Sage Francis has posted the new video for “The Best of Times.”

Source Continue reading Sage Francis: “The Best of Times” →

Sacramento’s Bastards of Young have announced summer tour dates in support of their new album California Redemption. The band will be joined on tour by The Secretions. The latter band is currently supporting their re-release of two albums originally put out by Springman Records.

Check back with Punknews next week for a stream of the Bastards’ new record.
Source Continue reading Tours: Bastards of Young →

Rockford, IL’s Joie de Vivre and Fenton, MI’s Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) are set to hit the road together later this work. The Count Your Lucky Stars Records acts will embark together next week in Chicago and wrap things up in North Carolina on the 19th.
Source Continue reading Tours: Joie de Vivre / Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) →

Riot Style Records is in the process of reissuing all three albums from Canadian skate/metal outfit, S.T.R.E.E.T.S. (Skateboarding Totally Rules Everything Else Totally Sucks!). Each album from the east Vancouver band has been remixed from the original source tapes by producer/engineer Jesse Gander at Rec-Age studios and repackaged with rare bonus tracks. The label has already made Invaders From Gnars available, with Bobognargnar and Worms set to arrive later this year.

To celebrate Riot Style is giving away an awesome new S.T.R.E.E.T.S. skate deck to a lucky Punknews reader. Click below to enter!
Source Continue reading Contests: Win a S.T.R.E.E.T.S. skate deck! →

Rage Against The Machine are reportedly considering a new album. The band, who reunited in 2007 had originally come out against a new record. Frontman Zach de la Rocha told NME about the change of mind:

I think it’s a genuine possibility. We have to get our heads around what we’re going to do towards the end of the year and finish up on some other projects and we’ll take it from there.

Those “other projects” include de la Rocha’s band, One Day as a Lion and guitarist Tom Morello’s projects, The Nightwatchman and Street Sweeper Social Club.
Source Continue reading Rage Against the Machine consider recording new album →

Our stream today comes from Rockford, IL-based Joie de Vivre. We’ve got a stream of the band’s new full-length, The North End.

You can check it out on their Punknews.org Profile.
Source Continue reading Joie de Vivre: ‘The North End’ →

Brooklyn’s Outernational have posted a new collaboration with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club and The Nightwatchman. The band explained:

[The song is] dedicated to the fight against Arizona’s backwards new laws and all the immigrants under the gun. We’ve been performing the song over the course of the last tour supporting Shooter Jennings, and when we heard about Arizona SB1070 we called up Morello and cut a version. The original is a Woody Guthrie song but the lyrics ring as true as ever:

*Some of us are illegal and some are not wanted*
*When contract is out, we’ve got to move out*
*Its six hundred miles to the Mexican border*
*They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves*

Download the song in MP3 format via this link. The band is currently in New Orleans protesting against BP and will be embarking on a two month tour supporting GBH.
Source Continue reading Outernational with Tom Morello: “Deportees (Woody Guthrie)” →

Make Do and Mend have announced their touring plans for the summer. The band will traverse much of the US, with Hostage Calm along for many of the dates on both coasts and Heartsounds joining them in the Midwest and Southwest.

The band’s next release will be a split 7″ with Touché Amoré; according to the folks at Panic Records, masters are expected back very soon.
Source Continue reading Tours: Make Do And Mend →

Social Distortion has gone back into the studio to finish work on their new album after finishing writing last month. Frontman Mike Ness posted updates on the progress as well as some hints about how the record may sound:

Going back to finish the album after a month of more writing. I love this record and can’t wait to hit the stage with new songs. This album is a blend of Rolling Stones, Ramones, Hank Williams and Johnny Thunders… STOKED!

The band recently signed to Epitaph Records who will release the album in the fall. The record is the first studio release from the long-running band since 2004’s Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll in 2004. The band will spend the summer on the road with Dan Sartain and The Action Design. Those shows kick off late next month.
Source Continue reading Social Distortion posts status update on new record →

Metalcore outfit The Ghost Inside have posted their video for “Unspoken.”

Source Continue reading The Ghost Inside: “Unspoken” →

Riverdales have posted two songs from their upcoming album, Tarantula. It’s expected in July. The new album is the follow up to 2009’s Invasion, USA which was itself the first record after a six year gap. The album was originally scheduled for a release on Recess Records, but the band is now saying that the label is “to be announced.” The band also spoke o Reax Music about the record who said this about the sound:

This album is a bit more “hardcore” due to the use of two guitars and will feature 80’s style guitar solos.

Check out the music and the full interview here.
Source Continue reading The Riverdales: “Bad Seed Baby” →

Green Day‘s new entry into the Rock Band series was given a first review by Joystiq. Along with some mixed opinions about the band itself, the review talks about the mechanics and other details:

It’s not like I have a problem with them, they’re a pretty good band. But they’re following the freaking Beatles. Not only do those guys have a ton of amazing, really different songs, pretty much everybody loves them. When I told people I was going to an all-Beatles Concertition, everybody wanted in, even my mother-in-law. Who wants to listen to six hours of Green Day?

They’ve got pretty much every Green Day song mainstream fans would ever wanna hear. […] They’ve got like … three different venues. Everybody who does well gets a bunch of pictures and stuff, and if you can do good for a few songs in a row you can get some performance videos and interviews. It’s awesome fan service.

Check out the review here. The game is due out today, June 8, 2010. As we noted earlier, the game includes music from the band’s major label records: Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. The band was not able to produce the digital masters needs for their earlier, independent albums: 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hour and Kerplunk!, neither record contributes anything to the game. .
Source Continue reading “Green Day: Rock Band” reviewed →

Frank Turner has posted a blog entry about his recent trip to Israel and his thoughts on the boycotts which include The Pixies, Gorillaz, Elvis Costello and more. An excerpt from his comments:

For what it’s worth, I think the basic problem of two competing nationalisms claiming the same territory is a thorny one. I think Israel has a real problem in that its leadership schooled itself in an era of genuine existential threats (1967, 1973, to say nothing of the Holocaust) but is applying that mindset to a fundamentally different reality with a different balance of power. I think the Palestinians are suffering, but I think too many people are too quick to overlook what an awful bunch of shits Hamas are.

It’s not at all clear to me that, even if I did unconditionally condemn the Israeli government (which I don’t), I shouldn’t play shows there. The shows were organized by private citizens without any state involvement, and I’m not in the habit of judging individuals by the actions of their government. We in the UK and the USA, after all, have the Iraq war and occupation hanging over our collective heads. Of course I’m aware that some artists are boycotting Israel, as is their right; however it seems morally duplicitous to me to boycott Israel and not (say) the USA. Maybe big artists can afford to boycott one small state for the sake of some media grandstanding, and not the other, their main cashcow?

Later this summer, Turner will be opening for Green Day and Gaslight Anthem on shows in the US and UK. He released his Epitaph Records debut, Poetry of the Deed, in 2009.
Source Continue reading Frank Turner returns from Israel, defends decision to play dates there. →