE good and I just can't hear it yet. Maybe one of these days I WILL get it. The quest for sweet jams continues indefinitely. Until then, Amebix singing about ancient pagan rites it is. WE ARE STRAINING AT THE LEASH!!!!!

Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow @aubinpaul, @adamwhite, @howtobepunk, @johngentile, @dante3000, @ameliaaacline, @kiraface, @mcflynnthm, @kidecono, @wackymondo and @BrittStrummer's every move at Twitter. A few of the new fathers on staff have even started a punk dad blog.

Where else are you online? Share your links below and keep connected with the Punknews community.