Today we’ve got an exclusive new track from Less Than Jake‘s upcoming album, GNV FLA. The record is due out June 24, 2008 but you can check out “Abandon Ship” today.
You can find the song on their Punknews.org Profile.
In related news, the band is promising that the entire album will be played on the radio on June 16th via Gainesvilee’s 100.5FM. More details on that can be found here.
Source Continue reading Less Than Jake: “Abandon Ship”
Recent Bridge 9 signing Energy will be hitting the road with Carry The Torch and Heavy Hearted later this month for a two week tour.
Source Continue reading Tours: Energy / Carry The Torch / Heavy Hearted
Dear and the Headlights have announced their summer touring plans. The Equal Vision act will be supporting some of Jimmy Eat World’s upcoming dates as well as headlining some dates of their own with Paper Rival.
Source Continue reading Tours: Dear in the Headlights with Jimmy Eat World, Paper Rivl
Tay Zonday of “Chocolate Rain” fame recently interviewed Weezer talking about their plans for the coming year. Of some note is the band’s plan for a jamming tour:
We’re going to go on a tour. It’s called the Hootenanny Tour, and it’s coming to your town in June. We’re gonna bring ourselves and invite a bunch of Weezer fans down to bring their instruments and, uh, jam with us. I don’t know, 100, 200 people, whatever. Everyone come down and bring an instrument – whatever you can play – and we’ll jam out on our songs. Then, in September, we’re touring Japan, and in October we’ll be touring the U.S., probably in the big rock arenas.
You can find the interview here.
Source Continue reading “Chocolate Rain” guy interviews Weezer
As many of our American readers sit on the edge of their seats as the Polaris Short List 2008 is coming up, the full Polaris Long List 2008 has been leaked to the public in what could be some sort of International security snafu. Says Prize Founder and Executive Director Steve Jordan:
Our objective with the Polaris Long List is to expose even more of the essential music that’s being made across the country and hopefully increase anticipation for what is sure to be a thrilling 2008 Short List.”
Or maybe it was released on purpose to drum up press. Thrilling indeed Steve. Canada, my neighbor to the north and home to a quality proportion of senior editors for this website, has been running the Polaris music prize for three years, this being the first that the forty band long list has been released to the public. There’s a $20,000 amount awarded to “the best full-length Canadian album released from June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008, judged solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales. The list was selected by the 185 members of the Polaris Music Prize jury, which consists of music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across Canada. No music industry personnel with direct financial relationships with artists vote for Polaris.”
The forty albums will be whittled down to ten as the prize is announced on July 7, 2008.
Source Continue reading Weakerthans, Constantines, Attack In Black, Cancer Bats, Tegan And Sara on Polaris Long List
As many of our American readers sit on the edge of their seats as the Polaris Short List 2008 is coming up, the full Polaris Long List 2008 has been leaked to the public in what could be some sort of International security snafu. Says Prize Founder and Executive Director Steve Jordan:
Our objective with the Polaris Long List is to expose even more of the essential music that’s being made across the country and hopefully increase anticipation for what is sure to be a thrilling 2008 Short List.”
Or maybe it was released on purpose to drum up press. Thrilling indeed Steve. Canada, my neighbor to the north and home to a quality proportion of senior editors for this website, has been running the Polaris music prize for three years, this being the first that the forty band long list has been released to the public. There’s a $20,000 amount awarded to “the best full-length Canadian album released from June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008, judged solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales. The list was selected by the 185 members of the Polaris Music Prize jury, which consists of music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across Canada. No music industry personnel with direct financial relationships with artists vote for Polaris.”
The forty albums will be whittled down to ten as the prize is announced on July 7, 2008.
Source Continue reading Weakerthans, Constantines, Attack In Black, Cancers Bats, Tegan And Sara on Polaris Long List
Echo Park, California-based all-girl quintet Rocket have announced their summer touring plans in the United States. The band also recently relaunched their myspace page.
Be Your Own Pet recently spoke to Pitchfork about some of the unusual things that have happened in the past year.
First, frontwoman Jemina Pearl talks about their label’s deletion of three songs for “violence:”
I got a phone call from my manager, and she said that three of the songs had to be taken off the album because they were too violent and there was nothing we could do. We either had to change the lyrics or take them off the album. So we decided to take them off the album, and, since then, we’ve been struggling to figure out how to release these songs. Universal’s trying to make it a little bit difficult for [XL] to release it. But now it’s coming out, so we’re all pretty happy and excited about it.
The label also wanted the band to play Warped which led to this:
I just associate it with a certain look and a certain style and the kind of kids at school that I thought were– this is really bad, I’m sure– the kind of kids that were dumbasses wearing Rancid t-shirts who thought they knew what punk rock was and threw things at people in the cafeteria.
So it’s like, okay, now we’re going to be performing for these people. Our label is under the impression that we’re going to play one date and then automatically sell 100,000 more records. All those bands have this very specific look and sound and style. It’s like the new hair metal or something. There are like 10 different rules about how you write a song and what everything sounds like and looks like.
You can find the rest of the interview here.
Source Continue reading Be Your Own Pet talks about song censorship, being “forced” to play Warped
After an extended hiatus, which allowed the Punknews.org Video Studio (aka my shitty home office) to relocate (to a new house!), Video of the Week returns. You know what the best part about moving is? Finding things you forgot you had. Case in point, this week’s video. I caught Fat Wreck Chord’s short-lived hardcore outfit Western Addiction back in early 2006. Featuring Chicken from Dead To Me, the group played a melodically brash form of late 80’s hardcore with obvious influences from bands like….the one mentioned in the featured clip’s song title. The track comes from their only full-length release, Cognicide.
You can check it out below
Source Continue reading Video of the Week: Western Addiction
Manchester Orchestra, who incidentally are from Georgia, have posted the latest video from their 2006 album, I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child.
Source Continue reading Manchester Orchestra: “I Can Barely Breathe”
Shortly after their US tour together beginning this month, Have Heart, Verse and Shipwreck A.D. will be headed to Europe for a mixture of festival and club dates. Verse recently released their Bridge 9 debut, Aggression while Have Heart will be releasing their eagerly anticipated sophomore album for the label, Songs To Scream At The Sun, on July 08, 2008. Shipwreck AD released Abyss last year.
Source Continue reading Tours: Have Heart / Verse /Shipwreck AD (Europe)
Shortly after their US tour together beginning this month, Have Heart and Verse will be headed to Europe for a mixture of festival and club dates. Verse recently released their Bridge 9 debut, Aggression while Have Heart will be releasing their eagerly anticipated sophomore album for the label, Songs To Scream At The Sun, on July 08, 2008.
Recently reunited Christian metalcore act have released two new songs, their first in many years. The band saw members go on to form Evanescence, P.O.D. and Norma Jean. Conceived in Fire, released by Solid State Records in 2002, was the band’s last full album of new material. A best of set, In Memoriam, was released in 2005 with three songs that were thought to be the group’s last.
You can buy or stream the songs here.
Source Continue reading Living Sacrifice: “Death Machine,” “The Battle”