Wisam Alshaibi and Billy Joe Bailey, both formerly of The Blackout Pact have announced plans to tour the Middle East – including Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt – to shoot a documentary about punk and skateboarding .

Wisam explained:

A lot of the kids in these country’s have been defined by stuff that doesn’t matter to them, Religion, Ethnicity, Religious Sect, etc – all stuff that isn’t up to them, all things that limit them…

I remember when I was young, I had punk rock and skateboarding to protect, to make me a part of something that was bigger than me, something that didn’t care that I was Iraqi, something that made me friends..

For more information, you can visit Wisam’s myspace page.
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Since everyone loves ordinal rankings, here is another Top 25 Punk Albums list, this time from IGN.

The list includes Punk in Drublic, Milo Goes to College, Big Black, Double Nickels on the Dime, Operation Ivy, Stiff Little Fingers, and more actually fairly represent both some of the earliest bands (Ramones, Clash, Richard Hell) and more recent and American acts who are frequently left off.

You can check it out here.
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Thursday‘s Geoff Rickley recently spoke to a fansite about his long discussed but largely silent project, United Nations.

Besides Geoff, the band features Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw/Head Automatica, Chree from the Number 12 Looks Like You and Kiss It Goodbye’s Eric Cooper. Palumbo described it as a “blast-beat-riddled grindcore band” back in 2005. Geoff had this to say about the current status:

We were supposed to record before we started this tour but my grandmother died on the last few days of the Rise Against tour so I needed to go home and deal with family stuff. We have a solid lineup and we have seven or eight songs written. We’re gonna write a few more and put the record out later this year. It’s going to take a little more planning because everyone is so busy. We lost a big block of time that we could have worked on it and the Glassjaw tour was so last minute and that also took away from time that we could have spent on it.

Thursday most recently released A City by the Light Divided.
Read more at: Continue reading Updates from United Nations (Members of Thursday, Glassjaw, #12, Kiss It Goodbye) →

The Good, The Bad and The Queen have announced a number of European, US and Canadian dates in support of their new album, The Good, The Bad and The Queen.

The band is the new project from Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve), Tony Allen (Fela Kuti) and producer Danger Mouse.

Read more at: Continue reading Tours: The Good, The Bad and The Queen →

The tracklisting has been announced for the Leftover Crack/Citizen Fish split CD entitled Deadline. Citizen Fish recorded 5 original songs along with their cover of LoC’s “Clear Channel Fuck Off” and Choking Victim’s “Money”.

Leftover Crack contributed 6 new songs and 2 covers, one being a Subhumans song and the other being a CItizen Fish song. Special guests on the record include Jello Biafra and M.D.C.’s Dave Dictor.

Along with the tracklisting, Fat posted the Leftover Crack song ” …And Out Comes the N-Bomb!” which you can download here
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Sick of It All have announced the dates for a European tour set to begin in late March. The long-running hardcore band is supporting their newest album, Death to Tyrants.

For support on the tour, the band has enlisted new Eulogy Recordings signing Wisdom in Chains. The group previously released records on Gangstyle Records and Spook City Records.

Read more at: Continue reading Tours: Sick of it All / Wisdom in Chains →

Warped Tour has added three more bands to this years line-up in the form of the Spill Canvas, Boys Like Girls, and the Vandals. Both the Spill Canvas and Boys Like Girls will be featured on the entire tour, while the Vandals will only play the first four shows.

The dates for the tour were posted earlier this month.
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Once again, Fanscape is stepping in to offer serious goods in exchange for a little information on your part and some additional fine print.

One lucky grand prize winner will stretch their mailbox’s capacity with a Samsung SGH-t809 phone, $100 in cash, a Samsung accessory pack, portable multimedia speakers, and three albums from either AFI, Brand New, Motion City Soundtrack, All-American Rejects or the Used. A first prize winner will get the phone, accessory pack and compact discs.

To enter, just click this handy entry form and be unexpectedly prepared to hear streaming tunes from said bands.

