Direct Hit! post update from studio, announce shows with Menzingers

Direct Hit! have announced that they will be playing two shows with The Menzingers. These shows will take place on November 2 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and on November 3 in Akron, Ohio. The announcement post on Instagram starts off by saying, ”WHAT UPPPP Takin a break from tracking a new record next weekend to play a couple last-minute gigs with pal-legends @themenzingers” The third picture in the post shows them in the studio. The band first posted photos from this recording session in April and posted an update from the studio in August. See the show details and post in full below.

Evan Greer: "Pinkwashing" (ft. Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys)

Evan Greer has released a video for her new song “Pinkwashing” which features Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys on guest vocals. The video was animated by Micheal Flowers. The song is available digitally now via Get Better Records and all proceeds from the sale of the song will be donated to the Palestine Youth Movement. Evan Greer released her album Spotify is Surveillance in 2021. Check out the video and song below.

Tours: Autogramm to tour California

Autogramm have announced a handful of shows for California for November. The band released their album Music That Humans Can Play in 2023. Check out the dates below.

The Slime release two new songs

The Slime have released two new songs. They are called “Russian Roulette” and “Orange”. The songs will be on their upcoming album Crab Walk to Oblivion. The Slime released their EP Trapped on Blood Island earlier this year and we spoke to Andy Mc and CD Grind about it in April. Check out the songs below.

Sludge Bunny: "bummer punk three"

Sludge Bunny have released a new song called “bummer punk three”. The song is available digitally now. Sludge Bunny released their debut album Year of the Bunny earlier this year. Check out the song below.

Videos: Ben Quad: "I Did Not Create The Rules"

Ben Quad have released a video for their song “I Did Not Create The Rules”. The song is off their EP Ephemera which was released last week. Check out the video below.

DS Record Radar: This Week in Punk Vinyl (Chixdiggit, The Flatliners, Screeching Weasel, The Lawrence Arms & 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. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold […]

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. 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 Punk Rock Radar:

The first of 20(?) records on this week’s Record Radar is the almighty Chixdiggit’s self-titled debut LP, which has been reissued for the first time since its original release in 1996! Hey Suburbia Records has pressed 500 copies on red colored vinyl, and you can get it from them in Europe and Sounds Rad here in the states.

Add The Flatliners to the list of Canadian bands reissuing their long out of print debut albums. With its 20th birthday fast approaching, 2005’s Destroy to Create has been reissued on three new color variants: Triple Stripe (300 copies, SOLD OUT), Red and Yellow Splatter (don’t know how many copies, get it here), and Blue / Red Splatter (300 copies, get it here).

Back in print for the first time in 15 years, Screeching Weasel’s Boogadaboogadaboogada! is getting a special “Legacy Edition” reissue from Striped Records. This 2xLP set features the 2020 remaster edition of the album and a bonus LP with a live recording from 1988, along with an 8 page booklet, all housed in a gatefold jacket with new gold cover art. You can get it on four different color variants here (if shipping’s pricey for my fellow ‘Mericans, keep an eye on the Screeching Weasel merch store; they’ll have some copies on there soon enough).

And that’s not the only bad ass new release Striped Records has in the pipeline. Austrian pop-punk favorites DeeCracks teamed up with Andrea from The Manges to cover the Ramones’ Brain Drain in honor of the album’s 50th birthday. You can get it on red and/or black colored vinyl right here. Our friends at Mom’s Basement have some black vinyl copies in their US distro as well.

Italian punks The Ammonoids just released an awesome new single called “If a Comet Strikes the Earth”. Check it out below and get the 7″ (limited to 50 copies) right here.

Australian melodic punks Ebolagoldfish will be releasing their new album Bad Choices Good Times on November 15th. There are two bad ass vinyl color variants available on their home turf from Pee Records, and abroad from Double Helix (US), Bearded Punk (EU), and Cat’s Claw Records (UK).

Diesel Boy’s 2023 comeback record Gets Old has earned a 2nd pressing, with four new color variants available from SBAM Records (EU) and Double Helix Records (US, only turquoise and pink available here). You’ll also notice the cover art has been re-shaded to match the new color variants, which I immensely appreciate.

Earlier this month I told you about the new Authority Zero EP Thirty Years: Speaking to the Youth, which at the time was only available to pre-order on some mystery color variant from a few German e-tailers. Since then, four variants have been revealed, including the Thousand Islands Records exclusive Astroturf color variant along with three others you can get from SBAM Records.

