Are you listening?  Minneapolis pop-punk act Tightwire wants to know in their brand new track “AYL” which we’re stoked to premiere in the form of a music video for you loyal readers. Check it out along with the band’s upcoming tour dates with Masked Intruder below.

Here’s a quote from the band about the track that I couldn’t be more on the same page with:

I was sitting at my neighborhood bar yelling, “Are you listening?!” at some friends. They weren’t, so I wrote a song that has nothing to do with that situation. It speaks more on my frustration with people being unable to properly communicate with each other. Just because you don’t see eye to eye with someone doesn’t make them a bad person. Stop being a judge-y prick. Listen to each other, try to understand, and move forward from there. At the end of the day we’re all going to die, so fuck it, be pleasant to each other. Or don’t. I don’t really give a shit.

“AYL” is just one of many previously-unreleased songs to appear on “Red Scare Industries: 15 Years of Tears and Beers,” a compilation celebrating the label’s 15th anniversary. This is the first new music from Tightwire since 2018’s debut album “Six Feet Deep.”

Bandcamp pre-order
CD / LP pre-order [Read more…]

Up until the dawn of the digital music revolution within the last couple of decades, generations of kids found out about new music in three real main ways: by stumbling into music videos on the actual television, by scouring the new releases put out by known and trusted record labels (see: Epitaph, Fat Wreck, Blue Note, Apple Records, etc), and by finding out who your favorite artists liked and respected and toured with and diving headlong into that rabbit hole. I was twelve years old when first saw Pearl Jam’s video for “Even Flow” and was so captivated by it that…well…that I’ve continued to buy into whatever they’ve been selling for more than a quarter-century since. Because they’ve been more than vocal about their influences over the years, this meant exploring the catalogs of artists as varied as The Who and Daniel Johnston and Bad Religion and Cypress Hill and Fugazi and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and, thanks to the 1995 release Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, Mike Watt.

Ball-Hog or Tugboat? marked the first “solo” release for the founding bassist from both Minutemen and fIREHOSE, the latter of whom I only knew from having seen a poster for what would become their final full-length, Mr. Machinery Operator, hanging in the front window at Strawberries Music & Video at the Nashua Mall and not realizing that fIREHOSE and FireHouse were two different bands. Ball-Hog featured Watt supported by a diverse cast of characters that obviously included Eddie Vedder but also Dave Grohl and Pat Smear and Krist Novoselic and J Mascis and Frank Black and the Kirkwood brothers from Meat Puppets and Henry Rollins and Mark Lanegan and Flea and Kathleen Hanna and most of Sonic Youth and a bunch of others. It was ground-breaking and genre-bending and was really a perfect look into the future of what was to come for Watt’s career going forward.

If you haven’t been able to keep track of the sheer number of projects – or proj’s, as Watt refers to him in his trademark San Pedro patois – that Watt has been involved with in the years since, that’s no slight on you; it’s overwhelming. There’s Dos, a duo that featured Watt and ex-Blag Flag bassist (and eventually Watt’s ex-wife) Kira Roessler. There’s Unknown Instructors, which had Watt and his Minutemen/fIREHOSE drummer George Hurley joined by Joe Baiza, Jack Brewer and Dan McGuire. There was Big Walnuts Yonder, and Il Sogno del Marinaio, and The Hand To Man Band, and a bunch of years with The Stooges, and another proj with Novoselic and friends called Anywhere. There was obviously The Secondmen, followed obviously by the Missingmen. And honestly, there were a bunch more that I’m not going to pretend to have committed to memory right now.

Next up out of the chute from the iconic Watt is a proj known as Jumpstarted Plowhards. It’s a unique endeavor that found Watt team up with Todd Congelliere (Toys That Kill, FYP, founder of Recess Records). Watt wrote a handful of tracks on bass and sent a fifteen-song CD-R to “Todd Cong,” who not only wrote guitar lines and lyrics, but recruited a different drummer to play on every track. The first eight of those tracks now appear as a release called Round One that’s due out October 4th on Recess Records. Joining Watt and Congelliere are Hurley, Jimmy Felix from Toys That Kill, Patty Schemel of Hole fame, Brian Brunuk from Fartbarf, Trevor Rounseville from Clown Sounds, Jerry Trebotic from Watt’s Secondmen band, Raul Morales from Watt’s Missingmen project, and Neighborhood Brats‘ Nick Aguilar, who’s not only joining Watt on drums for his solo tour that kicked off last week, but who is also the son of a high school classmate of all three Minutemen (Watt, Hurley and, of course, the  inimitable D. Boon).

