September 28th, 2008

.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 Dillinger Four's hotly anticipated new album C I V I L W A R leaked onto the internet a few weeks back, and the resulting drama has people taking in music magazines, web comics, blogs and elsewhere. We collected statements from some of the involved parties and commentators together for you to check out. We had further updates on Travis Barker's condition. The Blink-182 / Plus 44 drummer, who was in a jet crash last week and severly burned, is headed for a recovery. The nominees for the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame were announced this week, and the group includes bands like Metallica, Run D.M.C. and the Stooges. This week saw the launch of MySpace Music, and lingering questions on the services' relationship with indie labels. The music industry is also still struggling with the fact that it's not 1992 anymore, as evidenced by laments that iTunes has killed the album. Boo hoo.

Sub Pop has signed Orbits, a band featuring Rick Froberg of Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes. Derek Grant of the Alkaline Trio has released a free solo album. The Hope Conspiracy are set to hit the studio soon to record a new EP with Kurt Ballou of Converge. The Bouncing Souls unveiled their cover of Johnny Cash's "Man In Black." North Lincoln is streaming a quartet of new songs. The Ergs are not long for this world, so treat each new song as an event. On the moving pictures front this week we saw a free full length documentary from Michael Moore. Against Me! unveiled their clip for "Borne on the FM Airwaves of the Heart." Rise Against released "Re-Education (Through Labor)," Jimmy Eat World "Beautiful Day" from Yo Gabba Gabba, and Fall Out Boy "I Don't Care." The aforementioned Rise Against has plans to tour Germany with Strike Anywhere, while Face To Face will hit Australia in 2009. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives Punknews' own Ben Conoley is on the road now with Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and the Flatliners. He'll be sending in pictures, set lists, tour journals and videos from the trek. This week we had updates from Regina, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario and more.

This week we spoke with Daniel Sioui of Smallman farmcore act Carpenter (interview). As always we brought you new Streaming Music including the new rarities compilation from The Measure [SA] .

So what's coming up this week? Look for new releases from Bleeding Through, Star Fucking Hipsters, Unwritten Law and Bayside with tours kicking off from the Futureheads (Australia), Wire (Canada / US), Tegan & Sara / City & Colour (USA), and Against Me! / Ted Leo & the Pharmacists / Future Of The Left (USA)

September 21st, 2008

.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 This week had harrowing news for fans of Plus 44 and Blink-182 as drummer Travis Barker was one of two survivors of a plane crash. Four people were killed in the accident, which saw Barker and DJ AM in critical condition with second and third degree burns. Reports have come in that they've since stabilized. Our best wishes go out to them for a quick recovery. With the XM and Sirius merger in full swing the networks' punk rock stations seem to have been lost in the shuffle. Fungus 53 and Sirius Punk are soon to be replaced by a 24/7 AC/DC channel. Alt-country act Lucero is delving further into the major label system, singing to Universal Republic for a four album deal. On their way out of that world, popular act New Found Glory has found a new home at Epitaph Records. One thing that the majors have noticed is the resurgance of vinyl, and Sony/Legacy is planning to bring it back for select releases. Finally it looks like the Foo Fighters are taking a hiatus. There's no word when we'll next hear from Grohl and company, but given their prolific sideprojects they'll hardly go unheard.

There's some interesting new relases on the horizon. Tom Gabel of Against Me! has detailed his solo EP. A Wilhelm Scream has looked ahead to their Career Suicide follow up. Even Reagan Youth are working on new album. Fall Out Boy has posted artwork for their next as well. We had details on the upcoming video game Guitar Hero World Tour, and word that it will feature NOFX, the Sex Pistols, Blink-182 and Rise Against. On the new music front we got to check out "AMERICASPREMIEREFAITHBASEDINITIATIVE" from Dillinger Four and " Collapse (Post-Amerika) from Rise Against. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives Punknews' own Ben Conoley is on the road now with Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and the Flatliners. Expect pictures, set lists, a tour journal and maybe even some video over the next few weeks. Our first report just came in.

