From the inbox:

BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW:

Deep Elm “COVER YOUR TRACKS” CD (DER-450)

New School Deep Elm meets Old School Deep Elm in this unique collection of cover songs. Newer bands on the Deep Elm roster were given total freedom to cover songs from our older bands / alumni…and the results are simply incredible. Get your hands on one of these…this is a Limited Edition of 1,000 CDs. The record also includes a new track from Sounds Like Violence.

01. Desert City Soundtrack performs “Marigold & Patchwork” by Appleseed Cast

02. Small Arms Dealer performs “Today I Discovered The World” by Cross My Heart **

03. Clair De Lune performs “Angel On Hiatus” by Benton Falls

04. Fightstar performs “The Days I Recall Being Wonderful” by Last Days Of April

05. Lock And Key performs “Blindspot” by Brandtson

06. Eleven Minutes Away performs “Hollowed-Out” by Camber

07. Free Diamonds performs “Go Teens” by Muckafurgason

08. Surrounded performs “Coming From The Cold” by Starmarket

09. Slowride (Dan Phillips) performs “Fishing The Sky” by Appleseed Cast

10. Burns Out Bright performs “This Guy’s Ready For Bed” by Pop Unknown

11. Settlefish performs “Will The Violins Be Playing?” by Last Days Of April

12. Sounds Like Violence “Noone Knows What We’ve Got”

13. Nathaniel Sutton “Deep Elm Is A Friend Of Mine”

CHECK IT OUT: deepelm.com/450

** Free full song download

- What a great concept for a release. I think this would be exceptionally cool any label with a similarly wide-ranging catalog. Epitaph, Fat, Jade Tree, and Revelation – you’re on notice!

There’s a cool write-up on Indiehq.com about a start-up company named Disc Revolt that provides bands with plastic cards that are used to sell digital downloads at merch tables. The cards themselves are pretty sweet looking and of course, are available with unique artwork. The company hosts and handles the backend of distributing the digital files.

- IndieHQ article

- discrevolt.com

- Man… this would definitely take some getting used to. One of my favorite feelings is coming back from a show with a still-wrapped CD placed in my backpack. At a few shows, I couldn’t wait to crack the CD out of the jewel case and toss it into my car stereo. On the plus side, this would amazing at events like Warped Tour where it’s not much fun to lug around a sack of CDs all day, not to mention for bands, the need to no longer haul hundreds of CDs in a trailer whilst on tour.

From the inbox:

IGNITE’s upcoming European tour will be accompanied by a relaunch of their acclaimed album Our Darkest Days. The limited tour-edition will be available for a fan-friendly price and includes two bonus-tracks, video-clip and an alternative artwork. The release will hit stores on April 16th.

- While it’s doubtful that any of these will turn up in stores in the US, Amazon will likely be carrying it as an import. To date, IGNITE have not released any b-sides or otherwise unreleased material from the Our Darkest Days recording sessions.

From the inbox:

Victory Records announces the signing of Washington D.C.’s Damnation A.D. “This is our best record, so it only makes sense that it comes out on Victory Records,” said band member Alex Merchlinsky.

“Damnation A.D. defined metal core many years before the term even existed. I first met Mike “D.C.” and his brother Brian McTernan (now known for producing albums for bands like Snapcase, Darkest Hour, Thrice and Senses Fail amongst others) in 1989 when my old band Even Score played a show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Two years later, Victory released a record, in fact it was Victory’s seventh release (VR07), for Washington D.C’s Worlds Collide. An old roommate from Chicago was the singer and that is how I met Ken Olden, who played guitar for the band. Mike and Ken formed Damnation A.D. which has a long and rich musical and international touring history. With the history that we have together from my pre-Victory days as a singer for a band to the early days when Victory first started it would simply be sacrilegious to not work with Mike, Ken, Colin and Alex. Now, if you dislike history, you can delete what I just said and move on. The bottom line is this, if you like hard music you will love Damnation A.D., period,” said Victory Founder Tony Brummel.

