311 have posted an update on their next full length. The band has wrapped up recording on the album, titled Uplifter and are currently mixing the new songs. The band recorded with Bob Rock (Metallica, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith) at the band’s Hive Studio in North Hollywood.

A firm release date for UPLIFTER has not been set yet, but we anticipate the album will be released in late Spring. The finished album will likely feature 11 or 12 new songs.
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Recess Records have unveiled plans to release a Pinhead Gunpowder “Greatest Hits” album on CD and vinyl in March of this year.

The label has also confirmed plans to reissue the entire Pinhead Gunpowder discography on vinyl and CD in 2009. The label is aiming for a fall release of five albums including Jump Salty, Carry the Banner, Goodbye Ellston Avenue, Compulsive Disclosure and Shoot The Moon.

The band features members of Green Day and Crimpshrine.
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No Idea Records has announced plans to reissue Lifetime‘s two studio full lengths, 1995’s Hello Bastards and 1997’s Jersey’s Best Dancers. Both albums were originally released on Jade Tree Records.

No word on what the reissues will entail, but they are “coming soon.”
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For the month of February, Anti- Records‘s African American recording artists will be blogging about Black History Month. Bettye LaVette writes about this momentous Presidency, Mavis Staples ponders the power of music to both heal and communicate and Solillaquists of Sound’s Swamburger talks of his experiences as a black male, a black artist.

In September ’08, weeks before the election, while walking in Washington DC with my wife Nan, I was struck with an awareness I had never had before. It was as though I knew, with an unreal sense of certainty, of a real estate transaction that was about to transpire. And I was walking on that very piece of real estate. We were walking from the Lincoln Memorial towards the Capitol Building on the Mall…on this same soil,

I was walking, and remembering hymns written by Mrs. Lucy Campbell, and sung by the likes of Mahalia Jackson and Martin Luther King, that said this too shall pass. I, a black male, was walking un-accosted, with my wife, who has white skin. And so, I knew, true to the dreams and instructions of the white men who wrote that inspired document that got us started, anything was possible.

Check out the rest of the entry here.
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Doghouse Records has announced plans to release a new collaboration between members of Mansions and Weatherbox titled Manbox. The project features Christopher Browder and Brian Warren and will release their debut EP in April 2009. The EP was recorded and “produced” by Mr. Browder in his “home.”

You can find more details here.
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Montreal, QC-based Yesterday’s Ring which includes Frederic Jacques and Hugo Mudie of The Sainte Catherines, will be releasing their next album on Suburban Home Records.

The label commented:

[Suburban Home] will be co-releasing “Diamonds in the Ditch” with Canadian label, Aquarius Records, and German label, Yo Yo Records. Although we are still working out the details, the initial plan is to release a single for “Punx not Dead, It’s Just Sleeping” in March and then release “Diamonds in the Ditch” on CD, double LP, and digitally in April.

You can find the first single, “Punx not Dead, It’s Just Sleeping” on the band’s myspace page.
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Brightwood have embarked on a headlining tour.

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Lux Interior, frontman of influential rockabilly / punk act the The Cramps, passed away today in a Glendale, California hospital. In a statement an existing heart condition was cited as the cause of death.

Lux was born Eric Lee Purkhiser in 1946. He formed the Cramps in the late 70s with his wife Kristy “Poison Ivy” Wallace and became part of the formative New York punk scene emerging around clubs like CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City. The band’s integration of rockabilly and surf influences, along with the b-movie film imagery, built the foundation of the subgenre we now call psychobilly. Lux built a reputation as a fearless and dramatic frontman, performing with a reckless abandon that’s become part of the band’s legacy.

Our deepest condolences go out to Lux’s friends, family and fans.
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Alternative Press spoke to Max Bemis of Say Anything. In the interview, the magazine had Max comment on the meme-like quality of his “strange, slow old people” comment regarding Punknews.org:

There’s enough shit talk–young kids, and the music they like, and it being trendy and all that stuff. But I don’t think there’s any retaliation toward the people who are old and jaded and feel slighted, because they are equally annoying, you know?

I’ve actually come to see that there are a lot of people that are sort of in their later 20s on Punknews.org as well, and that–just a few years in the age gap–makes a big difference in terms of whether someone is ashamed to like Saves The Day or ashamed to like the Get Up Kids, and they’re obsessed with Hot Water Music or somebody.

Check out the entire interview here.
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Mike Ness has provided another update on progress towards the long-awaited new album from Social Distortion. In an interview with San Francisco Gate, Ness commented:

We really have to just concentrate on writing right now. We’ve played a lot in the past five years. It might be better to wait until we have the record and then get out and play that for people.

The group has remained very active with extensive tours over the past few years, but has not recorded a new studio album since Sex, Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll in 2004. The new full length is expected to be released in 2009.
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Simple Stereo has released a unique new art print and 7-inch featuring Mike Park. The 7-inch includes the A-side, “Challenging Me” and previously unreleased B-side, “This World Is Fucked.” The 7-inch features art from artist Kevin Varner and the package includes a a 7″ x 14″ Silkscreened Art Print/gatefold cover.

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Bad Brains have posted an update on their upcoming documentary. The legendary hardcore group is in post-production for the film which is being directed by Mandy Stein and Ben Logan and traces the history of the band from their formation in Washington, D.C. in 1979 to the present day.

The film promises interviews with all four founding members, as well as comments from Henry Rollins, Minor Threat/Fugazi vocalist Ian MacKaye, ex-Minor Threat guitarist Lyle Preslar, ex-Cro-Mags vocalist Jon Joseph and guitarist Harley Flanagan, Murphy’s Law guitarist Jimmy Gestapo and Beastie Boys‘ Adam Yauch, who produced the 2007 album, Build a Nation.

Check out the teaser here.
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Milwaukee’s Chinese Telephones have announced their last show in light of their break up. The show is scheduled for February 26 at the Vault in Milwaukee. This will also be the record release show for Democracy, a collection of all their vinyl-only releases.

The band released Chinese Telephones in 2007, their only proper full length.
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