Popular DIY music site, Bandcamp.com, has announced that it will soon begin charging a percentage of sales to artists who sell music through the service. They explained:

In the past six months, you guys have used Bandcamp to sell over $1 million USD in music and merch directly to your fans. The pace of those sales is increasing rapidly, and last week we even saw an artist make it to the Billboard charts on the strength of her Bandcamp sales alone. It’s been awesome to witness, and we’re amped to carry right on, full steam ahead, building out new features, honing existing ones, strengthening our infrastructure, and generally making things better and better. Perhaps most importantly though, we want to do so in a way that’s sustainable long-term, and ensures that we’re here supporting musicians far into the future. Bandcamp’s share will be 15% of each transaction, dropping to 10% as soon as your all-time sales exceed $5,000 USD.

By comparison, the popular iTunes service is said to charge 30%.

Check out the press release here.
Source Continue reading Bandcamp to begin charging for sales →

The Queers have debuted a new song from their upcoming Asian Man Records album. The record is titled Back to the Basement and is due out November 16, 2010. It follows Munki Brain which was released in 2007. In a bulletin, Joe Queer commented on the record:

We’re mixing the new album this weekend. We recorded it last week with help from Teenage Rehab. It’s mostly punk stuff-one pop tune that’s it. Dave and I are fucking psyched-best album we’ve done in a few years. We’re really excited to let people listen to it and we fully expect it to be an instant classic.

We’ll do the tour for the new album in November for a month and then do another month long tour up to Canada in January/February. The Apers are coming over for the January part and The Riptides are doing the November one. It’s gonna be a blast playing the new songs.

Check out the song on their MySpace page.
Source Continue reading The Queers: “I Knew GG When He Was A Wimp” →

After they wrap up their current tour with Tim Barry and the Menzingers and before they head to Europe, The Gaslight Anthem will be hitting venues in the US with The Menzingers and Fake Problems. Only a few shows have been announced so far, but it looks like the run will begin in early September and run through the end of that month.

Gaslight released American Slang in 2010.

Source Continue reading Tours: The Gaslight Anthem / Fake Problems / The Menzingers →

Smoke Or Fire have entered the studio to begin recording their next album. . They are working with Matt Allison at Atlas Studios, the same producer who helmed their their 2007 effort, This Sinking Ship. The band has posted the first in a promised series of video diaries to document the recording process, and guitarist Jeremy Cochran has launched an official twitter account for the group, promising updates from the studio.

Earlier this year Smoke or Fire released the Prehistoric Knife Fight 7″ to help tide over fans. The band will be joining several of their Fat Wreck Chords labelmates at CMJ in October.
Source Continue reading Smoke Or Fire post first studio update →

JBTV has posted the first new episode of Static Age since May. The program features Red Scare tyrant Tobias Jeg and Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms, The Falcon) and promises an uncensored show featuring music videos from AM Taxi ,The Weakerthans, A Day To Remember and more.

Check it out here.
Source Continue reading New episode of JBTV Static Age with Brendan Kelly and Toby Jeg →

Aggronautix, who previously immortalized D.O.A. frontman Joe Shithead Keithley, G.G. Allen and Milo of the Descendents, have unveiled their new “throbblehead” of Andrew W.K..

The figure is limited to 1000 numbered units, stands 7-inches tall and is made of a polyresin. Check it out here.
Source Continue reading Andrew W.K. “Throbblehead” due out this month →

End of a Year recently visited The Waiting Room to record a few live tracks. The band performed “Robert E. Howard” from their 2009 self-titled 7″ as well as “Fred Dekker,” “Erin Hall” and “Jeni Leigh,” all from their recent full-length You Are Beneath Me.

Click Read More for videos of the performance and head here to download the session.
Source Continue reading End of a Year stops by The Waiting Room →

The Maine have posted their new video for the song “Inside of You.” The song comes from their major label debut, Black and White, released last week on Warner.

Check out the video here.
Source Continue reading The Maine: “Inside Of You” →

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

• The Kings of Nuthin’ – Old Habits Die Hard
• Various – Solid 7″ EP
• Warped Tour 2010 – live in Darien Lake
• Rebuke – Wouldworks
• The Down and Outs – Cacophony
• This Routine Is Hell – The Verve Crusade
• Bearings / Pswingset – split 7″ single
• The Back Pockets – Blissters N Basements
• Victor Bravo – Hammer Meets Fire
• The Great St. Louis – Forever_Now

You can check out any of our 9467 reviews right here.
Source Continue reading Tuesday, July 20, 2010 →

A musical mercenary armed with an accordion, Franz Nicolay has made a name for himself supplying old world oom-pah and soul to emerging modern rock bands. Although he just joined Against Me! as a touring member, he did several tours of duty in The Hold Steady, and until recently, was one of the more distinctive members of the already pretty darn distinctive World/Inferno Friendship Society. In addition to slanging his accordion and piano skills to some raucous rock bands, Franz recently released his first solo LP Major General, handles the keys in his Eastern European influenced band Guignol and is a member of Anti-Social Music which is avant-garde even among the avant-garde.

In order to at least try to keep the record straight, punknews interviewer John Gentile recently sat down with Franz to hear what hanging out with Against Me! is like, what’s next on his plate, and why he keeps jumping from band to band to band to band.

Source Continue reading Interviews: Franz Nicolay (W/IFS, The Hold Steady, Against Me!) →

Spring Heeled Jack have released two of their previous out-of-print albums digitally through Paper and Plastick. The label has made available 1998’s Songs From Suburbia and 1995’s Static World. Paper and Plastick’s Vinnie Fiorello commented:

Back in the 90’s, Spring Heeled Jack was doing ska-punk right… mixing soul, punk, ska, and reggae together. I always thought they were ahead of the curve. As a fan, I wanted the albums to be available to other fans that may want to buy high quality MP3’s. From a label perspective, the fact that I can provide a release for these albums that have been out-of-print for so long is fantastic.

After being dormant for nearly a decade, the band played two reunion shows earlier this year in their hometown of New Haven, CT. The band recorded and filmed both nights, and will be releasing a live digital album later this year with two new songs through Paper + Plastick. Details regarding the video footage will be announced shortly.
Source Continue reading Spring-Heeled Jack plans reissues →

Jimmy Eat World have unfurled the album art for their next LP, Invented. Due out September 28, 2010, the record will follow up 2007’s Chase This Light. We’ll keep you posted on that as well as upcoming tour dates, which should be announced very soon. Check out the cover art at the record’s release page.

Invented was produced by Mark Trombino, who previously worked with Jimmy Eat World on 1996’s Static Prevails, as well as 1999 fan-favorite Clarity and the band’s 2001 breakthrough, Bleed American.

Update: The label has confirmed that the record will be released on DGC/Interscope/Universal.
Source Continue reading Jimmy Eat World unveils ‘Invented’ cover art →

Our stream today comes from Armonk, NY-based Caravela. The band is a new project from Moving Mountains guitarist/vocalist Frank Graniero. We’ve got a stream of their forthcoming debut EP, Belvedere.

You can check it out on their Punknews.org Profile.

The EP is due out later this month.
Source Continue reading Caravela: ‘Belvedere’ EP →