This week we spoke with Matt Farrell and Dave Hall of Young Livers (interview) and a two part interview with Set Your Goals. We chattted with Junior (aka Audelio Flores) and Mike Ambrose on two seperate occasions (interview). As always we brought you new Streaming Music including a few tracks from the new split between Thursday and Envy, the new full length from Monikers, the return of Dirtnap power pop act The Girls, the new EP from Bridge 9 melodic hardcore act Energy, and new music from Gainesville-based duo Liquid Limbs.

So what's coming up this week? Look for reissues and collections the Undertones and the Replacements with new music from Akimbo, Sing It Loud and the Action Design with tours kicking off from Weezer, Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club (North America), and Underoath (South Africa).

September 14th, 2008

.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 Doughnarchy! Confectioncore! The big newsmaker this week was Scott Sturgeon, better known to you as Stza, of Leftover Crack, Choking Victim and most recently the Star Fucking Hipsters. Ol' Stz was doing his usual thing, playing a protest show in a New York City park, and capped it off by throwing doughnuts from the stage at nearby cops. Unsurprisingly he was arrested. Following the incident Stza sent us over a comment on the incident. It's not a band we'd usually talk about, but the file sharing debate is always of interest. The frontman of heavy metal act Slipknot came forward and blamed the labels in a chat with Kerrang. We had word that Tsunami Bomb will soon reunite to raise money for a friend suffering from a brain tumor. Another Punknews favourite act is calling it quits, with New Mexican Disaster Squad wrapping things up at this years Fest in Gainesville. Speaking of fests, there was some uncertainty regarding California's Liskfest. The event, that will feature bands like Pennywise, Gorilla Biscuits, and Strung Out, was canceled due to low ticket sales and then revived with new backing. Geoff Rickly of Thursday and most recently United Nations wrote an interesting editorial recently that discussed political apathy in music.

Punknews readers were excited to hear that Brendan Kelly of site faves the Lawrence Arms and the Falcon is considering a solo 7-inch series. Streetlight Manifesto announced an ambitious new recording project and the return of Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution. Angels & Airwaves have plans to record their next album in January. Fear Before The March Of Flames are shortening their name to Fear Before, and are planning a self-titled full length to make it official. Epitaph Records has signed "Best British Newcomers" act Bring Me The Horizon. American Steel announced shows in New York and Chicago as well as a tour of Germany. Southern Californian hardcore act Tiefighter made some waves with a cover of Blink-182's "Pathetic." I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives The Gaslight Anthem predictably came out on top when we tallied up the reader album rankings from August. This week we spoke with Civet frontwoman Liza Graves (interview). This week's edition of Vinyl File featured a look at upcoming releases. As always we brought you new Streaming Music including the new full length from Richmond, VA's The Riot Before. So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from Black President, Punchline The Girls and FemBots with tours kicking off from My Bloody Valentine (All Tomorrow's Parties and more), Henry Rollins (spoken word) and The Sainte Catherines (Mexico).

September 7th, 2008

.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 Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for The Ergs!. The beloved South Amboy based pop punk three piece is calling it quits after this year, so see them while you can.

The Republican National Convention certainly dominated news headlines this week and it snagged a few in the musical realm to boot. Rage Against The Machine and Anti-Flag played a protest show outside the convention, with Anti-Flag able to play before the authorities pulled the plug. Rage did what they could and turned out an impromptu a cappella street performance in the crowd. Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin stole the spotlight, and we heard from Wasilla, Alaska's Portugal. the Man about the politician's record. While their festival went off as planned last weekend the founders of Y Yeah Fest and video site Videothing.com were allegedly beaten by security guards at a Radiohead show a few days earlier.

