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 strange, slow, old people in the community talking…

A sticker featuring folk-punk act This Bike is a Pipe Bomb has again caused a bomb scare. This time a bicycle adorned with the band’s logo caused the evacuation of a Memphis, Tennessee airport terminal. The bike turned out to be, in fact, a bike. The Gaslight Anthem were robbed in Gothenburg while on tour. They didn’t lose anything essential but the paperwork holdup with the Swedish police caused them to miss a show. The Arizona Star newspaper launched a lawsuit against Tucson-based punk band Awful Truth. The band has controversially used a Star photo of a recently slain police officer on an album cover. Finally the punk world is on the edge of its collective seat awaiting the release of the “Punk Rock Activity Book”. Soon you can partake in word searches and drawing games such as “help Siouxsie Sioux apply her makeup”, “draw Henry Rollins‘ tattoos” and “colour Iggy Pop.”

My Chemical Romance has claimed that they’re going back-to-basics on their new record and won’t be “hiding behind a veil of fiction or uniforms and makeup anymore.” UK based hardcore/punk outfit the Ghost of a Thousand has signed to Epitaph Records. Tom Delonge has discussed Blink-182‘s 2009 plans, claiming that there won’t be much touring but they will take place in a big event this summer. Rise Against and Rancid have announced their tour dates in the US and Canada with support from the Riverboat Gamblers and Billy Talent. Flogging Molly, Street Dogs and Civet will hit the road in Japan. The Bouncing Souls are also touring with the Loved Ones and Black President. Bad Religion have dates scheduled prior to Warped Tour as well. This week Bridge and Tunnel have unveiled the new song “Loss Leaders” and post-Distillers act Spinnerette released their new single “Sex Bomb.” Off With Their Heads will appear on University of Minnesota’s Radio K Monday to play play live on the air. Look for Jimmy Eat World and Neko Case to show up in Rock Band 2. Our friends at Marvel Comics chatted with Thursday‘s Geoff Rickly about his favourite caped heroes. Finally this week the BBC discussed the science of selling out.

Our Dispatches series of band tour blogs featured Propagandhi (Episode 1) as the band explores Australia and New Zealand. As always we brought you new Streaming Music including the new full length from Boston, MA’s Defeater, the new record from Phoenix, AZ-based Stereotyperider, a 7″ from Moncton, New Brunswick’s Varsity Weirdos, and new music from Edmonton, AB’s Passenger Action (members of Choke, Fordirelifesake and the Fullblast). So what’s coming up this week? Look for new releases from the Black Lips, Stereotyperider, Lamb of God and Hatebreed with tours kicking off from Jimmy Eat World] performing Clarity (US), Senses Fail / Haste The Day (US), the Human Abstract / Protest the Hero / the Chariot (Europe), Tim Barry / Ausin Lucas / Josh Small (US), Failures Union / Cheap Girls (US), and Street Dogs / Swingin Utters / Shot Baker (US / Canada).
Source Continue reading February 22nd, 2009 →

In a strange technological twist, it seems that music listening and song logging website last.fm may have turned over information logged by its scrobbling software to the RIAA. The situation in question concerns a leaked U2 album and users whose scrobbling software revealed them to have downloaded the leaked album, a clear violation of copyright laws.

The fine folks at TechCrunch have a full rundown of the situation here.
Source Continue reading Last.fm reporting leaked music listeners? →

Jimmy Eat World and Neko Case are among the featured artists for Rock Band 2 next week. The game will feature three tracks from JEW: “Futures,” “Lucky Denver Mint” and “Sweetness” and Neko Case’s “People Got a Lot of Nerve.”

Also added to the game next week are Drive By Truckers, Lucinda Williams, Old 97s and Steve Earle.
Source Continue reading Jimmy Eat World, Neko Case scheduled for Rock Band 2 →

Supersuckers recently performed a full-electric in studio session at Radio104.5 in Philadelphia, PA

You can check out video and photos here.

