Punk Rock
Rise Against Release Expanded Edition of The Black Market: Stream
Rise Against have surprise released an expanded edition of their 2014 opus, The Black Market. The reissue collects the original LP and three B-sides from the era and is now available on digital platforms. It’s also streaming in high-fidelity via TIDAL (which is offering a 60-day free trial right now). The B-sides “About Damn Time” and “We Will Never Forget” were previously included on The Eco-Terrorist in Me 7-inch single, and “Escape Artists” was a bonus track on the album’s original Japanese CD release. The songs, equal in quality to much of the material on The Black Market, can now receive a larger audience after being fan-only rarities for years. Released six years ago The Black Market remains a definitive album in Rise Against’s discography. Coming at an apex in their career, the...
Heavy Resistance: A Playlist of Hard-Rocking Protest Songs
Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen a sea change across the nation and throughout the world. Millions of people have taken to the streets to protest against systemic racism, and the impact has been powerful. In heavy music, protest songs have provided strong condemnations of racism, oppression, war, authoritarianism, and more. Protest songs in heavy metal date back to the genre’s godfathers, Black Sabbath, who released the anti-war track “War Pigs” in 1970. Throughout the years, heavy music has produced hundreds of memorable protest anthems, with punk rock acts like The Clash and Sex Pistols leading the charge in the late ’70s, and hardcore bands like Bad Brains and Black Flag bringing the rebellion in the ’80s. In the ’90s, Rage Against the Machine took protest music to the masse...
Illuminati Hotties Announce New Mixtape, Share First Single: Stream
Los Angeles “tenderpunks” Illuminati Hotties will release a new mixtape on July 17th. It’s titled Free I.H.: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For and follows their acclaimed 2018 debut album, Kiss Yr Frenemies. This forthcoming effort was written after a major fallout with their indie label, Tiny Engines, which was allegedly involved in shady royalty payment practices. As a result, the new material sees lead songwriter Sarah Tudzin & co. working through the aggression and hurt that came with their ensuing contract-related legal battles. (Hence, the Free: I.H. title.) That assertive bite bares its teeth on the mixtape’s latest single, the lengthily and bluntly named “will i get cancelled if i write a song called, ‘if you were a man, you’d probably be cancelled’”. It’s ...
Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Weezer Reschedule “Hella Mega Tour” Dates
Weezer (photo by Ben Kaye), Green Day (photo by Heather Kaplan), and Fall Out Boy (photo by Philip Cosores) The “Hella Mega Tour” is ready to hit the road — for real this time. Green Day, Fall Out Boy, and Weezer have just announced the rescheduled dates of their joint stadium tour for later this fall and into summer 2021. This news arrives just over a month after the bands revealed they would have to delay the tour due to the coronavirus pandemic. The “Hella Mega Tour” now kicks off on November 8th in Perth, Australia and sees the bands perform in various cities across the country and in New Zealand. After that, they will take a break before resuming the stadium jaunt in Europe next summer. That leg kicks off in Paris on June 9th and has the bands playing in London, Glasgow, Dublin, and o...
Refused Share New Song “The Ballad of Buck Ravers” from Cyberpunk 2077 Video Game: Stream
Refused have released a new song, “The Ballad of Buck Ravers”, under their video game guise Samurai. The hardcore punks will appear as the fictional band in the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077, which is now due out on November 19th. “The Ballad of Buck Ravers” is the third Samurai track we’ve heard following “Chippin’ In” and “Never Fade Away”, both released last year. Fortunately for Refused fans, the band only changed in name for Cyberpunk 2077, which took the idea of The Shape of Punk to Come quite literally, even tabbing Refused to be its in-game band. Musically, this is classic Refused, with frontman Dennis Lyxzén shouting and wailing above aggressively smashed chords: “Lost another day to pointless drudgery / The slow chipping away/ Of my autonomy”. Refused’s vision of 2077 sounds...
Top 25 Albums of 2020 (So Far)
Welcome to our Mid-Year Report. All week long we’ll be sharing the music, movies, and television that have helped us survive a strange and confusing six months. We start today with our Top 25 Albums of 2020 (So Far). It’d be fatuous to pretend that the first six months of 2020 have been like any other. All of us are facing difficult realities: the pain of injustice, the loss of a loved one, or even just the despair of looking out the window and not knowing what tomorrow will bring or when it will come. For the purposes of this list, then, maybe it’s equally foolish to think music impacted us the same way it always does. Then again, perhaps that’s what makes music so integral to our lives: that no matter what the world or our individual lives look like, music has the magical knack of provid...
