According to attendees for the band’s recent performance, and confirmed by sources close to the label, the Smoking Popes will be releasing their long-awaited new full length on Chicago indie Flameshovel. It will be the band’s first studio record in more than a decade with their previous, Destination Failure, released in 1997.

The record is titled Stay Down and is expected in the Fall. The first two songs from the album can be streamed on their myspace page.
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Avenged Sevenfold have posted the latest video from their 2007 album, Avenged Sevenfold.

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Today we bring you an exclusive stream from New Jersey upstarts, The Gaslight Anthem. The featured track is titled “Say I Won’t (Recognize)” and comes from the band’s recent Sabot Productions EP, Señor and the Queen.

You can check out our exclusive stream over at the band’s Punknews Profile page.

Update: We had a little server problem. Try reloading the band’s profile and the song should play. Sorry about that.
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Much has happened to the Hives since breaking out of the punk underground in 2001 with Your New Favourite Band and 2000’s Veni Vidi Vicious. The Swedish band’s incendiary gigs have earned them a reputation as “the best live band on the planet” and they are two album deep into a major label deal with Universal. While maintaining their punk/garage rock swagger throughout, their latest release, The Black and White Album, also reflects the band’s love of everything from hip-hop and new wave to electronic pop and heavy metal.

In a rare interview, the band’s enigmatic bass player, Dr. Matt Destruction, spoke by phone with Punknews.org’s JEndo during their current US tour to talk about his musical beginnings, the band’s new album, and how playing live is “like makeup sex.”

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The first block of dates for the Asian Man Records tour has been announced. Subtitled the “Making Punk Fun Again” tour, the bill will include The Queers, Lemuria, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Bomb the Music Industry! and Kepi Ghoulie of Groovie Ghoulies.

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Silent Drive, which includes members of Bane and Drowningman, have posted an update on progress towards their next album.

We are now in the process of shopping around new demo music. Once we confirm a budget for recording of the next record, we will book studio time. I’m about 99% sure we plan on going back to the Blasting Room with Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore. This is where we recorded “Love Is Worth It.” Bill and Jason are the best producers and engineers we’ve ever worked with. Not to mention Bill has been involved in music for a very long time, playing drums for Decendents and Black Flag along with many others.

We have many more demos that were recorded during the “Mexican Standoff” session and while we would love for everyone to hear them, we feel its best not to post anything else until the album versions have been recorded, mixed and mastered.

We do feel “Mexican..” came out great for free and not having any fancy studio tools or mics, but the 40 thousand dollar album version will be much more worth it.

The band released their last full length, Love Is Worth It, in 2004.
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Gary Gygax, one of the key creators for the popular role playing game Dungeons and Dragons, passed away in his home on Tuesday morning at the age of 69. He had been battling various health issues for years, including an abdominal aneurysm. Dungeons and Dragons was created in 1974 with Dave Arneson, and has served as the standard in role playing games ever since, inspiring numerous video games directly and in-directed based off of the system. It has also served as a tool of inspiration for many bands, helping develop a fascination with the fantasy world that sometimes extends to a group’s lyrical endeavors. Gary was also a prolific writer and a figurehead of the role-playing community, even playing a cartoon version of himself once on the cartoon Futurama. He will be missed by many.

Punknews.org sends our condolences and best wishes to his friends and family.
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Alan Cage of Quicksand, Seaweed and Burn has joined 108 as drummer. The band made the announcement:

We are stoked to announce that Alan Cage will be joining 108 on the drums. The first time the public will get their ears on it will be our South American tour in April. Alan replaces Tom Hogan, who stayed with us for over a year, contributed significantly to our newest release on Deathwish Records, and has become an important member of the 108 family.

108 are working on their next album which is due out later this year.
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Spinner is reporting that Tegan Quinn of Tegan And Sara and Hunter Burgan of AFI/Hunter’s Revenge have a new side-project. As for a name, Tegan explained:

We don’t actually have a name, which is kind of funny. We wanted to call it Tegan vs. Hunter but we both have projects and bands, obviously, with our names already. So we were kind of like, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to call it.’ We’re slowly working on a record. I’m really inspired by it, but it’s hard to get it done in between tours.

No music has been posted yet, but the two will be working closely on Tegan and Sara’s next tour, with Hunter filling to play bass for the indie pop duo.

Tegan & Sara continue to support their 2007 album, The Con. AFI members are working on a variety of side projects as well as a new album. Their last record was 2006’s Decemberunderground.
Source Continue reading Tegan and Sara’s Tegan Quinn teams up with AFI’s Hunter Burgan for new project →