The deadline for all entries is March 6, so get a move on.
Read more at: Continue reading Contests: Samsung phone, new discs from AFI, Brand New, more →

Mindless Self Indulgence has apparently managed to both offend “conservative Christian organizations” and annoy Apple’s iTunes.

The band opted to file their music under “Religious/Inspirational” due to what the band described as a “devout fan base and cult-like following.” Because iTunes translated this as “Christian/Gospel,” a number of Christians purchased the material – despite being marked as offensive – without hearing it first. In fact, the album reached #27 on the Christian/Gospel charts as a result.

Those same Christians – apparently annoyed by the lyrical content of such inoffensive titles as “Pussy All Night,” “2 Hookers And An 8 Ball” and “Panty Shot” – filed complaint with iTunes. The colorfully named vocalist, Jimmy Urine explained:

It was iTunes, not us, that interpreted “religious” to mean Christian/Gospel. What is offensive to some people is obviously inspirational to others. To our fans this IS inspirational music. I have no intention of changing the genre listing of this album.

No word on whether anyone has scheduled an iPod burning in their town square.
Read more at: Continue reading Mindless Self indulgence offends Christians, fights iTunes →

Noise Pop has announced the lineup for the upcoming 15th edition of the festival. The bill will includeTed Leo and the Pharmacists, Sebadoh, Trainwreck Riders, Actual, New Amsterdams, Jolie Holland, The Dandy Warhols, The Donnas, Snowden and many others.

The fest takes place from February 27th through March 4th, 2007 in San Francisco and will include the Noise Pop Film Festival, a McSweeney’s-sponsored “instant calm” evening of short films, readings and more as well as the world premiere of a new documentary about the legendary 924 Gilman Street club.

Read more at: Continue reading Noise Pop announces full lineup including Ted Leo, Sebadoh, Trainwreck Riders, Actual, New Ams, →

IGN has posted some amusing videos of the upcoming Guitar Hero II for XBOX 360 which is set to feature bonus tracks including “Billion Dollar Babies” by Alice Cooper, “Dead!” by My Chemical Romance, “Hush” by Deep Purple, “Life Wasted” by Pearl Jam, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Hoochie Koo” by Rick Derringer, “Possum Kingdom” by Toadies, “Salvation” by Rancid and “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden.

The site is hosting videos of play throughs of the Rancid favorite “Salvation” complete with computer animated characters who do not exactly resemble Tim, Lars, Brett or Matt.

You can check out three attempts to play the song here.
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Ronen Kauffman has unleashed episode 18 of his Issue Oriented podcast. This installment features Dan Yemin (Lifetime, Paint It Black, Kid Dynamite) about anger, music, and the pitfalls of being outspoken; and to Joanna Angel (CEO and star of BurningAngel.com) about porn, feminism, and much more.

You can check out the podcast here.
Read more at: Continue reading Issue Oriented talks to Dan Yemin (Lifetime), Joanna Angel (Burning Angel) →

The New York Times recently assembled a story about black fans of indie rock, punk and other underground music. Despite the long history of black musicians in everything from rock’n’roll (Chuck Berry, Jimmy Hendrix) to punk (Dead Kennedys) to hardcore (Bad Brains) to modern acts like Bloc Party, TV On the Radio and Whole Wheat Bread, indie and punk are largely seen as a white, suburban phenomenon.

The story examines some of the people attempting to break free of these stereotypes, and despite the condescending name it applies to them (“blipsters”) it looks at some the interesting reactions:

For a long time I was laughed at by both black and white people about being the only black person in my school that liked Nirvana and bands like that.

Another showgoer was frequently mistaken for a security guard. Sadly, the negative stereotypes also extend the other way:

There’s an unfortunate tendency for some black people to think if you listen to rock music or want to play rock music, you’re an Uncle Tom,

Of course, Cocker Spaniel’s “The Only Black Guy at the Indie Rock Show” may be the most succinct way of examining the whole issue.

You can check out the entire story here.
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