Long-running punks NOFX have announced the release of their 13th full length album. Entitled First Ditch Effort, the album is their first since 2012’s Self-Entitled. A lyric video has been released for first single Six Years on Dope. First Ditch Effort is due for released Friday October 7 on Fat Wreck Chords.
Hardcore heavyweights Expire have announced the release of their third full length album,With Regret. It’s due for release Friday September 23 on Bridge Nine Records. With Regret follows their compilation Old Songs, released earlier this year.
Florida folk punk rockers Against Me! have announced the release of their latest full length record. Entitled Shape Shift with Me, the record follows up 2014’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues. Frontwoman Laura Jane Grace has explained the background behind the album, “Wanting to move on to write commentary on living from a trans perspective. I wanted to write the transgender response to the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main St., Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville and the Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come For Free. All those records are relationship records. There’s been an infinite amount of records talking about what love means from a cisgender perspective. I wanted to present the trans perspective on sex, love and heartbreak.” Grace has also announced the release of her upcoming autobiography, TRANNY: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Sell-Out. The book documents Grace’s transition and well-publicised gender transition. Co-written with Dan Ozzi, TRANNY is due for release on Tuesday November 15.
Toledo’s Citizen have announced an Australian tour this September. Touring in support of their critically acclaimed second LP Everybody is Going to Heaven, the tour will mark the band’s second appearance on Australian shores. Citizen will play The Corner Hotel on Saturday November 12 and an all ages show at Arrow on Swanston on Sunday November 13. Tickets are on sale now.
In a somewhat bizarre release strategy, long-running pop punks The Offspring have announced they will be debuting a new single as part of the soundtrack to upcoming TV-movie Sharknado 4. Airing on American station Syfy on Sunday July 31, the track is believed to be titled Sharknado. The band last released the single Coming For You in 2015, the only release since 2012’s full length album Days Go By.
In sad news, highly influential proto-punk vocalist Alan Vega of Suicide has passed away, aged 78. Formed in New York City in 1970, Suicide’s sound influenced alternative music to come, particularly electronic and industrial genres. In a statement from Vega’s family, “His legacy is described as ‘unflinching adherence to the demands of his art.’ After decades of constant output, the world seemed to catch up with Alan and he was acknowledged as the groundbreaking creative individual he had been from the very start.”
