Sunday Edition: December 21st, 2008

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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...

The People Must Have Something Good To Read On A Sunday
This week's most popular stories

The RIAA made news this week by announcing that it will be ending its strategy of suing individual file sharers. Their new tactic in combating file sharing will involve working with ISPs to communicate with and potentially restrict the access of file sharers.

NOFX has announced a set of shows to celebrate their 25th anniversary. The shows, which will feature support from Youth Brigade, will feature past members of NOFX rejoining the band to play songs from those periods. The line up for the
2009 Harvest of Hope festival has been announced. The fest, which will run from March 6th to the 8th in St. Augustine, Florida, will feature sets from Against Me!, Propagandhi, Bouncing Souls, Strike Anywhere and Lucero among others. The Thorns of Life, the new band featuring Blake from Jawbreaker and Aaron Cometbus from Crimpshrine, are planning a Bay Area show. The routing for the 2009 Warped Tour has been announced, along with
news that Less Than Jake, Ataris, and Alexisonfire are joining the trek. Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem has also announced several upcoming acoustic solo performances on the US East Coast.

A number of upcoming recording projects were discussed this week. The pioneering and still divisive Sex Pistols mused the

possibility of a new album. The Smashing Pumpkins have chosen to abandon the album format. T.S.O.L. have begun recording and broadcasting their sessions live. Bomb the Music Industry! gave an update on their next one. Strike Anywhere will have a new record in 2009 as well. AFI is holding a contest to find backup vocalists for their

next album. No Doubt have also decided to postpone their previously discussed new one.

Fall Out Boy released a record this week and were up to all sorts of activities to promote it. Bad Religion's Greg Graffin also discussed his new book
Anarchy Evolution.

I Can't Control My Fingers I Can't Control My Brain
New feature content, weekly columns and exclusives

This week we spoke with Rob Moran of recent Deathwish signing Narrows (interviews). The band features members of Botch, Roy, Some Girls and These Arms Are Snakes.

Jonah Matranga and Shaun Lopez of the recently reunited Far (interview) and Tim McIlrath, frontman of Rise Against (interview).

As always we brought you new Streaming Music including

Poughkeepsie, NY-based The Color Wheels.

So what's coming up this week? Look for

tours kicking off from

Cro-Mags (US),

The Measure (SA) (US),

Pulling Teeth (US),

and

Clutch / Russian Circles (US).

Click Read More to check out our ongoing contests, new streaming music, social networking links and more.

Radio Free Punknews
Streaming music

Check the Punknews Music page to stream all sorts of anticipated new music including

the new release from Belgium's Daggers,

and the new full length from San Diego, CA-based Lanterns,

Bloomington, IN-based Medusa,

Seattle, WA-based Rebuilt,

Virginia-based trio The Two Funerals,

Stourbridge, UK's Science vs Romance,

Grand Rapids, MI-based La Dispute.

Warship's Supply and Depend,

Tim Barry of Avail's new record Manchester,

Scranton, PA-based Tigers Jaw,

New Brunswick, NJ-based Scream Hello,

Jersey Shores, the new album from Seattle's Akimbo,

the new EP from Dead To Me titled Little Brother,

Orlando, Florida's Virgins, featuring Sam Johnson of New Mexican Disaster Squad,

and

Dallas, Texas-based True Widow, featuring members of Slowride and The Mag Seven.

It's Funny, I Don't Feel Like a Winner
Contests

Win "Twilight" soundtrack test presses on vinyl

We've got five rare test presses of the soundtrack to Twilight to give away. The album features music from Muse, Paramore, MuteMath, Iron and Wine, Perry Farrell, Collective Soul and more.

Win copies of Thrice's new DVD

This week, Thrice will be releasing their new, highly anticipated live DVD, Live at the House of Blues. To celebrate, we've got copies of the DVD to give away. The set features 25 tracks culled from the band's many albums.

Win stuff from Attack! Attack! UK

Our contest today features Attack! Attack! UK of South Wales in the UK. The band fuses 80¹s punk, 90¹s grunge, pop rock and new wave on their debut full length and we've got a bunch of copies and swag to give away.

Win stuff from All-American Rejects

All-American Rejects release their long-awaited third album today. To coincide with the release of When The World Comes Down, we've got some prizes to give away.

Tonight We're Gonna Give It 35%
Staff blogs and side projects

Your trusty Punknews staffers and reviewers have all sorts of projects on the go, everything from poorly spelled and oft neglected blogs to big official world domination schemes.

Make sure to check out
editor and videographer Chris Moran collection of recordings online at Vimeo,
editor Justin August's blog Kinder Words,
editor Adam White's blog 2:59,
and
editor Jesse Raub's short fiction webzine Bitter Press.

Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow Adam White, Jesse Raub and Justin August's every move at Twitter.

Super Powers Enable Me To Blend In With Machinery
Social networking links

We've theorized that you visit other websites out there, and we know it can be tough to leave the calming blue glow of the `Org, so we'll help by infecting the rest of the web with Punknews content. Befriend us on the Punknews.org MySpace page, network on the Punknews.org Facebook group and Punknews.org Facebook fan page, follow us on Twitter, and contribute your listening habits to the weekly charts at the Punknews.org Last.fm group.

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