Monochrome put out a new 7” on Spanish label Ariendelle Records. Both tracks can be downloaded in good quality on the label’s website.

Touch and Go Records will stop putting out new music (at least for now) and shut down their distribution (labels like Kill Rock Stars or Jade Tree). Sad thing.

To celebrate their 150th release Revelation Records will put out a limited edition sneaker model. Hardcore 2009. Wow!

Sonic Youth’s new record “the eternal” will come out on Matador on June 9th. Meanwhile the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf(D) is showing an exhibition with the band’s interdisciplinary art.

2manydjs made a mix out of 429 intros of pop songs. You can find it on the internet at various download sites. Just look around… This shit is crazy!

March is gonna be a hot month for Audiolith with three fresh releases. First off will be Frittenbude’s “electrofikkke” download maxi with a lotta remixes. Later that month we’ll see a new Der Tante Renate record and a 12” by Dadajugend Polyform

And it’s my mother’s birthday! :)

 [jan]

Audiolith is about to release a new ClickClickDecker record these days. It will be called “den umständen entsprechend”. There is also an online mp3 sampler with fifty Audiolith tracks available here.

Or download a free 34 track mp3 compilation on last fall’s The Fest #7 in Gainesville/Florida here.

The Kunstverein (KV) in Nürnberg(D) is still endangered. Activists call for a demonstration on February 28th.

Brian Fallon, singer in The Gaslight Anthem will play a free acoustic show at Ramones Museum in Berlin(D) on February 11th at 15.30h. The show later that night is already sold out like all Germany dates of the tour.

Wavves signed to Fat Possum Records and will be touring Europe. Hooray!

Polar Bear Club and Defeater on the other hand signed to Bridge 9 but are good bands nonetheless.

Odd Nosdam will be responsible for Elemental Skate’s film “t.im.e.”. Sounds like a film worth watching. At least with eyes closed…

Fake Problems signed to Sideonedummy and will release a new record called “it’s great to be alive” on February 20th. It’s my mother’s birthday!

Black Dice will release a new album, too. On Paw Tracks.

Other new records in the works: Tackleberry and Sonic Youth.

 [jan]

You can watch a whole show of The Gaslight Anthem filmed in Berlin here.

The Hold Steady put a video online for their smash hit “stay positive”. See it here.

Audiolith is about to release two new mp3 singles on December 12th: “den umständen entsprechend” by Hamburg’s favourite beard ClickClickDecker and “mindestens in 1000 jahren remixed” by München’s new justified hype Frittenbude. Download ahoi!

 [jan]

Almost as amazing as this new release is the repress of Tackleberry's "call me green" lp because it is a limited edition of only 100 copies that come with a rip-off cover of NoFX's "the longest line". Take a look here! Hot shit indeed! [jan]

[www.zeitstrafe.de]

All hail the mofapunks. Prost! [jan]

[www.mofapunks.de]

Composer Johannes Kreidler will perform an act of artistic protest against the GEMA’s ridiculous “intellectual property” politics on September, 12th. At eleven o’clock he will register an opus of 33 seconds that consists of 70200 quotations from other works. The paperwork that includes GEMA papers for each single quotation will be delivered with several trucks. The musical piece was produced with the aid of Pure Data, a programming language for audio. An article in German language along with several links for further information about this amazing act can be found on Telepolis.

More information about/against the GEMA and a petition to sign you can find here.

Flipper have recorded a new record and will come on tour in Europe. Finally a reunion that might really be interesting! On board is Krist Novoselic of Nirvana fame. Let’s hope he will – unlike his predecessors – survive the involvement with the band.

As Trust fanzine reports Ian MacKaye and fellow The Evens member Amy Farina became proud parents in May this year. Congratulations!

Cursive cancelled their European tour scheduled for this fall. There has been mistakes in planning and commitments to fulfil in the United States.

Sometimes it hits just the right ones. Heavy metal wimps/posers Metallica who often spoke out against filesharing must now witness how their new record can be found on the internet in premium quality with full artwork because some record store owner in France put the record in his store more than a week before official release date on September, 12th. No pity for corporate rock whores like Metallica. And no pity also for people who actually listen to crap like this… Metallica died with “…and justice for all” or at very latest with the black album…

Rage Against The Machine intended to play a secret show at the counter-activities against the national convention of the Republicans in St. Paul/Minnesota(US). When the police interdicted the gig for some bureaucratic bullshit reasons the band performed a few songs acapella. There is a video of this on youtube.

Since a few weeks it is possible to watch Rockpalast concerts as streams on their website. Some featured bands are Escapado, The Robocop Kraus, The Jai-Alai Savant and Minus the Bear.

 [jan]

“Full of juvenile enthusiasm Lack started somewhat 10 years ago and will now come to an end. This band has always been driven by motivation, passion and love for what we are doing. This band has always, as stated many times, been about challenging ourselves and moving in new directions. As of lately we must recognize that motivation is coming short, that inspiration has been drying out and that tours seem to take us down all too familiar roads. We simply recognize the fact that it is now time for the four of us to part ways, move on and let Lack be, leaving behind 3 albums, numerous shows and tons of memories and invaluable friendships made along the road. We are extremely proud of all our outcome with this musical collaboration and extremely grateful for everything we ever achieved or got to experience. This band, the experiences that followed and the friendships made, certainly shaped our lives and had a huge impact on what kind of people we are today, and we would never be without it. We are confident that now is the right time to leave this behind us, and do so without regrets or sorrow. Instead we are all very much looking forward to pursue other projects and are eager to find out what the future holds for each and everyone of us.