In lighter news Ottawa's The Riptides have entered the Hockey Night in Canada theme challenge. My Chemical Romance bassist Mikey Way is writing a story for DC Comics. Metallica's finally making peace with the internet and has accepted the fact that their album leaked. We heard of several in the works albums this week, with Jay Bentley commenting on plans for the next Bad Religion record. Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel is documenting the recording of his solo album. Snow Patrol has an iPhone/iPod Touch optimized album in the works, which is likely the first of its kind. Oh, and according to Travis Barker you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for a Blink-182 reunion. Just in case you were. On the live show front we had updated tour dates in the US and UK from Rancid and further additions to The Fest 7 with bands like Army of Ponch and Tiltwheel. Fall Out Boy set our commenters up for an easy retort with their new single titled "I Don't Care." If you're looking for new video content we had trailers for both a No Idea Records mini-documentary and The Clash's Live at Shea teaser. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we spoke with Matt Fox of Shai Hulud interview). Our Video of the Week featured legendary San Francisco punk group Flipper live at Amoeba Records. As always we brought you new Streaming Music including a full album stream from "femme fatale punk rock" act Civet. So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from A Static Lullaby, Saint Alvia United Nations and Static Thought with tours kicking off from Wire (US / Canada), Street Dogs, Time Again and Flatfoot 56 (US) and Flogging Molly (US).

August 31st, 2008

.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 The Fest 7 will likely dominate our news coverage for the next few months, and the resulting video footage will linger well into 2009. Why is that? Well there is a 250 band list that includes Leatherface, Less Than Jake, the Bouncing Souls, Strike Anywhere, Dillinger Four, Atom and His Package and the Lawrence Arms. That probably has something to do with it. We had a rare punk rock story out of Cuba this week, as Porno Para Ricardo frontman Gorki Aguila was tried for "social dangerousness" and freed after paying a fine. Fans at the Reading Festival in the UK rioted after punk band the FF'ers turned out to actually be punk band the FF'ers and not, say, the Foo Fighters. Reports also came in from London that Iggy Pop was injured on stage in a fall, although we've had eyewitness reports come in to the contrary. The Queers announced a ton of news, including a tour, new album, and a new studio that will see the Riptides recording soon. Our pals in the Swellers did Max Bemis one better this week, releasing a free album's worth of "personalized" songs based on subject matter provided by fans.

Winnipeg's Propagandhi is doing what they were doing last month, but any mention of the group is enough to get people foaming at the mouth `round here. Sonic Youth is working on a new record as well, this one to be a return to the indie world after years on a major. A new Dead To Me EP will arrive on Fat in October. Members of Thusrday and Glassjaw have launched their supergroup United Nations with a full album stream. Underoath is also streaming their new one, and throwing a very Wonka-inspiredpromotion to boot. Defiance, Ohio also returned this week with a new track titled " Hair Pool." On the touring circuit we have new dates from beleaguered pop-punk act Mest, shows in Canada and the US from Misery Signals and US dates from Silverstein and Chiodos. Finally, because we can't stop talking about them, we had a video blitz from the Gaslight Anthem. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we spoke with Vinnie Fiorello of Less Than Jake, Paper and Plastick and Sleep It Off Records (interview) and Joe Haege of 31Knots interview). So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from Underoath, and Hatebreed with tours kicking off from MxPx, Lagwagon and Only Crime (North America), the Real McKenzies (Canada), and Fear Before The March Of Flames (USA).

August 24th, 2008

.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 NOFX seems to have landed themselves a pretty high profile gig, as the veteran punk act will perform their classic Punk In Drublic at the Democratic National Convention. The band's announcement was quickly overtaken by their labelmates Dillinger Four, who appear to have an actual non-fictional release date set for their new record. This is for real this time, the last one was just an April Fools joke on our part. Speaking of which, a joke we made about the Gaslight Anthem that same day somehow ended up in the New York Times this week. It looks like the long running Dead Kennedys conflict is dwindling down to a close, as the Jello-less band has announced an indefinite touring hiatus. Like any DK article it got quite the reaction among the Punknews community. What else had you talking? How about the Hold Steady's guitarist criticizing Radiohead or Bad Religion's Greg Graffin discussing his professorship. Of course it was hard not to react when the RIAA shut down the very neat mixtape sharing site Muxtape.com and CNN publicly mused that Guitar Hero is saving rock 'n' roll. Revisiting last week's big story, we saw a response from 30 Seconds to Mars on the 30 million dollar lawsuitthey've been stuck with.

