The Bad Brains have announced plans to release a special box set version of their latest album, Build a Nation. The box set will include three red 7-inches, one 7-inch picture disc, one 18x24 poster. The set features fifteen tracks; the entirety of Build a Nation as well as a previously unreleased bonus track, "Married Again."

The entire set runs $29.00 and can be found directly via the label here.

You can click Read More for a look at the set.

Can you guess which one of our new reviews is NSFW?

• New Found Glory's Hits (fairly self-explanatory)
• Big D and the Kids Table's Strictly Mixed and Mashed (also self-explanatory)
• Throwdown throw down in New York
• Amebix's 1987 effort Monolith gets digitally reissued on a donation basis. We're livin' in the future!
• More at the reviews page

MTV.com reports that on Monday, March 24 the U.S. Justice Department approved the merger between satellite radio companies Sirius and XM more than a year after the two companies first announced the initial deal. According to its Web site, the Justice Department's Antitrust Division cleared the merger after determining that Sirius' takeover of XM would not harm competition or consumers. After the merger, there will only be one provider of satellite radio for the United States. They're not in the clear yet, though, as the merger still faces challenges from the Federal Communications Comission and the Securities Exchange Commission.

One of the proposed benefits of the merger is that it will offer more channels to the subscriber base if all non-redundant channels are kept. But, due to lack of competition in the satellite radio market, it is debatable whether or not this will constitute a monopoly, which, according to standard capitalist economics, may result in driving subscription prices higher while eschewing innovation. Both networks currently provide a wide array of programming, including punk channels and related genres. For those interested in more details, you can check the Wikipedia page dedicated to this merger.
(Source: MTV.com)

R.E.M. have launched a full album stream of their new record. The record is titled Accelerate and is due out April 01, 2008.

You can check out Accelerate right here.

Terror has signed to Century Media. The announcement comes on the heels of the completion of their new album and follow up to 2006's Always the Hard Way and their 2007 EP Rhythm Amongst the Chaos.

The band will make their debut for the label with The Damned, The Shamed on June 10, 2008. The band recently wrapped up a tour with Earth Crisis. They will soon head to Europe with Ignite and Strung Out.

Dashboard Confessional have begun work on their next album. Frontman Chris Carrabba posted the update:

I took a vacation from my social obligations to write songs and before I knew it I had a batch that was new and intriguing and best of all connected to each other. I have missed you though while I have been working on this music, but I have discovered along the way that it is best for me to push all things to the periphery while in pursuit of new songs.

So to bring us one step closer, let me share this news with you: John, Scott, Mike and I started in the studio this week with producer Adam Schlesinger.

Dashboard released Dusk and Summer in 2006.

Canadian act Moneen have announced plans to release a new DVD. The package is titled It All Started With A Red Stripe and is due out May 13, 2008.

The DVD compiles more than two hours of footage of the Brampton, Ontario quartet including fans first look at the Alex Liu-directed documentary film “The Start To This May Be The End To Another” that delves into the tenuous period the band experienced creating their 2006 release, The Red Tree

Additionally, the DVD features multiple ‘easter eggs’, band-created artwork, an entire live concert shot and directed by Greg Benedetto from a May 2007 show in Toronto, oodles of behind-the-scenes tour footage, webisodes that the band has shot over the last two years, and five music videos, including a previously unreleased video for “The Song I Swore To Never Sing”, shot and directed by vocalist/guitarist Kenny Bridges.

You can check out the artwork on the release page.

This Is Hell have booked a UK and European tour set to kick off later next month. The band are touring in support of their latest album, Misfortunes.

You can click Read More for the dates.

Anti-Flag has launched a full album stream of their new full length. The record is titled The Bright Lights of America and is due out April 01, 2008.

You can check out the album here.

Recent Paper & Plastick Records addition, Richmond VA's hardcore outfit Landmines are currently without a drummer. Joe Hunt, (who also plays with Brainworms) has decided to leave Landmines. The band explained:

The separation is completely amicable. We love Joe, we loved him before we were playing music together, and we love him now that we’re not playing music together. Not in a gay way, but like a prison way. We wish him the absolute best of luck in any endeavor he is involved in from here on out.

That being said, this in NO WAY hinders our tour plans for the summer....well, ok, it hinders them, but a steam roller won’t be stopping this band anytime soon. We’ll be going through our list of beast drummers in the area, trying to find someone who isn’t going to mind living in a van with us for 5 weeks at a clip. We’d love to be able to find a permanent replacement before tour, but honestly we’ll be happy to find a beast to fill in for tour.

Joe’s last show with the band will be the Ann Beretta show at the Canal Club downstairs on April 26th. Make sure you come out and give him a proper send off with us.

Anyone interested in temporarily, or permanently playing with the band should contact them via their MySpace page. The band's debut LP, recorded with Brian McTernan (Hot Water Music, Bane, Texas Is The Reason), will be released digitally and on vinyl via Less Than Jake co-founder Vinnie Fiorello's new label, Paper & Plastick Records.

