DS Record Radar: This Week in Punk Vinyl (Less Than Jake “Hello Rockview” 25th Anniversary, Hickey, McRackins & More)

Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. This week’s column is our biggest yet, as we’re highlighting a grand […]

Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. This week’s column is our biggest yet, as we’re highlighting a grand total of 20 newly announced records! So kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold one, and break out those wallets, because it’s go time. Let’s get into it!

Check out the video edition of this week’s Record Radar, presented by our friends at Punk Rock Radar:

If you’re catching a show on Less Than Jake‘s 25th Anniversary Hello Rockview tour, be sure to hit the merch table for this brand new 2xLP reissue of the record. The second LP features demos (including a previously unreleased song called “Honest Answers”), live tracks, and what I think are newly re-recorded takes on “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads” and “History of a Boring Town”.

No word from the band (or Smartpunk Records) on whether this is a tour exclusive variant, or how limited it is. I think it’s a safe bet this 25th Anniversary reissue will get wider distribution at some point, and will keep you posted as more details are announced. For now, the only way to grab a copy is at one of Less Than Jake’s upcoming shows.

There are a couple classic splits with new represses on the way, with the first being Ten Foot Pole‘s 1995 split 10″ with the almighty Satanic Surfers. Due out this September on La Agonía de Vivir, it’s limited to 200 copies on transparent red vinyl / 300 black vinyl. Pre-order here.

The other split getting a much needed repress is The Ataris / Useless ID Let It Burn. The LP has been repressed on split blue/red colored vinyl; they don’t specify how many copies, it’s just “limited”. This one’s due out next month; get it here.

Here’s a repress of a more recently-released record. The FlatlinersInviting Light is back in print on two new color variants; the “black inside yellow” variant pictured is limited to 200 copies, while the coral colored wax (not pictured) is limited to 300 copies. You can get both here.

Let’s take a little detour from all the reissues / represses and highlight some of this week’s new releases, shall we? Up first are pop-punk mainstays the McRackins with their fantastic new album Wake the Fun Up!, out now on Mom’s Basement Records! I’m going to give this record 2023’s Most Unique Color Variants Award™ as well. 100 copies on each of the following variants: Watermelon Gushers, Dunkaroos Frosting, Orange Melted Creamsicle & Spitting Blood Gladiator. Get your copy here.

Also available from our friends at Mom’s Basement Records: two new live records from the Huntingtons and the Proton Packs! Both were recorded at Italy’s favorite Ramonescore festival Punk Rock Raduno, and both can be purchased on Mom’s Basement’s webstore. Our European friends can grab these from Punk Rock Raduno’s Bandcamp.

Here’s another new release! It’s a new* three-song* 10″ from everyone’s favorite hip-hop/punk band Codefendants! For $18 you get a song that was already released on the band’s LP, as well as an acoustic version of that song, and one new track called “Cinematic”. You simply cannot beat that value, folks! Fork over your money here.

Alright, back to some more reissues! The Bouncing SoulsHow I Spent My Summer Vacation is getting repressed on “red with white swirl” colored vinyl, limited to 500 copies. My fellow true believers can get it here.

Dead Broke Rekerds has given Hickey’s highly sought after self-titled LP its first reissue since 1995. They pressed 222 copies on red vinyl, which have already sold out, and 800 copies on black wax (still in stock!). Get yours here. Chocolate pudding filled trumpet not included.

Joyce Manor‘s 2011 self-titled debut LP gets its 14th(!) pressing, with 1,000 copies on pink colored wax. Long live Mike Park and Asian Man Records! Buy it here.

Dutch skate punks Drunktank will be crossing the Atlantic to play some shows in Canada this September. To commemorate the voyage, Thousand Islands Records is repressing the band’s most recent album Return of the Infamous Four with Canadian themed artwork and color variants. Pre-order here.

The Beatnik Termites‘ long out of print sophomore LP Bubblecore gets its first reissue since 1996. 500 copies on pink colored vinyl, get it here.

Late last year, Westbound Train surprised everyone when their first new record in over a decade popped up on Spotify. Now Dedication is getting a physical release! Get it on transparent blue marble colored vinyl here.

