Punk Rock & Paintbrushes have announced the dates and contributors for the second annual punk rock art showcase. This years list of contributors is quite impressive, Warren Fitzgerald (Vandals), Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio, Blink 182), Hunter Burgan (AFI) and Matt Hensley (Flogging Molly) have all contributed artwork as well as many more.

The event gives the musicians a chance to showcase their boundless creativity. Matt Skiba had this to say: “I’m thrilled to be showing this round of my art with such beautiful friends and some amazing artists. Some of the new stuff is inspired by the scrawl on a childhood friend’s trapper-keeper as I remember it. He was super into death metal and was considered a ‘burner’ and ‘trouble’. They used those terms like they were a bad thing. I used lines from lyrics I’ve been writing recently combined with my friend’s graffiti. I want my new stuff to convey Hessian graffiti and ‘ignorant art’.”

The events founder Emily T. Nielsen had to say about it: “Punk Rock & Paintbrushes came into my life as a surprise two years ago with the desire to share my friend’s art with the world. I feel very privileged to work with each of these amazing and talented artists. We must continue to create art to share our personal life and feelings with the world but through the strokes of a paintbrush…all the while being punk rock”. 

So with the holiday season fast approaching it might be a good time to check out the event and maybe procure a Warren Fitzgerald for that special someone in your life. The event will be held on December 15th thru the 17th in Los Angeles, California.

For a sneak peak at what you might see at this year’s event check out below. [Read more…]

Israeli punk veterans Useless ID have announced a split EP with French melodic punks Topsy Turvy’s. The album set to be released in January 2018 will feature a couple of tribute songs by Useless ID to fellow punk vets the Swingin’ Utters and Unionway. The latest release for Useless ID was 2016’s “State is Burning. The Topsy Turvy’s will unveil two songs recorded in 2017 with Caryl Marolleau. The split EP will be released through Ratgirl Records. You can pre-order your copy here.

You can check out a video from the latest Useless ID album below. [Read more…]

Hot Water Music made their long-awaited return to the Boston area last Friday night, playing to a packed house at the Sinclair in Cambridge that sold out long before the show actually took place. Touring in support of their most recent studio album, Light It Up (released September 15th via Rise Records), the genre-defining four-piece were playing down a man, with Chris Wollard sitting out this run of shows to focus on taking care of anxiety and stress-related issues. However, just like they did at Fest last month, they called on the help of a pretty well-respected friend to fill Wollard’s shoes. That, of course, was none other than Flatliners frontman Chris Cresswell.

If Cresswell had the pre-game jutters that might be expected when filling in on the sold-out first night of a run with a highly influential band fifteen years his senior, he didn’t show them. The show’s twenty-one song setlist did steer more heavily toward the Chuck Ragan sung end of the catalog, and Ragan took over lead vocal duties on the new track, “Vultures,” but Cresswell did Wollard justice on such staples as “A Flight and A Crash,” “Paper Thin,” and, of course, “Trusty Chords.” Ragan, who sounded as solid and high-energy as he ever has, seemed on more than one occasion to look on in proud admiration at his new stage-left counterpart. For their part they rhythm section core of Jason Black (bass) and George Rebelo (drums) were a lock-tight gas pedal, which, while they’ve been playing together for the better part of a quarter-century, is not necessarily an easy task given that it was the first night of a brief three-day tour for a band that doesn’t live on the road nearly the way they did earlier in their respective careers. Rebelo’s recent turn behind the drumkit with Bouncing Souls has provided his playing with a little bit of an added, uptempo spark, which seems to play right into the nimble-fingered Black’s wheelhouse. It may not have been the traditional Hot Water Music lineup that has been so long-revered in this scene, but goddamn it still felt pretty special.

Big Jesus provided direct support on all three shows on this run. Trying to narrow down the sound of Big Jesus to one definable genre is a bit on the difficult side, but they’ve got a sludgy, swampy metal guitar attack that’s offset by bassist/vocalist Spencer Ussery’s airy, melodic vocals that have drawn comparisons to Smashing Pumpkins but are really more like Silversun Pickups-meets-Clutch. They were apparently “discovered” and subsequently managed by the Madden brothers, though you’d honestly never guess that from their sound or their look. 

Local three-piece Bundles, who’ve become increasingly beloved around these parts, were added to the bill to kick off the show only about a week or so ago, after it was announced that Strike Anywhere wouldn’t be on this particular date. We’ve caught the trio on longer bills at various smaller bars in Boston, so to get the chance to see them on the larger stage (editor’s note: we’re pretty sure O’Brien’s in Allston would fit on the stage at Sinclair, but we digress) was a bit of a proud moment that the band seemed to revel in. There’s is an updated, stripped down version of the sound pioneered by bands like Hot Water Music twenty-five years ago, but with lyrics that draw as much inspiration from classic literature as they do from personal pain and struggle. Fun opportunity for the band and it was awesome to see them as being up to the task.