In spite of our mutual decision to part ways, we will still be playing the shows already scheduled. We will not in any way treat them as farewell shows and play anything extraordinary, but quite on the contrary treat them as just another show with just another setlist. Thanks for reading and thanks for everything!

Sincerely
Thomas, Kasper, Jacob and Jakob“

 [jan]

[www.lackattack.dk]

At the new rondo blog of Franz Bielmeier (of Mittagspause fame) you can find all issues of classic German punk fanzine Ostrich as pdf downloads.

Sonic Youth will leave Geffen and release their upcoming on a yet to be announced indie label. The band was fed up with all the restrictions of working with a major.

Spillsbury are back! Their new single “lass mich” can be streamed on the band’s myspace page. Their new record “auf zum atem” will be released on Raboisen Records in September.

Dragonforce go one step further and stream their whole new record “ultra beatdown” here.

Andreas Michalke, known for his comics in Jungle World and Ox, is exhibiting some of his works at Neurotitan. gallery in Berlin(D). The whole thing is called “junk work” and runs from August, 22nd till September, 13th.

 [jan]

"we had a really great time the last 4 years, probably the best of our lifes, that makes the break up really sad. we want to thank each and everyone of you for everything you've ever done for us.

take care and watch out for our new/old bands.

xstefanx

p.s.: we released a new 7", you'll get it from a lot of cool distros and labels.

thanx to aperecords, brokenglassesrecords, momentofcollapserecords, impuremuzik and synalgierecords for releasing it!

take care, nothing is written in stone"

 [jan]

[www.myspace.com/mrwillisofohio]

The new Kettcar single „nullsummenspiel“ might be interesting as it features six remixes of „graceland“ by artists like Egotronic, Frittenbude or Plemo. The latter can be downloadexd for free on the Kettcar myspace page. The other remixes you can listen to at the same page. Audiolith records represent!

The JUZ Verden is facing its end. The town of Verden has cancelled the treaties to October, 1st. As the JUZ got a tradition of 30 years and self-organized are always worth fighting for there will be resistance. The first demo is scheduled for June, 29th. For more information go here!

The district attorney of Stuttgart(D), who has already been behind the accusation of Nix Gut Records for the use of a crossed out swastika, put someone into prison on remand for four weeks and now requests two months of jail because the letter S on the man’s Schleimkeim baseball cap was similar to the logo of the SS. Maybe he should incarcerate everyone at the next Kiss show as well… To quote Slime: “Ich glaube eher an die Unschuld einer Hure als an die Gerechtigkeit der deutschen Justiz!”

Lock & Key from Boston(US) will release a self-titled posthumous record on the small label Get A Life. Good thing. They were a good band and more than just a Hot Water Music rip-off… More information and streamable music here.

The whole new Verse record “aggression” can be streamed here.

 [jan]

Or you can watch a video from Smoke Blow’s release show for their new record “colossus” in Kiel here!

No more release shows we’ll see by The Creetins. The band called it quits and cancelled all shows.

Sinking Ships will play to farewell shows before breaking up very soon.

Vinyl collector’s might be interested in the colabo 7” of Chuck Ragan and Nagel (Muff Potter, Freunde der Nacht/Ruhe” that just came out. Originally it was scheduled for the tour they did together last year but it took a little longer… It can be purched in selected record stores and through the Muff Potter website. Listen to one song here!

Callejon signed to Nuclear Blast. Aha…

Sad news from Santiago de Chile. The self-organized library and infoshop Emma Goldman does no longer exist. The restaurant Naitún in whose basement the shop was situated changed hands and the new owners don’t seem to be too fond of anarchists in their basement…

 [jan]

"Yeah, you heard. Apparently, it gets even worse. That's all I know or even want to know for now. We got robbed at the very end of tour in a totally unreal, extremely sketchy series of events that still makes no sense at all, only leads to paranoia, anger and a total loss of faith. Passports, money, all the costs of the tour. Either way, whoever did it, it was a bullet in the head, the end of the line. A sudden and totally fucked up way for it to end, which I know will be fitting when I look back on it. All we could do was play the show, badly, and go our ways with whatever money we could muster. I hitched a ride back to Prague with Tomas. Since I can't do a fucking thing about it, I'm going to hang out with my girl, and friends, stare at some Czech mountains and try not to think about it. Needless to say, all outstanding plans are off. All this shit aside, thanks to everyone that helped out and travelled from all over for the shows on this tour, all the kids and bands we played and stayed with. Minus a few fucked up shows, it was probably the best tour we ever had. Thanks everyone for your good wishes. I'll elaborate when I'm home next week, for now - yes it's true, and yes it's over."

 [jan]

[www.yourfuckingfuneral.blogspot.com]

U.S. residents and current cellular phone subscribers can now visit this location for an array of ring tones and wallpapers from a number of Relapse artists including: BARONESS, CEPHALIC CARNAGE, COLISEUM, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, MASTODON, PIG DESTROYER, THE END, HIGH ON FIRE, NECROPHAGIST, and many more. Additional ring tones and wallpapers will also be made available shortly.  [benni]

[www.relapse.com]