Gilead Media / Radar Recordings has announced a release date for the final album from acclaimed progressive hardcore act, The Cancer Conspiracy.

Though the band split up in 2002, the album has remained in legal limbo ever since. The record is titled Ω and is due out January 29, 2008.

The record will be released on CD and LP.
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Many of you wrote in with the news that popular private BitTorrent music site Oink was raided and shutdown by Interpol after a two year investigation. British and Dutch police spent two years working on the raid, shutting down what they are calling the “biggest source of illegal pre-release chart albums” and arrested the 24-year old owner of the site.

Oink or “OiNK” as it was sometimes written, specialised in distributing albums leaked on to the internet, often weeks ahead of their official release date. More than 60 major album releases have been leaked on OiNK so far this year, making it the primary source worldwide for illegal pre-release music.

Popular P2P watchdog site Torrentfreak had some more details, saying that the law enforcement agencies were currently looking to have the identities of users turned over to authorities. The site boasted nearly 180,000 registered members according to the story.

Due to a disperse international user base, and the unlikelihood of tracking down 180,000 people and subjecting them to British law, some argue that prosecution of individual users is unlikely. However, the volume of pre-release music suggests that some of the music on the site was leaked by OINK users and thereby providing an additional incentive to discover the source of those leaks.
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Chris DeMakes, lead singer of Less Than Jake, has put a number of solo recordings online via MySpace. You can check out four songs streaming from the social networking site. Chris will debut his solo act live at Orlando, Florida’s the Social on December 22nd.

His brief announcement indicates that despite the side project Less Than Jake is still going strong. The band last released In with the Out Crowd in 2006 via Sire and have been mulling over their next move in recent months.
Source Continue reading Chris DeMakes of Less Than Jake goes solo →

The Canadian Copyright Board has approved yet another tax designed to punish legal music purchasers while encouraging underworld of music piracy. The result is that people who legally (and morally) purchase music will now be punished for those who pirate.

The board approved a 3.1¢ tax on individual songs, bringing the price to the less catchy $1.02. The tarriff has been designed to compensate artists for the reproduction of their songs – as opposed to the other ¢99 which must vanish into thin air. When you purchase music and support small Canadian artists like the The Weakerthans, the extra money will be going to artists based on sales – meaning, your money will go to rock stars like Nickelback.

The law is also retroactive to 1996, meaning companies like PureTracks and Apple’s iTunes will need to pay for the past few years as well. You can see more about the situation here.

Canada already imposes a tax on blank CDs, even if they are used to backup data or your own music. The side effect is that when an independent band records a CD themselves, the money will go to a clearing house to be distributed to other, more successful artists.
Source Continue reading Canada to tax music downloads to “compensate artists” →

Saves The Day has launched a full album stream. The record is titled Under The Boards and is due out October 30, 2007. It is the follow-up to Sound the Alarm which was released in 2006. The new album is the penultimate volume in a planned trilogy with the final chapter due out next year.

You can find the stream on their MySpace
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And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead has announced their departure from long-time major label, Interscope. The band signed to the major after the release of Madonna and released their most well-received album, Source Tags and Codes via the major in 2002.

The band will be on the road with Deathlok beginning at the end of this month and a promising a return to the studio early next year to record their new album.
Source Continue reading …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead …leave …Interscope →

Portland, Maine horror punks Covered In Bees have posted a full album stream of their soon to be released 2nd album Portland Death Punk Vol. 2: Louder Than Fire. It is the follow up to Portland Death Punk Vol. 1 which was released in 2005.

You can check it out here
Source Continue reading Covered In Bees: “Portland Death Punk, Volume 2: Louder than Fire” →

Tourmates Manchester Orchestra and the Annuals are carrying with them a limited edition 7″ exclusive to this outing. The release features each band covering one another, with Manchester’s interpretation of “Brother” and Annuals’ rendition of “Where Have You Been?” on either side. You can see the artwork below.

You can check out Annuals covering “Where Have You Been?” here and Manchester Orchestra covering “Brother” here.

You can check out the dates here.
Source Continue reading Manchester Orchestra / Annuals to release split 7&quot, post both songs →