Lambgoat's reporting that Louisville's Black Cross will head out for a short tour in late December and early January. Click below for the announced dates for the "Avoiding The Snow, To Florida We Go!" tour.

Gearhead Records has confirmed that The Wildhearts Riff After Riff LP/CD will be released on March 9th, 2004. Dirty Donny is currently putting together the album art. The band will hit the road in the US with The Dragons in Texas at SXSW in March and should end up in San Francisco by early April. Dates are still being confirmed.

Stockholm's "Demons" are back on the road supporting their upcoming Demonology, which also drops on March 9th. The band will be in the US in February and March. The band has some dates in Europe this December, click below for those.

Coming up next for Gearhead is the new single from The Lazy Cowgirls titled You (with b-side "When It Comes To You I've Got No Dreams To Lose"). The label also has a new budget sampler coming on February 10th titled The Gearhead Records Thingmaker. It will feature unreleased cuts from The Riverboat Gamblers, The Turbo A.C.'s and the New Bomb Turks.

Give Up The Ghost are out to conquer the world. They recently hit Iceland and are currently rampaging through the UK. The band will be in Europe for the remainder of the year supporting We're Down Til We're Underground. In the new year the band will spend January in Australia and Japan. Click below for the latest confirmed dates from their website.

Rise Against has announced that they'll be playing the annual New Years Eve show at the San Diego Sports Arena this year. They're also confirmed for the entire 2004 Warped Tour.

The band has started the second leg of their tour with Anti-Flag, Against Me! and None More Black. Check their site for the latest show info. There is a tour diary started for this portion of the tour as well.

Against All Authority's website has reported:

-AAA- found a drummer and are getting back on their feet. They played at Churchill's Pub for Roach's birthday and they were absolutely amazing. Alan [Veronese] was back from Gainesville and for all of those who missed him, he is coming back down with The Know How play a show down here in Miami on November 29th.

The FTAA protests went down this week and we joined hundreds of others to have our voices heard. Within all the chaos, poor Danny [Lore] dislocated his knee but managed to snap it back into place and continue to fight till the end. However, I would like to send my deepest respects and thanks to him, because despite the loss of his leg, he still stood strong and gave us a great fucking performance. There are some bands that go beyond the bounds that most do. This was clearly one of those nights.

On behalf of -AAA- and myself, we would like to thank all of you who fought so hard over this past week to have your voice heard. It was truly amazing to see so many people working together for justice. You actions are an inspiration to us all. We will keep you updated with how things progress with Macbeth and when you can expect to see -AAA- on the streets again.

The news post dosen't say much about who the new drummer is other than "Macbeth" (if I'm reading it correctly) so expect more info soon.

The Explosion are headed out on the road with The Lot Six and The Distillers. Click below for the dates, which kick off on December 4th in Austin TX and finish with a few shows in Kalifornija.The Lot Six are supporting their new record Major Fables, it hit stores this November on Tarantulas Records. The Explosion will later join the Alkaline Trio on December 20th for the Thrasher Magazine Skater of the Year party.

Another feature I've neglected this week is our International Spotlight. This week we're headed to Italy. Here's more from Tim Krysko over at Punk International:

This band from Italy is turning a lot of heads with their new album Tour All Over. They're called Sun Eats Hours, and they've just been given a stellar review and interview at Punk International. When I heard this song, my first reaction was 'Strung Out meets Andrew WK. See for yourself, and visit their label, Rude Records

Sun Eats Hours ~ Tour All Over (MP3)

Recent Spotlights: Goblins (Spain), Sobut (Japan)

Our Park contest is now over. Sorry for the delay in getting this wrapped up. Here's the winners:

5 prizes of the new Park CD It Won't Snow Where You're Going a poster and some stickers:
Matt Rutchik, Eric Stroker, Brian Kelly, Ryan Foster, Grant Wallace

1 grand prize of both Park CDs It Won't Snow Where You're Going & No Signal, a shirt, a poster and some stickers:
Chris Pace

Thanks to Lobster Records and Park for setting this up. Stay tuned for more contests soon.

Robotic Empire's Circle Takes The Square will be finally releasing their debut As The Roots Undo on January 6th, 2004. Odds are you haven't heard of them, but you will. In the mean time, take the few days they have left on mp3.com to check out some tracks here.

us with this news from hulud.com: "Remember this thing? Well, while you thought we had forgotten about it, we have been working hard getting it done. 'A Life In Chapters' will feature Shai Hulud's original demo with original singer Damien Moyal (Culture / Morning Again / As Friends Rust), a live set @ NYU (Hearts Once Nourished lineup), Chad's original demo, detailed liner notes / track explanations, and to be quite honest with you, a lot of bad and useless recordings - which is why we renamed the CD. A Life In Chapters is no longer called A Life In Chapters. It is now called: 'A Comprehensive Retrospective Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Release Bad And Useless Recordings.' We kid you not. That's what we are calling it. Give us credit for honesty here."

Click for more from the statement. (I bet it'll be out in 2006 or when we get flying cars, whichever comes first.)