The UK press is buzzing about a confrontation between Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon and Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke at Barcelona’s Summercase Festival. Members of Foals and Kaiser Chiefs were also reportedly involved. A statement from Bloc Party’s management states that Okereke approached Lydon backstage and inquired about a reunion of his influential post-Pistols act Public Image Ltd. when:

The Sex Pistols singer became intimidating and aggressive while his entourage responded with a racist tirade including the statement, ‘your problem is your black attitude.’ Kele was then set upon by three members of Lydon’s crew who punched him in the face and head as well as attacking people who tried to protect Kele from the assault including Yannis Philippakis from Foals and Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson. The incident was broken up by festival security and was later reported to Spanish police. Kele also reported the incident to police in the UK after returning from Spain.

Okereke commented:

It’s not an issue of the physical assault, even though it was an unprovoked attack, it is the fact that race was brought into the matter so readily. Someone as respected and as intelligent as Lydon should know better than to bring race into the equation, or socialise with and encourage those who hold such narrow-minded attitudes. I am disappointed that someone I held with such high regard turns out to be such a bigot.

Lydon’s own statement disputes the claims of racism:

After the show John Rotten and management remained behind to sign autographs, which we did for four solid hours without incident and had a great time talking to other Spanish bands, this seems to have sparked jealousy in certain bands. We are in the middle of a wonderful tour, after 30 years we are achieving a true unity in our audience. They are multi-varied, all ages, all races, creeds and colours. When you are at a festival with bands who are jealous fools, lies and confusion usually follow.

You can see the original statement from Bloc Party in a Guardian article, which was followed by a subsequent report with Lydon’s version.
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New York and Texas based The New Year have posted a teaser clip of their new self-titled album iin conjunction with their label, Touch And Go. The album is due out September 9.

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While the actual release date keeps getting pushed back, Minneapolis, Minnesota’a Banner Pilot really have finished their debut full-length, Resignation Day. The follow-up to their 2006 EP, Pass the Poison, shouldn’t disappoint those who loved the band’s blend of Lawrence Arms, Dillinger Four and Jawbreaker-esque punk rock.

Punknews interviewer Zack Zeigler talked to the band’s vocalist/guitarist Nick and bassist Nate regarding their approach to the new album and what people can expect.

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Tom Araya, frontman for the long running, thrash metal band Slayer, has been talking about how long the band can continue after their next album, their last with legendary producer Rick Rubin, saying:

Yeah. Let’s put it this way, this is the final record of our commitment with Rick Rubin. When we first signed a deal with him back in 1986, we never sat down and said, ‘How long do you guys want to keep this together?’

The band’s tenth album of original material will follow 2006’s Christ Illusion. An official name and release date for the album have not been officially confirmed, but Slayer is aiming it for a late 2008/early 2009 release.
,br> You can click here to read the rest of the interview.
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Another Breath has posted the dates for an upcoming, August tour.

The band continue to tour in support of Mill City.
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Bay Area, California’sFacing New York have made some steps towards a more environmentally friendly tour. While on the road, they are traveling in a four door economy car, which in turn leads to borrowing instruments and not bringing merch. This is an attempt to save on fuel costs as well as lower emissions, as the band is also accepting donations to purchase carbon offsets.

While not bringing any merchandise to their shows, the band will be bringing stencils and a non-toxic, permanent textile ink spray paint to tag any cloth based item your bring with. You can read more details here, and
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Seattle, WA’s legendary Melvins have been captured playing the song “Dog Island” of this year’s release Nude with Boots. Starting with a rousing rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner,” the song runs just about eight minutes long.

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While speaking with MTV, The Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy said the band will begin to prepare their new album on July 28. Meloy describes the new material as “mossy and evil”. This time around the band will not be recording with Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla, who produced their 2006 album, The Crane Wife.
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Dine Alone Records has announced that they will be releasing Attack in Black‘s debut album Marriage on vinyl. The record, limited to 500 copies, will be printed on 180g vinyl and will feature new artwork.