And we’re completing the SBAM Records trifecta with – you guessed it – another release from SBAM Records! Swedish melodic punk veterans Venerea’s 2005 album One Louder is being released on vinyl for the first time ever(!) and you can get it on three color variants by clicking this hyperlink on Al Gore’s internet.

A year after the album’s actual 15th birthday, The Bronx are making up for lost time with this belated reissue of The Bronx III. You can get it on three color variants – limited to 500 copies each – right here.

The wolf-mask wearing, basketball uniform sporting pride of St. Petersburg, Florida Wolf-Face has bestowed upon us a new 4-song EP called Michaelangelo J. Wolf. It’s streaming now (check it out below) and the 12″ will be available soon from Euclid Place Records; if you’re at The Fest right now you can get it from the band’s merch table.

Travis from Eccentric Pop hit me up and was like “hey, check out my new band!” and I did! And then I was like “hey, this is pretty good, Travis from Eccentric Pop!”. And now I’m here to tell you bout Travis from Eccentric Pop’s new band Nervous Systems. They’ve got a new 7″ out now on – you guessed it! – Eccentric Pop Records, featuring two songs that differ from the label’s usual fare in quite an enjoyable way. Check out Side A’s “Infomercial” below and grab the 7″ here; consider picking up some of Eccentric Pop’s other awesome, economically priced records while you’re over there.

Pennsylvania pop-punks Punchline are reissuing their 2003 Action LP with 1,000 copies spread across 5(?) stunning color variants. You can get most of them here, but I think a few will be exclusive to indie stores and the band’s Action 20th Anniversary show at the Roxian Theatre in Pittsburg on November 30th.

Brand new Orange County punk label Mild Chaos Records’ first release is a comp featuring songs by J. Graves, Local Bylaws, The Gringoz, and a bunch of other bands! You can get it on translucent yellow colored vinyl – and CD! – right here.

Add the Lawrence Arms’ Metropole to the list of albums that are older than you thought they were. This shit’s somehow 10 years old already, and it’s apparently been out of print for about as long. Smartpunk Records is changing that, however, with their exclusive repress on Sunburst Splash colored vinyl, limited to 300 copies. Get it here!

Take a short drive across Orlando from Smartpunk Records and you’ll find yourself at Park Ave CDs, where they’ve got autographed copies of Hot Water Music’s latest album Vows up for grabs. This isn’t a new color – the record inside the sleeve is the Florida retail exclusive orange variant – but it is a good way to get a copy signed by the whole band and $5 from each record sold goes to the American Red Cross hurricane relief fund. Get it here.

And bringing up the rear on this week’s Record Radar is The Briefs with a 25th anniversary reissue of their 1999 debut single “Poor and Weird”. This is back in print for the first time ever thanks to TKO Records, and considering one of the variants has already sold out, I’d say it’s soon to be out of print once again! Act fast and grab a copy here. The Briefs will be releasing a brand new 7″ single called “High Society” on November 7th, also through TKO Records. That’s not available to pre-order yet, but we’ll keep you posted!

Well, that’s all, folks. Another Record Radar in the books. Short one this week! 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 time!

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 Photo Gallery: Big D and the Kids Table, Thumper, The Kilograms and Folly celebrate Halloween at Boston’s Big Night Live

It was a bit of an early Turn-Back-The-Clock night at Boston’s Big Night Live last Saturday as long-running ska punk favorites Big D and the Kids Table resurrected their epic Halloween show tradition at Boston’s Big Night Live. Joining them for the festivities were a couple of regionally iconic bands – Thumper and Folly – […]

It was a bit of an early Turn-Back-The-Clock night at Boston’s Big Night Live last Saturday as long-running ska punk favorites Big D and the Kids Table resurrected their epic Halloween show tradition at Boston’s Big Night Live. Joining them for the festivities were a couple of regionally iconic bands – Thumper and Folly – and a relatively new supergroup (The Kilograms), a sort of Voltron made up of some longtime scene heavyweights – Sammy Kay, Joe Gittleman, Michael McDermott and J Duckworth. Despite being a four-band bill (seriously…a four-band bill? In this economy?) the 5:00pm doors, speedy changeovers and hard 9:30 curfew meant this was a perfect show for “The Olds” such as myself.