There was lots of new music in the works this week. The ever popular Brand New are set to record a new full length soon. Epitaph Records announced the signing of indie rock act Settle. Underoath detailed their upcoming Lost In The Sound Of Separation, while Iron Chic (Latterman, Agent, Small Arms Dealer) talked two upcoming releases. We heard new audio from Rise Against with their new single "ReEducation (through Labor)", and HR of Bad Brains who previewed tracks from his new href="/article/30178">solo outing. On the touring front we saw dates for the Aquabats and Suburban Legends. Alkaline Trio also posted a video of the band performing "Wake up Exhausted" by Tegan and Sara.

This week we also said goodbye to producer Jerry Finn (1970-2008). Our condolences go out to his family and friends. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we spoke with Jason Shevchuk, Colin McGinniss, Paul Delaney and Jared Shavelson of None More Black (interview), Kyle Johnson of Misery Signals (interview) and (via podcast) had a chat with Lemuria (interview). This week's edition of Vinyl File featured a look at upcoming releases. As always we brought you new Streaming Music including, the new record from Leeds, UK-based Forward Russia, the split between the East Bay's Wolves & Thieves and Sacramento's Bastards of Young, the brand new record from Suicide Note, California melodic punk/hardcore band Radio Suicide, Pygmy Lush, which features members of City Of Caterpillar, Majority Rule, malady and pg.99. So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from Motörhead, the Creepshow, and Valencia with tours kicking off from Bad Relgion (Europe, Canada, US).

August 17th, 2008

.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).

August 10th, 2008

.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 community talking… The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday This week's most popular stories Hoo boy. So LA pop-punk act Say Anything announced that for a cool 150 bones frontman Max Bemis would write and record an acoustic song based on the payee's provided subject matter. The band sold these services for three days or so before demand apparently overwhelmed them and the offer was temporarily pulled. Some plucky, irreverent and often mind-bogglingly insulting Punknews commenters let the band know what they thought of the idea (as they do when any band announces anything round here), and Mr. Bemis pretty much wigged out. I believe he called the collective Punknews community "strange, slow, old people." Now in the days since we've had the Swellers come out and offer the same service for free, and several bloggers chew over the subject of for-pay songwriting and the frontman's little tirade [1] [2] [3]. Welcome to the internet Max.

In non self-referrential news, we had word that founding Dead Kennedys bassist Klaus Flouride was leaving the band due to a reoccuring medical condition. Rage Against The Machine is up to their old tricks, with a show planned to coincide with the Republican National Convention. Former Escape The Fate singer Ronnie Radke was sentenced to four years in jail on a battery charge in Las Vegas. Riverside, CA ska/punk act Assorted Jellybeans are back together, although their future plans are unrevealed.

We had word that Tiger Army and Rise Against will appear on the compilation Nightmare Revisited. Vampire Weekend and Devo songwriter Mark Mothersbaugh will collaborate on the new Michael Cera film. Popular act Paramore is writing and plans studio time in January. The Lemonheads are planing to cover acts as diverse as GG Allin, Wire, Leonard Cohen and Christina Aguilera on their new album. This week had tour dates from Against Me! featuring Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Future Of The Left. The Bouncing Souls added dates with Strike Anywhere and Youth Brigade. Weezer will also hit the road soon with Angels and Airwaves. This week brought new music from Lagwagon with the song "Memoirs and Landmines" as well as Less Than Jake's video for "Does The Lion City Still Roar?."

Also, this week Punknews.org passed the milestone of posting 30,000 stories. In the 8 years, 10 months and 4 days that we've been online that averages out to a little more than 9 stories per day. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we summed up all your album ratings and presented the list of your favourite albums from July. Keep clicking those star ratings to let us know what music you're enjoying. Our Video of the Week featured Rob Huddleston, frontman for Ann Beretta and Foundation, interviewing members of Hot Water Music about their recent reunion. This is the first in a multi-part video feature. This week also brought new Streaming Music from, 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, and two new songs from Nashville, TN's Cactus's.

So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from Anchor Arms, and Wolves and Thieves / Bastards Of Young with tours kicking off from Teenage Bottlerocket, the Sidekicks and the Riptides (Canada), Have Heart, Verse, Shipwreck AD (Europe) and Killing The Dream (USA).