Attack in Black had a busy year. The Welland, Ontario group recorded another full-length, The Curve of the Earth within a year of Marriage‘s release. Two members of the band, Ian and Daniel Romano, have also started a side project called Empire Air, who have just released a 7″ through Dine Alone.
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More details are now available on The Force‘s upcoming reunion shows. The shows will feature bands such as Hellcat Records act Static Thought, San Francisco’s Setoff, and Sacramento’s Middle Class Rut, and ex-Pipedown act Dance For Destruction opening.

The Force was a NorCal hardcore/punk band featured singer Matt Wedgley (Viva Hate), bassist Hunter Burgan (AFI), guitarist Mark Roustabout (The Roustabouts) and drummer Chad Cox. Formed in May of 1995, the band recorded and toured for three years. The Force released several recordings, including a 7″, a 10″ and a split 7″ as well as a number of songs on compilations. This reunion will coincide with the release of a complete discography, containing every song The Force ever recorded. A limited edition, 21-song double-LP will be sold at the shows as well as online while supplies last.

Hunter recently sat down with Alternative Press for an interview discussing the reunion. He answers the question of whether any new material from the band is in the cards. You can find the interview here.
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Indianapolis based Christian metalcore act Haste The Day has kicked guitarist Jason Barnes out of the band. The guitarist had been with the group since 2001. The band posted the following statement citing Barnes’ lack of faith as the reason for his departure:

This is going to come as a shock to many of you. After much prayer and thought given to the matter, we asked Jason Barnes to step down from his involvement with Haste the Day. For a while Jason has been searching and searching for real meaning in his existence. After several months of reading literature and talking with friends, Jason had determined that he felt there was no God and certainly no Jesus. We as a band do not have problem with those that do not believe in Jesus, nor do we cast judgement on those that do not believe in Jesus. We just want to love on people like Jesus would and hopefully share a little bit about what he’s done and doing in our lives. We would call ourselves a Christian band and for that reason, we felt we couldn’t have someone in the band who didn’t agree with the band’s foundational drive.. Jason’s new found disbelief in what the rest of us have committed our lives to began to cause disunity within the band and as a result, we prayed and talked about it and felt like God was saying it wasn’t time for Haste the Day to come to an end. Thusly, We asked Jason to leave.

We love Jason and it pains us all to not be on the road with one of our closest friends. It has also been a miserable experience for Jason to not be a part of something that he has been a part of for so long. We are all working on mending the tear in our relationship with Jason and are hoping to be able to continue to call him friend. We will not be replacing Jason with a new guitar player. Our friend, Dave Krysl, will be our full time touring guitar player. The 4 of us (Stephen, Devin, Brennan, Michael) all wrote our new album which will be called “Dreamer.”

Haste The Day released Pressure the Hinges in 2007 via Solid State Records.
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Mike McColgan, frontman for Boston, MA’s Street Dogs, spoke out about his experiences in the Gulf War in a recent interview with blogger Mitchell Blatt. McColgan joined the military in 1989 and was deployed in 1990. In the interview he reconciled his role as a veteran and an an active opponent of the current Iraq occupation. Among his comments:

Looking back in retrospect, I have no misgivings about the nature of my service and being proud of it, yet I feel that, clearly fossil fuel was the nature of the conflict, and oil plays a part in all Gulf Wars.

…we expelled Iraq from Kuwait and then restored the correct balance to OPEC and the region and gave Kuwaitis back their nation. Just to make this clear, Kuwait also has oil, and we draw off that as well.

The full text of the interview can be found here.
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Half of the now defunct Chicago act Skies We Built have formed a new band called Elephant March. A song from the new group is available to download via MySpace, expect it to appear on an EP that’s in the works now.

Darrell Qualls, formerly of the southern metal group Payback, has joined Alabama based Straight Jacket 4 Nixon. The band will head into the studio in September to record a new record for Trifekta Records. A few of the band’s demos are online now at MySpace.

Old Shoe Records artist Longway, who was voted “best punk band in Orange County” at the Orange County Music Awards, will play the remaining dates of this year’s Warped Tour. The band was picked by Kevin Lyman to be the BBQ band on this year’s tour. The Old Shoe Records Booth at the tour will feature a free compilation CD featuring Longway, the Generators, Sederra, Los Creepers, Far From Finished and others.
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