- SILENT DRIVE will be entering The Blasting Room in June to record their follow-up to Love Is Worth It. The group promises much touring once recording is wrapped up.

- Ferret Records’ MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER will posting new music from their upcoming release II, on the band’s myspace page, tomorrow, February 6th. II will land in stores on March 20th.

- According to ALKALINE TRIO’s drummer, Derek Grant, the band’s tentative plans to record a new full-length in April are still up in the air. Since the group’s new label, V2 Records was dismantled in late January, no announcement has been made about the TRIO’s future home. Their most excellent second b-sides/covers/rare-tracks collection, titled Remains was released by Vagrant last week.

- The “amateur” Doritos commercial that only cost $13 to make really wasn’t all that special. Once again, the story here is more about the destabilization and decentralization of an old-guard industry than the actual contents of the ad itself. Meh… bring back the monkeys in suits!

- Setting aside the fact that THE ATARIS nearly sold a million albums under that name on their last album, I keep thinking Kris Roe should have started over when naming the group for their upcoming full-length Welcome The Night. For some bands there’s progression, and for others, there’s a 270 degree shift. With the exception of the opener “Not Capable Of Love,” barely anything on Welcome The Night has anything in common with prior songs from THE ATARIS. Heck, Kris Roe sounds like he went from a doe-eyed 20 something into a grizzled 40 year old man whose life has been worn down from being on tour for decades. Weird.