Acoustic Motion City Soundtrack Cover

Watch members from Real Friends, Candy Hearts, Modern Baseball and Stick Up Kid cover 'When You're Around' by Motion City Soundtrack...

Neck Deep to Play UK Shows In April

Neck Deep will be playing some UK shows around their appearances at Hit the Deck Festival this April.

Check out the dates below:

Buy Tickets here.

Pop Punk's Not Dead Tour: What's in Store For Us?

After the news that the Pop Punk's Not Dead Tour is hitting the UK in November, we thought we'd look back to the 2011 run in the US to see what we have in store for us. After Chad Gilbert promised that they'd organise something for the UK two years ago, we're thinking it will definitely be worth the wait.

Pop Punk's Not Dead US Tour

The Pop Punk's Not Dead Tour was set up in the US to showcase bands within the pop punk genre that New Found Glory wanted to give more exposure to. The line up in 2011 consisted of Set Your Goals, This Time Next Year, Man Overboard and the Wonder Years and was, of course, headlined by New Found Glory. The band wanted to give younger bands the same recognition that they were given in the early part of their career when they were in the same position. Steve Klein (who's no longer part of the band) said of the tour in an interview with Absolute Punk: '“When we started out, Less Than Jake, Blink-182 and Green Day and bands like that took us on tour and they all helped us out. We’re just trying to pass it down. I feel with us, we’ve gone through all the crap you could go through as far as managers, labels, press people, whatever. We talk to the younger bands and try to give them advice on what is a good or bad way to go about things.”The US tour ran for nearly 2 months and played in 35 cities. 

Now, the tour's coming to the UK with probably the same objectives; to give more exposer to newer bands such as Candy Hearts (who Chad Gilbert works with closely) and Ireland's own Only Rivals. Check out the UK tour dates here. 

Watch Man Overboard's time on the PPND tour in 2011:

Pop Punk's Not Dead Tour Comes To UK

New Found Glory, The Story So Far, Candy Hearts and Only Rivals will be heading to the UK this November on the Pop Punk's Not Dead UK tour. More guests will be announced this May. Pre Sale tickets go on sale here. 

General Sale starts this Friday. 

Check out the dates below:

Knuckle Puck Release Fences

Knuckle Puck have released the second song from their upcoming split with Neck Deep. The band have already released the first song Gold Rush (listen to it here) and have now released Fences. You can preorder the split from Knuckle Puck's Band camp before the official release date on February 25th. 

As It Is Interview

Brighton's As It Is are releasing their their fan funded E.P, This Mind of Mine, on March 17th. They've already released a video, Can't Save Myself, tracks Bitter Broken Me and Horoscopes from the E.P (which you can listen to here) and they're sounding pretty great. Here, Ben kindly talks to us about the new E.P, festivals, Barack Obama and their new video...

What are your top five favourite pop punk albums?

 Take This To Your Grave - Fall Out Boy

Stay What You Are - Saves The Day

The Greatest Generation - The Wonder Years

New Found Glory - New Found Glory

Dookie - Green Day

I’d have said Brand New, Taking Back Sunday or The Early November but they aren’t really all that pop punk.

Who are your musical influences?

 I think collectively New Found Glory brought us all together in the beginning and definitely influenced us at the start. In regards to what we wrote for This Mind of Mine, I’d say Jimmy Eat World, Taking Back Sunday and Brand New have been massive influences. 

If you could have As It Is play with any band who would you pick?

 We’ve all discussed this one again come to the conclusion as a band of New Found Glory because of the connection we all have with that band. I’d love to play alongside Brand New one day though. 

How did As it Is form?

 Patty and Andy had known each other from a previous project that never worked out and Patty met me on the same course at uni. He had patches of bands I loved on his backpack so I knew we’d get on musically. We auditioned our drummer Foley and we all quickly became best friends with a real love for the music we wrote. We’re technically just a 4-piece at the moment but we have a bassist live.

If you could play at a UK festival this year what one would you pick?

 Foley really wants to play Slam Dunk. He actually once said that he’d get my face tattooed on his penis if we didn’t play it in 2013. We didn’t in the end but I can confirm that he (sadly) hasn’t got that tattooed.

Since you often get described as a transatlantic band who would you rather have dinner with, the Queen or Barack Obama?

 Having dinner with Obama would be way more of a laugh! Although I’d probably end up getting kicked out for laughing at the fact he had a Zune, remember them? 

