Starting tomorrow afternoon, hundreds of bands and thousands of people will converge on the small agricultural town of Elkton, FL, just outside St. Augustine, for the second annual Harvest of Hope Fest. The three day event will raise funds and awareness for the Harvest of Hope Foundation, a wonderful organization that aims to provide migrant farmworkers with emergency relief and financial assistance. Bands scheduled to perform include Billy Bragg, Leatherface, Small Brown Bike, forgetters, 7 Seconds, Broken Social Scene, The Mountain Goats, A Wilhelm Scream and dozens of others, but for those unable to make it, Punknews.org will be bringing you (maybe) the next best thing with live coverage of the festivities all weekend.

Yours truly will be, as far as I know, the lone Punknews staff member attending. Here’s what you can expect this weekend and beyond:

• Mixed media dispatches featuring photos, video and words, likely to be posted on Saturday, Sunday and Monday
• Tons of photos. Be sure to check out the Punknews.org flickr group as well as my personal flickr account throughout the weekend for updates
• Plenty of video of your favorite bands performing live. The Punknews Vimeo page will be updated throughout the weekend with high-quality video
• Our social media editor Justin has been kind enough to grant me access to the Punknews twitter account, which I’ll be updating incessantly from the fairgrounds
• More!

I look forward to seeing plenty of old friends, meeting as many of our readers as possible, watching an unholy amount of live music, and eating as much greasy food as my stomach can handle, and all for a great cause. Now let’s just hope the weather holds up on Friday. Look for updates to start tomorrow afternoon.
Source Continue reading Punknews.org Harvest of Hope Fest coverage preview →

Yesterday afternoon, Mike and Travis of Small Brown Bike stopped by Orlando, FL indie institution Park Ave CDs to play an intimate acoustic set before the band’s rock show at The Social later that night. The duo closed the half-hour set with “So I Fall,” the country-tinged curveball track from their 2003 EP Nail Yourself To The Ground.

The band will be playing in Gainesville, FL tonight before appearing at this weekend’s Harvest of Hope Fest and hitting the northeast in May. Their new 7″, Composite Vol. 2, was released this week by No Idea Records.
Source Continue reading Video of the Week: Small Brown Bike: “So I Fall” (live at Park Ave CDs) →

Details have been revealed for the forthcoming rhythm game, Rock Band: Green Day. As the name suggests, the game will feature 47 songs from the titular band including “Brain Stew,” “Jaded,” “Hitchin’ a Ride,” “American Idiot,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Like Harmonix‘s previous single band game, Rock Band: The Beatles, the game will feature progress through the career of the trio, unlocking collectible images and some 40 minutes of “rare and unreleased” footage from interviews, outtakes and performances.

Due out June 8, 2010, the game will feature the ability to export songs to Rock Band 2 as well as the kind of uncanny valley animated versions of the band you’ve come to expect from the series.

Check out a trailer here>.
Source Continue reading Green Day: Rock Band due out in June →

Fat Mike of NOFX is the partner in a new dining and drinking destination in Park Slope, a neighborhood in the western section of Brooklyn of New York City. According to a Village Voice report, the restaurant is set to open in early April and features European and Mediterranean-influenced cooking with locally sourced, seasonal produce, dairy and meat. Wine and single-malt whiskeys sources from New York State are also featured.

The restaurant is also co-owned and operated by David Massoni, John Bush, Chef Rebecca Weitzman. Check out more details here.
Source Continue reading Fat Mike opens Thistle Hill Tavern →

Nick Flanagan of irreverent Toronto hardcore act Brutal Knights has posted an update on the band’s next record. The group was recently in the studio for their first recording since last year’s “Total Rebellion” sessions, tracking a song for a DVD titled Fantasia In Best Show Minor, a collection being put together by WFMU‘s The Best Show On with Tom Scharpling. On the band’s next album Flanagan commented:

Anyway, the plan is to write a bunch more songs this year, redo a couple of songs from Total Rebellion, and to cover two songs by Ottawa superpunx Furnaceface, and then release it as an album. What will the album be called? Only my mood this year will decide…thanks for all the nice messages and stuff you send us. It’s nice that people are still excited about our pizza band.

Brutal Knights released Feast of Shame in 2007 followed the next year by the Living By Yourself EP.
Source Continue reading Brutal Knights look ahead to next album →

Our stream today comes from Chicago, IL-based Iron Rain. We’ve got a stream of the band’s new seven inch, Silent Sins. The record was co-released by Panic Records and How Soon Is Now Records.

You can check it out on their Punknews.org Profile
Source Continue reading Iron Rain: ‘Silent Sins’ →