From the inbox:

Pennsylvania hardcore band STEEL NATION have officially joined the Double or Nothing Records family. Formed in late 2005, the band recently completed recording of their debut full length CD titled Soul Swallower and will be released this summer. Two unmastered tracks are up on the bands myspace page.

link: myspace.com/thesteelnation

The band has lined up several upcoming shows including a 3 day Florida tour with Casey Jones, Know the Score, Wisdom in Chains, Die Young(TX), and Under One Flag.

Details are scant, though the group promises ten new tracks including a new version of “Bear The Brunt of Many Blades” to be recorded for Metal Blade Records sometime very soon.

For those not versed in SHAI HULUD history, this means we’ll see Misanthropy Pure during 2010, at the earliest.

Roadrunner’s MACHINE HEAD have their brand new (and seriously loooooooooooong) full-length up for streaming at mp3.com. Titled The Blackening, the group pays obvious tribute to genre-demolishers OPETH, while retaining the band’s classic PANTERA influence. Give it a listen here.

From the inbox, linked image and all….

- This is worth watching just to hear Roger’s exceptional New York accent.

A few days ago the fellas in LOVE ME DESTROYER wrapped up their lengthy tour with SMOKE OR FIRE. Bassist Taylor Harris penned a closing journal entry, which you can find here. We’d like to thank Taylor for all of his crazy blackberrying-while driving skills (which we of course do not endorse!), and his penchant for locating quality veggie burritos all across the land. In Taylor we trust.

From the inbox:

MOONEY SUZUKI’s long awaited album, Have Mercy, will be the debut release from Elixia Records, an imprint of the newly formed Templar Label Group, which is distributed by ADA. The album will finally be in stores on June 19th.

Bands often learn the hard way how signing to a major label can do more to end a career than help it. As many had before them, the Mooney Suzuki took that risk and got burned. For them, Have Mercy is simply the sound of a band coming back from the dead.

Have Mercy sounds different, and it should: When Sammy James, Jr. was writing the album, there was no guarantee there would even be a Mooney Suzuki when he finished: The band had parted ways with Columbia, the revolving rhythm section was again in disarray, and guitarist Graham Tyler had bowed out of the group.

Unsure of the band’s future, James began writing songs that, he hoped, could stand on their own, unaided by the usual Mooney Suzuki bombast. Instead of vocals being added last and relying on electric riffage or rhythm section flash to carry the song, the lyric and the melody took prominence. “It was a bit intimidating not to have the other stuff to fall back on,” says James. “All I had to work with was my voice and the acoustic guitar.‚Äù

Out came the first batch of songs that weren’t meant as mere accompaniment for the whole, sweat- drenched, jumping-off-the-drum-riser routine with which the band has become synonymous. These songs, somewhat unintentionally, had more to do with James himself. ‚ÄúI just wanted the songs to be what they were, not, say, Mooney Suzuki songs.‚Äù

“It’s amazing to me that this is still an upbeat record,” says James. “When I was writing these songs, I wasn’t thinking, “Man, I gotta make a peppy record. I was not in a good place. I wrote these songs out of necessity: We were in debt, we didn’t have a band, and it seemed like this potential career that had for so many years been dangling just out of reach was finally gone for good.”

The Mooney Suzuki’s new album was set for release in February, but V2′s demise left the album’s future a mystery. When V2 Records’ parent company, Sheridan Square, announced the label’s restructuring, the Mooney Suzuki found themselves in limbo again.

While the future of Have Mercy remained unclear the band did what it does best, hit the road and performed the live shows that they are known for with sold out solo dates, gigs with Albert Hammond, Jr. and some truly memorable sets at this year’s SXSW.

Have Mercy is ready to hit stores in June on Elixia. Through the purgatory the band endured leading up to

Have Mercy, one lesson James says he’s learned is summed up by the album’s opener “99%,” in a lyric cribbed from Winston Churchill: “If you’ve been going though hell, keep going.” James says, ‚ÄúIt ain‚Äôt easy for a rock‚Äôn‚Äôroll band to try and get by these days. The music biz is kind of like the Wild West right now ‚Äì everyone‚Äôs biting the dust all around you. I am so thankful to find a label so excited to put out this record.‚Äù

- That’s a long press release to post, but I particularly like how well-written and personable it makes the band seem. It’s not full of absurd hyperbole, and dare I say, it actually makes the band sound humble. Given the band’s rough entanglement with labels over the years, I fully expect Elixia to eclipse the signing of Mooney Suzuki by releasing a hip-hop album from Bin Laden on the same day that Have Mercy is supposed to hit stores.

Victory Records has announced its foray into tour booking. A press release from the label included the following:

“With many record companies in a state of contraction it is exciting for us to be continually building and adding new divisions. This newly established department will book live performances, tours and events for our artists that are without booking agent representation. It will also work hand in hand with our artists that do have booking representation and their managers to optimize and enhance anything related to touring and performing. Personally, I am very excited about this from a grass roots perspective. All of the best selling artists in our history started off by playing the smallest of clubs, VFW halls, people’s basements, coffee houses etc. Touring and performing at that level is the catalyst of artist development. It is also how true, long-standing, meaningful fan bases are built. By establishing a tour booking department, we can be 100% hands on in guiding the organic development of many of our young artists which a standalone booking agency may not yet be able to justify bringing on,” said Tony Brummel, Victory’s Founder.

The department will be started by Josh Lacey who has worked with a variety of artists including Thousand Foot Krutch, rapper Blaze and Victory artists The Junior Varsity, June and Voodoo Glow Skulls amongst others.

“We are already interviewing other candidates to join this new department. I expect it to blossom like many other areas we have branched into over the years,” says Brummel.

- This will likely be the first of many horizontal integration items that I will be posting about in the coming year(s). It’ll be interesting to see what other indie labels follow suit.

New York’s JUNIPER SKY (who feature current and former members of THE LAST YEAR, LOCKED IN A VACANCY, NOVEMBER KILLS, among others) come in from left field with the band’s debut full-length Don’t Forget, a snappy disc that blends dangerously infectious post-hardcore beats with soaring vocal melodies and insidious guitar arrangements. JUNIPER SKY’s musical scope [...]