THORP RECORDS and HOT TOPIC have come together to bring you HARD WORKING MUSIC VOLUME II, a low-priced sampler cd, available ONLY at all HOT TOPIC locations for a mere $3.99.

The CD includes unreleased tracks from BLOOD FOR BLOOD, PREMONITIONS OF WAR, BIONIC, SUGAR DADDIE, BENUMB, NORTH SIDE KINGS, as well as featuring tracks from MADBALL, DOWN TO NOTHING, FOREVER IS FORGOTTEN, PUNISHMENT, SKARE TACTIC, FORDIRELIFESAKE, SCARS OF TOMORROW, GONE WITHOUT TRACE, MY REVENGE!, EMMANUEL SEVEN, AWKWARD THOUGHT, STAMPIN’ GROUND, HOW IT ENDS, and THE NEW BREED.

It is on the front counter of every single HOT TOPIC retail location in the U.S. Go grab your copy and show your support for THORP RECORDS!!!

link: thorprecords.com

Side One Dummy – where formerly great bands come to release ‘comeback’ records. First it was THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES, then THE SUICIDE MACHINES, and now you can add SLICK SHOES to that list. With the latter band’s previous two releases, “Wake Up Screaming, and “S/T” coming off as buttered-up attempts to hit the pop-punk [...]

I was perusing a Long Island message board a short while ago and I came across a thread that mentioned the long defunct NYHC band FARENHEIT 451, who I was a big fan of in the mid-to-late 90s. One of the first shows I ever saw in NYC was with these guys, SHUTDOWN, IGNITE, and H20, at the long gone venue, Tramps. Turns out that someone in the band now runs a zine, and hosts there the band’s final, “”never released”" album. These guys were one of the first bamds to expose me to a semi-fusion of hardcore and hip-hop, and boasted a very unique, affable sound. Take a listen to these mp3s below, especially the song “”Blind.”"

link: FARENHEIT 451 – The Never Released Album

jordan doesn’t swear very often, so you know he really meant that

ZAO – Legendary

Woohoo! We have a new promotion set up with our buddies at Punkrocks.net and Fanscape that will give away a bunch of autographed goods from THE DISTILLERS. In marketing terms, this is one big ol’ stab at cross-collateralization. Anyway, the people at Fanscape are nice and they help give away a lot of great prizes, so we’re happy to be on board. And if you’ve skipped out on giving THE DISTILLER’s “”Coral Fang,”" a listen, I strongly recommend you reconsider such a position.

DISTILLERS Media Player

Savagely copied and pasted from blabbermouth.net

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Singer: Illegal Music Downloading Hurts The Smaller Bands

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE vocalist Howard Jones was recently asked by Holland’s Roar E-Zine for his opinion on the record industry’s use of copy-protection technology to keep advance CDs from being mass-duplicated before their official release. “”It’s kind of a necessary evil,”" he replied. “”On one hand, they [the record labels] definitely want to keep the album from being stolen and getting put on the Internet long before it‚Äôs supposed to be released to the public. But at the same time, when an album is out there, it’s a good way to get the music out. The thing is, what most people don’t do, they’ll get a song or two, listen to it and go buy the album. Most people won’t do that. Obviously some do but‚Ķactually I don’t know, there are definitely those who’ll download the whole thing and won’t support the band. It’s usually because of the misconceived notion that bands like us are filthy rich and that we’re making so much money off of every CD. But it just doesn’t happen that way. When the CD is just taken and they just keep downloading it and don‚Äôt buy it, it just really hurts the band. Okay, if you’re a METALLICA and even though they made a big thing about it, it really doesn’t hurt them as badly as it hurts the smaller bands. Maybe when Napster was at full force it hurt them, but now it definitely doesn’t hurt them as badly. Where a band like us‚Ķthat could definitely hurt us. Because we don’t sell millions.”"

– The amazing artwork on the new KILLSWITCH disc will make it worth the price of purchase alone, nevermind it being perhaps the best metal disc of the year!!!