- A UK commercial featuring old-man shock rocker Alice Cooper for Sony Bravia TVs. Why do we never seem to get witty commercials like this here?

Long-running Philly hardcore/metal act STARKWEATHER have joined forces with Deathwish. The group’s first release with the label will be a split with France’s OVERMARS, and after that, there will be a six song full-length titled The Sheltering Night. Several more splits are planned, and all of the details can be found in the band’s statement here.

STARKWEATHER’s last release was Croatoan, via Candlelight Records, in April 2008.

Better late than never, here’s a very out-of-date review of the summer festival. Timeliness is not one of my Editor strengths… many thanks to James for putting this together – Jordan.

Pitchfork Music Festival in 2009. Some things change. Some things don’t. It’s still in Union Park (a couple baseball diamonds, basketball courts and shade groves), in Chicago. There’s more port-a-potties. [More after the jump]

Signing a UK band to a US hardcore label is a risky endeavor because it is unlikely that the band is going to tour enough in the US to build widespread support for domestic music sales. Despite Bridge Nine’s assertion that DEAD SWANS are the UK’s “most ferocious hardcore export” (I would have nominated STAMPIN’ [...]

- The Mitch Clem artwork is really great on the image posted here.

Proving that Friday is good for all sorts of things, Spin.com has launched an exclusive download/stream of STRUNG OUT’s new single “Black Crosses.” You can grab that here. The tune is from the band’s upcoming seventh full-length Agents of the Underground, which will also mark the band’s first recording sojourn with producer Cameron Webb (sounds great so far!).

From the inbox:

New England’s LIVING HELL are set to release their new full length album Oblivion on October 13th through Eulogy Recordings. The have posted a new song called “Demonic Assault” from the  album on their MySpace page. Select pre-order packages also include a limited edition, hand numbered “United Blood” (live) cassette.

- Their prior full-length, The Lost and The Damned came out on Revelation. The whole thing felt like a dump truck rumbling straight through your front door.

- This video came out last May, but I was just looking for a reason to post about this song. 100% instant get-pumped material.