The band released Get It Together last year on Mid-Fi Recordings.
Source Continue reading Supersuckers record live to air studio session →

We’ve posted some new reviews. You can check them out below:

• P.O.S. – Never Better
• The Ergs! – That’s It… Bye [7 inch]
• Murder City Devils / Silverghost – live in San Francisco
• The Marked Men – Ghosts
• Bridge and Tunnel / Young Livers – Split Record [7 inch]
• Total Fucking Destruction – Peace, Love and Total Fucking Destruction
• The Dopamines / Till Plains – Split [7 inch]
• Modern Rifles – I Was Young, It Was Dark
• Youthviolence – Kafir b/w Lesson 13 [7 inch]
• Canon Canyon – Sit Down and Listen [10 inch]

You can check out any of our 8069 reviews right here
Source Continue reading Friday, February 20 2009 →

AFI‘s Hunter Burgan recently spoke with Blender about the band’s forthcoming album and what we can expect:

We’ve been working on it in the studio or writing it for like a year and half. We’ve done an extensive amount of demo-ing, more so than we’ve ever done in the past. This is definitely more of a rock album-more immediate and definitely more of a focused, direct approach musically. Compared to [2006’s] Decemberunderground, where some of the songs were more subtle, these are more in-your-face.

Hunter also promises a summer tour, regardless of whether the album is done.
Source Continue reading AFI talks next full length →

Minneapolis, MN’s Off with Their Heads will be heading into the studio at the University of Minnesota’s Radio K Monday, Feb 23rd to play live on the air. They’re scheduled to go live at 1:30PM, and you can listen in through the website’s streaming audio.

The group releasedFrom The Bottom in 2008 through No Idea. You can find the in-studio schedule here.
Source Continue reading Off With Their Heads live on Radio K →

After several releases on Level Plane, grind/hardcore act Landmine Marathone has signed to Prosthetic Records. The band, who draws comparisons to Napalm Death, Carcass and Bolt Thrower, will tour throughout the spring and perform at both the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival and the Los Angeles Murderfest in the coming weeks.

The band will continue to tour periodically throughout the year while writing their Prosthetic debut, which they plan to begin recording before year’s end.

They released Rusted Eyes Awake in 2008.
Source Continue reading Landmine Marathon joins Prosthetic Records →

Rise Against and Rancid‘s tour together has been announced. The co-headlined event kicks off June 4th and continues through the US and Canada until July 31st. The Riverboat Gamblers and Billy Talent will support the run on various dates.

Source Continue reading Rise Against / Rancid / Riverboat Gamblers / Billy Talent →

Our stream today comes from Edmonton, AB-based Passenger Action. The band includes members from notable Canadian punk acts Choke, Fordirelifesake and The Fullblast. We’ve got a stream of the band’s new full length, Passenger Action.

You can check it out on their Punknews.org Profile
Source Continue reading Passenger Action: “Passenger Action” →

While the band announced a hiatus last September, the Foo Fighters look to be continuing on in some form. According to a Spinner report, the hiatus may turn out to be very brief:

We’re writing, working on music intermittently. We’ve already got together and worked on a little bit of stuff, but very tenatively, just ideas. We’re just gonna take our time. It would be hard for us to go a year without making music together. We have fun being together. That’s the whole trip – we still enjoy that, whether it’s a Neil Diamond cover or whatever. We still like to get in the jam room.

Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel (also of Sunny Day Real Estate) added:

It’s really been pretty consistent over the years. Dave writes the songs, and about half the time he’ll do a demo on his own, and the other half of the time he’ll come in and just play it on guitar. Then (he) shows it to the band and then we sit around and play it and figure out, you know, what kind of song is it gonna be. Is it a country song? Metal song? You know, what the dynamic is, arrangement, tempo, that kind of stuff. We help him finish it out.

The band released Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace in 2007.
Source Continue reading Foo Fighters hiatus doesn’t take, writing next full-length →

The lineup has been announced for Punk Spring 2009 set for April 3rd and 4th in Nagoya, Japan. The event will feature NOFX, Bad Religion, Less Than Jake, Sum 41, Rise Against, The Damned and more.

You can find more details here.
Source Continue reading Punk Spring 2009 Line up with NOFX, Bad Religion, Marky Ramone, Sum 41 →

The lineup has been announced for Punk Spring 2009 set for April 3rd and 4th in Nagoya, Japan. The event will feature NOFX, Bad Religion, Less Than Jake, Sum 41, Rise Against, The Damned and more.

You can find more details here.
Source Continue reading Punk Spring 2009 Line up with NOFX, Bad Religion, Mark Ramone, Sum 41 →