The Cab have released a new song from their upcoming Decaydance/FBR debut. The record is titled Whisper War and is due out April 29, 2008.

You can check out "One of Those Nights" on their myspace page.

Joe from the The Marked Men recently denied rumours that the band had broken up. Though members of the band had been playing in other bands including The Potential Johns, Joe assured fans that the band was still together, albeit mostly inactive:

We are not breaking up!!! Yet, we will probably be very quiet and nearly non-existent for a long time. So see us between now and August whenever you can, which sucks because we don't play too much.

We are going to be pretty quiet as far as shows go for a while. Recording is the most important thing for us right now. Pretty soon I might have news about another release from us but right now we do not have all of the details so unfortunately I can't spill the beans just yet, but I promise the news will be good when it comes.

Aside from the previously mentioned Dirtnap re-release of the Marked Men's first LP, they will also be releasing two 7-inch's in the next coming months, one with This Is My Fist on No Idea Records, and another with Birthday Suits on Nice and Neat Records. A new record is said to be in the midst of recording and should hopefully be out by summer.

The band released Fix My Brain in 2006 and everybody who heard it liked it.

Anti-Flag have been confirmed for a MySpace Secret Show. The event will take place tomorrow night at New York’s Knitting Factory. The group’s show comes less than one week before the April 01, 2008 release of its seventh studio album The Bright Lights Of America on RCA Records.The Secret Show is a free, exclusive performance.

The bill will also feature Outernational. You can click Read More for the show flyer.

Comeback Kid have unveiled plans to hit Hawaii, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and South America in the coming months as they support their 2007 album, Broadcasting.... Along with the previously announced shows with Propagandhi, the band will be visiting all those countries in the coming months.

You can click Read More for the dates.

The Smashing Pumpkins have filed suit against Virgin Records, saying the record label has illegally used their name and music in promotional deals that hurt the band's credibility with fans.

In a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the band said it has "worked hard for over two decades to accumulate a considerable amount of goodwill in the eyes of the public," and that Virgin's use of the band in a "Pepsi Stuff" promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi Co. threatens their reputation for "artistic integrity."

Virgin released the Smashing Pumpkins' music for more than 17 years, but the only active agreement between the two parties, the lawsuit claims, is a deal granting Virgin permission to sell digital downloads of the band's songs. The agreement does not give Virgin the right to use the band in promotional campaigns to sell outside products, the lawsuit said.

The band members said they would "never grant such authority to Virgin, or any other entity."

The band most recently released Zeitgeist via Warner Bros.

The LA Times music blog has an interesting entry regarding the so-called resurgence of "bro-core." The blog largely groups the mid-90s punk rock sound popularized by Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords under that label, and calls attention to the major success of Pennywise's free album (which hit 500,000 copies) and the lineup of Bamboozle which includes H20, a Hot Water Music reunion, Face to Face, Goldfinger, Bouncing Souls and 7 Seconds.

The reasoning, it says, is that:

It's like Fueled by Ramen signing Lifetime, or Kurt Cobain touting the Vaselines in interviews — a devoted subculture act breaks big and wants to show off its influences, both to keep its credibility and throw a bone to its favorite veteran bands.

Thoughts?

Jacob Bannon, artist and frontman of Converge, has launched an official website. Among the information shared on the site includes some of his upcoming solo project releases as well as a small aside about a new album from Converge:

We are casually working on a new Converge album.

Along with his new solo debut, The Blood of Thine Enemies, Bannon is promising a new DVD from Converge.

Anticon act Why? have posted a new video from their 2008 album, Alopecia.

You can click Read More for the video.

While he is home taking care of his first child, prolific Darkest Hour guitarist Kris Norris has posted a new solo project. Dubbed Variant Qualities, the album is the most recent of new material from the guitarist who also released material under the name Locus Factor in 2005.

He explained:

In I think it was 1999 or so whenever Liquid Tension Experiment came out I wondered how awesome it would be to just get together and jam on stuff like that in the more dream theater progressive vein. Since I was in school and didnt have any time I decided to just do what they did write a jam record in a week and I just sat in my room and jammed out some stuff went back and added keyboards and drums and this was the result. It's got a kind of crude production since it was basically 4 tracked.

You can download the album for free here.

Hardcore act Stick To Your Guns have posted "Heartless" which will appear on their upcoming Century Media debut, Comes From The Heart.

You can find the song on their myspace page.

Milwaukee/Los Angeles based Truth In Fiction will be releasing their next full length, Fireflies via Fabtone Records on May 17, 2008. You can check out four songs from the album on their MySpace page.

Richmond, VA's East City Rivals (current and former members of AVAIL, Ann Beretta, ATP) are playing their first show March 29th. They will be headlining Slaughterama 2008 at the the Canal Club in Richmond, VA. They will be playing with Antlers, Mark Lind (of The Ducky Boys) and Pedals on our Pirateships

Austin, TX's Cruiserweight will have a new album titled Big Bold Letters due out sometime this summer via Doghouse Records. While you anticipate its release, you can currently hear the track "Balboa" as well as snippets from the entire album on the band's MySpace page.