To celebrate their 15th anniversary, Suburban Home Records is releasing a “best of” of live performances from their anniversary weekend. As a better treat, this release is free to the public. How sweet of them. No seriously, free music is awesome! Download this bad boy here.

Included are Two Cow Garage, Drag The River, and 9 more bands, all playing 2 songs each.

Unless the title is not literal, it seems like Florida’s hardcore group Assholeparade is streaming “2 tracks (unmixed)” on their MySpace. No idea what these tracks are even titled, but they will be on Assholeparade’s upcoming split with Slight Slappers, due out January 31st, 2011 (according to MySpace) on No Idea Records (I think I accidentally made a joke there somewhere).

Once again, we at Dying Scene are here to inform you of the antics and injuries that go down at energetic shows and whatnot. Today’s story focuses on the vocalist of The Wonder Years, Dan “Soupy” Campbell. During their latest show in Dallas with Four Year Strong, Mr. Campbell got a foot to the jaw as fan jumped off the stage and appendage and face collided. Ouch!

Campbell soon tweeted: “Kid stage diving just kicked me in the face. Can’t close my mouth. Maybe dislocated my jaw. Sorry we couldn’t finish, Dallas. Hospital?” Thankfully, the injury was not that bad, as he later reported: “Good news! Dan from Four Year Strong says it’s not dislocated. I still cant close it but that saves me a trip to the ER. Way to work at a hospital, Dan!”

The best part of this whole ordeal is the fact that the stagediver apologized to Dan Campbell in a tweet of his own: “I feel awful, it was my foot. I’m sorry man and I hope for a quick recovery for you.” Campbell replied: “don’t sweat it dude. Otherwise a solid dive. I give it a 7.”

So, in the end, Campbell is doing better, and the kid who injured him was complimented. Everybody wins!

Florida’s screamo act Underoath is coming out with their new album Ø (disambiguation) at the beginning of next month. They’ve set up this cool little contest to continue fueling anticipation for their release. What they did was post an instrumental on YouTube for the song aptly titled (you guessed it) “Catch Myself Catching Myself”. What they want you, the fan, to do is record your own vocals for it. They’ll give you the lyrics, and then you can go crazy. Here’s the interesting part: The song has not been released yet, so you’d have no basis to base your singing on (that was repetitive, I’m sorry). The contest ends November 23rd. Once again, check this out for more info.

Ø (disambiguation) will hit stores November 9th, released on Roadrunner Records.

Like most big festivals, lineups change. In the case of Soundwave 2011, two bands dropped out, and three other bands took their place. Bands Alesana and A Skylit Drive have pulled out and have been replaced by Polar Bear Club and Blessthefall, respectively. The third band, This Town Needs Guns, has been added to the mix. I, personally, have never heard of them, but they have been described as Britain’s best kept secret.

These three bands are part of the gigantic Soundwave 2011 lineup, which can be seen here.

Alright, die-hard Dying Scene fans, here’s some comedy for the morning:

As we’ve all heard, Fearless Records is putting out yet another Punk Goes… album (the second one this year, actually). This is the ever original Punk Goes Pop Volume 3 (tracklisting here). And once again, this is more “not-punk” than punk. But you can stream the album in its entirety here on the Punk Goes… MySpace page. If this is anything like the last few Punk Goes… compilations, Fearless Records might have something to fear: Angry fans.

Their latest release, Punk Goes Classic Rock, was released earlier this year. [Read more…]

**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.

Call me biased or what not but whenever I talk about good, fun and interesting punk rock it’s very hard to not name drop None More Black. It’s not even that Jason Shevchuk is nearly a legend for being the front man to the impressive and caustic Kid Dynamite, a band whose existence was as loud and short as their entire repertoire of songs. Sure, None More Black wouldn’t be who they are without the wonderfully rusty pipes that Shevchuk contributes to the music, but even when looking past the vocals, None More Black is an extremely talented and versatile bunch of dudes. Unlike most bands in their genre they stand out and have a style that is totally their own and have a versatility that made “This Is Satire” and its predecessor “File Under Black” both stand out albums for nearly entirely different reasons. But then they broke up giving almost no reasons except to pursue other musical endeavors. We saw the rise and fall of Ram & Ox and the short lived LaGrecia, but neither band could fill the void that None More Black left in the heart of this avid music listener. Much to my good fortune, None More Black recruited prolific punk drummer Richard Minino and decided it was time to get back together and churn out an album, their reunion as sudden as their break up years before. But could they pull it off? LaGrecia was good, but not incredible and Ram&Ox weren’t even in the same genre so they were no indication as to what the band was capable of now. I was almost sure that “Icons” would suffer from the dreaded comeback album syndrome; It could either be and incredible return or a horrible miss. Or at least I thought so. Instead, “Icons” surprised me.

