I told myself yesterday that I wouldn’t even look at the internet on Christmas Eve but who am I kidding, I’m addicted!  Anyway, it was worth it because Against Me! has released the cover art for their highly anticipated new album White Crosses.  Some of you are thinking “Am I tripping or does this artwork look a bit familiar?”  Tripping you are not.  Check out the comparison with Metallica’s cover art for their album Master Of Puppets.

White Crosses is due out this spring.

UPDATE: Tom Gabel (Against Me! lead singer), did post this on his blog yesterday with this statement “I wanted my blog to be the place where I first shared the new Against Me! album cover.” but it is almost certainly a joke.

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Check out the video for Bouncing Souls song The Mental Bits.  It’s an animated video created by Kristina Harth from Hamburg.  She says, “this was only supposed to be a little animation, but it run completely out of proportion and turned out to be THIS!!!!!”

The song is from the band’s 20th Anniversary single series which will be released as a full-length album on January 12th.

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Progressive punk/rock act Coheed And Cambria are streaming a cover of Under The Milky Way on their MySpace page.  The song, originally recorded by The Church, has been covered live a few times by the band, mostly at festivals.  Regarding the cover the band stated:

…this is the version we did when Travis and I were working it out to play live. We treated it just like a new song, and rewrote parts and added stuff and played around with it till we thought it had it’s own vibe, but still gave respect to the original. I cleaned it up and made it presentable for you all.  This is just a holiday gift to you, it’s not from the new record, it’s only me and Travis and our gadgets, and we hope you like it.

As a token of their holiday “love” Angels & Airwaves are offering a free download of the first single off their upcoming album Love.  The song is titled Hallucinations and you can download it here.

Love is due out February 14th, 2010.

Now that No Use For A Name front-man, Tony Sly, is finished recording his solo album it’s time to bring the focus back to the band.  According to a blog post from Tony he will begin writing and demoing songs for a new No Use For A Name record in January.

Older NUFAN fans may be excited about this statement from Tony made last summer regarding recording a new NUFAN album:

“I’m excited about this as well. I think it will end up being pretty punk and hard as I am getting the mellow out of my system with the solo stuff.”

Leche Con Carne II, anybody?  Hey oh!

Tony Sly’s solo album, 12 Song Program, hits stores February 16th, 2010 via Fat Wreck Chords.

Bedouin Soundclash singer Jay Malinowski has announced his solo debut record, Bright Lights And Bruises, to be released on Bedouin’s recently-formed label, Pirates Blend, on March 16, 2010.  Head on over to Jay’s MySpace to get a sample of some of his solo material.

Bedouin’s last release, Street Gospels, was released in 2007 on SideOneDummy Records.

That’s right, East Coast hardcore band Madball has announced three new tour dates coming up in February (Feb. 11 in DC; Feb. 12 in West Chester, PA; and Feb. 13 in Poughkeepsie, NY) with Cruel Hand, Naysayer, and Mostly Dead.

Madball’s last LP, Infiltrate The System, was released in 2007 on Ferret Music.

Fat Wreck Chords punk rokkaz the Flatliners have initiated a rather odd but fun and potentially entertaining contest.  According to the band, here are the steps:

-Start following us on Twitter if you haven’t already (www.twitter.com/theflatliners)
-For all of those who refuse to use Twitter, just keep checking our MySpace status updates
-Get creative and take photos of your fridge packed with shit and post them on our Twitter or MySpace
-Please don’t send us the photos as messages on Twitter or Myspace – we want everyone to see this shit!!
-Follow these easy steps and I’ll keep updating our photos
-*Sidenote: I will be getting drunker and drunker as these updates happen over the next few days, so the photos will get worse and worse, BUT FUCK IT!

I’m really not positive what the prize will be, but at least participation isn’t too labor-intensive, so why the hell not?

The Flatliners recently released a 3-song EP, Cynics, on Fat Wreck and will be touring for a few shows in Canada in January before embarking on an Oz tour in March.  Check out the Dying Scene shows page for dates.

Baltimore punk act The Huntingtons have posted an original holiday tune entitled All I Want For Christmas Is You (not to be confused with Vince Vance & The Valiants’ version (nor Mariah Carey’s)).  When I first listened to the Huntingtons’ version, I could have sworn that I was listening to 80s rockers the Smithereens–which I was psyched about.

Bend an ear on over to the Huntingtons’ MySpace page to stream a listen, or use these direct download links (right-click > Save as…)  to snag the MP3 (320kbps, 10.2mb) or the FLAC (32.9mb).

The Huntingtons last album, Punk Sounds, was released in July on Knowhere Records.

The Sass Dragons (Chicago) have added a Christmas-inspired song to their MySpace page entitled “Every Day Is Christmas”.  The track sounds, to me, like an amalgamation of a few of the tracks on the Vandals’ Christmas album, “Oi To The World”.  Not in the sense that it’s a rip-off by any means, but it’s a fun alternative to the “tra-la-las” and repetitive harmonizing of the traditional tunes that are omnipresent and forced into our earholes throughout this time of year.

The track is off of a compilation album entitled Half-Assed Chicago released this last summer on Johann’s Face Records, Chicago.

The band’s next album, Boner Pilot, is currently in the works.  Stay tuned to Dying Scene for updates.