Cali rudeboys The Bashments have uploaded a new song off their as-of-yet untitled, upcoming album due out by the end of the year.

The song, titled “Mash Up Shake Up,” can be heard on the band’s MySpace Page.

I recently had the good fortune to interview Rochester punks Such Gold. We discuss the band’s latest EP, “Pedestals,” their influences, guest vocals, N.Y. music, hobbies and the future of the band.

You can stream “Pedestals” here while you read the full interview here.

[Read more…]

Scandinavian punk act Part Time Killer are currently working on a new, yet to be titled album. According to a MySpace bulletin it is now being mixed and is expected to be released in early 2011.

The band released their debut 7-inch, “Fuck the World,” in August and you can stream it right here.

French punk band Straightaway have just announced that they currently working on their sophomore album, which they hope to put out early next year.  The release will be titled “Last Exit to Nowhere” and will be a follow-up to 2007’s  “Democracy Of Spreading Poverty.”

If you’re not familiar with Straightaway head over to their MySpace and get yourself acquainted.

New York based pop-punk act Bayside have unveiled the album artwork for their upcoming Wind-Up Records debut “Killing Time.” You can check it out full-sized here.

The first single to the album “Sick, Sick, Sick”  will be available through iTunes on November 16th, despite the Wind Up Records’ February 22nd, 2011 release date.

Aside from a live album, Bayside’s last release, Shudder, came out in 2008 on Victory Records. [Read more…]

Bad Religion front man Dr. Greg Graffin appeared on NPR to discuss science, punk rock, religion and his new book “Anarchy Evolution.” As always his discussion is thought provoking and charismatic. Listen to the full interview here.

Bad Religion is currently on tour with Off With Their Heads and The Bouncing Souls supporting their latest album “The Dissent of Man.” Check out the full tour dates here.

Riverboat Gamblers front-man Mike Wiebe recently did an interview in which he talks about tour injuries, new music, doing voice acting for DragonBall Z, pop culture and more. You can check out the whole interview here.

Riverboat Gamblers released their latest album “Underneath The Owl” on Volcom Records last March.

**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.

First off I have to say that depending on the listener, Middle Class Rut could be considered alternative, metal or punk, to me they’re a combination of all three. So if you’re a punk purist, this band is most likely not for you.

Middle Class Rut, or MC Rut as they are sometimes called, are a two piece band from Sacramento, California featuring Zack Lopez on guitar and vocals and Sean Stockham on drums and vocals. The band was formed shortly after their previous band, Leisure broke up in 2003.

I was first introduced to MC Rut in late 2009 when they opened for Social Distortion at a club in Youngstown, Ohio. Originally, TAT a female led band from London was supposed to be the opener and we were looking forward to seeing them but when we got to the show and saw no merch for TAT on sale we knew something was wrong. A friend of mine went up to one of the guys selling the Social Distortion merch and asked “What happened to TAT?” The guy said he didn’t know why but that they had pulled out of the tour but assured us that we’d like the band that replaced them. He was not wrong!

Middle Class Rut hit the stage and blew me away. The music was like an updated version of the band Quicksand but with Perry Ferrell of Jane’s Addiction on vocals and a little bit of Rage Against The Machine thrown in. It was awesome, but the thing that surprised me the most was the wall of sound coming out of the speakers. I didn’t expect the music to be so full with only two guys on stage. If you closed your eyes (not something I’d recommend if you’re standing in the middle of the pit) you would swear you were listening to a four piece band, or at least a three piece. They didn’t play for very long and as soon as they were done I made my way to their merch table and bought the only CD they had available, a six song EP titled “25 years”. Over the next year I listened to that EP more than thirty times.

Now we move forward to October 4th 2010, and Middle Class Rut releases their first full length CD titled “No Name No Color”.

This is not a typical release, being that it is, at least partly made up of songs that previously showed up on EP’s. Normally that would piss me off a bit but with this band I understand completely. The three EP’s that were released prior to this full length are now very hard to find. The only version of “25 years” I can find for sale now is a $13 import, their EP known as “RED” sells for as much as $150 on Amazon and I could not even locate a copy of the “Blue” EP. So releasing some of these songs again seems fair to me.

The new CD shows more depth than the “25 years” EP, included here are a few slower tracks “Are you on your way” and “Critical Emotion”, (the later taken from the iTunes deluxe version of the CD), a radio friendly single “New Low” and an acoustic guitar based oddity titled “Cornbread” that sounds vaguely country, hand claps and all. Even though this release is more varied, Middle Class Rut have not lost their knack for aggressive, in your face music, “Alive or Dead” along with “Thought I Was” and “Sad to Know” are good examples of that.

Musically MC Rut are perfect, especially considering that there are only two of them. Lyrically, they’re pretty damn good too. The line “Your life, it ain’t worth wastin mine on” in the song “Lifelong Dayshift” is great but the best lines, “You better love your country and be willing to die, You better ask your president to live on your pay and still get by” come from my favorite song on the disk “One Debt Away”.

This is a great CD that I would recommend to most Punks, Metal heads and fans of the early to mid 90’s alternative scene. There really is something for almost everyone on “No Name No Color”.

And for you iTunes users, the deluxe version includes two more songs and a video for “New Low.”

When a band can tour with both Fireworks and Bring Me The Horizon without it seeming like an odd pairing for either, you know they’ve got a uniquely broad sound. New York’s Polar Bear Club has been working their way up the scene with an aesthetic that captures the gritty attitude of punk, the heaviness of hardcore, and the catchiness of pop-punk, all in a way that doesn’t make you feel like they’re having an identity crisis.  Whether your particular taste skews towards melodic hardcore, pop-punk, or emo, Polar Bear Club’s music will be familiar enough to appease the genre loyalists but different enough to make their music one of the most memorable to come out of the punk genre in years.  If you’re not already a fan its time to hop on board.  Start by giving a few of their songs a quick spin (er… stream) right here.

Richmond punk act Smoke Or Fire have posted a free download of “Neon Light” which will appear on their upcoming album “The Speakeasy.” Snag it here.  FYI – the download link only works if you right click it and hit “save link as” or “download” depending on your browser.

“The Speakeasy” is due out on November 9th via Fat Wreck Chords. The band recently announced U.S. tour dates. Visit the band’s MySpace Profile for dates and locations.