If I had to describe “Icons” in one sentiment I would say this: “It sounds way, way, way bigger.” The album starts with the massive “Mr. Artistic” a mid tempo stomper that showcases the heaviest None More Black has ever sounded, with a chorus not unlike what you would find on Strike Anywhere’s latest release; We find Shevchuk crooning “In the nose/At the mouth/ I just do what I can to calm down/ Caught on the heels and yet somehow I stumble home” over waves of guitar sound. The track has a frantic and explosive outro before the band kicks into full gear for “Stillssternlange&morris”, a short yet bouncy track that would find itself a comfy home both between the catchier moments of “File Under Black” or the heavier moments in “This Is Satire.” The song quickly transitions into two other classic sounding None More Black tunes, “Cupcake Wednesday” and “Here Comes Devereux” that give the album familiar and welcomed warmth that fans of their past two albums should thoroughly enjoy. The band throws it’s second of several curve balls with the desperate and galloping “I’m Warning You With Peace & Love”, which takes the cake for one of the fastest track None More Black has ever written (maybe falling second only to “Nothing To Do When You’re Locked Away Inside A Vacancy”) and it’s definitely a stand out track on the album. It’s quick pace is a bit off putting at first as Shevchuk seems to be having to catch up to the song as he sings over ping-ponging guitar leads but it’s quickly apparent that this was the band’s intention all along, especially when they abruptly step it down a few notches to close the song off on a mid tempo conclusion.

“When Mickey Died” is possibly the worst track on the album and is overshadowed by being sandwiched between the aforementioned song and the dark zinger to follow, “Iron Mouth Act”. Now I know I said worst but it’s not even that it’s a bad track, it’s actually better than a lot of None More Black songs, but it sounds a bit out of place in the album. It still has a ton of replay value and I definitely don’t skip over it, it’s just not the song I’m most looking forward to hearing. As previously mentioned, “Iron Mouth Act” is another dark and feisty number which is cordially accompanied by a nifty little mandolin intro before it explodes into None More Black at their most pissed off. Not ones to stop their rampage, the album continues with the magnum opus of the album, the absolutely enormous “Sinatra After Dark”; a somber and frantic song that possibly has the most intricate tempo changes and riffs None More Black has ever penned. The bass solo at the end is a delicious cherry on top of the cake; it’ safe to say this will be a crowd favourite at future None More Black shows. None More Black decide to brightened the mood a little and slow things down with the one two punch of “Backpedal” and “Gary Page One In Pink”, the first showing off the band at their most balladesque while the second picks up the tempo a slight bit and proves to be one of the bounciest numbers on “Icons.” The album closes with the somber “Budapest Gambit” that concludes the album in a similar fashion as it was opened. Sadly, it’s no “Majestic” but it proves a solid closer nonetheless.

A generous mix of new and old makes “Icons” an exceptional album that once again proves that punk rock can be intelligent and original without sacrificing energy. I didn’t instantly like it like I hoped, but it’s grown on me quickly and I wouldn’t be surprised if I was ready to call this the best cohesive album None More Black has created and my favourite of their releases. Best album of the year? It’s most definitely possible. However, I also feel like this isn’t an entry level album and it seems most suitable to the seasoned None More Black listener. If this is your first time listening to the band (though it definitely shouldn’t be) then this is probably not the album for you as far and wide their least accessible album. The treats are harder to hear, but if you give it a shot, they’re definitely there and in generous amounts.

Fest 9 is finally upon us, and as the masses gather in Gainesville for a long weekend of punk rock, booze and trick or treating we’ve thrown one man into the chaos to see he can come back with.  That man is Xan – or The Xanimal, as I like to call him, and he’s going to do his best to keep those of us poor saps stuck at home updated on the happenings out there.

His first report is coming a day late, mostly because I’m a slacker, but it’s filled with anticipation as The Xanimal prepares for the trip of his life!  Give it a read right here.  You got nothing else to do!  – Johnny X

[Read more…]

I don’t know about you, but I’m stoked about this news.  Flogging Molly announced that they will be heading back into the studio at the end of the year to record a new full-length album, which they plan to release in the first half of 2011.  We’ll keep you posted as details unfold.

The band’s last studio album, “Float“ was released in 2008 on Side One Dummy Records.

Alright ska fans, get pumped.  The Aquabats are streaming their first new material in years on their MySpace page.  The song is titled “Radio Down!” and it will appear on an EP of the same name slated for release November 9th on Fearless Records.  <= That’s the cover art.

Regarding the release, the bands states:

The new song and single is a funny direction into dance music for the Aquabats and it features hip-hop legend and Yo Gabba Gabba! alum BIZ MARKIE on the track!! WHOAH! GNAR! The other songs on the record were written and produced with Warren Fitzgerald of the Vandals as well! So when hip-hoppers and punkenstiens meet on the same EP… LOOK OUT!!

The EP will proceed a new full-length that will be released in January on Fearlesss