Hailing from the wilds of northern New Jersey, hardcore/ska crossover band Folly kicked off the evening’s festivities in blistering fashion. Accompanied by a nearly seizure-inducing endless strobe-lit stage show (that did wonders for a rank amateur photographer such as myself), the five-piece blazed through a half-hour set that set the stage for what was to come. The band got back together a couple years ago, nearly a quarter-century after their original run began, and while they might be older and wiser, they haven’t lost much of a step in their ferocity.

Next up was The Kilograms. Now I would be lying if I said this wasn’t the set that I was most interested in catching. While the collective number of shows that the band’s members have played in their previous endeavors numbers well into the thousands, this event marked not only the fifteenth show in the band’s history together but their first-ever show in Boston, which is obviously the place where Joe Gittleman earned his status as a genre-defining scene pioneer. I’ve been hip to the project – which came together fairly organically and almost entirely existed in the virtual world of Al Gore’s Internet before finally playing a show together back in May – since essentially the beginning, so it was great to finally see them together in the same room. Outfitted as the Gallagher brother’s New Jersey nephew, Kay takes center stage, although he and Gittleman and Duckworth take turns sharing vocal duties, at least when the latter isn’t spinning like a top at stage right. McDermott, who I hadn’t seen play in the almost dozen years since he left the Souls, kept the beat as steady as ever, letting the three-headed monster out front bob and weave and create their blend of rocksteady ska. Special shoutout to Craig Gorsline on the keys, providing layers of texture and filling out the rocksteady live sound. Extra special shoutout for the reworked version of the classic “Lean on Sheena” which Gittleman wrote and performed with Avoid One Thing and McDermott brought to the Souls, yet when they combine, it’s for a new, fresh version that only vaguely resembles the versions you’re used to hearing. Stay tuned for more from The ‘Grams soon, but for now you can listen on bandcamp.

Thumper was up next, and I’ll admit that I was almost as stoked to see Thumper as I was to see the Kilograms. I fell in love with Thumper in the mid-1990s, during the peak of what I guess we’re still calling ska’s third wave. They weren’t your average ska-core band, with a two-tone-meets-thrash-metal-infused sound and sense of humor and intelligence that were all their own. The last time I’d seen Thumper was coincidentally with Big D and the Kids Table at Tune Inn (R.I.P.) in New Haven, CT, on Valentine’s Day 1998. I don’t know if I knew at the time it would be my last Thumper show for many years – the band broke up later that year and I never made it to the scattered reunion shows they’ve done – so it was a welcome treat to see them dust off the cobwebs and jump on this bill. “Burn Baby Burn” and “Holy Roller” and “Backstabber” still go as hard as ever (especially the latter, which featured Folly returning to the stage for a big group throwdown).

And finally the witching hour – in this case around 8:00pm – was upon us, and it was Big D and the Kids Table’s turn to entertain the masses. Not only were the band celebrating Halloween as per usual, but they were also celebrating the 25 years of their 1999 Asian Man Records full-length debut Good Luck. It may be a bit of recency bias to say this, but though I’ve lost track of how many different live incarnations of Big D I’ve seen since 1997, this one – centered as always around the energetic bordering on theatrical David McWane – might be the tightest. The band blistered through Good Luck in what seemed like record time, perhaps due to the hard curfew. With a lot of my ska-core listening days behind me, I guess I’d forgotten how fun that record was, as it’s been overshadowed by Strictly Rude and Fluent In Stroll in recent times. If you’re like me, you can relish in those old days by watching the Good Luck tour documentary that finally found its way to YouTube after a quarter-century. Those memories seem like both just yesterday and like two lifetimes ago.

Check out more shots from each band’s sets below!

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DS Show Review and Galleries: Johnny Marr and James at Riviera Theatre. Chicago (10.17.2024)

Manchester, England was represented big time in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. The Riviera Theatre hosted The Smith’s co-founder Johnny Marr and his co-headliner James. It was a great show, made a bit greater because the venue is within walking distance of my home. Johnny Marr co-founded The Smiths with Morrissey in 1982 in Manchester, […]

Manchester, England was represented big time in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. The Riviera Theatre hosted The Smith’s co-founder Johnny Marr and his co-headliner James. It was a great show, made a bit greater because the venue is within walking distance of my home.


Johnny Marr co-founded The Smiths with Morrissey in 1982 in Manchester, England. The two were songwriting partners, and though the band was active for five years, it left behind a massive legacy.

