Sonic Youth is set to make an appearance on a Season 3 episode of Gossip Girl. The episode is set to air October 12th and will feature the band performing their classic track, “Star Power,” from their 1986 SST Records album, EVOL.

Apparently, music historian, label owner and Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore is a fan of the show along with his wife and bassist Kim Gordon. According to Moore:

It’s sort of our dose of Shakespeare every week..

You can find more details here.
Source Continue reading Sonic Youth to appear on Gossip Girl →

Early Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock has announced an October solo acoustic tour of the UK. He’ll kick things off on October 15th in Manchester followed by 11 other shows. Just prior to the tour he’ll support Mott The Hoople on their October 5th HMV Hammersmith Apollo show.

Matlock is credited as a co-author on 10 of the 12 songs on the Pistols’ sole album Never Mind the Bollocks, but departed the band in February of 1977 to be replaced by Sid Vicious. He went on to form new wave power-pop act the Rich Kids and has toured and recorded consistently since then with various bands, playing on records from Iggy Pop and the Damned among others. He rejoined the Pistols for their reunion tours.
Source Continue reading Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, the Rich Kids) solo acoustic →

Streetlight Manifesto have announced that their upcoming October 4th show at the Starland Ballrooom in New Jersey will be a special one. The group’s last planned for the foreseeable future will feature a performance of their entire catalog (not counting the Keasbey Nights do-over). The ska-punk act plans to perform every track from the records Everything Goes Numb and Somewhere in the Between. Between the albums, the band will take a break and host a listening party of sorts for their upcoming covers record 99 Songs Of Revolution: Volume I.

Streetlight Manifesto plans to take the winter off and return to action in mid 2010.
Source Continue reading Streetlight Manifesto to perform two full albums on October 4th →

St. Catharines, Ontario’s Alexisonfire are set to release a new EP in 2010. The band is planning to record in January with a spring release planned. The release will be titled Dog’s Blood.

The band recently picked up a $25,000 album of the year award from the XM Verge Music Awards for their 2009 full length Old Crows / Young Cardinals. The group will tour this fall in Europe with Anti-Flag, Four Year Strong and Ghost of a Thousand. We announced those dates earlier.
Source Continue reading Alexisonfire to release “Dog’s Blood” EP in 2010 →

Elder has posted some new music from their forthcoming album, Reflect. Set for release October 2009, the album is the follow up to the Elder [10 inch] which was released in 2008. The group includes members of Balboa and Towers.

The band is influenced by the likes of Articles of Faith, Majority Rule, Smashing Pumpkins, Fugazi, My Bloody Valentine, Envy, 400 Years, Small Brown Bike and Hot Water Music. Check out the new songs from the album on their MySpace page.
Source Continue reading Elder posts songs from ‘Reflect’ →

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 community talking this week…

Anti-Flag was forced to cancel their “G20 Welcoming Party” show in their hometown of Pittsburg due to the proximity of their venue to the expanded security perimeter surrounding the summit. They encouraged fans to get out and protest anyways. Matt Bellamy of Muse kicked up a heated discussion by suggesting that all internet data usage be progressively taxed to subsidize artists. Tech industry blog TechCrunch has been increasingly critical of similar musician-bred solutions to the issue, sarcastically suggesting we should just throw up our hands and ban music. This comes after some in the music industry suggested that royalties should be collected for usage such as 30 second song samples in digital stores. Scientists decided to pit vinyl against CD and digital formats in an attempt to quantify fidelity with interesting results. Critically acclaimed hip hop artist and actor Mos Def is collaborating with Damon Dash of Roc-A-Fella Records to produce a documentary about pioneering Detroit punk outfit Death.

Social Distortion is set to hit the studio in January of 2010 to work on new material. forgetters, which features Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil frontman Blake Schwarzenbach and original Against Me! drummer Kevin Mahon, is set to record a 7″ in October. Label Paper and Plastick is set to release Frank Turner‘s First Three Years LP. Weezer revealed their Raditude track listing and bonus material. We also saw artwork from the debut from Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. This week saw streams of three big upcoming records, those being AFI‘s Crash Love, the Swellers Ups and Downsizing and Strung Out‘s Agents of the Underground. The recently reunited Small Brown Bike has been confirmed for The Fest 8. Converge is set to kick off a two month tour of the US with Mastodon, and High on Fire among others. Hot Water Music is also set to get back together for a November tour of Germany. This week brought a video from Brand New for the song “At the Bottom” and images of Iggy Pop from the Lego Rock Band video game.