Jeff Rosenstock‘s new album Hellmode is due out September 1st. Check out the lead single “Doubt” below. There are a trillion color variants; links to where you can get all of them can be found here.

Ramonescore up-and-comers the Zoanoids and Bad Secret have combined forces for a new Split 7″, out now on Hey Pizza! Records. Available on three color variants here.

Boston’s Rebuilder have announced their new album Local Support will be released on August 11th. Check out the new single “Another Round” below and pre-order the record here. Shoutout to Dying Scene contributing photographer Brittany, who took the picture featured on the album’s cover!

Chicago’s Sincere Engineer will be releasing their new album Cheap Grills on September 22nd through Hopeless Records. Check out the new single “California King” below and pre-order the LP on “steak + sauce” colored wax here.

Last but not least we’ve got some new releases from Rad Girlfriend Records! Tokyo’s What Goes Up gets a running start on their debut LP Laws of Gravity. Killer orgcore / Midwest punk, recommended if you like Banner Pilot, the Dopamines, Rational Anthem, etc. Get it here (US), here (UK), or here (Japan).

Also from Rad Girlfriend: a new Split 7″ from The Raging Nathans and The Story Changes. Check out a few tracks below and pre-order the record here.

Well, that’s all, folks. Another Record Radar in the books. As always, thank you for tuning in. If there’s anything we missed (highly likely), or if you want to let everyone know about a new/upcoming vinyl release you’re excited about, leave us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram, and we’ll look into it. Enjoy your weekend, and don’t blow too much money on spinny discs (or do, I’m not your father). See ya next week!

Wanna catch up on all of our Record Radar posts? Click here and you’ll be taken to a page with all the past entries in the column. Magic!

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DS Show Review & Gallery: The Hold Steady, The Mountain Goats, and Dillinger Four. Chicago (07.01.2023)

Chicago’s newest large music venue hosted two nights of The Hold Steady, The Mountain Goats, and Dillinger Four. I was there to document the second night for Dying Scene’s first show at The Salt Shed. The Salt Shed is so named because the venue was built out of the Morton Salt Warehouse Complex. The Chicago […]

Chicago’s newest large music venue hosted two nights of The Hold Steady, The Mountain Goats, and Dillinger Four. I was there to document the second night for Dying Scene’s first show at The Salt Shed.


The Salt Shed is so named because the venue was built out of the Morton Salt Warehouse Complex. The Chicago Landmark was first opened nearly a century ago with the transformation into a music venue first open to the public in late 2022. The cavernous ceilings and fairly open-looking stage let you know immediately this is going to be a different kind of place to catch a show. It’s a cool-looking place for concerts. It sounded pretty good in there as well.

There is also an amphitheater on the grounds of the complex and a midway in which to hang out before the shows. It promises to be a great venue for shows. From my first experience at The Salt Shed, they may very well fulfill that promise.


The Hold Steady is celebrating its 20th Anniversary on this tour. The band presently comprised of Craig Finn, Tad Kubler, Steve Selvidge, Galen Polivka, Bobby Drake, and Franz Nicolay, also had another reason to celebrate. Kubler and Selvidge are “birthday twins.” That is they were both born on same day, month and year. At a Chicago Cubs game the night before this show, on the jumbotron, was a happy birthday shoutout to Kubler and Selvidge on their actual birthday. Dying Scene would like to extend a belated happy birthday wish as well.


Now, onto the show itself. This was the second of two nights for this bill with The Hold Steady headliners. The band may be two decades old, but they have retained the energy and enthusiasm of the early years. The set list included “Stuck Between Stations.” The song’s credited writers are by Craig Finn, Fran Nicolay and Tad Kubler. The references to Sal Paradise, the protagonist of the classic Jack Kerouac novel, “On The Road,” and to the late confessional poet, John Berryman, were a reminder that there were at least two published authors on this bill. Those being Franz Nicolay, and The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle.

The tune itself is a meditation on depression, written in the midst of a tough time for Finn.

There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right
Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together
Sucking off each other at the demonstrations
Making sure their makeup’s straight
Crushing one another with colossal expectations
Dependent, undisciplined, and sleeping late
.”

The band also cruised through the set with “Sequestered in Memphis,” “Sideways Skull,” “Sixers,” “Chips Ahoy,” and “Your Little Hoodrat Friend,” among many others. The Hold Steady held the crowd steadily, in its grasp, from start to finish. Finn’s arms outstretched much of the time, matched in attitude by all of his bandmates, The Hold Steady thrilled the crowd. Will the band return to Chicago one day on its 40th Anniversary tour? We can hope, but if they do, it won’t be on any half-hearted nostalgia tour. No, I expect it will be just as exciting for the crowd and hopefully for the musicians as well. I hope to be there to document it once more.

Nearer in the future for The Hold Steady is the July 25th scheduled release of the oral and pictorial history of the band signed by the members, “The Gospel of the Hold Steady.” The limited edition pre-order package also includes a signed photo-journal chapbook by Tad Kubler, “TJK ON THS.”


It’s not often you see a band playing its arguably biggest hit right after taking the stage. That’s exactly what happened with The Mountain Goats. To the jubilant shock of myself, fellow photographers and fans, when the introductory notes of “This Year,” began. There was a virtual eruption of joy and being that it is one of my very favorite songs of all time, I was ecstatic as well. I discovered the 2005 tune late in its history, as many did, via its role as the ending credits song for the wonderful 2018 Oscar-nominated documentary, Minding The Gap. I was also glad to be able to watch it during the large venue photo pit standard operating procedure of first three songs, no flash and out. The proximity to the stage allowed me to work diligently and also soak in the song. Though every lyric in the song is incredible, the crowd hit its peak sing-along volume during the chorus of “I’m going to make it through this year if it kills me,” the hopeful lyric of “There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year.” That lyric is a reference to the phrase “Next Year in Jerusalem,” which is spoken at the end of every Passover Seder.


While “This Year,” may be the most well-known tune to the public at large, even becoming the subject of a darkly humorous pandemic era The Hard Times article, it is one amongst many beloved The Mountain Goats songs. The band — John Darnielle, Matt Douglas, Jon Wurster, and Peter Hughes, blasted through a great set, which also included, “Cadaver Sniffing Dog,” the bitter and very popular, “No Children,” “Up The Wolves,” “Rain in Soho,” and “Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds.”

There were two exceptional standouts in an altogether amazing set. One was a very poignant solo by Darnielle, “You Were Cool.” Speaking to a friend treated poorly by others, Darnielle sang,

You deserved better than you got
Someone’s got to say it sometime because it’s true
People should have told you you were awesome
Instead of taking advantage of you
I hope you love your life now, like I love mine
I hope the painful memories only flex their power over you a little of the time
.”

The other standout was “Palmcorder Yajna” on which The Hold Steady singer Craig Finn joined in, sharing vocals with Darnielle.

There are still numerous chances to experience The Mountain Goats as they are on tour through August and then resume again in October. Get on it!


Dillinger Four, out of Minneapolis, MN, provided a jaunty start to the evening. The band, comprised of Patrick Costello, Erik Funk, Bill Morrisette, and Lane Pederson, blasted through a tight set which included the exquisitely titled songs, “Let Them Eat Thomas Paine,” “Super Powers Enable Me to Blend in with Machinery,” “Maximum Piss & Vinegar,” and “A Floater Left With Pleasure in the Executive Washroom.” That latter song bemoans the crushing torment of working an increasingly less fulfilling, both emotionally and financially, job,

This isn’t you
It’s just what you do
Don’t mistake the irony of calling it a “living”
If you feel like no one
If you feel like nothing
You’ve only been taking what they’re giving
.”

Dillinger Four also performed, among others, “Mosh For Jesus,” “D4 = Putting the “F” Back in “Art”.’ And while I’m sure the F does not stand for fun in that last song title, nonetheless, fun is precisely what Dillinger Four put into this show.

Dillinger Four will be busy this fall, as they play 1234 Fest in Denver and Philadelphia in September, and at Fest 21 in Gainesville, FL. in October. I’m guessing “Gainesville” be on the set list in “Gator Nation,” as it was on Saturday’s setlist.


Please check out more photos from the show. Thanks and Cheers!


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DS Show Review & Gallery: The Hammerbombs, Middle-aged Queers, Loud Graves (Eli’s – Oakland, CA 7/2/23)

An after-party for the Mosswood Meltdown hosted by Alternative Tentacles at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland as an AT showcase. Some solid punk rock on a Sunday night. Loud Graves are a bunch of veteran punks from the East Bay including members of The Hammerbombs, Tsunami Bomb, The Applicators and Sayaka. Loud, entertaining. Middle-aged […]

An after-party for the Mosswood Meltdown hosted by Alternative Tentacles at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland as an AT showcase. Some solid punk rock on a Sunday night.

Loud Graves are a bunch of veteran punks from the East Bay including members of The Hammerbombs, Tsunami Bomb, The Applicators and Sayaka. Loud, entertaining.

Middle-aged Queers came out with a fog machine, bubbles and balloons, which made taking photographs fun.

The Hammerbombs closed out the show with fully entertaining pop-punk.

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This Show Is Tonight: Home Is Where tour kick-off at Crystal Ballroom

<p>If the past few weeks have been particularly draining, Boston area residents can get some musical relief from everything tonight (July 7) with Home Is Where at Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom. The Florida band is widely considered to fall under “fifth-wave emo,” but self-describe as making “anxiety-riddled but cathartic rock.” They first made a splash with their 2021 Father/Daughter Records release I Became Birds. Home Is Where’s recent sophomore album, the whaler is a concept album exploration of that aforementioned anxiety-riddled […]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com/2023/07/07/this-show-is-tonight-home-is-where-tour-kick-off-at-crystal-ballroom/">This Show Is Tonight: Home Is Where tour kick-off at Crystal Ballroom</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com">Vanyaland</a>.</p>

V3 Weekend: Beats By Girlz’ BBG Fest, Laura Severse, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

<p>Editor’s Note: Welcome to V3 Weekend, Vanyaland‘s guide to help you sort out your weekend entertainment with curated selections and recommendations across our three pillars of Music, Comedy, and Film/TV. It’s what you should know about, where you need to be, and where you’ll be going, with us riding shotgun along the way. Music: BBG Fest at City Hall Plaza There is no shortage of notable weekend music festivals across Boston this summer, and this Saturday (July 8) we have a good one. The Boston Chapter […]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com/2023/07/07/v3-weekend-beats-by-girlz-bbg-fest-laura-severse-top-gun-maverick/">V3 Weekend: Beats By Girlz’ BBG Fest, Laura Severse, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com">Vanyaland</a>.</p>

Interviews: Attacking the heartland with The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir

Earlier this week, Savannah-based chaotic post-hardcore band The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir kicked off their summer tour with the release of their surprise new EP heartland attack. The band showcases their harsher, heavier side as they confront hate, deal with mental health, and push for change over the course of three incredibly intense tracks. heartland attack is out now digitally and is also available on CD and cassette via Big Money Cybergrind. The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir are currently touring the US and they will be playing a handful of US shows with Chat Pile and Nerver in September as well as playing Fest in Gainesville this October.Punknews editor Em Moore caught up with the band on the road through the power of the internet to talk about the new EP, dealing with bigots, the importance of telling your friends you love them, touring, and so much more. Read the interview below!

Meat House announce self-titled record, release two songs

Hardcore punkers Meat House will release a new EP via Sorry State Records. It's self titled and runs for about seven minutes. Physical copies are expected to ship later this summer. You can hear two tracks below.

Better Lovers surprise-release debut EP

Better Lovers, the band made up of Jordan Buckley, Clayton “Goose” Holyoak, Stephen Micciche, Will Putney, and Greg Puciato, have surprise-released their debut EP. It is called God Made Me An Animal and is out now via SharpTone Records. The EP features four songs including their debut single “30 Under 13” which was released in April. Better Lovers will be touring the US and Canada starting later this month supporting Underoath and The Ghost Inside on their co-headlining tour. Check out the songs below.