Hello everybody and welcome to Navel Gazing: your look back at the week in Punknews. I’m Adam White and I’ll be your guide through some of the most popular, notable, and otherwise attention getting stories of the past seven days. Each and every Punknews story is built from tips contributed by you fine folks, and here’s what got the community talking…

This is the season of tours and festivals and that’s what dominated the news this week. Looking ahead to the fall we saw the formal announcement that The Fest will again rock Florida with their seventh year. The Warped Tour is underway and organizers are striving to make the summer ritual environmentally sustainable. Against Me! appeared on the Tonight Show and frontman Tom Gabel announced solo appearances with Chuck Ragan, Tim Barry and Ben Nichols of Lucero. Canuck indie darlings Tegan & Sara and Alexisonfire offshoot City & Colour announced shows together this fall. This week had it’s share of offbeat news as well. A Boston paper discussed punks in the freemasons, over the hill rockers KISS accused Radiohead of contributing to the demise of the recording industry, Escape The Fate‘s former singer was caught by police and Rolling Stone tore apart the new TV show from Fall Out Boy‘s Pete Wentz.

Digital music’s still a small slice of the pie but it’s showing some muscle with the announcement that Apple’s iTunes store has sold 5 billion songs. Coming to a store (physical and otherwise) soon will be Alkaline Trio‘s new one, of which there’ll be a deluxe version and, um, matching shoes. Christian metalcore act The Devil Wears Prada will release their next via Ferret. Rise Against has recorded the song “Little Boxes” for use on the TV show Weeds. On the streaming music front we checked out Rotation by Cute Is What We Aim For and Against Me!’s “So Much More”. We also lent a curious ear to Greg Graffin‘s son’s band The Rolemodels.

This week we’re also asking for your advice. Punk and politics are often closely intertwined, but how (if at all) should we approach the upcoming US election? Do we cover politics here on Punknews? Do we leave it to the experts? Let us know what you want from your Org.

The Asian Man Records tour is in full effect and we had a little sit down with the bands involved for a group chat. Check out the interview with Kepi Ghoulie, Jeff of Bomb the Music Industry!, Alexander of Lemuria, Sean from Andrew Jackson Jihad and Joe Queer of The Queers. Our Video of the Week featured Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Menzingers performing live in Richmond, Virginia. This week’s Editors’ Picks recommended music from Dublin’s Heathers and Calgary’s Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. This week also brought new Streaming Music from Philadelphia’s Jekylnhyde, three new songs from Mark Lind and The Unloved, and a full album stream from Austin, TX-based Driver F.

So what’s coming up this week? Look for releases from Less Than Jake, Steve E. Nix and the Cute Lepers, Cancer Bats and LaGrecia with tours kicking off from Butthole Surfers (US / UK), King Khan and the Shrines (US / Can), and H2O (Europe).
Source Continue reading June 22nd, 2008 →

Veteran surf punk act Agent Orange are in the midst of an ongoing tour that will see the band play shows throughout the US and Europe. The band’s current line-up features vocalist / guitarist Mike Palm, drummer Dusty Watson (The Stepmothers, Channel 3) and bassist Perry Giordano (Poop).
Source Continue reading Tours: Agent Orange (US / Europe) →

Alternative Press has debuted the music video for “In Photographs,” the new single from Chattanooga, TN’s Across Five Aprils. The track appears on their recent album, Life Underwater, recently released by Victory Records.
Source Continue reading Across Five Aprils: “In Photographs” →

NYHC legends Agnostic Front will release a special tour edition of their 2007 Nuclear Blast full length Warriors. The package will feature a bonus DVD with the unreleased track “Break The Chains,” video clips for “Addiction” and “For My Family,” and live clips from the 2007 Persistence Tour of “Addiction,” “For My Family,” “Crucified,” and “Gotta Go.” The band expects Nuclear Blast to have the DVD available from their online store for those that purchased the first edition of the record.

Agnostic Front hit Europe on July 4th.
Source Continue reading Agnostic Front to release special edition of “Warriors” for European tour →

Celebrated underground Austin, Texas based D-beat act World Burns To Death will embark on their first European tour this month in support of their third LP The Graveyard Of Utopia.