This week we spoke with Calvinball guitarist / vocalist Dave Wolinsky (interview), Fred Mascherino of The Color Fred (formerly of Taking Back Sunday) (interview), Chicken, Nathan Grice, and Ian Anderson of Dead To Me (interview), Peter Helmis of Algernon Cadwallader (interview), and Rory Henderson of American Steel (interview).

Our Dispatches series of band blogs featured British singer-songwriter Mike Scott, currently on tour with Kevin Seconds (Episode 1). As always we brought you new streaming music from some great up and coming bands, including the new full length from Baltimore, Maryland’s Ruiner, and new material from London-based Apologies, I Have None.

So what’s coming up this week? Look for new releases from AFI, Doomriders, Evergreen Terrace, Krum Bums, Paramore, Strung Out and the Swellers. We’ll also see a huge number of tours kick off this week. Look for upcoming shows from Nobunny and Jay Reatard (US), Weatherbox (US), Dinosaur Jr. (US), Brand New with Manchester Orchestra, Thrice, Glassjaw (US), Senses Fail (US), Strung Out (US), Bridge & Tunnel (US), Strike Anywhere with Crime in Stereo, Polar Bear Club, Ruiner (US), AFI (US), Moneen (US), Apostle of Hustle with Gogol Bordello (US), and the Misfits (Mexico, US, Canada).

Click Read More to check out our ongoing contests, new streaming music, social networking links and more.
Source Continue reading September 27th, 2009 →

The Swellers have launched a stream of their Fueled By Ramen Records debut, Ups and Downsizing. The record comes out September 29, 2009 and follows My Everest which was released in 2007.

Check it out on their MySpace page.

You can also head over to purevolume to watch some behind-the-scenes footage recorded for the “Fire Away” video.
Source Continue reading The Swellers: “Ups and Downsizing” →

Small Brown Bike have been confirmed for The Fest 8. Small Brown Bike were originally part of the No Idea Records family, releasing several albums through the label before leaving to release their final swan song for Lookout! Records and ultimately breaking up in 2004.

The band played a few reunion shows in September 2007 to benefit a r friend of the band who had been battling Leukemia, including a final reunion show at The Fest 6. Along with the announcement of Small Brown Bike, THE FEST 8 has announced another large chuck of confirmed bands, resulting in a final tally of over 300 bands.

New additions include Chotto Ghetto, Hanalei, Josh Small, Madison Bloodbath, Small Brown Bike, Thunderlip, Where The Land Meets The Sea, Apologies, Brook Pridemore, Devout, Dirty Fist, Empty Orchestra, I Have None, Jared Grabb, Jawsome, John Walsh, Lost Hands Found Fingers, Prize Country, Stoned at Heart, Stymie, Surfer Blood, Teenage Cool Kids, Telephone Sons, The Ex-Boogeymen, The Pizza Brothers, The Terror in Tiny Town, Vacation Bible School, Vaccine, Weapons to Go, White Elephant Gift Exchange, Will Quinlan & The Diviners, Worthwhile Way, Wurmchurch, and Trailer of Tears.
Source Continue reading Small Brown Bike, more confirmed for The Fest 8 →

Evergreen Terrace have a stream of their new album, Almost Home.

Check it out on their Purevolume page.
Source Continue reading Evergreen Terrace: “Almost Home” →

Hellogoodbye have posted the video for “When We First Met.”

Source Continue reading Hellogoodbye: “When We First Met” →

Morrissey has announced a new b-sides compilation for release later this year. The record is titled Swords and is due out November 3, 2009 in the US and October 26, 2009 in Europe. The record compiles 18 songs released as b-sides from 13 singles from his last four albums.

The album was compiled by Morrissey and features collaborations with guitarists Alain Whyte, Boz Boorer and Jesse Tobias, and former keyboardist Michael Farrell.

Source Continue reading Morrissey compiles b-sides on “Swords” →

Anti-Flag has announced the cancellation of G20 protest show. The band explained:

Due to the expansive location of the security perimeter for the G20 meetings and its proximity to the venue, Anti-Flag, Drusky Entertainment, and Students for a Democratic Society feel they must make the regrettable decision to cancel “A G20 Welcoming Party.” While we are disappointed this concert will not happen, we are looking forward to joining the thousands of young people in the streets of Pittsburgh to resist the failed policies of the G20, September 20th-25th

The Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors represents the world’s economic leaders, intimately connected to the most powerful multi-national corporations that dominate the global economy. Their neo-liberal policies have squandered billions on war, plunged economies into deep recessions, worsened social, economic and political inequality, and polluted the earth.

Source Continue reading Anti-Flag has to cancel show in Pittsburgh, invite fans to protest G-20 Summit →