Posted by adam on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 9:10 PM (EST)
Hello everybody and welcome to Navel Gazing! Today's obviously a huge day in the Punknews universe so we're going to forgo our usual format and chat about about the new Punknews.org.
As you can see we launched our new layout today, our fifth revision in the ten years that the site's been around. This revision has been in the works for a long time and was available in public beta since February of this year. We have a few goals for the new site. First we'll be putting more of a focus on big stories and features like interviews and videos. You'll see those referenced in the story slider in the right, which should be updated several times weekly. If you scroll to the bottom of the front page you'll also find links to recent interviews, videos and popular content. The "Happening Now" box at the top of the page will be rapidly updated, featuring quick links to songs, videos, and articles around the web that we find interesting but might not (yet) have a full article prepared.
As always there are bugs and quirks that come to light when you make a change this large, so we'll be making tweaks and change throughout the week. We'll also be adding some of the features you've requested in the this article. Keep posting your thoughts and comments there.
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain
Next Sunday Gazing takes over
I'd also like to announce that today marks the end of Navel Gazing as we know it. Next weekend we'll introduce our new Sunday Edition. We'll be breaking down all the recaps into less insane chunks and posting them throughout the day. We'll wrap it up with your all-new all-different Navel Gazing community soapbox.
Posted by adam on Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 6:00 PM (EST)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
This week saw notorious anti-gay hate group the Westboro Baptist Church taking a break from picketing the funerals of dead soldiers to inexplicably turn their attention towards pop-punk act All Time Low. The group plans to protest one of the band's upcoming shows.
A new metal act has been formed that features Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley, Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley, Anthrax guitarists Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano and bassist David Karon.
Dave Grohl spoke out abou the Foo Fighters'
hiatus. He commented "I think, to me, the most important thing was to give the audience a break from the band, not even that we need to stop playing, I feel like the world doesn't need another Foo Fighters record right now."
SideOneDummy Records posted some photos this week of an
elaborate mural in Los Angeles inspired by the Gaslight Anthem.
I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain
New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the split 7" between Transit and Man Overboard,
as well as
the new full length from Toronto's The Roman Line.
Posted by adam on Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 6:00 PM (EST)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
This week the Alkaline Trio announced that they had formed a new label dubbed Heart & Skull that would
co-release their new album with Epitaph Records. The band discussed the sound of the new full length, stating
"This record is a rock record but our punk rock upbringing definitely shines through, more so than our last few records."
The band also discussed the
formation of the new label. Matt Skiba commented "Taking control of our own label situation was something we always wanted to do but never thought was possible, but now thanks to Brett Gurewitz and the fine folks at Epitaph, it is."NOFX posted a stream of their upcoming Cokie the Clown EP, along with a
video featuring cameo appearances from Matt Skiba, Tim McIlrath of Rise Against and Brendan Kelly of the Lawrence Arms.
Seattle-based hardcore outfit Furious Stylesstoked controversy with a new shirt honoring the alleged killer of a police officer as a hero. The band's former members
spoke out against the shirt, blaming vocalist Mike Torres for the its creation.
Former Ten Foot Pole and current Pulley singer Scott Radinsky was named the bullpen coach of the Cleveland Indians.
The King Khan and BBQ Show's tour resumed after a drug arrest. The band's tour manager entered a guilty plea to second degree possession of a controlled substance in Christian County, Kentucky. The band's rental vehicle was randomly stopped at a safety checkpoint and officers discovered contraband in the cab. Under KY law a driver of a vehicle is responsible for its contents.
Posted by Justin on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 6:55 PM (EST)
Hello everybody and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back at the week in Punknews. I'm Adam WhiteJustin 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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
new material from Snacktruck,
Dead To Me's new LP African Elephants,
an EP from The A-Gang,
and
a new EP from Sleepless Nights.
Posted by adam on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EST)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the new full length from Cloak/Dagger,
and
new material from Durham, NC-based Red Collar.
Posted by adam on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EST)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
So you know Chuck Biscuits of Danzig, Social Distortion, Black Flag, D.O.A. and a half dozen other cool bands? Totally not dead. The internet went crazy a few days ago when a blogger's report of his death went viral. It turns out Chuck is indeed alive and the blogger was strung along in a good ol' six month long hoax that cumulated in the death announcement. Punknews bears some responsibility in perpetuating that rumour without adequate fact checking and for that we apologize.
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the new digital EP from Foundation,
and
a new track from Landmines new EP.