Coriky (Ian MacKaye, Joe Lally, Amy Farina) Unveil Debut Album: Stream
In 2018, Fugazi members Ian MacKaye and Joe Lally debuted their new band Coriky during a concert in Washington, DC. Rounded out by Amy Farina, MacKaye’s spouse and co-founder of The Evens, the group is now sharing their first album. Stream the self-titled release below via Bandcamp. The album features MacKaye on guitar, Lally on bass, and Farina on drums, with all three contributing vocals. The trio plays a tight-knit variety of punk-ish alt-rock throughout the LP, a fitting fusion of the members’ previous outfits. The 11-song effort is highlighted by lead single “Clean Kill”, which features harmonized vocals. There’s also “Too Many Husbands”, a track that showcases Farina’s expressive yet catchy sneer. The new album was originally due out earlier this year via Dischord, but was pushe...
Mr. Bungle Unveil Cover of The Exploited’s “USA”, First New Recording Since 1999: Stream
Mr. Bungle have just released their first new recording in more than 20 years. It comes in the form of a cover of The Exploited’s “USA”, with all proceeds going to COVID-19 relief efforts. Mike Patton joined fellow original members Trevor Dunn (bass) and Trey Spruance (guitar) for a series of reunion shows in February of this year, with Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo rounding out the touring lineup. The shows focused on the group’s hardcore roots, as they performed their early 1986 demo, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, along with a number of cover songs. Then in March, news came that the very same touring lineup had convened in a studio shortly after those shows to re-record the 1986 demo, and lay down studio versions of the cover songs ...
Pussy Riot Share New Song “1312” Railing Against Police Brutality: Stream
This past week has been rife in police protests, rampant looting, burning buildings, and a blatant lack of equality following the death of George Floyd. During all of this, President Donald Trump has been, to quote Taylor Swift, “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism.” So it was only a matter of time until politically driven punk group Pussy Riot stepped in to write “1312”, a new song about ending police brutality. “1312” sees the Russian group collaborating with Argentinean artists Parcas, Dillom, and Muerejoven as a form of solidarity — similarly to their Vic Mensa track “Hangerz” — to honor “the bravery and strength shown in front of abusive police forces” at Chilean protests. Musically, “1312” is a hybrid of blown-out grunge beats, throat-scratching screams, punk rock br...
Former Misfits Drummer Joey Image Reportedly Dies at 63
Joey Image, a drummer for The Misfits during the band’s formative years, has reportedly passed away at the age of 63. While no official cause of death was mentioned, the musician had been battling liver cancer since 2016. Image’s death was reported by the New York Hardcore Chronicles Facebook page, which simply stated, “Joey Image of The Misfits dead at 63. Rest in Peace.” The drummer was a member of the Misfits from 1978 to 1979, appearing on the band’s Horror Business EP, which contained the title track as well as “Teenagers from Mars” and “Children in Heat”. He also drummed on the “Night of the Living Dead” 7-inch single (also containing “Where Eagles Dare” and “Rat Fink”), plus the song “Who Killed Marilyn?” that was included on the 1985 compilation Legacy of Brutality. Image left...
Dropkick Murphys and Bruce Springsteen Rock an Empty Fenway Park: Watch
The gates around the storied Fenway Park opened today to welcome its first event since the COVID-19 pandemic. In front of stands empty of audience members, Dropkick Murphys took to the baseball diamond for a livestream concert. Though they were alone inside the stadium, Bruce Springsteen joined them remotely near the end of the set for a collaborative performance. Dubbed Streaming Outta Fenway, the special benefit performance marked both the first time Dropkick played a full concert at Fenway, and the first such show of any kind sans an audience at a major US arena or stadium. Springsteen, meanwhile, made history in 2003 by becoming the first musician to play a ballpark-wide concert at Fenway. Thus it was fitting for The Boss to join the Boston Celtic punks for the uniq...
Japandroids Announce First-Ever Live Album Massey Fucking Hall
Canadian rockers Japandroids will usher in the summer season with their first-ever live album. Titled Massey Fucking Hall, it’s due out June 19th digitally and on vinyl October 2nd. The forthcoming album is named after Massey Hall, the renowned Toronto venue where it was recorded. There are 12 songs altogether, culled from the duo’s three different albums. Included are “No Known Drink or Drug” and “Arc of Bar”, off the most recent Japandroids LP, 2017’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life. There’s also “Younger Us” and “The House That Heaven Built”, a favorite off 2012’s Celebration Rock and one of the best songs of the last decade. Additionally, the band’s now-classic 2009 debut, Post-Nothing, is well-represented with singles like “Heart Sweats” and “Young Hearts Spark Fire”. “We never thought...
