The Sidekicks have unveiled their new 7″ for Whoa Oh Records. Sam will feature songs like “The Island” (streaming via the band’s MySpace page) and “Bryant Gregst (Gets Nervous)” (which you can stream from the label’s). The four song release will come with downloadable songs and will be available on grey marbled vinyl.

The band will perform with Lemuria on October 12th in both Lakewood and Columbus, Ohio. Following those shows they’ll appear at October 18th’s Red Oktoberfest in Chicago with the Falcon and Methadones. Like most bands of good character, they’ll head down to the Fest in Gainesville in time for Halloween.
Source Continue reading The Sidekicks: “The Island” / “Bryant Gregst (Gets Nervous)” →

Burlington, Ontario’s Silverstein and Davison, Michigan’s Chiodos will hit the road together for a co-headlining tour of the US this October.

Following the tour Silverstein will hit the studio to record the follow up to 2007’s Victory released Arrivals & Departures.
Source Continue reading Tours: Silverstein / Chiodos →

Bedouin Soundclash have announced Canadian tour dates in support of their recent full length Street Gospels. Following an appearance at Seattle’s Bumbershoot the band will appear in Toronto with labelmates Arkells and HR of Bad Brains. The three piece will then traverse the country with groups like Zaki Ibrahim, Mishka and Hey Ocean.
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Iggy Pop was reportedly injured at London’s Get Loaded in the Park Festival this past Sunday. The godfather of punk wounded his leg after falling from a speaker stack on the festival’s main stage. Of course, being Iggy Pop he kept on performing and the show went on as planned. The 61 year old icon was performing with The Stooges and had invited the crowd on stage for “No Fun.”
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Wildly popular mainstream pop rock act Fall Out Boy has announced details on their follow up to 2007’s Infinity on High. The band will release a new full length on November 4th in North America (November 3rd overseas) titled Folie A Deux. Some promotional media is online via a downloadable mix tape of Decaydance acts that can be found at citizensforourbetterment.com.
Source Continue reading Fall Out Boy to release “Folie A Deux” in November →

NME is reporting that rumors of a secret Foo Fighters gig on August 24th at the Reading Festival caused a near riot among fans. A British punk band unfortunately named The FF’ers were to perform on the BBC Introducing Stage at 5 pm, but the estimated 3,000 fans who had gathered were expecting a secret Foos set. When the Grohl-less band took the stage they were pelted with mud, bottles and shoes and had to abandon their set. A similar treatment was given to the following act until organizers emphatically stated that there was no Foo Fighters appearance planned, secret or otherwise.

Dave Grohl was around, mind you, performing with Queens Of The Stone Age and Tenacious D at the simultaneous Leeds Festival.
Source Continue reading Fans riot at Reading Festival when punk band FF’ers mistaken for Foo Fighters →

After two years Aaron Cometbus has finally issued a new issue of his legendary punk zine. Cometbus #51: The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah features a comprehensive 100 page history of Moe’s and other used book stores from Berkeley, California’s Telegraph Avenue. The zine is available now from independent book and record stores for $3 dollars. Aaron described the issue thusly:

Watch closely as the births of underground comics, used records, paperbacks, new age publishing, posters, and even yuppies are all traced back to an argument between two Berkeley bookstore owners in 1963. Did I say the last issue was the best ever? I lied. I promise, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. A non-fiction novel.

Aaron Elliott started Cometbus in 1983 and has self-published the work ever since. Throughout the 80s and 90s the handwritten and often very personal zine documented the punk rock lifestyle in Oakland and Berkeley. Past material from the zines have since been reprinted and archived in a number of formats.
Source Continue reading After two years Cometbus #51 now available →

Tallahassee, Florida’s Imadethismistake recently crashed their van, in the process destroying the vehicle and a portion of their equipment and 12″s. The band is hoping to raise money to get themselves back on their feet with a commemorative van-crash shirt:

So far we have a t-shirt which is being designed by Joshua Mikel [shark guts designs, and the drummer for that amazing band Look newMexico] and printed by I Heart U Productions which we will have on sale online somewhere in the upcoming weeks. The design will have a drawing of our now deceased van with the words “imadethismistake and now we need a new van” on it. I don’t know the prices yet but they will be hand numbered and limited and all that jazz.

Imadethismistake is currently supporting It’s Okay, which was released earlier this year by The Cottage Records.
Source Continue reading Imadethismistake crashes van, everyone okay →

Battle Creek, Michigan’s Holy Hounds have released a companion video for their song “Hymn No. 1” off their EP Murder City Limits. You can check the video out at YouTube. The EP was released as a free digital offering on July 29th. The band has also tapped award-winning director Stephen Richmond to direct a proper video for their song “Courthouse Blues.”