Posted by adam on Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
Riverboat Gamblers guitarist Ian Mcdougall was injured last weekend in a
bike accident. He was hit by a car while riding home and suffered a broken hip, a wrist and hemorrhaging under the skull along with many lacerations, torn ligaments, bruises and and scrapes. While his prognosis is better than his bandmates first assumed he's facing a long recovery and some monster hospital bills.
Fat Wreck Chords has announced their plans to release a 3 CD boxed set titled Wrecktrospective The first CD will contain classic tracks from the label's back catalog, the second will contain demo and unreleased tracks, while the third will feature songs from the original 2001 Fat Club 7-inch series.
The Lawrence Arms will film their upcoming 10th Anniversary show on October 24th in Chicago. The band is also streaming two new songs from their upcoming EP.
Blink-182's Mark Hoppus came out in support of
health care reform in a new Huffington Post editorial. The musician writes about a member of the catering crew on the Blink's summer tour who had to have an appendix removed but lacked insurance due to a "pre-existing conditions." Her bill reached more than $48,000.
This being the Halloween season we're also seeing the barriers between worlds break down, leading to all manor of terrifying evils entering our world. Case in point: Hole has
plans to reunite.
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
former ALL and current Drag the River member Chad Price's first solo album,
the new self-recorded, self-produced, self-released sophomore album from the Braces,
Brooklyn, NY-based Laura Stevenson and the Cans,
and
a brand new song from Indianapolis, IN-based Native.
Posted by adam on Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
Popular political punks Anti-Flag have announced a series of shows in London, Berlin, and Vienna that will see the Pittsburg-based act performing Clash covers.
The Misfits are set to return with their first new studio material since 2003 with their Land of the Dead 12" .
Blink-182's much loved Enema of the State full length is set to receive a
vinyl release a decade after the fact via Mightier Than Sword Records.
Apple this week countered rumours that had been swirling about their new iTunes LP format. The company has confirmed that the format will be open to both major and indie labels and that the enhanced digital releases would carry not production fee.
Our Dispatches series of band blogs featured British singer-songwriter Mike Scott, currently on tour with Kevin Seconds (Episode 3).
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the new full length from Scranton, PA's Captain, We're Sinking,
new music from Pittsburgh's American Armada,
and
10 songs from new Red Scare act the Reaganomics.
Posted by adam on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
Rise Against have responded to a controversy stirred up by Florida radio station BUZZ103. The band commented that "we discovered that we were scheduled to headline a stage sponsored by the US Army's Recruitment Dept. As a band that has worked in counter-recruitment in the past, we decided it would be hypocritical and inappropriate for us to headline this stage. To be clear, this was not an event to honor the military, this was an event that the US ARMY was interested in recruiting people at, and we felt that our fans should be free from that interference at a rock show on a Sunday night in a time of war." On his ongoing tour garage punk Jay Reatard has seen every member of his band quit. He responded with his usual level of bombast.
A venue in Los Gatos, California has
banned all-ages shows and upended their concert schedule due to a complaint regarding an interaction between a 13 year old and a man in his 20s at the venue.
A recent study
crunched the numbers on album sales last year, revealing that out of 115,000 albums that were released only 110 sold more than 250,000 copies, only 1,500 topped 10,000, and fewer than 6,000 sold more than 1,000.
Our Dispatches series of band blogs featured British singer-songwriter Mike Scott, currently on tour with Kevin Seconds (Episode 2).
Our Video of the Week featured the Gaslight Anthem covering Hot Water Music's "Trusty Chords" on their recent tour.
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the new full length from Buffalo's Failures' Union,
and
the sophomore LP from Nothington titled Roads, Bridges and Ruins.
Posted by adam on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 10:10 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
Andrew W.K., citing a recent "intense personal experience," has decided to relocate his upcoming tour dates away from religious venues. While he was light on the details, he stated that "I love going to churches and hearing music there - but I can't play my music on that sort of stage after what happened."
Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls got people talking this week with a blog post about fan donations. She commented "If you think i'm going to pass up a chance to put my hat back down in front of the collected audience on my virtual sidewalk and ask them to give their hard-earned money directly to me instead of to Roadrunner Records, Warner Music Group, Ticketmaster, and everyone else out there who's been shamelessly raping both fan and artist for years, you're crazy."
John Joseph of Cro-Mags fame announced that his upcoming novel would be titled Meat Is For Pussies.
Film industry news sources this week announced that
Fox Searchlight is interested in the upcoming Ramones biopic.
Research firm Forrester Research stated that the
music industry needs a "radical overhaul" to thrive. The report, as covered by Ars Technica, states that users should be able to "completely customize and share their music in an extremely open, platform-agnostic manner."