Do you get the pop punk pizza thing? What does it mean? Please help us understand this concept?

 I don’t get it like a load of other people do, don’t get me wrong I love pizza, but I feel it’s stereotyping. I feel like the connection is just a parody of itself now. I blame Tumblr. 

If you could play anywhere in the universe where would it be?

 In the universe? Still probably Japan. Or Mexico, I hear shows are great there on almost every tour documentary I watch.

How did you approach the writing process for your new E.P This Mind of Mine?

 We wrote together rather than writing ones alone and bringing them to practice. We all swapped instruments and tried to be as creative as possible. I think we managed to find a way of writing songs that all of us loved and felt involved in.

How did you pick the artwork for This Mind of Mine?

 The artwork derives from lyrics on the EP. The book, the heart and the coffin all relate to the last three lyrics on the last song. Once we had the concept we knew we wanted it drawn and me and Patty both have a few tattoos from a girl called Dolly Plunkett in Brighton who we asked to draw the concept in her style. We also wanted to contrast the dark lyrics with bright colours on the front, because that’s kinda what we’re like; seemingly colourful and boldly confident on the outside, but miserable on the inside. 

How would you say This Mind of Mine is different to Blenheim Place?

 More coherent. We’re still proud of those songs but I feel we tried to represent a wide variety of pop punk on Blenheim Place. With This Mind of Mine we had figured out how we write best and I think definitely found our own sound. We wrote songs that we would want to listen to rather than trying to fit in aspects of pop punk we thought ‘had’ to be there.  

What’s your favourite track from This Mind of Mine?

 Relive The Story. It’s the most different to anything we’ve done. It’s a bit slower. It’s the quietest and loudest song and I’m super proud of the lyrics that both Patty and I wrote for that one. Shit gets dark. Trivia - it almost didn’t make the cut but we definitely made the right decision keeping it.

You recently released a video for Cant’s Save Myself was that fun to film?

 It was hot. We were all pretty sweaty by the end. But it was fun, I think we were all a bit sick of the song by the end. The director Ian is a good friend of ours so it was really easy to be ourselves. I think there might be a behind the scenes video soon so everyone can see what it was like for themselves.

Is the boy in the video a family member/friend?

 Haha no - actually he’s a regular customer in the coffee shop I work in. He had the right hair, was always well behaved and confident so I asked his mum and that was that sorted.

With a Youtuber in the band and As it Is going on tour soon, does this make it easier to record all of your tour memories and shows?

 I guess so, We all want to film everything we do as much as possible anyway. What it does mean is that we are better at the way we use YouTube and do our social media. He’s taught us a lot about the way the internet works.

Where do you see yourselves by the end of this year? Do you have any specific goals?

 Being tired. We just want to tour and play as many shows as possible this year. We have some exciting things in the works that we can’t talk about yet. I think our main goal is to still be friends. That’s what’s most important to us.

Who are your favourite UK bands at the minute? 

 Gnarwolves, ROAM and obviously Neck Deep are slaying it at the moment.

Can't Save Myself: 

Midtown Reunite

Midtown are reuniting for Skate and Surf Festival. In a instagram video Gabe Saporta sang that Midtown were reuniting for the festival. However, there is no news of yet as to whether the band will play more shows or festivals. We're keeping our fingers crossed. 

Seaway Release Video for Slowing Down

Seaway have released a video for their song Slowing Down from their debut album Hoser. Watch below:

Fireworks Release New Song 'Glowing Crosses'

Pitchfork are streaming a new song from Fireworks' upcoming album Oh, Common Life. The new album will be released March 25th. Listen to Glowing Crosses here.

Slam Dunk 2014 Announcement

Slam Dunk have announced part of their line up today. The All American Rejects, Goldfinger, Neck Deep, Real Friends, Zebrahead and I An the Avalanche will all be playing. Tickets go on sale this Friday. 

Above The Underground Interview

Chester's Above the Underground are releasing their debut album, Sonder, on the 17th of February and with Property of Zack already giving us a taste of what to expect, this album is definitely one you should pick up this month. Here, Will Kirkman (guitar/vocals) kindly answers a few questions for us...

1. You've been a band for a few years but how did Above the Underground originally form?
We started out like a lot of bands, just as a sort of coalition of local kids who had played in local bands and wanted to start something new. The difference was we wanted to start a band of best mates rather than just a band of musicians. I feel like that's helped give us some longevity. 

