ASG has digitally released their new full length and scheduled a 2008 release date for a physical version. The record is titled Win Us Over and is due out on CD January 22, 2008.

The album is the follow-up to 2003’s The Amplification of Self Gratification and promises “ingredients of stoner rock, psychedelic metal, and angst-ridden punk rock.” The album also features a guest performance from Blag Dahlia of The Dwarves
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Deep Elm has signed Desoto Jones. The band was previously signed to Negative Progression but left the label in July.

The record, Aurora, was recorded and produced by Chris Badami (Dillinger Escape Plan, The Early November, Midtown, The Starting Line) at Portrait Recording Studio in Lincoln Park, N.J. Limited to 1000 physical copies, Aurora is scheduled for a worldwide release by Deep Elm in December of 2007. The record will also be available on an unlimited basis from digital services such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Emusic, Snocap, etc.

You can check out some music on their Deep Elm profile.
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For their upcoming tour of Australia, Me First and The Gimme Gimmes will be missing two members due to other commitments. Both bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Chris Shifflet will be busy with other projects and will be unable to attend the dates. In their place however, will be NOFX guitarist extraordinaire, Eric Melvin.

The label explained the situation:

Fat Mike can’t/won’t go to Australia and New Zealand with the Gimmes in January because he misses his daughter too much and NOFX has gotten themselves so busy making their documentary, that he has been, and will continue to be, on the road part of each and every month next year. Fortunately Eric Melvin has no kids; he had such a good time covering for Mike in Europe last summer and the Gimmes had such a good time having him along, that he has agreed to do it again this January. So if any of you Aussies or Kiwis are pissed, fine… don’t come, but please keep in mind:

a) Melvin does not talk as much so you get “more covers, less babble”
b) It was pretty much this or nothing

the band has been issuing country-themed seven-inches in their “Square Dance” series.
Source Continue reading Eric Melvin joins the Gimmes for Australian tour →

Green Day‘s Billie Joe recently spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about a number of topics in a lengthy new interview piece. Billie Joe commented on the apparent contradiction of being a middle-aged punk:

I don’t want to be twenty-one again. Screw that.[…] My whole life right there [was] screaming kids, punks telling me to fuck off, my wife getting pissed. There’s nothing wrong with being twenty-one. It’s the lessons you learn. At thirty, you think, “Why did I worry so much about this shit?”

He also comments on the punk cliche, noting:

The punk bands I liked were the ones who didn’t fall into clichés — the Clash, the Ramones. The Ramones wrote beautiful love songs.

He also seems to be one of the few major figures showing Britney Spears any mercy after her much reviled performance at the music awards saying:

People want blood. They want to see other people thrown to the lions. Do audiences want rock stars? I can’t tell. You have information coming at you from so many areas — YouTube, the Internet, tabloids. Watching Britney Spears the other night [on the MTV Video Music Awards] was like watching a public execution.

You can check out the rest of the interview here.
Source Continue reading Billie Joe talks about being a middle-aged punk, music business and Britney Spears →

I recently exchanged some emails with Tim Kasher, the frontman and songwriter behind both Cursive and The Good Life. We mainly focused on the new album from the latter band, Help Wanted Nights but also touched on some of his future plans – which include a new album from Cursive – and other details.

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One of the latest in a line of major label refugees, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, has posted some comments about their reasoning for leaving the label and posted some choice words about Interscope.

Frontman Conrad Keely said he was encouraged by former label-mate Trent Reznor, who announced earlier this month his multi-platinum band Nine Inch Nails would not be returning to Interscope after several years:

Ever since label head Jimmy Iovine started dating the lead singer guy of the Pussycat Dolls it became impossible to get him on the phone, so that was a first bad sign. Then their idea of marketing became keeping it a secret that we’d released a record. The industry is in a strange place these days, and the only way they can make money is to sell urban pop music. Which is what I thought we were writing, but apparently I was wrong.

At the expense of a massive debt to them of half a million dollars, they really helped us to grow. They’ve taught us about the worthlessness of A&R people, how to yell at idiots running an art department, and how to shake hands with smiling retailers who have no idea who you are.

Hopefully the other bands [on the label] will follow our lead. I mean, Interscope has already killed TV on the Radio and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There aren’t many bands on the roster left to ruin.

The message has since disappeared from the band’s official website.
Source Continue reading Trail of Dead rips into Interscope →

Copeland has posted another new song from their recently announced double rarities collection. The record is titled Dressed Up and In Line and is due out November 27, 2007.

You can find the song on their label’s myspace page.
Source Continue reading Copeland: “Thanks to You” →