It’s Sunday, November 18th, 2007. Welcome to Navel Gazing, your look back at this week in Punknews. We’ve completely descended into parody if you haven’t noticed… and you know what? It feels good.

The people must have something good to read on a Sunday

It’s a confusing time in the industry. Out of one side of it’s mouth we see a major label CEO comment that they were “wrong to go to war with consumers” and yet there’s a bill gaining traction that would threaten to pull financial aid for colleges whose students download. Now that’s something that Gene Simmons could get behind, as he thinks the industry should have sued you absolutely fucking blind for messing with them in the first place (and party ev-er-y day). So what about a new way forward? The New York Times profiled “band as a brand” marketing, focusing on Paramore as an example. One band that’s turned their back on the trend is Band of Horses who just spurned WalMart and a potentially massive payday.

We had news on Paint It Black‘s upcoming release New Lexicon and checked out a new track from it. NOFX unveiled a cut from their new live record. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones showed some details on their upcoming collection. AFI even talked about their next record and plans for an EP. Leftover Crack was thwarted on their attempt to enter Canada, prompting an angry response from Stza. We had news of a few robberies on the road, as Suburban Legends were relieved of a van and trailer and Joe Lally‘s tour with Capillary Action saw some equipment disappear. Rounding out the law and order news, we had a Scatterbox show turn into a fracas after the venue pulled the plug. We had some new videos this week, including Bad Religion‘s “New Dark Ages” and Against Me!‘s montage-core “White People for Peace.”

Our Video of the Week featured part two of our CMJ to the Fest 6 feature. It chronicles Punknews videographer Chris’ two week journey from his home base of Richmond, VA to New York City for the Mutiny PR/Punknews.org CMJ Showcase then down Gainesville for the Fest. This week we featured footage of the Lawrence Arms, the Falcon and the Gaslight Anthem. The sixteenth edition of Vinyl File featured a conversation with a NOFX collector and profiled his massive collection. We brought you new music this week including all six cuts from the Briggs acoustic Westlake Sessions, and the new record from Joey Cape’s new band the Playing Favorites.

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Vancouver’s The Rebel Spell have announced that they’ll still be on the road this month despite Leftover Crack‘s cancellation. The band commented:

so obviously the LoC wont be at these shows, we might still be in town those dates for a show… some of the listings for shows are incorrect(ones that say LoC) because im to lazy to edit them, fuck myspace. fuck borders. sherbrooke went on and it was awsome, ottawa is listed, toronto show is listed, kingston is on…more to be announced and we will be adding some more shows as we know so keep checking or believe what you hear.

The New York squat punks were denied entry to Canada this past week. The original tour dates can be found here, check the band’s MySpace page for updates.

G7 Welcoming Committee Records digitally released the Rebel Spell’s 2005 full length Days of Rage and a new EP titled Four Songs About Freedom this past August.
Source Continue reading Tours: The Rebel Spell salvages tour →

Lou Reed has recorded two new songs inspired by the documentary film Nanking. The songs ‘Gravity’ and ‘Safety Zone’ can be streamed on Reed’s website.

Nanking focuses on the “Nanking Massacre” which occurred in Nanking, China in the early days of the Second World War. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival where it won an award for best documentary editing.
Source Continue reading Lou Reed composes two new songs inspired by “Nanking” →

Lou Reed has recorded two new songs inspired by the documentary film Nanking. The songs ‘Gravity’ and ‘Safety Zone’ can be streamed on Reed’s website.

Nanking focuses on the “Nanking Massacre” which occurred in Nanking, China in the early days of the Second World War. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival where it won an award for best documentary editing.
Source Continue reading Lou Reed composes two new songs inspired by Nanking →

Members of Bury Your Dead, Stick To Your Guns and XReignofTerrorX have launched a new The Iceman Confessions.

You can check out some music on their myspace page.
Source Continue reading Members of Bury Your Dead, Stick to Your Guns, Xreignofterrorx form Iceman Confessions →

Strung Out will be playing a free show this afternoon at Nine Star in West Los Angeles. The show is set to start at 3:00 PM with opening performances from The Knife and Bullets And Octane. Strung Out is set to take the stage at 5:00.

For more information, including how to get there, click here.
Source Continue reading Strung Out to play free show in Los Angeles today →

Strung Out will be playing a free show this afternoon at Nine Star in West Los Angeles. The show is set to start at 3:00 PM with opening performances from The Knife and Bullets And Octane. Strung Out is set to take the stage at 5:00.

For more information, including how to get there, click here.
Source Continue reading Srung Out to play free show in Los Angeles today →