It's Sunday July 1st, 2007. Happy Canada Day everyone! I won't waste too much time here as I need to get back to my long weekend. I guess our friends in the US have, um, Wednesday off… which is sort of the same thing. It's not a long weekend or anything, but… well I guess you can sleep in. That's something. Just don't stay out too late.
The people must have something good to read on a Sunday
The legendary Bad Brains returned this week with the release of Build a Nation. The record's been streaming online all week. We had word of several new releases in the wings. Weezer's not quite dead yet, as the influential alt rock act announced plans to release a new record next year. The same goes for My Chemical Romance, although we never really thought they were dead. They just need some sun. The Dropkick Murphys finished recording their new record, so expect that later this year. Thurday doesn't have a new studio album on the way yet, but they did patch things up with Victory for a retrospective DVD/CD. Following in Thursday's lead, Thrice parted ways with major label Island Records. The band is set to hit the road this fall with Brand New and mewithoutYou. Speaking bands recently off the major label train, long time bassist Matt Wong has left third-wave ska punks Reel Big Fish.
This week saw The Used cancel their upcoming tour plans due to the singer's surgery, Vagrant sign the Watchmen dubbed Dr. Manhattan, and Civet seemingly sigh with Hellcat. Nary a week goes by without half a dozen Against Me! articles, and this week is no exception. We had new music from NYHC standards Madball and a new video from Rise Against. We were introduced to two acts with strong pedigrees this week, those being the Re-volts (Swingin Utters, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, Dead to Me, One Man Army) and Last Of The Believers (Rise Against, Ignite, Reach the Sky, Spark of Life).
Our Video Of The Week featured Olympia, the DC/Richmond based post-Fairweather act. We interviewed Carbondale, IL's very own Red Scare pop-punk upstarts The Copyrights (interview).
Click Read More to see this week's contests, streaming music and more.
Radio Free Punknews
Check the Punknews Music page to stream all sorts of anticipated new music including songs from Ben Weasel's new solo record, a new song from legendary hardcore pioneers Bad Brains, a full album from Philadelphia melodic hardcore band Giving Chase, songs from the The Story Changes' upcoming full length, a full album stream from the Gaslight Anthem, new music from the new Clorox Girls' album J' aime Les Filles, Trophy Scars' EP Hospital Music for the Aesthetics of Language, the split between Fox Trotsky and Die Benny, and four songs from recent A-F signing Incommunicado.
Suntans are for Winners Far From Finished July 17, 2007 finally marks the official release date for the upcoming full length effort from Boston punk rocker's, Far From Finished. To celebrate the release of "Living In The Fallout", Far From Finished, Think Fast! Records, Lucky 13 Apparel, and PunkNews.org have teamed up for a contest giveaway that runs from now until the street date. A grand prize winner will receive a prize package valued at $128 including the brand new disc, a poster, a skate deck, and clothing items from the band, Think Fast! and Lucky 13. One runner up will receive the new disc, a poster, some t-shirts, and goodie bags.
L'il Bush
Even though we don't do contests for TV shows very often, between the obvious love of Comedy Central's animated programming I see on our boards, to the lineup of musicians involved, it seems like a pretty easy decision to give this one a go. Comedy Central's new program, L'il Bush features Iggy Pop, Jeff Tweedy, Frank Black, Colin Meloy, Dave Grohl, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and more. It is a series of cartoons created by Donick Cary, a writer of The Simpsons. The show previously appeared on recently defunct mobile carrier Amp'd Mobile, and has been picked up a six episode run beginning this month. Pop will be playing Lil Rummy, and other characters include Lil' Condi, Lil' Cheney, Lil' Jeb and of course, Lil Bush. To celebrate, Comedy Central has provided a neat little prize pack of DVDs from South Park, Drawn Together.
Against Me! signed guitar Against Me! will release their new album, New Wave, on July 10th. The follow-up to 2005's Searching For A Former Clarity was produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins). New Wave will be available on CD, a Special Edition CD/DVD, 180 gram yellow vinyl and digital download. To celebrate the release, PunkNews.org is giving one lucky winner an Against Me! autographed Gibson guitar. 5 runners-up will score an autographed copy of the vinyl 7" for "White People For Peace."
Win an XBOX360 from Sound The Alarm
On July 17, 2007, Sound the Alarm will be releasing their full length and major label debut. The record is titled Stay Inside and is due out July 17, 2007. To celebrate, Sound the Alarm and PunkNews.org have assembled a contest in which you can win an XBOX360, Autographed Poster and a copy of the album. There are also prizes for two runner ups who will walk away with a Sound the Alarm Poster and a copy of Stay Inside.
Staff Blogs
When not writing about music on the internet, many members of the Punknews staff find time to write about music on the internet. You can check out the depraved musings of Adam White at 2:59, Justin August has some Kinder Words for you, while Chris Moran's all over the place with content rocking both MySpace and Flickr. Reviewer Jesse Raub posts short fiction and web comics to Things That Go Bump In My Head and his zine Bitter Press. Bitter Press now comes with it's own fancy domain name, a slew of new articles, and the promise of weekly, nay HOURLY, Akimbo content.
Life at Disconnect
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. Waste some time on the Punknews.org and Punknews Records MySpace pages or contribute your listening habits to the weekly charts Last.fm group.
Come Join Us
Why register on Punknews.org? Registered users can rate bands and reviews, building recommendations and links between artists for the whole community to share and discover. Users get their own profile page showing recent comments, top rated bands and favourite records and more. So go ahead, cast off the cloak of anonymity and create your account today - it's free, easy and private.