You can pre-order Round One right here, though jump on it because some options are already gone. But you can also head below to read our Q&A with the iconic Watt. It’s one of the more enjoyable conversations I’ve ever conducted for this here website, due entirely to Watt’s jovial nature and his willingness to talk about all portions of the long, strange trip its been since he and D. Boon met as thirteen-year-olds, picked up a couple of cheap guitars, and started jamming out to Creedence Clearwater Revival songs before even knowing how to tune their instruments. Also, head here to see where you can catch Watt’s current Missingmen incarnation out on the road, including an October 11th date here in the Boston area; it’s Watt’s sixty-seventh tour of more than a month! Thanks for being you, Watt!

Photo credit: Steve Linsley.

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Austin, TX street punks Sniper 66 have announced a 15 day European tour through Germany. Check those dates below.

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Fort Worth, TX pop-punk band Dead Words has just released a video for their song “Kingsley”  which first appeared on their New Year’s Day (2019) release, The Geek Shall Inherit. “Kingsley” takes an in-depth look at the in-between hours of life on the road, and is chock-full of left-over tour footage, exotic pit-stop locations, and formidable mustaches. The boys are just rounding off a five-day “Texas Takeover Tour” with their Long Island friends The Scutches. Stream the video for “Kingsley” below. [Read more…]

Boston hardcore-punks Ramallah are streaming the first song off their upcoming album. “The Last Gasp Of Street Rock N’ Roll” also happens to be the title track to the October 4th release. The new album will feature eight new tracks and will be released through Sailors Grave Records.

Check out the new song below.

This is the first new release for Ramallah since the 2016 single “The Truth…It’s Colder Than A Morgue Slab And Harder Than A Coffin Nail.” [Read more…]

Swiss punk-rock quartet Bitch Queens have released a video for their song “City of Class”. The song represents the bands harsh relationship with the place they live. The video features shots of the band playing the new song, as well as the “Golden Ticket” to the city. The song also serves as the title track to the upcoming album due out September 27th via Lux Noise Records.

Check out the new video below.

The last release for Bitch Queens was 2017’s L.O.V.E.  [Read more…]

Finnish skate-punks Part Time Killer are streaming their new song “System is Using You”. The song comes off the band’s upcoming yet to be named album. Mastered by Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room, the new album promises to be a gem.

Check out the new song below.

Part Time Killers released “Notes To Myself” back in February. If you’re a fan of Ten Foot Pole or Millencolin, you will enjoy these guys. [Read more…]

Chris Farren is streaming the track “Surrender” off of his upcoming album Born Hot. Due out October 11th on Polyvinyl Records, the new track is a great taste how great a songwriter Chris truly is.

You can check out the new track below as well as the remaining stops on Chris’ latest tour.

Chris Farren last released Can’t Die back in 2016.  Chris is just finishing up the tail end of a lengthy tour. [Read more…]

Florida melodic-punks Protagonist are streaming their new single “Generation Lost”. The new single is being released through Paper and Plastick, the song features a stirring piano intro and then slaps you in the face with a smooth, yet heavy, melodic masterpiece.

Check it out for yourself below.

Protagonist last released Jean Jackets back in 2015. No word yet on whether this might lead to a new album, but one can only hope. [Read more…]

Punk vets Nerf Herder will return to Chicago for the first time in seventeen long years to play the inaugural “Merry Punking Christmas” at Reggies. Joining Nerf Herder for this, the most joyous of occasions will be: The Copyrights, Dan Vapid & The Cheats, and Capgun Heroes. The show will go down December 7th as mentioned above at the world-famous Reggies.

Check out the video for “Mr. Spock” below.

Nerf Herder last released Rockingham back in 2016.  [Read more…]