PG. LOST are a Swedish instrumental shoegaze band. They enjoy long walks along fjords and spending their leisure time in periods of solitary isolation inside industrial-sized freezers. Maybe. The group released a stellar five song release earlier this year on Black Star Foundation Records. If you’re into groups like MONO or EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, you’re gonna want to check this out. Play it loud. A number of new songs are up on the MySpace.

From the inbox:

As this year draws to a close we are looking forward to 2008 to be one of our busiest years yet. As it turns out 2007 was pretty low key release-wise but we’ve got five 7″s and a CD lined up to be released in the first half of next year alone.

NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED

A big thank you to Sean Rhorer from The New Language for designing our brand new site & webstore. An even bigger thanks to Sean for dealing with the (sometimes) painfully slow pace at which Youngblood moves. This re-design was a long time coming but it’s finally here and we couldn’t be more pleased with it.

The new site features a full re-design, up-to-date discography information and is a much better overall resource for all things related to the label. Expect more frequent updates plus media better organized and posted quickly. The new store features much improved functionality and true weight shipping. Expect to see t-shirts and other merch available on a more regular basis too! youngblood-records.com.

POLICE & THIEVES – AMOR Y GUERRA 7″/CD

After seemingly endless sessions in the studio, Police & Thieves’ Youngblood debut is recorded and at the mastering house as I type this. The 7″ version of Amor Y Guerra will have 4 brand new songs. The CD version will serve as a discography-to-date collecting Amor Y Guerra, “S/T” EP (originally released on Higher Conscience Records) and their 2005 demo. Additionally, two unreleased tracks from the S/T EP session will be on the CD. Everything has been compiled and meticulously mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Mastering.

MP3, release date and pre-ordering information will be posted next week.

MIND ERASER 7″

MIND ERASER will be recording soon for their 7″ on Youngblood. Check out their rather informative blog for details: glacialreign.blogspot.com

YOUNGBLOOD SHOWCASE 2008

It’s still about six months away but it’s never too soon to get the word out. The Youngblood Ten Year Anniversary was really cool so we’ve decided to turn it into a yearly showcase for the next few years.

The date for 2008 has been set: Saturday May 3rd at the Championship in Lemoyne, PA. Same place as last year. Expect to see all of the active bands, a record release or two and a few surprises. The idea is to make it a fun show worthy of travel from far and wide. More info to come!

JUSTICE CALLING IT QUITS

Sadly, Europe’s hardest working and most dedicated band has decided it is time to pull the plug. Details regarding their final three shows will be posted soon. They will be missed.

That’s it for now. Next week we’ll have a brand new band on the label to announce as well as information regarding a new release from FIRED UP.

Sean

YBR

Washington’s melodic hardcore attackers SHOOK ONES will be guests on the New York radio show, Generic Insight this evening. The show starts at 10pm EST. You can listen to it here: paperwalls.serverroom.us:8680/listen.pls. I have it on strong authority that the show’s playlist will not suck.

…moreso, this particular excerpt from the press release from Ferret:

The band will be having guitarist and backing vocalist, Steve Holt, sitting in the producer’s chair.

- Nothing I post tonight will compare in quality to this entry. Game over. – Jordan

Hellcat’s TIGER ARMY plan to rock your television set tomorrow afternoon, so set your Tivo’s now! Here’s the info:

“Tiger Army will perform live on FUEL TV‚Äôs ‚ÄúThe Daily Habit‚Äù on Thursday, November 29th, at 6:00 PM PST/9:00 PM EST. The performance will re-air at the following times: 9:00 PM PST on November 29th, 11:30 AM PST/2:30 PM EST and 2:30 PM PST/5:30 PM EST on November 30th. “

Also, the band will be embarking on a tour in support of their newest album Music From Regions Beyond, so check them out on some of the dates below:

w/ REVOLUTION MOTHER and THE DEAR & DEPARTED

1/16 – San Luis Obispo, CA – Downtown Brew

1/18 – San Diego, CA – Soma

1/22 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater

1/23 – Corpus Christi, TX – House Of Rock

1/25 – New Orleans, LA – The Parish (House of Blues)

1/26 – Tallahassee, FL – The Beta Bar

2/1 – Louisville, KY – Uncle Pleasants

2/5 – Tulsa, OK – Bob’s at Cain’s Ballroom

2/7 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater

2/9 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues

FIGHT EVERYONE are not merely “a band.” Rather, they’re “a band that’s just one person shy of a baseball line-up.” For some unknown reason, there are eight members to FIGHT EVERYONE. Rumor has it that the group gets to its shows via charter plane. I’d probably understand this better if FIGHT EVERYONE’s schtick was having [...]

It’s hard to resist rolling my eyes at the headline – Deep Elm is one of my favorite labels and I consider them to be on the more innovative and flexible side of the aisle. Plus – they’ve had an unreal streak in finding talent, which has now culminated in nearly 130 releases. Like so many independent labels, they’ve been hit very hard by the changing marketplace realities of selling music and have been doing what they can to survive in the digital world. In a “position piece” laid out by the label today based on an interview done with a Norwegian publication, Deep Elm goes into detail about how independent labels and music is threatened by the pervasiveness of illegal file sharing, and the expectations of music being free. You can read the interview here, and I encourage you to do so, regardless of your already formed opinions on the issue.

The underlying (and understated) question that seems to bubble to the surface throughout the interview is “why does an independent record label need to exist at all with all of the tools that are now available to increasingly savvy musicians?” I’m not interested in putting anyone’s livelihood at risk – and certainly Pastepunk has too felt the repercussions of having a smaller advertising base than in years past, but it’s a question that every small independent label needs to be asking itself right now – Why are we needed? What are we offering to bands that makes them better off and not just us more well off? The not-so-hidden truth to this is that for far too long, the balance of power was so heavily titled to (most) record labels that the gulf of services provided by a label was beyond comparison to what a band could do on its own, or with a manager by their side – and because of that situation, a record label was able to leverage that gulf into a position that lead to greater label profits.

The cultural need to create and distribute music isn’t going away – a quick glance at Guitar Center’s financial numbers show a sustained period of boom times. But many independent record labels are obviously feeling threatened, and for those that cannot or rather, will not adapt to change – I ask aloud, why should we feel compelled to protect them?

- An addendum: Pastepunk strongly supports the use of the subscription based digital music service eMusic.com.

SHIPWRECK A.D. frontman JD was kind enough to answer a handful of interview questions that I sent him a few days ago via email. The Boston-area band just released their debut full-length, Abyss on Deathwish Inc., and without a doubt, I thin it’s one of the finest pieces of hardcore to see the light this year. You can check out the interview here.