The Graveyard Of Utopia was co-release by Prank Records and Japanese label HG Fact. It follows up 2002’s The Sucking of the Missile Cock and 2006’s Totalitarian Sodomy.
Source Continue reading World Burns To Death (Europe) →

St. Charles, Missouri’s one-man folk/punk band Mindhook (aka Brett Flinch) has released his record Growing Up Is… as a free download. The album was released by Flinch’s label Blessed Milk Records. You can download the release from Mediafire.

Boston ska/punk act Have Nots are in the studio working on their first record. The group, which features members of Stray Bullets and Chicago Typewriter, has a number of studio journal entries on their MySpace page detailing the hijinks. Tour dates commence next week and those can be found at the `space as well.

Topshelf Records has signed Boston’s Feels Like July, which they compare to the likes of Circa Survive, the Juliana Theory, At The Drive In and As Tall As Lions. The label will re-release the bands debut full length In The Company Of Wolves on August 5th. You can check the band out with some streaming music at MySpace.
Source Continue reading Mindhook, Have Nots, Feels Like July →

Brian: Heathers are Irish twin sisters playing delectable, indie pop-basted folk that not only sounds like Tegan and Sara on paper, but CD as well. They seem to harken back to T&S’s earlier days, but with more effective songwriting and the upbeat candor and constant uptempo jangle that actually makes them a decent fit on Plan-It-X. That’s right, those overcutesy DIY punks are helping the siblings by releasing the duo’s delicious full-length, Here, Not There., in the US. If the comparison piques your interest, definitely head over to their MySpace page where you can stream three songs.

Adam: Calgary’s Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir is one of my absolute favourite bands, and I’ll recommend 2003’s St. Hubert or 2005’s Fighting and Onions at the drop of a hat. The four piece churns out often rowdy, often dark tunes that are ostensibly roots music but far better suited for a dingy rock bar than a folk festival. Commentators have been apt at coming up with influences like Appalachian folk, delta blues, swamp country and ragged gospel. The accuracy of those tags is pretty suspect, but it sure sounds awesome. The obviously amused band recently commented “People will probably continue to describe us with nouns like moonshine, potato sacks, hobo campfire, and caveman.” Figure it out for yourself at MySpace by playing “Oh Sorrow” and “Buried Them In Water.” Give the new track “Never Go Home” a spin as well, it’s from the band’s new record Ten Thousand which was just released.
Source Continue reading MP3 of the Week: Heathers / The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir →

Pennsylvania-based melodic punk band A Farewell Rescue are set to embark on a US tour next week with Connecticut’s A Coastline Ending.The bands are celebrating their mutual love of the indefinite article and hope to raise awareness of the unsung grammatical hero up and down the East Coast. A Farewell Rescue is also supporting their 2007 Snapdragon Records release Never Meet Your Heroes.
Source Continue reading Tours: A Farewell Rescue / A Coastline Ending →

The Offspring will tour Japan this fall in support of their new record Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. The group will hit Tokyo on October 6th and play two or three day residencies in a number of major cities.

The new record, the follow up to 2003’s Splinter, arrived on June 17.
Source Continue reading Tours: The Offspring (Japan) →

Dayton, Ohio’s The Devil Wears Prada has signed to Ferret Music. The band made the announcement on stage at the recent Warped Tour stop in Pomona, CA. Guitarist / vocalist Jeremy DePoyster commented

“It’s the best situation we could ask for. Ferret is run like an independent label where you know everyone there and work with them but they have the resources of a major label. We’ve also become really good friends with Carl (Severson of Ferret) and everyone there really believes in what we are doing. It helps when the people you work with and who work for you are just as stoked on your music as you are.

The band will play this summer’s entire Warped Tour in support of their recent album Plagues. A new album will be recorded at the end of this year for a planned 2009 release.
Source Continue reading The Devil Wears Prada signs to Ferret →

Next week pioneering new wave weirdos Devo will play a rare series of shows on the US east coast. This summer will also see the act venture to Australia for a short tour followed by an appearance at Japan’s Summersonic festival.
Source Continue reading Tours: Devo (US, Australia, Japan) →

Light Yourself on Fire and Racebannon will be hitting the road for a two week tour in September. The dates come in support of the upcoming Seventh Rule reissue of Light Yourself on Fire in September.

Source Continue reading Tours: Light Yourself on Fire / Racebannon →

Brutal Truth have announced some summer tour dates in Europe, the US and Canada.

Source Continue reading Brutal Truth →