The Front Bottoms have unveiled a stream of their new record, The Talon of the Hawk, out May 21st, 2013 via Bar None Records. You can listen to the stream below.

You can click Read More for the details.

Richmond's Close Talker, a new band featuring members of Sundials, has announced their debut full-length, So Am I. The album is set to be released on June 4, 2013 via Stay Sweet Records.

In addition, the band is streaming a song from the record, called "Mop Water." You can click Read More for the song.

Dad Punchers have announced they are releasing a new 7-inch EP via Secret Voice Records, a subsidiary of Deathwish Inc. The EP will be titled These Times Weren't Made For You and will tentatively come out sometime this June. The band also debuted a song from the upcoming EP which you can stream below.

The band is set to tour with Pianos Become the Teeth and Tigers Jaw this June. You can find the dates for the tour here.

Click Read More for the details.

Randy Blythe, singer of metal band Lamb Of God, has released a lengthy open letter to fans and venues about Daniel Nosek, the fan who was killed at a show in Prague, and show etiquette.

If you are a fan and are going to a lamb of god show or ANY SHOW where there will be moshing, crowd surfing, etc.- know that what you are doing carries a risk. Use your brain- if it is too rough for you, get out before you get hurt. If you are wasted on whatever, please realize that you are not a stuntman, sit your ass down at the bar, and relax. Being obliterated is not conducive to injury free concert activities. Also, for Pete's sake, if you are moshing and someone falls down, PICK THEM UP. We have stopped shows before because people have been getting hurt, and we will do it again. This is our community, and we should take care of each other. A show is a place we are supposed to be together, having a good time, supporting one another. The real world will beat you down enough- we don't need to get stomped on at a show. Give each other a hand.

Blythe was acquitted of manslaughter earlier this year and it getting ready to head out on tour with Lamb of God. The full statement may be read here.

Dates, cities and lineups have been announced for the 2012 Zumiez Couch Tour. Each stop will include a different opener and headliner and be accompanied by a skate team. Some of the bands include: AWOLNATION, Polar Bear Club, Red Fang, Trash Talk and With the Punches.

You can click Read More for the details.

Some of the new releases out this week.

• Druglords of the Avenues - New Drugs [Digital]
• Street Dogs - Rust Belt Nation [7-inch]
• Weerd Science - Red Light Juliet
• The Story Changes - Static and Trembling
• The Wild - Dreams Are Maps
• 30 Seconds to Mars - Love Lust Faith + Dreams
• Japanther - Eat Like Lisa Act Like Bart
• Have Mercy - The Earth Pushed Back
• Teenage Bottlerocket - A-Bomb [Reissue]
• Bits of Shit - TBA [7-inch]

You can find the full list of releases this week (and album covers) right here

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:

• Riot Fest 2013 revealed the line up for this year's celebration with acts such as AFI, Blink-182, Rocket from the Crypt, Fall Out Boy, and many more.
• To celebrate Pouzza fest we hosted a live Q&A with Brian Robinson of A Wilhelm Scream
• Elway unveiled the details for their new album.
• AFI released a teaser video hinting at a new album.
• Black Flag released a music video for "The Chase". Meanwhile Henry Rollins gave his two cents on the two Black Flag reunions.
• Footage surfaced of American Steel performing "Dead and Gone" at this year's DTFH Fest in Durham, NC.
• Sad news came in from The Pogues as it was revealed that guitarist Phil Chevron was diagnosed with cancer.

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

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

• Erik Petersen of Mischief Brew
• Nathan Gray of Boysetsfire
• Andrea Ferro of Lacuna Coil
• Our Q&A with Brian Robinson of A Wilhelm Scream
• Helene McKoy of Pouzza Fest
• Our Q&A with Miguel Chen of Teenage Bottlerocket

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 think a movie or restaurant makes for a better first date?


A: Man, you gotta play this cool. You're already botching up this date and you haven't even asked her out yet.

First first of all, you do realize that you can do both, right? Like THE CLASSIC date is dinner AND a movie. What are you , some kind of cheapskate?

First second of all, unless you are in high school, movies do not make for good first dates. On first dates, you need to have a lot of positive interaction and a fair amount of talking. Movies are not conducive to that at all. You both just it there and watch something. You need to be impressing your girl. You don't want Patrick Stewart or Ryan Reynolds stealing your chances, bro! (In high school, this rule does not apply because chances are, you probably already know the person you are going on a date with fairly well and movies can be used as makeout spots.)

Second first of all, unless you are taking out a boring girl who has an expectation of what a date SHOULD be (usually dinner and a bar or something- boring) you need to come up with an original idea and fun thing to do that will make the girl have fun and show her that you like to have a good time. Some of the most fun dates I've ever had were at a low rent, rip-off Price is Right filming and at the Roller Disco. (Seriously, roller disco is awesome.) If you know a bunch about one area, a QUICK trip to museum can be pretty good, too. The colliery is that if you ARE really smooth, dinner and a trip to the bar can work. I am not smooth, so I need to rely on ancient dead egyptians, disco duck, and imitation bob barker to help me work my mojo.

Have fun mackin my home-dawg,

-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.

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

• The latest full-length from Escape the Fate
• The latest full-length from Jimmy Islip and the Ghosts
• The latest release from Have Mercy

Also, don't forget to check out the latest full-length from The Wild, the new EP from Perfect Future, and the latest release from Worship This!

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.

No one knows where Mischief Brew will head next. Though they recently released the hardcore-meets-folk of The Stone Operation. and followed it up with two radically different EPs to boot, the musical landscape is now their oyster.

Mischief Brew started out as a solo project of Erik Petersen where he planed to write medieval acoustic poetry. But since then the band has morphed into one of the earliest folk punk bands, one of the earliest gypsy punk bands, and more recently, a straight up, kickass punk band with some real old-world style (as well as the unnerving, occasional toast to Death himself).

In order to see where the band is headed next, Punknews' John Gentile met up with Petersen where they talked about Mischief Brew's next record, argued about history, and complimented each other for being Italian.