August 3rd, 2008

.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 community talking… The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday This week's most popular stories Excitement boiled over this week as the dates were announced for the fall trek featuring Rise Against, Alkaline Trio, Thrice and Gaslight Anthem. This is shaping up to be one of the year's biggest tours. Three of the four will join acts like NOFX, Flogging Molly and Pennywise at Edgefest 2008. We also saw Riot Fest expand its impressive roster again with the Lawrence Arms, Bouncing Souls, and Jay Reatard. This week had it's share of break ups, with the demise of the polarizing Be Your Own Pet and Ottawa's The Fully Down. It wasn't all losses though, in the gains category we had HORSE The Band recruiting a new drummer, Red Scare Records expanding their roster with Druglords of the Avenues, and Metal Blade doing the same with Lazarus A.D.. Against Me! of course finds it impossible not to be in the news, and this week they brought us both a digital EP of b-sidesand the video for the song "New Wave."

We had a ton of details on upcoming recordings this week. Rise Against unveiled their Appeal To Reason artwork, as did Pully, who just finished up in the studio. Napalm Death have begun recording as well. Unearth detailed their new one while the Vandals announced a rarities collection. Teenage Bottlerocket updated their tour dates and announced a split with the Ergs! to much fanfare and excitement among our readers. The new album from Lagwagon's Joey Cape has a North American home, as it's now set to come out on Suburban Home Records. Finally we had hints of a new band dubbed Reviver from Matt Canino of Latterman and Shorebirds. On an odd note, we also had a little instructional video from H2O teaching mosh pit-style self-defense.

On a sad note we closed out the week with news of the death of Shin "Shinister" Kodachi of The Lucky Stiffs (1979-2008). I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from the Real McKenzies, Suicide Note, Black President, Hawthorne Heights, and Norma Jean with tours kicking off from Tiger Army and Said Radio (dates), Matt Pryor (of The Get Up Kids), Chris Conley (of Saves The Day) and Kevin Devine (dates) and Dead Hearts, Know The Score and Energy (dates).

July 27th, 2008

.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 community talking… The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday This week's most popular stories This week we were shocked to learn of legislation pending in Russia to crack down on "dangerous youth trends," in particular emo and goth. The Sex Pistols' John Lydon and Bloc Party's Kele Okerke traded conflicting versions of a back stage scuffle that saw Okerke assulted and Lydon accused of racism. We had troubling rumors regarding the health of Chiodos frontman Craig Owens. Christian metalcore act Haste The Day gave guitarist Jason Barnes the boot when his religious beliefs fell out of synch with the bands'. Facing New York had some creative methods for battling high gas prices. Music legend Neil Young spoke out against the loss of fieldity and sound quality in the digital world.

Fat Wreck Chords has detailed the Star Fucking Hipsters' debut Until We're Dead. Nitro has plans to reissue Jughead's Revenge catalog through iTunes. We had tour dates from NOFX, Dillinger Four and the The Flatliners (Canada), Street Dogs, Time Again and Flatfoot 56 (USA) and the Phenomenauts (USA). Show announcements came through from the Bouncing Souls (dates), and Hot Water Music (dates) as well. Anti-Flag is letting fans choose their set at Reading & Leeds, while the Pop Montreal festival will feature Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Wire. A video arrived for the Gaslight Anthem's "The '59 Sound" and Underoath previewed the track "Desperate Times, Desperate Measures." I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we spoke with vocalist/guitarist Nick and bassist Nate of Banner Pilot (interview), drummer Yuri Ruley of MxPx (interview), and Transistor Transistor's Nat Coghlan (interview). This week's edition of Vinyl File featured an interview with the Methadones and a contest for some test pressings. This week also brought new Streaming Music from, Quote Unquote act Cheap Girls, blues influenced punk act Bottle Up and Go, and Sacramento, CA's Trash Talk.

So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from Matt Pyror and Violation with tours kicking off from Me First and The Gimme Gimmes (CA), Total Chaos (Europe), and and Darkest Hour (USA).