2. You’re releasing Sonder in February; it’s received a really good reception how do you feel about that? Sonder will be available for digital download from February 17th. So far everyone seems to be liking it which I have to admit is a bit of a relief. We try really hard to just write for ourselves and not focus too much on what other people think but when you spend so much time and energy on a project like this it's natural to feel nervy about how people are going to take it. So far everyone seems to be really into it.

3. How do you approach the writing process for your music? It changes from song to song, but we tend to focus around a theme or idea and try and make something coherent instead of just throwing ideas together. Sometimes you have to sacrifice cool ideas because it doesn't fit in with the rest of the song, it can be difficult to do but you find yourself doing it more and more as you become a more experienced song writer I think. The basic song structures are written very naturally with an acoustic and a note pad and then we build on them from there. We always end up going through loads of different versions before we come up with something we're happy with, sometimes you have to leave something and come back to it months later but it's important to only put out material that you're completely satisfied with.  

4. How did you decide on the artwork for Sonder? We used our old friend Joe Latham who we've been working with for years on various projects. Joe's a great guy and always puts a lot of time and thought into the projects he's working on. We brainstormed a load of ideas initially and came up with a few themes which we thought suited the album. We went through quite a few different ideas before we settled with something we were happy on. It took a good few months to come up with the artwork in its final form but we all love it so I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I can't stand it when good albums have shitty artwork so we treat it with as much importance as we would a song.

5. How is Sonder different from your previous releases such as Autumns and your split with On my Honor? I feel like we've grown a lot musically and as people and hopefully that comes across on the record. The writing process was quite a bit different this time around, not only was it a lot more natural but we spent a lot longer on it. We also got to spend a lot more time in the studio recording it with our friend Matt O'Grady this time around and that really helped shape the sound of the record. We didn't rush anything and had the time to let it turn out the way it should.

6. You’ve recently been on tour with Me vs. Hero in Europe, how was that? It was fun, touring's always great. Europe's a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of old friends and make some new ones too.

7. What is your favourite place to visit in Europe? Prague's cool, Rome was cool. I love Germany, I think it's probably my favourite European country. The people are always so nice and the cities are really cool. I'm glad we got to play more shows there this time around.

8. Out of all the tours you’ve been on, what is your favourite tour memory? Probably stepping out of the plane in Knoxville airport on our US tour and getting hit by the humidity and hearing the sound of crickets for the first time in my life and thinking, "fuck, we're actually here". 

9. You’re also heading out to Russia in a few months is that an exciting prospect? Definitely. We love going to places we've never been because it's so exciting. It's always a little scary too but that just adds to the fun of it all.

10. You’ve toured with quite a few bands, but who’s been your favourite so far? That's a difficult question but I'd probably say either On My Honor or Audiostrobelight.

11. Where do you see yourselves by the end of the year, do you have any specific goals?  We're just going to tour as much as we possibly can and keep writing new music. We want to play shows in as many countries as possible and we've already got some cool new tours in the works which we'll be announcing soon.

Listen to Sonder here.

Rust Belt Lights Release New Song

Rust Belt Lights have released a new song from their upcoming album Religion and my Ex which is out February 24th. Listen to Pack Up and Let Go below:

Bellwether Stream Acoustic EP

Bellwether are streaming their acoustic EP After Reflection on Property of Zack a week early. The official release date is February 18th but you can listen to and download it here. 

As It Is Release Video for Can't Save Myself

As It Is have released a video for Can't Save Myself, a song from their upcoming E.P This Mind of Mine, which you can read a track by track guide of here.

Such Gold Stream Framed

Such Gold are streaming their new song Framed over on Alternative Press. The track will feature on their upcoming split with Turnover, Maker and Ivy League. The split will be released by Broken Rim Records. Listen to Framed here.
You can also  check out Maker's track Here She Comes on Absolute Punk here.

Above the Underground Streaming Album on Property of Zack

Above the Underground are streaming their new album Sonder over on Property of Zack which you can listen to here.

Hit the Deck Add Save Your Breath, Neck Deep and More...

Hit the Deck have added some more bands to this year's line up. Neck Deep and Save Your Breath will be playing as well as Kristopher Roe from the Ataris. 

