Old school sounding, Swedish, punk act Smash It Up are reportedly working on a new album which they expect to release “later this year or early next year” (that narrows it down a bit).  Here’s what the band had to say about the new material:

The new songs are pure nuggets of no bullshit all school punk with all the ingredients from what inspires us and what we live, see and react on and against. Lyrically they are as anti-establishment as can get without losing touch with how it is trying to make it in this world as the working stiffs we really are. We feel the way we work now, recording, mixing and producing the songs ourselves from start to finish will give a more honest vibe to the music and the simple and direct approach we have playing live will be more noticeable on these recordings.

In a recent article Blink 182 vocalist / guitarist  Tom Delonge said among other things that he’s glad to be back with Blink 182 and that they will be recording a new yet to be titled album this June. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“”My biggest failure was the breakup of Blink,” DeLonge said. “That was a failure of friendships, businesses and communications. In our hearts, we thought that was forever and gone. What’s funny is, at the time, I looked at it as a triumph. The fact that I was able to make a decision so detrimental to myself and identity and start fresh was pretty victorious.”

To read the full article go here.

Since Blink 182’s hiatus Tom went on to record three full length albums with Angels & Airwaves including the latest album Love, released February 14th, 2010.

Central Florida screamo act We Are Defiance has signed to Tragic Hero Records.  Neither the band nor the label have announced any official news about a future release but a new song entitled To The Moon is streaming on the band’s MySpace page.

The Ataris front man Kris Roe was recently in a car accident that left his vehicle totaled and forced the band to cancel their show in San Francisco.  Kris was ok but word on the street is the SF fans are pretty disappointed.  Pretty sure they were disappointed about the show being cancelled, not about Kris being OK.  Here’s the statement from the band:

“Kris was in a bad car wreck this week. His car was totaled, front end completely smashed, roof rip opened. The person in front of him slammed on their brakes unexpectedly, he swerved out of the way to avoid hitting them, causing him to slam into a massive LED construction warning sign. The sign crashed through his front window, then flew over his car ripping off a huge section of the roof.  Fortunately he was wearing his seatbelt and is expected to make a full recovery. Due to the circumstances we regret to inform you that we have no other choice but to cancel our appearance next week in San Francisco. We plan on making another trip out to California in early July with our friends Gasoline Heart and will be booking those dates shortly. Our next scheduled show is May 29th in Chicago at Subterranean. That show will still go on as planned. See you there. Thanks.”

UK punk rock act Four Letter Word are giving away a free download of their brand new EP, An Invitation To A Hanging, and it’s actually not half bad!  Download it for free here.  Here’s the band’s announcement regarding the release:

This is a new EP we recorded on 28th and 29th April 2010. The four songs were written in the last few weeks with the 2010 U.K. general election in mind. We’re not going to bother creating some clever angle. We could say ‘this one’s for the fans’ or ‘get involved in our marketing’, but we’d just be lying. We just decided, in the interest of expediency and plastic that this was the best way forward. Thanks for your interest in Four Letter Word.

Four Letter Word released their last full-length, Follow As The Crow Flies, on Boss Tuneage in October, 2009.

Hardcore act Burning Empires (featuring Fall Out Boy drummer Andy Hurley) has released another song from their upcoming album Heirs Of The Soil.  It’s titled Accomplice and you can stream it on the band’s MySpace page.

Heirs Of The Soil is being released on the band’s own label Fuck City but no official release date has been set.

Texas punk act Born To Lose rocked Moulineaux, France last February. The entire concert has been posted online for your viewing pleasure at Goeland TV.

The band recently released their newest album The Dreams Of Kids on Altercation Records (us) and new label I Hate People Records (eu).

Born To Lose have some tour dates posted on their Dying Scene Shows page.

The Transgressions are streaming a brand new song titled Sleazeball on their MySpace page.  Sort of a common theme today, but the band hasn’t mentioned if there are plans to put the track on an official release.

The band recently released a 7″ split with The Side Project, which was released on Traffic Street Records.

Members of Fall Out Boy, Every Time I Die, and Anthrax came together to form The Damned Things, and they  have just announced their first show ever, which is also their only show in the USA this summer. It’s going down on June 1 at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Tickets are still available for around $22 at the time of this post through .

The Damned Things have also announced a few European tour dates this summer – get all the details at Dying Scene shows. The band has been in the studio, with their debut release still pending. More information about the band (but sadly no songs) are available at their MySpace page.

Lots of good hardcore news today.  Call To Preserve have premiered the first track off their upcoming album Life Of Defiance on their MySpace page.  The song is titled Functionary and the album is due out June 8th, 2010 on Facedown Records.  You can check out a studio video blog from the band’s time in the studio right here.

Call To Preserve released their last album, From Isolation, in 2008 on Facedown Records.