To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of Strung Out‘s “Element Of Sonic Defiance,” the band will play the album in its entirety at the HOB Hollywood show on November 19th.

The band’s latest album “Agents Of The Underground” was released on Fat Wreck Chords on September 29, 2009.

**The Album Reviews published on Dying Scene are written and submitted by regular users of the site. These users are not professional music critics nor are they paid for what they write. If you disagree with an album’s rating, feel free to voice your opinion and give it your own rating in the comments. If you’d like to submit your own review do it here.

The Darlings is a very popular band name, currently there are three musical acts using the name (It was also the name of a fictional country group on The Andy Griffith Show from 1963 until 1966). This review is for the Redondo Beach, California band called The Darlings; they formed in 2005 and were the winners of the 13th annual Ernie Ball Battle of the bands in 2009.

When I first started listening to “The New Escape” I was confused. I had it on my on my iPod and figured that I must have cued up the wrong album. I checked my pod and found that it was actually playing The Darlings, now I was somewhat disappointed. The first couple of songs that played were not really what I thought I would be hearing from a punk rock album (I was listening to it on shuffle). There were obvious influences from bands like Social Distortion and Tiger Army (they actually look a little like a younger version of Social Distortion) but to me it felt more like I was listening to an alternative band from the mid nineties, which is not necessarily a bad thing just not what I expected. After I got over my initial disappointment and gave the group a proper listen, I found this to be a pretty damn good album.

“The New Escape” can almost be broken down into three types of songs. There are several that have a more alternative feel to them, almost like a harder version of The Airborne Toxic Event. “These Wings”, “Untitled” and “Someone Else at The Wheel” fit into that category.

There are some acoustic tracks. “Head Hunter” and “The Hard Goodbye” both sound a little bit like that one country song towards the end of all Tiger Army ablums and “Let’s Roll” feels like it may have been influenced by Against Me!

The others fit (sometimes loosely) into the category of punk rock. My favorites of those are “Hypnotize”, the albums opener, it also has a Tiger Army sound complete with a heavy bass line and slightly distorted vocal and “Take Me Back”, this one has a Gaslight Anthem feel, but with less Bruce Springsteen influence.

As I said, this is a good album and I recommend it to fans of any of the other bands that I mentioned in the review as well as to fans of mid to late 90’s punk. I can’t say this release has something for everyone, but it does have something for most.

At the time of this review, the album is NOT available on iTunes, although some of their earlier releases are. So if this is something that you’re interested in, go to the bands myspace to hear a few of the songs and to get info on how to buy the album.

Florida’s folk-punk act Fake Problems recently performed an acoustic set for the “Maker’s Mark Red Wax Sessions” where they performed “Ghost To Coast,” “Soulless,” and “RSVP.” You can download the entire session here.

The band announced their touring plans for December, including headline shows with Ninja Gun in the US, supporting the Flatliners in Canada, and a direct support slot on a Bouncing Souls “Home For The Holidays” show.  You can check out the dates and locations here.

Fake Problems released “Real Ghosts Caught On Tape” September 21st on SideOneDummy Records.

Amazon.com is hosting a short clip of Bayside‘s upcoming single “Sick, Sick, Sick,” which is set to be released November 16th. Click here to listen.

The band has already released the first single titled “Already Gone” off the new album, “Killing Time.” Check their MySpace page to listen to that one. The new album will be the followup to their 2008 release shudder and will released Feb. 22nd on Wind Up Records.

Alright you Craig Owens fanatics, this is the post you’ve been waiting for.  The former Chiodos front-man’s new band D.R.U.G.S. has premiered the first song from their upcoming album.  It’s titled “If You Think This Song Is About You, It Probably Is,” and you can stream it on the band’s MySpace page.

No details have been announced yet regarding the album but we do know they finished recording last month and it will be released on Decaydance Records.

Last August The Departed gave away a free three song sampler download that contained songs from their upcoming EP  “Remnants”.  Well today the band has announced the official tracklist and release date for “Remnants”. It has 7 songs and will be released this November 15th through Lockjaw Records. You check pre-order it here.

You can download their first album “This is That We Know” here.

Definitely recommended for fans of  Comeback Kid, Ruiner, Have Heart and Bane.

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Two screamo bands from Epitaph are on the eve of setting out on tour along the East Coast. These two bands are New Hampshire’s Our Last Night and North Carolina’s Alesana. You can see the tour dates and locations here.

Our Last Night came out with their last album We Will All Evolve in May, and Alesana released their last album The Emptiness in January. [Read more…]

Like soccer? Like fútbol? Like The Briggs? Fittingly, Los Angeles’ punk group The Briggs are going to be playing at the Home Depot Center this Sunday (the 14th), during the LA Galaxy/FC Dallas game. I think that’s pretty cool. Even if you don’t like soccer, you should definitely check out The Briggs.

The Briggs released their last album, Come All You Madmen, in 2008 on SideOneDummy Records. Also, you should check out our Dying Scene Sessions with Joey Briggs.

Last month, The Offspring announced that they were back in the studio recording their anticipated next album. Today, frontman Dexter Holland posted this update on the band’s twitter, saying:

“Just finished up a week in the studio…2 1/2 more demos…the pile of songs is getting big! -Dex”

That’s pretty much all he said. The band recently finished up a tour with 311 and, as promised, said that they would return to the studio continue work on their upcoming full-length album. There is no more information about what fans can expect, or when they can expect it. But you can be sure that the folks here at Dying Scene will be tirelessly stalking the band to find out any updates on what the SoCal punks are working on.

The band’s latest album, “Rise & Fall & Rage & Grace,” was released in the summer of 2008 on Columbia Records.

Man Overboard have seen one hell of a year. With the release of their blowout debut full length, they’ve made headway in becoming one of the most talked about and highly rated bands in the scene. When I found out they were playing at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vermont this year I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to pin the foursome down for a little Q&A.  I knew if I was lucky I might even be able to get them to perform a few songs acoustically for the pleasure of our readers (and myself).

In the interview we discuss their debut album, future releases, tripping on shrooms, and if there is ever going to be a such a thing as maturing. You can check it out, along with an acoustic performance of “Al Sharpton” off the band’s most recent album right here.

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