No Idea Records has confirmed yet another batch of bands playing The Fest 7. Among the more than 250 acts playing the Gainesville, Florida event you’ll find Valient Thorr, Nana Grizol, Mild Winter, Watson, Cofffee Project, Blacksnake, The Takers, Witches, Hot New Mexicans, By The Horns, The Damn Writes, Scum of the Earth, Guiseppe, Little Lungs, Too Many Daves, How Dare You, Low Red Land, Have Gun, Will Travel, Get Bent, Sorry No Ferrari, Antarctic, Nakatomi Plaza, God Equals Genocide, Former Humans, Cortez The Killer, Madison Bloodbath, Steady State, Last Ride In, Assassinate The Scientist, The Anchor, After The Fall, Nothing In The Dark, Jawsome, Parker Hastings, Dark Castle, The Unloveables, Protagonist and The AKAs.

Previously announced bands include Leatherface, Less Than Jake, Strike Anywhere, Dillinger Four, Atom and His Package, the Bouncing Souls and the Lawrence Arms. The Fest 7 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.
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Next week Japanther will be releasing their new record, Tut Tut, Now Shake Ya Butt via Wantage USA. To celebrate, the label has provided us with some rare test pressings, a regular copy on vinyl and some t-shirts.

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After considerable silence and some uncertainty regarding the band’s future, Plus 44 has begun recording their next album and follow up to 2006’s When Your Heart Stops Beating. The band is documenting the process via studio videos and also via a new Twitter feed.

You can check out the studio videos here.
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Minneapolis, MN’s Off with Their Heads have announced a slew of tour dates (including a European stay) running up to Christmas, including some sort of music festival down in the nation’s retirement home, known as Florida. The group released From The Bottom earlier this year.

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AOL has posted the latest set of album streams this week. The entries include new and live albums from The Clash, Jay Reatard, Of Montreal, Annuals, Deerhoof and more.

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In a recent myspace post, 4th wave ska-punks Bomb The Music Industry! announced details for their upcoming album, Scrambles. They are to enter the studio tomorrow, October 4th, 2008, and the album is due out January 20, 2009.

The band is currently on an East Coast tour of the US and Canada with Shinbou in support of last year’s Get Warmer. They will be playing at The Fest 7 and touring the UK in January and February.

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While on the road in Europe, Chicago’s Pelican were robbed in Italy. The band had this to say:

Two days ago we had a spare half hour to spend in Rome before heading to the venue, so we decided to go see the Coliseum. We parked nearby and went to take a brief twenty minute walk around the area. When we returned to our van we found that it had been broken into, despite being parked on a major street in broad daylight. Four bags were stolen, the contents including computers, passports, wallets, ipods, our soundguy’s microphone collection, and, most devastatingly, a number of personal journals and two portable recording devices containing hours of song ideas that are now lost forever.

The band posted some more information including PayPal information on their blog.
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Producer Butch Vig has reportedly signed on to produce the next album from Green Day. Vig, a veteran producer, has worked on notable albums like Nirvana‘s Nevermind, Jimmy Eat World‘s Chase This Light and Against Me!‘s New Wave as well as frontman Tom Gabel’s solo album, Heart Burns.

The news comes via Green Day Authority who produced a clip of Vig’s Garbage bandmate discussing the job on Carson Daly.

Very little is known about the highly anticipated new Green Day album, though the band’s label let slip that the record is due in 2009. Their last album, American Idiot, was a massive critical and commercial success and the band followed up the album with the “side project” Foxboro Hot Tubs who released Stop Drop and Roll!!! earlier this year.
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Longstanding English punk act The Damned has announced east coast US tour dates for late December. This follows upcoming fall dates on the west coast, as well as a number of shows in the United Kingdom. The UK dates include an album release show on November 19th in London.

The band has released no further details on the new record. It will be the band’s first since 2001’s Nitro released Grave Disorder.
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Tom Delonge of Angels & Airwaves and former member of Blink-182 was recently interviewed about the tragic crash which cost four lives and seriously injured his former bandmate, Travis Barker.

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Just ten days after launching their MySpace Music initiative, the popular social networking site has confirmed that they have streamed their billionth song. The company made this statement:

We’re extremely pleased with the launch of MySpace Music-clearly our users around the world are engaged and excited about the new music experience on MySpace. We’ve hit some incredible milestones in only a few days-some of the numbers you’re reading about are already out of date.

We can confirm that we hit a milestone of one billion music streams in only a few days after launching the new product however because this number may be inflated by the high profile launch and accompanying promotional push, we will be looking to our metrics on engagement and unique users which will tell a much richer story on how positively the community is responding to the new music experience. We will continue to keep you posted on the response to MySpace Music.

The initiative, which is a joint venture with all four major labels, has entire label catalogues online for free streaming and also purchases through Amazon.com.
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Fall Out Boy have contributed $50,000 to a campaign to fight Proposition 8, a ballot initiative facing California voters this November. The bill would change the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. A new section would be added stating “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The measure was submitted for the ballot by petitioners with the title “California Marriage Protection Act.”

The band joins a number of people who have publicly condemned the proposition, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Barack Obama and celebrities like Brad Pitt and Steven Spielberg.
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Appleseed Cast have posted two new demos which will presumably appear on the follow up to 2006’s Peregrine.

You can find “A Bright Light” and “Summer Before” on their myspace page.
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