Portland pop-punks Mean Jeans have released a new song that serves as a tribute to Mountain Dew, called “Mountain Dew (I Need It).”

You can give it a listen below.

The bands’ latest album, Tight New Dimension, was released in April 2016 through Fat Wreck Chords. [Read more…]

Fat Wreck Chords just announced that they have signed a new band, Los Angeles’ The Last Gang.  The band will be releasing a two-song 7-inch called “Sing For Your Supper” on December 8th.  The release will feature the title track, which will also be on the bands’ eventual full length debut for Fat, as well as a b-side exclusive to the 7-inch.  To give you an idea of what to expect from the band, you can listen to “Sing For Your Supper” below. [Read more…]

Providence, RI pop punk act Hello Atlantic have released a music video for their new single “Like Clockwork.”

You can check it out below.

“Like Clockwork” comes from the bands’ upcoming EP Breaking Orbit. [Read more…]

British hard rockers Harbour Sharks have released a lyric video for their song “Don’t Say Revenge”. The song comes off the band’s upcoming album “A History of Violence”.

You can check out the video here.

The debut album for the Kingston natives is scheduled to be released October 27th. If you’re a fan of A Day to Remember or Stone Sour you’ll enjoy these guys.  [Read more…]

San Diego ska veterans Buck-O-Nine have released a new video for their song “Don’t Be Afraid”. The video features a lot of skulls and bones, and it comes off the Cleopatra Records Halloween Compilation.

You can check out the rad new video below.

The new song is the first new music from Buck-O-Nine since 2007’s Sustain.  [Read more…]

With all but a few rare exceptions, punk rock afternoon matinee shows have become a thing of the past in the metropolitan Boston area. This isn’t the time or place to really drill down to the core of that issue, but is both the time and place to point out than when they do happen, they can still be pretty magical. Due to a chain of scheduling miscues, last Saturday’s Smoking Popes headline show that was supposed to take place in the smaller, friendlier confines upstairs at Cambridge’s Middle East got bumped to the more cavernous space downstairs at the same venue…BUT Propagandhi was already booked to play the same space that night, so as a result, the Popes got bumped earlier. Like, way earlier. Like, “doors at noontime” earlier. The net result was a feel that had a bit of a throwback vibe for the slightly older-than-average crowd to revel in the ’90s pop punk goodness.

The Bigger Empty kicked off the show well before the early afternoon NFL games did the same. The five-piece hail from outside Chicago and are centered around frontman and songwriter Mike Felumlee, obviously pulling double-duty as drummer for the Popes. Together, the five-piece ripped through about a dozen up-tempo melodic rock tracks, most notably “Take My Heart With You,” which both appears on the band’s “Lakes & Oceans Volume 1 – Michigan” EP (La Escalera Records) and perhaps more recognizably as the introductory music to Felumlee’s Live From The Rock Room web series of live performances that he tapes from his basement. For what was basically a late morning show in their native time zone, Felumlee and keyboardist Amanda Moudry’s harmonies were tight, and the poppy energy provided by bassist Ruben Baird and new drummer Steve Lopez (who flew in from Texas and had no rehearsal time with the band) pushed the gas pedal beyond where it tops out on album format. Smoking Popes guitarist Eli Caterer filled in on guitar as well with very limited rehearsal time himself, so for a band that was hypothetically working through the kinks in real time on stage, there really weren’t very many kinks to work out. We know Mike keeps himself busy, but it’d be great to see The Bigger Empty on the touring circuit regularly!

Chris Farren served as main support, and played another perfect set. We last caught Farren a couple years ago when he was on the road with Dave Hause and Rocky Votolato, and to say that the Chris Farren live show has progressed in that amount of time is to completely understate the issue; his 2017 self is virtually a different species altogether. I’ve struggled with combining the right collection of words to encapsulate what it means to witness Farren live; there’s glitter and lights and lasers and mirror balls and pre-recorded samples and guitar loops and a gold microphone. I guess it’s like if a unicorn were playing pop-infused guitar rock on a rainbow. As an artist, it’s both inspiring and a little nerve-wracking to watch, but he had the still-filling-up crowd actually draw closer to the stage, many of them singing along at full volume.

Which brings us to the Popes. By the time the pop-punk icons took the stage, the crowd had filled out respectably. The brothers’ Caterer might not bring their show to the northeast all too often in later years, but when they to, they most definitely still bring it. Within the scene, Smoking Popes have long been considered in influential, important band, but I always got the sense that they just missed blowing up wider, for a variety of reasons most of which we won’t go into now, but one of which was that they were a pop punk band who was more than a pop punk band. “Need You Around” and “Rubella” and “Let’s Hear It For Love” had that midwestern punk rock vibe that made them at home among the likes of Alkaline Trio or Screeching Weasel but would just as easily have been at home on the alternative rock radio waves at the time. The music now sounds just as earnest and important as it did nearly a quarter-century ago. And so it was with eager anticipation that not only did the band announce they were working on new material AND hoped to have something out within the year BUT that they were also going to play one of those new tracks. It’s a song that serves as sociopolitical commentary that is, according to frontman Josh Caterer, based loosely on Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax and let the record show that this song seriously needs to see the light of day very, very, very soon. That one of the newer tracks in an afternoon of tight, high-energy pop punk sounds might have been the tightest and most inspiring of the occasion was an unexpected positive sign that we’re going to be following the sound for a lot longer.

Head below for our full photo gallery. (And seriously…there’s something to be said for getting home from a punk rock show at four in the afternoon. Let’s do this more often, yeah Boston?)

[Read more…]

Dexter Holland recently told OC Register that The Offspring are back in the studio recording/finishing new material that could be released on an EP.

While talking about his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, which he received last May, Dexter said, “No one calls me doctor. I was tied up with all of that for a while but we’re back in the studio. I think I want to do like an EP. It’s kind of what people are doing these days and it makes for less time in between stuff. It has been five years for us so we have a few songs together and I’m hoping to get something out by early next year.”

The Offspring’s last full-length studio album, Days Go By, was released in 2012. The band recently announced three shows at The Observatory in Santa Ana, which take place next week and see The Offspring continue celebrating the 20th anniversary of their fourth album Ixnay on the Hombre.

Vancouver baseball themed punks The Isotopes have released a music video for their song “Rochelle, Rochelle”. You can watch it below.

“Rochelle, Rochelle” appears on The Isotopes’ recent album 1994 World Series Champions, which was released last April through Stomp Records.

[Read more…]

Pop-punks from Chicago Sleep on It have premiered their brand new song “Fireworks”, which features Derek Discanio from State Champs. You can watch the video below.

“Fireworks” is taken from Sleep on It’s upcoming record Overexposed, which comes out November 3rd via Equal Vision Records.

[Read more…]

2014 was the last time we heard from Aussie melodic hardcore outfit, No Quarter. They had just released their documentary “None Given, None Asked – Our Story” which chronicled the band’s then ten year history. Fast forward to present day and the quartet is back with a new album and another four years of experience under their collective belts! The twelve track LP, Freedom releases on November 1st via one of our favorite small euro labels, Melodic Punk Style (pre order here).  Lucky for you though, you’re people who knows people (namely, us) and you get an exclusive first listen to the track “Abandon Ship, This Fucker’s Sinking” before anyone else! But until then, stream until your little heart is content, below!

[Read more…]