I recently spoke with Benjamin Kowalewicz, frontman of Canada’s own Billy Talent. By all accounts, Billy Talent live an interesting life; in Canada, they are full-fledged rock stars, winning major music awards and fawned over by mainstream news and music outlets like few others. Yet in America, they’re a relatively new band, still building steam on their two full length albums, Billy Talent II and Billy Talent.

Ben and I discussed everything from their “feud” with Fucked Up, to working with legendary Canadian broadcaster Alan Cross.

Read more at: Continue reading Interviews: Billy Talent →

Chung Ho Records has posted some videos from the now defunct popular Canadian punk band Belvedere. They were filmed on a Dominican television show in March of 2003.

Belvedere called it a day nearly two years ago after their final release Fast Forward Eats the Tape.

Former Belvedereans Steve Rawles and Graham Churchill recently resurfaced with This Is a Standoff posting their debut tracks.
Read more at: Continue reading Live Belvedere videos unearthed →

Details about The Stooges‘ brand new record, titled The Weirdness have come in. The record will be released March 20 via Virgin Records. The album marks the seminal band’s first proper release in almost 34 years.

This album features three of the four original band members – Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton and drummer Scott Asheton, and the ex-Minutemen and fIREHOSE bassist Mike Watt fills in the final spot.

The band will start touring in support of the album this spring. Along the way are plans to stop for a peformance at this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX on March 17th.

Read more at: Continue reading The Stooges detail “The Weirdness” →

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.
Read more at: Continue reading Blackout Pact members shooting documentary in Middle East →

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.
Read more at: Continue reading IGN names top 25 punk albums →

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
Read more at: Continue reading Leftover Crack/Citizen Fish post track listing, new song →

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.
Read more at: Continue reading The Spill Canvas, Boys Like Girls, the Vandals added to Warped Tour →

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, →