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...

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. 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).

Due to scheduling conflicts and manufacturing issues Dirtnap Records has pushed back the Marked Men's new CD / LP Ghosts to early 2009. To tide fans over, the label will be releasing a new 7" from the band. The release will feature a song by Jeff Burke titled "Fortune" backed by an exclusive song by Mike Ryan titled "Like Robots." "Fortune" will appear on the new LP as well. The 7" will be available as soon as Dirtnap can press them.

Los Angeles punk act Madcap is taking a break, but a new band has emerged from the hiatus. Frontman Johnny commented:

As you know we have not played shows in a very long time. Infact it's very hard to get us all in the same room together. Lee is now a father with another one on the way!, Jake and Ace are still out there banging away with various bands. I'm alive and well in Los Angeles and have started a new band called Johnny Madcap and The Distractions. So as you can see we are all very busy and it doesn't leave much time for Madcap. We can never say Madcap is broken up because we've always considered this a friendship before it was a band. So that's it. We are out. Maybe for a while, maybe for good. Can't tell and really don't think about it. But we can tell you how much we appreciate the constant flow of new and old fans support for what we did. So hopefully now you will support again. I have not been this excited about a project in a long time. The Distractions are the fun I've been looking for and If you dug what I did in Madcap you will definately dig this. See for yourself.....

Johnny Madcap and The Distractions, a three piece, have songs online at MySpace.

Psychobilly act HorrorPops have announced details on their "It's All Hallows Eve Tour" of the US and Canada. The group will be joined by Beat Union for the first half of the tour and by Longway on the final LA. Click below for the details.

In addition the band commented on the costs of touring and the health of one of their on-stage dancers:

We're happy to be able to tell you that our dancer Rita-tah is better! She's been working hard to get her body to do what she wants with out being in pain and we can't wait to tour with her and Tweek again. The bad news is, that due to gas prices etc we can't bring them on the whole tour. It might sound crazy, but the economy actually also affects bands and venues (last tour we spend $13200 on gas alone). We're going to keep touring to keep our name alive and hope for better times where we can again be the 5 people on stage that we like to be. We hope you understand and we promise you to still keep giving you one hell of a show. Rita-tah and Tweek will be joining us on quite a few shows on this tour, but how many and where all depends on how much merch we sell, so go buy a shirt to support your favorite band!

The band released Kiss Kiss Kill Kill earlier this year.

Successful Canadian indie rock act Metric has re-upped with label Last Gang Records and publisher Chrysalis Music for their next album, the follow up to 2005's Live It Out. The band's manager Mathieu Drouin spoke with Billboard about their decision to stay indie:

We've wrestled with our situation over the course of the last three albums, trying to find the right deal. We found ourselves in a position where the majors were interested, but we knew we had the ability to roll the dice and do it ourselves.

'Long tail' artists like Metric that have been able to develop a following and career without major help are in the best position to take things into their own hands right now

Following up on the Billboard article, music site Spacelab recently discussed the band's decision and the economics of so-called "long tail" artists.

The King Khan and BBQ Show have announced US tour dates for the fall. BBQ, also known as Mark Sultan, will tour solo through Europe. Click below for the details.

Sultan last released The Sultanic Verses in 2007 via In The Red Records. Khan has had much recent success with his band the Shrines and their Vice released full length What Is?!. King Khan and BBQ together most recently put out What's For Dinner? in 2006.

Nardwuar the Human Serviette and his band The Evaporators have announced a handful of dates in Ontario and Quebec this October. They'll appear in Montreal as part of a Mint Records showcase at the Pop Montreal festival with Pack AD, Immaculate Machine, Buttless Chaps and Wax Mannequin. The Ottawa and Toronto shows will also feature Nardwaur's "Video Vault" of interviews he's done musicians, politicians and celebrities like Snoop Doggy Dogg, Mikhail Gorbachev, Michael Moore, Marilyn Manson, Henry Rollins, Joan Jett, Blur, Vanilla Ice and Iggy Pop.