Check out our full photo gallery below, and stay tuned for our sit-down with Hot Water Music’s Jason Black in the next few days!

[Read more…]

Philly Pop Punkers The Mad Splatter are streaming their new LP “The Rows” via Moms Basement Records.

This is the first release on Moms Basement Records since August of this year.

You can stream the LP here.

[Read more…]

Since forming in 2006, Italian punks Thanx 4 All The Shoes have released two fantastic full length albums. Combining elements of melodic hardcore, skatepunk and thrash metal and adding evocative, socially aware lyrics, the quartet has rapidly gained a strong European following. Now, just three years after their last release, the lads are back with their third full length LP, Another Ride! Once again, the boys are have brought a great mix of tightly composed, technical riffs, catchy melodies and of course, speed!!! The ten track album will be released on CD, digital and vinyl on November 25th,  (pre-orders are already up (BeNeLux, UK) and you better hurry, because the vinyl is limited to only 100 copies) and will be distributed in cooperation with White Russian Records, Disconnect/Disconnect, and No Reason Records (Italy). No need for you to wait though! DS readers can stream it, in its entirety, below! Prego!

*The band’s last release was the 2014 LP, This World Is Not Yours.

[Read more…]

Indiana Garage Punk act The Snarks are streaming their new EP on Bandcamp now.

This is the first release from The Snarks in over a year, with their last release “It’s Like Carpe YOLO, Man” which came out in February of 2016.

You can stream the EP here.

[Read more…]

Pittsburgh punk veterans Anti-Flag have teamed up with PETA to film a video about organising the perfect vegan Thanksgiving. Justin Sane and Chris No. 2 from the band worked with chef Roberto Martin to cook a proper, all-vegan holiday spread.

You can watch the video and read about why they did it on PETA’s site now.

Words by Big D And The Kids Table front man David McWane

Good Luck had been officially released through Asianman records by Mike Park. Mike offered us the first and only generous act for Big D. He fronted us plane tickets to go on our first U.K./Europe Tour, booked by Ian at Hidden Talent Booking. Big D started writing music on tour and you can hear raw recordings of us doing just that on the Gipsy Hill EP. Gipsy Hill is in South London and it is where we stayed on the floor with our TM / Driver / Life Teacher Ben Corrigan. On these tours we made friends with people who we are still friends with today: Lightyear, P.O. Box, Sonic Boom Six, The Foamers, Mad Skat, 5 Knuckle, Random Hand (Marcia from The Skints), Hard Skin and more. We toured hard during these days – about 250 shows a year.

When we returned to the States we decided to record somewhere new, so we saved up all our touring profits (which wasn’t very much) and headed to The Outpost with Jim Siegel. Jim had recorded most of all the classic Boston hardcore bands and The Dropkick Murphy’s. This was the big time for Big D. We had written way too many new songs after Good Luck, so we decided to record an EP in order to free up ideas as well as capture sonically the special time in our lives in the U.K./Europe. STOMP records in Canada agreed to put out the Gipsy Hill EP and even helped us film with Rej our first music video for The Difference. We had a blast with Matt, Mike and all of the STOMP records family and of course with Rej from 123-Punk. These shows in Canada were explosive. We were at our wildest.

Along with the Gipsy Hill EP we recorded three different tracks for a split release with the U.K. band 5 Knuckle called Look What You’ve Done.… This split has the original recording of L.A.X, which wasn’t physically available to the States until our next full length release.

When I think about these times I feel that Good Luck represented touring the United States and the farmlets across it, while the Gipsy Hill EP / Look What You’ve Done represent, Canada, England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy and more. It represents cold squats, cigarette butt floors for sleeping, new friends, tasty big beers, yummy food, heartbreakingly beautiful hospitality, fist fights for being an American, a sprinter for a home, the birth of poetry for me and beautiful friendship.

The question I was often asked on these excursions of self discovery was – ‘American’s need more culture, why don’t more Americans come here?’ My answer then is what I still say today – ‘American’s can’t afford it, they’d loose their jobs and health care; Only fortunate Americans can afford culture’.

So I will leave you with this…

…if you are young or if you are old, own very little and go see Your World.

—-

Tune in next week for another Big D “Behind The Album” piece. They’ll continue weekly until all 34+ Big D albums have been covered!

Spanish punk rock band G.A.S Drummers were recently in the studio with School House Live where they recorded and filmed a live version of their track, “Yours To Discover.” The video was recorded and shot in one day on the heels of the band’s Canadian tour, where they did shows with Propagandhi and Iron Chic.

You can watch the video below.

G.A.S Drummers last release includes their 2013 full-length, We Got The Light. 

[Read more…]

French hardcore punk band Stinky have debuted a new video on YouTube channel Blank TV. The video is for “Storm Surge”, the second track from their new album “From Dead-End Street“, which came out last month. 

You can watch the video below.

[Read more…]