July 20th, 2008

.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 community talking… The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday This week's most popular stories Each year's Warped Tour brings about a predictable chorus of criticism, but there were two this week that grabbed your attention. Broadway Calls discussed their vehicle troubles and took a few swipes at the genres represented on the tour, while webzine Somethingawful set their guns on just about everyone. In the video game realm heavy metal giants Metallica announced that they'd debut their next album with Guitar Hero while the next Rock Band game will feature bands like AFI, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and the Talking Heads. Anarcho-punk label Profane Existence is shutting down, although their magazine and distro will remain intact. Face To Face has recruited drummer Danny Thompson (of The Uprising) to fill in for Pete Parada while he tours with the Offspring. Philadelphia legends the Dead Milkmen will reunite to perform at Fun Fun Fun Fest In Austin, TX.

Rise Against have announced the release of their new album Appeal To Reason and tour plans with Alkaline Trio, Thrice, and Gaslight Anthem. We heard details on Fall Out Boy's writing process, I Set My Friends On Fire's Epitaph debut, the timeline for the next Bad Religion album, and Rhino's second round of Replacements reissues. Ann Beretta announced their final show plans for Richmond and Gainesville. Jesse Michaels of Operation Ivy/Common Rider and Jeff Ott of Crimpshrine/Fifteen have pair up for some acoustic shows. Riot Fest will feature bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, ALL, TSOL, and Reagan Youth. The Ska Is Dead Tour is presenting a pair of shows this year dubbed Skankgsiving '08 featuring acts like the Pietasters, and the Toasters. On the video front Dragonforce launched the clip for "Heroes of Our Time"while the Aquabats! posted clips from the The Aquabats! Super Show pilot. Finally we had the first audio from One Day As A Lion, featuring Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and drummer Jon Theodore, formerly of the Mars Volta. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we spoke with vocalist Nick Babeu the Trigger Effect (interview), guitarist/vocalist Chuck Ragan and bassist Jason Black of Hot Water Music (interview), and Fred Mascherino of The Color Fred (interview) This week's edition of Vinyl File featured a look at upcoming releases and a contest to win an Off With Their Heads test pressing. This week also brought new Streaming Music from, 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.

So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from Off With Their Heads, Misery Signals and Pinhead Gunpowder with tours kicking off from Cobra Skulls (USA), and Rise And Fall (USA).

July 13th, 2008

.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 community talking… The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday This week's most popular stories This week Dominic Davi, formerly of Love Equals Death, spoke out about last year's rape accusation. Davi wrote us an open letter telling his side of the story and discussing the turns his life has taken since. The Canadian branch of fast food chain KFC responded to an anti-cruelty campaign driven by artists like Rise Against, Thursday, and Alkaline Trio. We continued to look at the problem that gas prices are posing for touring bands. We can surely expect more articles of this type as the year goes on. Ben Weasel wrote off a reunion of Screeching Weasel and generally took the punk scene to task. None More Black's reunion shows on the other hand are not only happening, but they've become a full-blown return to action.

The Bouncing Souls have announced their digital release plans, with intentions to release a downloadable song on the first of every month in 2009. Propagandhi will record in October. Rise Against has finished thier new album. Anchorless' Johnny Cash Tribute has a release date and finalized track listfeaturing acts like the Loved Ones, the Flatliners and the Sainte Catharines. Scared Of Chaka has announced more reunion shows with Dillinger Four, and Murder City Devils. The Gaslight Anthem and American Steel are touring with Polar Bear Club and O Pioneers!!!. We wished MxPx happy birthday while bands like the Foo Fighters and Flaming Lips played tribute to the Who. I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives This week we spoke with Brian Fallon, Alex Rosamila, and Benny Horowitz of the Gaslight Anthem (interview). This week's edition of Vinyl File featured a look at upcoming releases from bands like the Lawrence Arms. This week also brought new Streaming Music from, Valdosta's country-punks Ninja Gun (with download!), and No Idea Records studio full length debut from Off with Their Heads.

So what's coming up this week? Look for releases from The Hold Steady and Red Tape Parade with tours kicking off from Shai Hulud (USA), Terror (USA), Rx Bandits (USA) and the Melvins (USA).