Posted by adam on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
Anti-Flag was forced to cancel their "G20 Welcoming Party" show in their hometown of Pittsburg due to the proximity of their venue to the expanded security perimeter surrounding the summit. They encouraged fans to get out and protest anyways.
Matt Bellamy of Muse kicked up a heated discussion by suggesting that all internet data usage be progressively taxed to subsidize artists. Tech industry blog TechCrunch has been increasingly critical of similar musician-bred solutions to the issue, sarcastically suggesting we should just throw up our hands and ban music. This comes after some in the music industry suggested that royalties should be collected for usage such as 30 second song samples in digital stores.
Scientists decided to pit vinyl against CD and digital formats in an attempt to quantify fidelity with interesting results.
Critically acclaimed hip hop artist and actor Mos Def is collaborating with Damon Dash of Roc-A-Fella Records to produce a documentary about pioneering Detroit punk outfitDeath.
Our Dispatches series of band blogs featured British singer-songwriter Mike Scott, currently on tour with Kevin Seconds (Episode 1).
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the new full length from Baltimore, Maryland's Ruiner,
and
new material from London-based Apologies, I Have None.
Posted by adam on Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
So this website has been around for around a decade now! Who knew? Our good friends at Pastepunk were apparently keeping track and they graciously decided to chat with Punknews'
Aubin Paul, Adam White and Brian Shultz to celebrate the occasion. Speaking of ten year anniversaries, Rise Against have one coming up. The band will celebrate with a show in Chicago dubbed "Songs from the Fat Years" that will feature just that, including cuts from 2001's The Unraveling and 2003's Revolutions Per Minute.
Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson is set to release a
7 inch series honouring the roads of his home province of Manitoba.
Poison The Well were the latest band to suffer theft on the road, losing their van and gear from a hotel parking lot in Detroit.
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the new 7" from Washington, DC-based Lion of Judah,
the new full length from Teenage Bottlerocket,
Slackers frontman Vic Ruggiero's new solo project,
a 7" from Newark, NJ-based Troublemaker,
and
a preview of a new song from AFI.
Posted by adam on Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
This week brought major news that Public Image Ltd is
reforming in December. John Lydon's influential post-Sex Pistols act hasn't played in 17 years, but the group wil return for a series of shows to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Metal Box.
The presence of Kurt Cobain as a playable character in the new Guitar Hero 5 video game has enranged the members of the Nirvana camp. Cobain's widow Courtney Love threatened to
sue the shit out of Activision, while the developer claims that Love signed agreements allowing for Cobain's image to be used. Former Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl were also dismayed, with Grohl urging Activision to "re-lock" Kurt's character so that it can't be used for anything but Nirvana songs in the game.
In less contentious Nirvana news, the band's
1992 Reading Set will arrive as a CD / DVD set in November.
Influential post-hardcore band Small Brown Bike has announced plans to
reform and play shows in the near future.
At a recent product announcement Apple unveiled the
iTunes LP. The digital download will accompany music with lyrics, liner notes, video, photos and other content. Another forward thinking digital initiative has arrived from Nick Cave, who has released an
enhanced ebook for the iPhone. It features the text of his second novel The Death of Bunny Munro with an audiobook read by Cave and featuring original music.
Our Dispatches series of band blogs featured another edition of Mike Hale's For Those Still Standing (Attica! Attica! (Episode 1).
Our Video of the Week featured Against Me! live at the Fest 4.
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the new album Phoenix from Los Angeles' Orange,
and
the latest from Rochester, NY's Such Gold.
Posted by adam on Sunday, September 6, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
Posted by adam on Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 10:00 PM (EDT)
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 community talking this week...
The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories
Folk-punker Frank Turner caught our attention with some comments on illegal music downloading. Among his thoughts was the opinion "the idea that by stealing music from the internet you're somehow crusading for justice against the big bad record labels is absolute fucking bullshit... Britney Spears and David Geffen aren't going to downsize their condo's because you didn't pay for a Fugazi album."Fall Out Boy vocalist Patrick Stump was arrested in Los Angeles last Tuesday being picked up for a two-year-old warrant for driving without a license. He was released on Wednesday after posting $15,000 bail.
The Lawrence Arms are planning a
new EP for October 27th titled Buttsweat and Tears. They'll support the release with a 10th Anniversary show in their hometown of Chicago and a week of west coast dates in November.
Strung Out unveiled the new track
"Black Crosses" this week from their upcoming 20th anniversary full length Agents of the Underground.
As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including
the Fat Wreck debut from Minneapolis, MN's Banner Pilot,
and
an audio book chapter from Frank Portman of The Mr. T Experience's new book Andromeda Klein.