Georgia’s Roam Alone has just finished a new 4 song collection titled the Desolate EP. Two of the songs from the release, “Desolate” and “Maverick,” are online for preview at MySpace. The band has their previous 4 song demo online as a free download at MediaFire.

Heisai Yasokawa’s Empty Orchestra has added Mad Mike, formerly of Weapons Grade, as their new drummer. The Boston based band is working on a new demo with he and new bass player Chris Fittante. You can find some of the band’s past work online at MySpace.
Source Continue reading Holy Hounds, Roam Alone, Heisai Yasokawa’s Empty Orchestra →

No Idea Records have launched the official website for their annual music festival. You can find all the details on The Fest 7 at thefestfl.com.

With the new site comes the official band listing. The 250 band line up for the three day event will include acts such as Leatherface, Less Than Jake, Strike Anywhere, Dillinger Four, Atom and His Package, Municipal Waste, Coalesce, Dead to Me, Paint It Black, None More Black, Rehasher, The Lawrence Arms, The Falcon, Toys that Kill, The Ergs, The Methadones, The Holy Mountain, Armalite, Assholeparade, A Wilhelm Scream, Japanther, Able Baker Fox, Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves, Former Cell Mates, LaSalle, Bomb the Music Industry, The Arrivals, Bridge and Tunnel, New Mexican Disaster Squad, Off With Their Heads, This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, Stressface, Ann Beretta, Broadway Calls, Cobra Skulls, City of Ships, Pink Razors, Drag the River, Whiskey & Co, Ghost Mice, Paul Baribeau, Fin Fang Foom, Shellshag, and the Bouncing Souls. The Souls had this to say about their performance:

2009 is the 20th anniversary of The Bouncing Souls!! We’re getting ready to celebrate all year long… and just in time to get the party started is THE FEST!! We’re thinking “kick-off party” on this one!! What better place than the city of Gainesville to get it started? and what better people than our good friends in Strike Anywhere, Less Than Jake, and the No Idea family? And what better day than Halloween, our favorite holiday for a show? You never know what costumes and themes we might come up with!!!! And like any Souls party, we’ll drink a lot of cheap beer (maybe even 40’s only??) and re-live the embarrassing moments of our youth… by playing songs from 1995 and earlier! That’s right… The Good, The Bad, and The Argyle and Maniacal Laughter and maybe even a Green Ball Crew if the mood is right and the beer is wrong. Come party with us!

The event will take place on Halloween weekend, with shows taking place on 8 stages from October 31st, through November 2nd. For details on hotels, tickets and more info check the official website.
Source Continue reading The Fest 7 confirms bands, launches website →

Orange County’s Zebrahead have been forced to postpone their US tour. Frontman Matty Lewis is experiencing problems with his voice and has taken a break on doctor’s orders. The band apologized to fans:

Hey guys…sorry about this…in order for us to make sure that matty doesn’t cause permanent damage to his voice we are having to postpone the USA tour. The Doc said we have pushed him to hard. Matty wanted to play the dates anyways, but it would be a horrible risk so we told him we can make it up to the USA. He was pissed at our decision, but we don’t want him to have permanent damage to the vocal chords so SORRY USA this will be re-scheduled….the word of the day is Bummed..the way i feel!….We will be able to resume touring again with the UK/Europe Tour in October. Once again SORRY GUYS THIS SUCKS!…

Zebrahead is currently supporting their new CD / DVD Phoenix.
Source Continue reading Zebrahead postpones US tour on doctor’s orders →

Doghouse Records has signed The Status from Atlanta, GA. The label will release the band’s debut full length So This Is Progress on October 7th. The group will support with a US tour alongside bands like Bayside, the Matches, and Valencia.

You can listen to music from the full length, find tour dates and more at Doghouse’s artist page or the Status’ MySpace page.
Source Continue reading Doghouse signs The Status →

The Swellers have posted 15 new “personalized” acoustic songs online at PureVolume as free downloads. The project emerged as a reaction to the song selling venture launched by Say Anything frontman Max Bemis earlier this summer (cough). Fans wrote into the Swellers with two paragraphs describing a personal problem, which the band turned into songs (for free) over the course of a week.

You can download 15 tracks at PureVolume with a 16th to be available through AbsolutePunk. A video documenting the song writing can be found below.
Source Continue reading The Swellers release an album’s worth of “personalized” songs →