In discussing the new record the band‚Äôs Ken Olden can do a better job than we can. ‚ÄúOn this album we got to do a lot of things we hadn’t done in the past. We were able to take our time writing and recording the songs. Our sound has continued to evolve, but it is still definitely Damnation A.D., just less musically self-indulgent, and more catchy and memorable. We also got to work with some of our good friends on several of the tunes, which is something we had talked about in the past, but never had the time to make happen. Guest performances include Wes from Give Up the Ghost, John Henry from Darkest Hour, Karl from Earth Crisis and Freya, and Patrick and Pete from Fall Out Boy. Mike’s voice is better than ever, and he sounds more pissed and raw than he ever has. We’re stoked for everyone to check it out, we know people are gonna enjoy this new album.‚Äù Vocalist Mike McTernan wraps it up with, ‚ÄúDamnation A.D. and Victory are a perfect match, and I’m looking forward to working with the entire Victory staff because they are as dedicated to heavy music as we are.‚Äù

In This Life Or the Next will be in stores June, 12, 2007.

- I’m surprised this press release is mum on mentioning the band’s previous recordings on Jade Tree and Revelation. Essential hardcore music.

Check out this article Steve Albini (even if you don’t follow “the industry” his name should be familiar) that he wrote entitled The Problem With Music.

Read it: The Problem With Music

- Disclaimer – this article is olllllllllllllld and in many ways, outdated from modern industry practices. While I agree that it’s a thoughtful read (but more thoughtful 10 years ago), I wouldn’t put much stock into it for contemporary relevance – Jordan, “Crusher of Staff News Posts.”

The buzzin’ Springfield, Illinois act THE GRADUATE have made available for streaming their brand new full-length Anhedonia (produced by Brian McTernan). You can give it a listen on their pureVOLUME page. Corey reviewed it a few days ago, and noted comparisons to THE RECEIVING END OF SIRENS and ACCEPTANCE.

From the opening howl to the closing push of the organ keys, WOLFMOTHER’s self-titled full length debut is filled with in your face classic-rock throwbacks. Drawing hugely from their influences of bands such as LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH, and Australian comrades AC/DC among others, WOLFMOTHER refine and update the sound with something these bands never [...]

Ordinarily, this particular featurette is the domain of our esteemed associate editor Corey Schmidt. However, Corey was willing to let me take over just this once, so I took a moment to check in with Savannah, GA’s BARONESS. Bassist Summer Welch was gracious enough to answer some of my burning, itchy questions.

Pastepunk: You guys recently did a pretty extensive tour of Europe with TORCHE. What were some of the highlights from that tour?

Summer: There are too many to recall…However, we did hang out with DJ One Love and the drummer for

Arrested Development in Ireland.

Pastepunk: Now that you’re back stateside, can we expect any new releases from you? Perhaps an LP?

Summer: Yeah, we’re actually going to record a full length LP in a couple weeks at the Jam Room in Columbia, SC. It should be out in late August on Relapse for the CD and Hyperrealist for the vinyl.

Pastepunk: I’ve noticed that there are a ton of great stoner rock/metal/punk bands coming out of the South like you guys, TORCHE, KYLESA, WITHERED, RWAKE, etc. What is it about the South that you think inspires this and what are some bands you think we should be looking out for?

Summer: I think the climate and the scenery of the South have a big impact on bands both consciously and subconsciously. It’s hot and heavy. It’s beautiful and dismal at the same time. BLACK TUSK is another band from Savannah to check out.

Pastepunk: What does the rest of 2007 hold for BARONESS?

Summer: As I said, we’re about to record our first full length. We’re all really stoked about that. We’ll be in the studio for two weeks which is a lot for us. I think First and Second were recorded in three or four days. We also have a split EP with the UNPERSONS (also a Savannah-based band worthy of checking out) that will be out on At A Loss Records sometime in May. The material was recorded well over a year ago with our original guitarist, but due to many unforeseen obstacles, it’s taken a while to see the light of day. We should be hitting the road for a three to four week US tour in September, followed by a European tour in October.