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.

After invoking the ire of Internet users in 2000 with their criticisms of Napster, Metallica has apparently made peace with the Internet.

The band's drummer, Lars Ulrich, commented on the leak of their new album:

If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. It's 2008 and it's part of how it is these days.

In 2003, Metallica decided to allow fans to download their music via the internet, three years after taking legal action to prevent digital access to their material. The band chose to make their entire back catalogue available for download in 2006 - after finally relenting on a refusal to allow their music to be carried by iTunes.

We're very happy to be bringing you a full album stream of the new full length from Los Angeles-based "femme fatale punk rock" band, Civet. The record is titled Hell Hath No Fury and is due out September 09, 2008. The band has earned comparisons to early Distillers, Bikini Kill and the Runaways.

You can check out the entire album on their Punknews.org Profile.

Portugal. The Man's John Baldwin Gourley has posted some commentary on the nomination of fellow Alaskan Sarah Palin for vice president. Gourley, who also hails from Wasilla, Alaska posted a lengthy blog entry on the VP candidate:

We don’t need book burners and censors. Sarah Palin pushed to get the librarian of Wasilla fired when certain books were not removed from the public library. Who else in history has banned books? Not very good company is it? We don’t need aerial hunting… Again. We do NOT need this. I don’t know of any true Alaskan that feels it is good sport to shoot an animal from a plane. Sarah Palin disagrees. We needed votes to add the polar bear to the endangered species list. (I know, I know, that polar bear rug would really bring the room together!). Sarah Palin disagreed.

You can find the rest of the entry here.

The band will be releasing Censored Colors on September 16, 2008.

United Nations have run into distribution problems with their debut full length online at MySpace. According to a new interview, stores are refusing to carry the album due to the artwork:

We worked [on the cover art] with this British anarchist artist named James Cauty, and he did all this great stuff. But it had some copyright issues, and that's why all the distributors and stores refuse to carry it. We have 1,000 copies of this album sitting around with artwork that has been banned and we're trying to figure out what to do with those.

The art features imagery similar to the Beatles classic, Abbey Road but with some flaming modifications. You can compare the art with the album artwork here.

The rest of the interview can be found via MTV.com.

The project features Geoff Rickly from Thursday, Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw and Head Automatica, Chree from the Number 12 Looks Like You and Kiss It Goodbye's Eric Cooper. Though originally described as a "grind" side project, many have drawn comparisons to early screamo outfits like Saetia and the Gravity Records roster.