The Evaporators last released Gassy Jack and Other Tales in 2007. That year Nardwuar also released his Welcome to My Castle DVD.

Following up on last week's story, CNN has released a short video report on the arrest and brief trial of dissident Cuban punk rocker Gorki Aguila. Aguila, who sings for the band Porno Para Ricardo, was recently arrested on a charge of "social dangerousness." He walked away with a 600 peso ($28 USD) fine, but was facing up to four years in prison.

You can check out the video by clicking Read More.

Upper crust punk rock act The Yuppie Pricks have returned with a new full length titled Balls. Label Chicken Ranch records has launched an e-card which streams the new record. It's well worth suffering through the cover art for the tunes, in case you get there and start having doubts. There's a cool cover of the Undertones' "Male Model" in there near the end. The record follows up 2005's Alternative Tentacles released Broker’s Banquet.

The band has three songs online for download from the record as well. You can grab "Collars Up," "Greed Is Good" and "Fuck You I'm Rich" now.

The band announced a break up in 2006, playing their supposedly final show at Rollercon in Las Vegas in 2006. The group has managed to play SXSW each year since, so between that and the new album it's safe to say they're still together.

The Ergs! are calling it quits. The South Amboy based three piece pop-punk act announced:

"ok. well, it looks like you guys knew us better than we knew us. the ergs are calling it a day. jeff is leaving the band and it wouldn't be the ergs without him. we'll be recording the last couple songs that we've been working on and releasing them on a 7" this fall. we have a bunch of really great shows coming up with some really great bands that we never thought we'd get to play with. our last show will be in new jersey in mid november. more info on that as it becomes finalized. thanks to everyone who listened to us, came to see us, or helped us out in any way. we've made a ton of great friends and played some of the best shows a band could ever want to play."

The band's last full length was Upstairs/Downstairs, released in 2007 by Dirtnap Records, which was followed by a series of vinyl releases including a split with the Grabass Charlestons. The band will of course appear at this year's Fest.

My Chemical Romance's Mikey Way has been tapped by DC Comics to write an eight-page story for the upcoming Halloween issue of one of their titles. While rumours abound that the story will appear in one of the Batman series, this has yet to be confirmed.

Way isn't the first MCR member to dabble in graphic storytelling, with his bandmate and older brother Gerard responsible for the Dark Horse-published Umbrella Academy series.

Political grindcore act Misery Index have posted some new music from their upcoming album. The record is titled Traitors and is due out September 30, 2008.

You can check out the song on their myspace page.

Sweden's Burst have posted another new song from their forthcoming full length. The record is titled Lazarus Bird and is due out September 16, 2008 in the US and September 22, 2008 in Europe. They released their previous album, Origo in 2005.

You can check out "Exterminate The" on their myspace page.

MxPx have posted the new video from their 2007 album, Secret Weapon.

You can check it out here.

Tom Gabel has posted a series of studio updates as he continues work on his debut solo EP, Heart Burns. Based on his plans, the album is expected to be mixed and mastered with the artwork completed by the end of this week. The entries also reveal guest appearances by Chuck Ragan and Matt Skiba, and production by Butch Vig and Billy Bush. Along with revealing some song titles like "100 Years Of War," "Anna Is A Stool Pigeon," "Conceptual Paths," "Cowards Sing At Night," "Harsh Realms" and "Random Hearts," Gabel mentions a cover of The Replacements song "Here Comes A Regular" for an upcoming 50 Anniversary compilation Warner is preparing.

Though some early Against Me! material was not dramatically different from solo recordings, Tom muses over whether to release the music under his own name or through the band:

I feel conflicted as to whether I should release these songs under the name Against Me! as planned, under a new name, or under my given name. I've never liked my name.

Tom also mentions plans to record a proper new Against Me! record next year.

You can check out the entire blog here.