Yes…it was worth the five years. SHAI HULUD exists squarely in my musical comfort zone. Of course, it’s hard not to conceal my love for the band, hell, my profile picture on this very site makes it explicitly clear that the only thing I wanted to be seen clearly were the nine characters on that [...]

This interview speaks for itself. It was conducted with Jay Reason, lead singer of THE DISTANCE, in January 2008. Pastepunk: It’s a new year, and THE DISTANCE have writing been new material and now find themselves without a label. Is the clean break a mountain for the band to climb, or merely a mild uphill [...]

- 2009. Back to basics. THE RAMONES are timeless, and this Greatest Hits release nails down that feeling. One has to look pretty hard to find a release with a better 14 song opening.

Swiss hardcore band SOLID GROUND have put up their new (and final) EP This World Keeps Spinning Without You for free download on their MySpace page. The group recently called it quits after releasing two full-lengths, including 2005′s Get Used To It, on Dead Serious Records (which I reviewed here). The five-piece band drew favorable comparisons to old-school favorites such as JUDGE and NO TURNING BACK.

In a list of upcoming releases that will have most hardcore fans feeling sweaty, Reaper Records has set out ambitious plans for 2009. Here’s what’s on tap:

- Trapped Under Ice CD/LP

- Forfeit LP

- Slugfest Discography CD

- True Blue Demo 7″

- It’s Alive 10″

- Terror – The Damned & The Shamed Limited Picture Disc LP

- Naysayer- 7″ EP

- Death Threat- New 4 Song 7″ “Lost at Sea”

- Born From Pain “Warfare” 7″

- World Collapse 12″ EP “Into the Night”

- Borrowed Time CD

Additionally, just announced the signing of long-running NYHC band MAXIMUM PENALTY who had a number of full-lengths released in the mid 90s and released a four song demo in early 2008.

Moments after reading a very interesting thread on the Vinyl Collective message board about the so-called “Vinyl Bubble,” I stumbled across a MySpace bulletin from SET YOUR GOALS promoting their brand new Reset 7″ reissue and all of its extras. There are a lot of extras. The $30 package from Panic Records includes the following:

- 1 “Reset” 7″ with the Special Glow In The Dark Cover

- 1 “Reset” 7″ on Mint Green Vinyl

- 1 “Reset” 7″ on Platinum Vinyl

- 1 Set Your Goals Glow In The Dark Shirt

- 1 Set Your Goals Glow In The Dark Poster

The package is limited to 100 copies and a pre-order is available here.

So is there a “vinyl bubble”? Are there at least 100 SET YOUR GOALS fans who like the band so much that they must by this? Yes, probably to both. But as we are are finding out with the housing market, there’s always a correction at some point down the line…

I remember when I first gave A FAITH CALLED CHAOS a spin. I had just gotten their debut full-length titled Forgive Nothing from Volcom Entertainment, a label I had grown a liking for because they had VAUX, and VAUX was awesome. The fellas in AFCC weren’t exactly VAUX, but they did do some pretty neat things on that album which turned out to be their sole release. They captured the anger of hardcore and the swagger of classic rock to write quick, screamy, riff-driven songs like “Circa 98″ and “Forgive Nothing.” What’s intriguing about all of this is that they were perhaps one of the first bands to really nail down this meshing, something countless bands have tried to do since (although for some reason “classic” has been replaced by “southern” – and it almost always fails). You likely won’t ever hear about this band again, but if you’re down for a song or two, head here. You can also read Jordan’s review of the 2004 release here.

Long Island’s STRAY FROM THE PATH made a dent in the world of metalcore with their previous full-length Our Oceania. That sometimes remarkable, sometimes unfocused assemblage of songs set down two trains of thought: these guys have the talent to run with DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN; but only if they stopped trying to so hard to [...]