Far From Proper Release 'Caving In'

Far From Proper have released a new track 'Caving In'. The sales of the track will help fund Far From Proper's  full length album. Singer Nick Harrison stated:  “We've been spending months preparing and gearing up to record our first full length record, and lost track of how long it's been since we've released new music. We can't wait any longer to show you what we've been working on. This song ison our new record, and it was recorded during preproduction with DW Productions in Lagrangeville, NY. Caving In is available on our bandcamp page, and any profit from this will go straight to helping us find our first full length. Thank you so much for taking the time to check it out, we hope you like it!"  Listen to Caving In below:

A Day To Remember Postpone Show Due To Illness

Last night, A Day to Remember cancelled their show in Cardiff with Every Time I Die, Mallory Knox and The Story So Far due to illness. It appears that singer Jeremy Mckinnon has contracted a bacterial throat infection and was unable to perform. Read Jeremy's statement below: 

Let me start by saying I’m not sick with a cold or just feeling generally under the weather. I woke up barely being able to speak. I then spent the entire day trying different warm ups/techniques people do to try and fight these kind of ailments. I kept trying and felt like I was making some slight progress right up until you guys were told we were postponing the show. I saw a doctor at 6:30pm the soonest we could find one on a Saturday and she told me I have a bacterial throat infection that could get worse if I didn’t take care of it. Getting worse isn’t just me getting more sick, it could mean doing permanent damage to my voice. The last thing we wanted was to cancel tonight. We’d been looking forward to it for weeks and it was one of our best selling shows ever. All I can say is I apologize and did everything I could to play tonight. This is our 11th year as a band and the first time we’ve ever canceled a show for illness. Hopefully you guys can understand and we will see you again when we reschedule this thing. Thanks for your continued support.

-Jeremy

Knuckle Puck 'Gold Rush'

To celebrate Knuckle Puck's tour with Neck Deep, the two bands are releasing a split. Neck Deep's side will contain Growing Pains and Crushing Grief, while Knuckle Puck's will be releasing new tracks, Gold Rush and Fences on theirs.

Take a listen to Gold Rush below.                 

Neck Deep Tour Documentary

Do you want to know what it's like to see Neck Deep on tour with The Wonder Years? Your wish has been granted...

I Am the Avalanche to Tour with Major League, Turnover and Moose Blood

I Am The Avalanche are touring the UK with Major League, Turnover and Moose Blood this May. Could this be another 4 bands added to Slam Dunk? With Real Friends, The Wonder Years, State Champs, A Loss for Words, Zebrahead and Goldfinger already being part of a suspected line up, this could be a Slam Dunk to remember. 

Traditions, Cycles Review

Traditions, natives of Massachusetts,  are releasing their debut E.P, Cycles, next month. The pop punk four piece, who have only just released a 4 way split with Knockout Kid, No Tide and Fourth & Goal, are releasing their E.P on March 11th and have already released a preview of Progression, Regression over on Absolute Punk (Listen Here). 
Recorded at Zing Studios (A Day to Remember, Parkway Drive), MA, with Jim Fogarty (Killswitch Engage, The Devil Wears Prada), this E.P. is definitely something you should pick up next month. 

Opening Track Ten Days is a fervid, energetic start to the E.P. The song connotes a story of problematic relationships and the desire to circumvent. The lyrics display refined, relatable symbolism  that accustom a melodic, resonant chorus. The song alludes older pop punk, but at the same time brings a refreshing sound that Traditions have made their own. Also, the solo towards the end is a scintillating addition that brings the song to a successful conclusion.The Second Track Progression, Regression which was debuted on Absolute Punk, is a catchy addition to the E.P which has a melodious transgression from Ten Days. The energetic guitar riffs provide an vivacious extension to the E.P. The gang vocals in the song add a fun, up beat dynamic to the song. The third track Debt of a Son starts slowly only to progress into a powerful song that could provide a great sing along. This song also demonstrates vocalist Randy Burlingame's talent as he skips around the melody of the track. The next track Polarity becomes more fast paced and offers heavier riffs. The chorus is another stand out effort; it's memorable and hooks the listener. The Closing Track Eyes of a Man is an emotive, potent conclusion to the E.P. Burlingame's screams characterise the song and fill it with an affliction that entices the audience.

Overall, Cycles is a paramount effort for a debut E.P. It is evident that Traditions have put a remarkable amount of effort in to their work and is something they should be proud of. If you're a fan of older pop punk but would like a refreshing twist then Cycles is definitely something you should pick up when it's released next month...

Save Your Breath Release Video For Harrow Road

Save Your Breath have released a video for their song Harrow Road from their recent album There Used to Be a Place For Us.