Sunday Edition: April 13, 2014

Hello everyone and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back in the week in Punknews. This is John G filling in for Brittany Strummer this week. She'll be be back next week, but for this week, she's studying for her test to become a "Crustacean Behavioral Therapist." That is to say, she's trying to become a psychologist for Hermit Crabs, sort of like one of those dog psychologists. I saw her studying materials- the tiny couch is the best. Anyways, I'll be your guide through some of the juiciest, most popular and otherwise noteworthy stories from the last seven days. Remember, every Punknews story is built from tips from our wonderful, good-looking readers, so get to submitting. Here's what got the strange, slow and old community talking this week:

Click below to check out this past week's collection of new streaming music, features and interviews. You'll also find our new weekly Q&A and where you can find the Punknews staff to yell at on Twitter. Talk amongst yourselves and we'll see you Monday morning.

Tonight We're Going To Give It 35%


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Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:

Q: Do you hate hippies?

A: Actually, I'm glad you asked this question. Just recently, I've been really listening to the bands where hippy-ness and punk rock cross over. Over the past four weeks, I've really been checking out the Deviants, Mick Farren, Pink Fairies, Twink, The Fugs, the Electric Eels, and Hawkwind, each of which are bands that sort of evolved out of the hippie era (Fugs basically were as Buzz Osborne says, "mean hippies") and influenced or morphed into punk bands.

There is some great music there. But, I get what you are saying. The criticism against hippies is that despite saying that they wanted to change the world, all they really did was do drugs, have a lot of sex, beg people for money, be really annoying, have no concept of what it's like to actually work, and make terrible music.

That's not like punk at all.

J/k j/k I kid, I kid. Actually, hippies did have some really good music- Hendrix, um…. Hendrix… well, they were sort of into soul music too, and soul music rules. (Also, Dylan, The Who, and the Beatles rule- though they aren't strictly hippie bands… Doors, too.)

But, man, the Grateful Dead is STILL the most boring band I've ever heard. Side A of "American Beauty" was the longest 18 minutes of my life- and not in a good way.

So, I can't hate the hippies, if anything, because hippies birthed Hawkwind, Mick Farren and the Pink Fairies, who were basically bikers on speed. Really, bikers-on-speed might be THE BEST genre of music. Also, you get ">hella whacked out stuff like this.

-John G

Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow @aubinpaul, @adamwhite, @johngentile, @kiraface, @mcflynnthm, @wackymondo, @Brittastrophee and @BrittStrummer's every move at Twitter.

The People Must Have Something Good To Read


In the past few weeks we've spoken with a number of bands and artists. Don't miss out on these interviews: