Dying Scene

Music: Big Loser announce new EP and release single

March 20, 2023 | 5:00 am
blacknumbers

Indie punk outfit Big Loser have announced a brand new EP titled Left on Delmar Drive . The release will be out digitally on May 19th, 2023 through Black Numbers. They have also released the first single titled "I'm Rubber, You're Glue", see below to check out the single.

La Brasa cooks up weekly live music series with ONCE Somerville

March 20, 2023 | 4:17 am
Boston News

La Brasa isn’t luring in patrons with just a mouthwatering selection of “globally inspired” dishes anymore. In addition to curating a menu that ranges from coffee-rubbed pork chops to scallop ceviche, the Somerville restaurant now co-curates a free live music series on Thursday nights, welcoming everything from lo-fi hip-hop to brass bands at 124 Broadway St. The new endeavor is a partnership with ONCE Somerville, which lost its physical space during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to its warm weather […]
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com/2023/03/20/la-brasa-cooks-up-weekly-live-music-series-with-once-somerville/">La Brasa cooks up weekly live music series with ONCE Somerville</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com">Vanyaland</a>.

Calmgrove: "Tossing in My Sleep"

March 20, 2023 | 4:00 am
news

We are pleased to bring to you a Punknews Exclusive premiere for Southern California based pop punk band five piece Calmgrove. The band will be releasing a new single titled "Tossing In My Sleep" digitally tomorrow. We have the whole thing here a day early, see below. The single features Brad Garcia of Locket.

Tours: The Bronx announce May shows

March 20, 2023 | 3:00 am
cookingvinyl

The Bronx is playing a few shows this May in the US. See below to check out the dates. The Bronx released Bronx VI in 2021.

Matt Holubowski provides a pillow for our mind’s frenzy on ‘Sandy Cove’

March 20, 2023 | 2:51 am
Music

We’re slowly emerging from a full St. Patrick’s Day weekend here in Boston, and we’re eager for something to gently crawl inside our headspace and both answer the questions that linger and questions the answers that persist. We’re finding that kind of calm refuge in “Sandy Cove,” the ethereal new single from Montreal singer-songwriter Matt Holubowski, which dances delicately around a twirling flame of folk, electronic, and cinematic instrumentation without ever falling victim to its weighty subjects. “‘Sandy Cove’ is […]
The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com/2023/03/20/matt-holubowski-provides-a-pillow-for-our-minds-frenzy-on-sandy-cove/">Matt Holubowski provides a pillow for our mind’s frenzy on ‘Sandy Cove’</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://vanyaland.com">Vanyaland</a>.

Tours: Dead Bars (North East)

March 20, 2023 | 2:00 am
news

Dead Bars is hitting the road this spring in the North East as they make their way to their appearance at Pouzza Fest, see below for dates. The band released Dream Gig om 2017.

DS Record Radar: This Week in Punk Vinyl (Box Car Racer, Face to Face “Over It” EP reissue, Teenage Bottlerocket & more)

March 19, 2023 | 6:00 pm

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. It was another very busy week and we once again have a shitload of records to cover. 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!

Quick editor’s note: I’ll also be doing video versions of the Record Radar going forward! Pretty cool, right? Here’s this week’s episode, presented by our friends at Punk Rock Radar:

First up to bat this week is this repressing of short-lived Blink 182 side project Box Car Racer’s 2002 self-titled LP. This one’s back in print on 180 gram “white/ultra clear cornetto” colored vinyl, not sure how many copies (probably a lot). It’s $40! Get it here, and pro gamer tip: don’t waste your time signing up for the mailing list for the 10% discount code because it doesn’t apply to this record.

Teenage Bottlerocket announced a new 7″ called So Dumb / So Stoked. It features four previously unreleased tracks from the recording sessions for their last album Stay Rad!. Pirates Press Records will be launching pre-orders for their store variant on April 14th, and the band will have a tour variant at their west coast shows (dates here). We’ll circle back on this one when more details are revealed.

Italian pop-punk veterans The Manges are reissuing their All is Well LP for the first time since its original release in 2014. Limited to 500 copies on yellow wax with a subtle matching color accent added to the cover art. Grab your copy here (fellow Americans, if you’re deterred by the shipping cost, stay tuned for details on US distro).

While you’re grabbing that Manges record from Striped Music, consider picking up this reissue of fellow Italian punk band Crummy Stuff’s 1997 album Never Trust a Punk. This is its first time on vinyl, ever! Get it here.

Direct Hit! and Decent Criminal are releasing a split 7″ on Dirtnap Records. It features a new track from Direct Hit! called “Wasteland”, supposedly from their to-be-announced next album, and two songs from Decent Criminal. Listen to the new Direct Hit! song below. This is due out April 28th. US pre-order here, EU pre-order here.

How ’bout another split?! Days N’ Daze‘s 10″ split with Night Gaunts is getting reissued as an LP with some new bonus tracks thrown in. There are two color variants: clear pink (1,000 copies) and purple w/ pink swirl (100 copies). Get it here (US) or here (EU).

The Expendables are reissuing their 2004 album Gettin’ Filthy in honor of its *checks notes* 20th anniversary? Hold on a second… 2023 – 2004 = 20? False alarm, folks! The math checks out. Buy it here.

Face to Face‘s Over It EP is getting its first new pressing in almost 30 years. The 10″ EP has been remastered and comes in “deluxe packaging” (very fancy!). There will be 1,000 copies spread across three very interestingly named color variants:

333 orange crush/piss yellow half and half
333 blood red/canary yellow splatter
333 halloween orange/brown color in color

And I know that does not add up to 1,000 but being a math stickler is getting exhausting so F2F wins this time. The release date is listed as June 15th, but I’m not sure when pre-orders go live. Keep an eye on this product page.

One final note before we wrap up this week’s column: I know you’re probably tired of hearing about the AFI Sing the Sorrow 20th anniversary reissue, but I have some good news to share with our friends in the Great White North: it’s now available to pre-order from a Canadian distributor! Hit up Le Noise and save on shipping.

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!

by Staff Writer Screeching Bottlerocket

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Navel Gazing for March 19, 2023

March 19, 2023 | 8:00 am
news

Welcome to Navel Gazing, the Punknews.org commenter community's weekly symposium, therapy session, and back-alley knife-fight. Chime in below with your latest playlists, record store finds, online time wasters, and site feedback.Also, here's a fun discussion topic: what album has the most iconic cover?

DS Photo Gallery: Joshua Ray Walker and Vandoliers at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA (3/8/23)

March 17, 2023 | 4:01 pm

Remember a bunch of years ago when Joe Strummer (RIP) was asked his thoughts about what constituted “punk” and his answer was along the lines of “punk isn’t about the boots or the hair dye” and instead it’s about having exemplary manners to your fellow humans and especially about not being an asshole? Because I do, and because if you ask me – and I’m operating on the assumption that you did because you’re reading Dying Scene – some of the most “punk rock” music that’s being created in American music nowadays doesn’t come from bands that are on “punk” labels or play music that involves Les Pauls and Marshall stacks or mohawks or skateboards or two-tone wingtips or come from places like southern California or the streets of Boston. Instead, some of the most important and progressive and culturally-inclusive and, in that sense, most “punk rock” music being created comes from places like Tennessee and Texas and the Carolinas and the Deep South and comes from music we’d traditionally call “Americana” or “outlaw country.” There is something inherently “punk rock” about sticking up for the poor or the marginalized or the different or the outcasts when you live in a place that those of us in our safe, suburban coastal elite homes might otherwise look down upon for the Redness of their political views.

And so it was that a tour featuring a pair of acts that have been featured at places like the Grand Ol’ Opry and the Ryman Auditorium and the State Fair of Texas and onThe Tonight Show w/Jimmy Fallon became, in my mind, one of the most eagerly-anticipated “punk rock” tours of the early stages of the year that is 2023. I’m talking, of course, about the recent Joshua Ray Walker/Vandoliers tour that found itself upstairs at the iconic Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last week. It was the first time that either of the acts – who both hail from the Lone Star State – had played in Massachusetts, and safe to say it was a resounding success.

Vandoliers had been very recently in the news for auctioning off their stage-worn dresses after a show in Tennessee in protest of that state’s abhorrent anti-drag legislation, and they carried that energy through a barn-burning hourlong show-opening set. Frontman Josh Fleming pointed out how he’d spent many hours in his younger years watching old YouTube videos of punk shows that had taken place at the Middle East over the years, and while his band’s sound may include a fiddle and a trumpet and a large-body Gibson acoustic and songs about highways in its home state, the live show is every bit as “punk rock” as many of those performances from years-gone-by. Personal highlights included “Cigarettes In The Rain” and “Every Saturday Night” and, of course, their rousing cover of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” a song that I’m 99% sure I saw Down By Law cover in that same venue more than a quarter-century ago.

Headlining this run – although both acts played hourlong sets so it made it feel like a co-headlining affair – was the one-and-only Joshua Ray Walker. If you’re not familiar, here’s the brief version: Walker is a Texas-born-and-bred singer and songwriter and dare I say guitar virtuoso. He’s a larger-than-life figure both in myriad ways and writes songs that can make you smile (see “Sexy After Dark”) and songs that can make you cry (see “Voices” or “Canyon” or like 3/4ths of the rest of the catalog) and, quite frequently, songs that can do both at the same time (see their honky-tonkified version of “Hello”). Oh, and he’s got a voice like a goddamned angel.

The live music scene in the greater Boston area can be a bit of a fickle beast at times, particularly for bands that aren’t from around here; I’ve seen far bigger “punk rock” names play the very same venue to far smaller and less enthusiastic crowds than the one that showed up to party and dance and holler on this particular late winter Tuesday evening. Because it’s not about the mohawks or the hair dye – it’s about the people and the connection. See more pictures from the shindig below!

Joshua Ray Walker Slideshow