Marr will also leave a formidable legacy as a solo artist. This was apparent by his performance at “The Riv” on a mild Thursday evening. He spent much of the time at the edge of the stage and sprinkled in some light bantering with fans.

His searing guitar playing, with extended solos, was intense but not ostentatious. It was non-verbal poetry.

The set list was pretty well-balanced between The Smiths tunes and Marr’s solo work. Amongst the latter: Marr performed, “Panic,” with a bit disdainful glee as he sang the lyrics “hang the dj,” repeatedly. With a mischievous grin Marr informed the audience, “We don’t do freedom rock in England, we do the opposite,” before launching into a spirited version of “This Charming Man.” “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want,” was gently pleading and poignant.

Marr kicked off the show with a lively rendition of “Armotopia” and was mesmerizing with “Spirit, Power, and Soul.” There was also a cheeky version of Electronic’s “Getting Away with It.” Electronic is one of Marr’s bands, with the other members being Bernard Sumner from New Order and The Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant. The tune is a sly, though unsubtle, roasting of Morrissey’s perceived melancholy posturing.

I’ve been walking in the rain just to get wet on purpose
I’ve been forcing myself not to forget just to feel worse
I’ve been getting away with it all my life
(Getting away)

Marr ended the evening with a two-song encore. The first was an exuberant cover of Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger.” He was joined by James’ frontman Tim Booth, with Booth handling lead vocals.

Finally, “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ was also a duet of sorts. Or rather a call and response as Marr sang the eponymous lyrics and turned the microphone so the very enthusiastic crowd could sing the same words.

But the very first words of that tune perfectly fit the mood,

Take me out tonight
Where there’s music and there’s people

It was a great night for both.


Marr’s fellow Mancunians in James were transcendent. Singer Tim Booth, clad in a loose white shirt with flowing blue pants, was alternatively in perpetual motion during some songs, sinuously dancing about the stage, or in meditative stillness during others. Often both modes during the same song. Booth utterly captivated those in attendance while leading his incredibly talented bandmates through an amazing set which included “Out to Get You,” “Stay,” and “Mobile God.”

This set includes the heart-rending “Moving On.” Booth recalled to the audience how being able to be with his mother as she passed away was a beautiful experience. It’s a subject he’s touched on numerous times in interviews, describing death as a sort of rebirth. The song, along with its official music video, is in equal measure, full of sorrow and peaceful catharsis:

I’m on my way
Soon be moving on my way
Leave a little light on
Leave a little light on
.”

Booth’s performance reached greater heights during “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up).” Quite literally, as he scaled the wall at stage right, climbing into the first opera box to momentarily sing and dance with fans seated there. He then moved up onto the second and third opera boxes, doing the same before finishing up on the balcony. It was a little nerve-wracking to see the singer standing partially on the edges of these areas. Indeed, Booth could be seen testing the railing, checking for possible looseness, of the first opera box before committing to the move. Thankfully, sometimes, with the help of fans who often but not always held his hand during these moments, he made it down back to the stage safely.

And though the tune’s name is similar to that of the aforementioned Electronic song, it is quite different.

We’re getting away with it
All messed up
Getting away with it
All messed up
That’s the living
.”

James finished out its set with a rousing rendition of its biggest international hit “Laid.” The infectious beat, the wonderous falsetto, and the sometimes relatable lyrics (if not literally, but in spirit) all combine to make it so good. The song’s narrator acknowledges a toxic relationship, and his inability to leave is confirmed in its closing moments.

You’re driving me crazy
When are you coming home?

The song was a massive hit when first released in 1993. It later became known to a certain demographic as the theme song to the American Pie movie franchise.

And in 2024, it was again sent out into the public conscience for new fans to be created. SPOILER ALERT (but it has been out for many months so come on…) In one of the final scenes in the season 3 finale of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Chicago set television show, The Bear, the song is blasted during a party in which the characters dance together joyously. Yes, I did mean to use the word joyously when describing a scene from The Bear.

The comments from the official video posting on Youtube are further testimony to the the power of movies, shows, and social media to bring beloved songs to whole new generations. Or remind those of us who immediately loved it why we still do and always will.


Without a doubt, this was one of my very favorite shows to cover for Dying Scene in 2024. I hope to see both sets of musicians back in Chicago sooner than later. Ideally sharing the bill again. I hope everyone gets that opportunity.

Cheers!

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