Members of Darkest Hour, Frodus and Division Of Laura Lee have announced a new side project, Man and Wasp.

Featuring Shelby Cinca (Frodus, Decahedron, The Cassettes), Mike Schleibaum (Darkest Hour), and Håkan Johansson (Division of Laura Lee, Frantic Mantis). the Washington DC/Gothernburg, Sweden based band have self-released their debut. The record is titled Close the World, Open the Next and is available now via iTunes and downloadpunk.com

You can check out two songs from the six-song EP on their myspace page.
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City and Colour, the side project from Dallas Green of Alexisonfire, has announced a release date for a forthcoming sophomore album. The record is titled Bring Me Your Love and is due out February 05, 2008. The album will also be simultaneously released in the United States via Vagrant.

The record is the follow up to the Juno-award winning Sometimes which was released in 2005. For this record, Dallas has also enlisted Canadian Music Hall of Famer Gordon Downie of the Tragically Hip, who adds his distinctive vocals to “Sleeping Sickness.” Appearances by friends and label mates Dan Romano and Spencer Burton (Attack in Black) are also set to appear.
Source Continue reading City and Colour (Alexisonfire) plans sophomore full length for February →

City and Colour, the side project from Dallas Green of Alexisonfire, has announced a release date for a forthcoming sophomore album. The record is titled Bring Me Your Love and is due out February 05, 2008. The album will also be simultaneously released in the United States via Vagrant.

The record is the follow up to the Juno-award winning Sometimes which was released in 2005. For this record, Dallas has also enlisted Canadian Music Hall of Famer Gordon Downie of the Tragically Hip, who adds his distinctive vocals to “Sleeping Sickness.” Appearances by friends and label mates Dan Romano and Spencer Burton (Attack in Black) are also set to appear.
Source Continue reading City and Colour (Alexisonfire) plans sophomore full length for January →

In a baffling but not entirely surprising mood, Universal has decided to require all of their artists to provide only 90 clips of music on their myspace pages. The news comes from Wired Magazine which cited an email from Universal artist Colbie Caillat:

Due to circumstances beyond my control I have to swap the songs out on my page for 90 second versions instead of full length versions. In fact some of the songs have already been swapped as I write this. Every artist signed to a Universal label has to comply immediately.

The story reports that some artists were required to do this a few months ago, but it is apparently trickling through their entire base. It’s unclear how the removal of low quality streams will increase CD sales, particularly since it provides some incentive for more morally-questionable methods of hearing music.
Source Continue reading Universal Music cuts streaming music to 90 second clips →

Planes Mistaken For Stars have cancelled the January dates of their farewell tour. The band explained:

We are sorry to say but we have some bad news. Due to a family emergency within the PMFS family, we have to cancel the whole January tour and Europe. We tried to figure out a way around this but it has become more serious than expected and as we all know family comes first. Everything will be ok but now this is the time we are there for the person(s) in need.

With this said, we will be playing only ONE more show (our Final show) in February. This will be in Denver and we will keep you updated on the venue and date.

Source Continue reading Planes Mistaken for Stars cancel January dates on final tour →

Suicidal Tendencies bassist Louichi Mayorga has teamed up with the guitarist and drummer of industrial/metal outfit Fear Factory to form a new hardcore/punk project, The Infidels.

The band has completed a track for a compilation and are currently working on material for a forthcoming debut. You can check out “Earshot Away” on their myspace page.
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In a recent interview, Chiodos bassist Matt Goddard stated that the band is trying to raise money to get the Flint Local 432, the once-thriving all-ages venue that incubated the band’s career “up and running again.”

According to a follow up piece in Michigan Live, Singer Craig Owens, grew up in Davison but cut his teeth musically at clubs like downtown Flint’s now-defunct Flint Local 432, where Chiodos got its start six years ago and launched its 2005 tour that summer.

Flint, MI has been rife with problems since the closing of the General Motors plant in the 90s. The situation was famously documented by Michael Moore in his debut documentary, Roger & Me.
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After The Fall from Albany, NY, recently recorded songs for a split 7″ with Transitions and a Kid Dynamite Tribute compilation. Both releases will be out in early 2008 and you can hear a song from each at their MySpace page.

The Guts have finished recording their new record Let It Go for Rally Records at Smart Studios. The album was produced by Ben Weasel and you can find more information at their MySpace page.

Recently reunited NYC punks Lower East Side Stitches have posted 2 new songs. These are the first finished recordings the band has released since 2000’s Lower East Side on Artemis Records. Go listen to the new songs “Better Than Ever” and “Johnny’s on a Rampage” at their MySpace page.

Phone Trio from Brazil will soon be releasing their first CD in Japan. The album is called Brickwall will hit Japanese stores in April 2008. The band is also planning a tour in the US and another one in Europe for the second half of the year, probably supporting their second album Houston, We Have A Problem which is already going through pre-production. You can grab more at their MySpace page.
Source Continue reading After the Fall, The Guts, L.E.S. Stitches, Phone Trio →

Grant Olney has posted a self-described manifesto titled Towards Open, Participatory, Sustainable Art: A Manifesto. In it Olney reasons that creative control laws as they exist today “more often than not do much more harm than good to artists and the general population” due to their having been created via “[lobbying] for by big business and thus designed to benefit large `publishers’ and `rights-management’ conglomerates.” Olney does not argue for a “free music” society but throws his weight behind licensing schemas like Creative Commons, which allows a variety of rights to be reserved or granted by the content creator.

You can read the full document here or below.

You can grab 20 songs from Mr. Olney via his wintery good things a’comin mix at his webpage. All of the songs contained are licensed via the Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution license which grants the rights to anyone to copy and share them, use them in their projects (both non-commercial and commercial), remix them, extract samples, etc., all for free. You also need to ensure that others in the future have the same freedom to build upon their work under a compatible open license and give attribution.
Source Continue reading Grant Olney posts “Towards Open, Participatory, Sustainable Art: A Manifesto” →