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Shrapnel Pop #1

Regular Columns / Shrapnel Pop • September 19, 2026

I was about 4 years old and in preschool. It was a “meet and greet” day and my dad took me. This was exciting, because I adored him and thought he was basically the coolest person on earth. I marched in, dragging him along behind me, and approached my teacher. “This is my dad. He’s in a band and they just released a song called ‘How Can I Get You Off My Mind (If You Won’t Get Off My Face)’!”, I said, as I excitedly introduced them to each other. A raised eyebrow and a sheepish look were exchanged as I bopped off to start my day. It’s true, though. My dad’s band, CW Junction, had a song with that title. If you were around Michigan during the mid-'80s and checked out your local dive bar’s jukebox, you may have seen it as a selection. I have so many fond memories of hanging out in venues as my dad prepared for shows. There were tons of unsupervised hours spent exploring basements, crawlspaces, and eaves of old churches and town halls. Or playing with a cigarette machine for 2 hours. You know, whatever gets you by. I remember when CW was set up at the local bowling alley in our town, Skidway Lake, Michigan. (If you feel like taking a deep dive into what is truly the middle of nowhere.) I used to participate in a Pee-Wee Bowling league there on the weekends. To use the bathroom, I would have to … Read more

Vivabeat

Interviews • September 6, 2026

LA’s Art-Punk Pioneers Who Bridged Continents and Genres In 1978, Vivabeat emerged from Los Angeles with a sound that defied … Read more

Lethal Limits

Music Therapy

Interviews / Don't Quit Your Day Job • September 5, 2026

There are a lot of misconceptions about the life of a musician. Most musicians have day jobs – and not … Read more

UK Subs

Interviews • August 23, 2026

50 Years of Chaos: Charlie Harper and the U.K. Subs More than five decades after the first sparks of punk … Read more

Latest album reviews browse all

Onelinedrawing

RAINBOWMACHINE
Iodine (2026)

I grew up listening to the acoustic side of onelinedrawing. Those stripped-down Jonah Matranga songs had a way of making everything else disappear, often needing little more than a guitar, a voice, and an honest melody to completely pull you in. That's still the version of onelinedrawing that immediately comes to mind for me, so with Matranga having been relatively … Read more

Professor and the Madman

Dreamworld
FullerTone Records (2026)

ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS – “Brand New World”, “12 Strings and Tambourines”, “Adams Street”, “Temple of Madness” It’s rare to find these days. A band (or maybe supergroup, in this case) that defies all genre boundaries and just…creates. Alfie Agnew (Adolescents, D.I.) and Sean Elliott (D.I., Mind Over Four) are familiar names from Orange County’s early 80s hardcore and psych-punk scenes, but … Read more

Chat Pile

Who Loves The Sun
Flenser (2026)

If Chat Pile were a film, they would be a dark thriller. The kind that builds tension until the end and, once we reach the third act, still might not ever show the killer. It's plodding and intense and, while I just pulled out a genre reference, the best thing about the band is how much they defy conventional musical … Read more

Generacion Suicida

Hombre Nuevo
Vitriol (2026)

On the tail end of Autogramm’s 2018 tour of Mexico (what little I remember of that week now is a lot of pulque and not a lot of sleep) I visited the one punk record store in CDMX that I found via googling where to buy bootleg punk t-shirts. I’d already visited Venas Rotas Discos earlier on the trip and … Read more

Additional album reviews

Karen Dió

Fugaz
Hopeless (2026)

Six songs. That's all Karen Dió needs on this EP. Considering the title translates roughly to fleeting, brief, or transient in Portuguese, maybe that's exactly the point. Dió's second EP … Read more

Real Numbers

Was It Always This Way
Slumberland Records (2026)

I feel like this may be the first 12", 10-song release in my collection from Real Numbers, a dreampop meets jangle-indie rock band from Minneapolis. I'm not going to fact … Read more

Alien Nosejob

How A Mosquito Operates
Anti Fade, Iron Lung (2026)

The one-man band of Alien Nosejob continues to crank out short, angry hardcore in quick bursts. I've lost count of how many records Jake Robertson has now released under the … Read more

Cancer Bats

Give Me Dirt
Marshall Amplification PLC, New Damage records (2026)

ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS – “Bright Eyes of Gold”, “Give Me Dirt”, “Long Tooth”, “Fools Like You” Almost exactly two years ago, on 8th August 2024, Cancer Bats played Conne Island in … Read more

Tyler Sonnichsen

The Dead Milkmen
J-Card Press (2026)

When I saw The Dead Milkmen at Toronto’s Diamond Club back in the late 1980s, the floor was a volatile, beautiful mess of colliding subcultures. It was like different species … Read more

Opus Kink

The Sweet Goodbye
So Recordings (2026)

ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS – “Come Over, Do Me Wrong”, “The Sweet Goodbye”, “I Have to Shine My Sunday Shoes”, “Crucify!” Opus Kink sound like nobody else. To call them “jazz punk” … Read more

Sludgeworth

Second Time Around
Red Scare Industries (2026)

I never got very into Screeching Weasel and the extended family tree. Ignoring the politics of the matter, the music never really hit that sweet spot for me either. But … Read more

Social Distortion

Born to Kill
Epitaph (2026)

Rating: 🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🚬 / 10 (8 Tipped Martini Glasses and a Cigarette) Remember that movie Fantastic Voyage, where a miniaturized submarine gets inserted into a person's bloodstream on a mission to … Read more

News headlines browse all

SPB featured stream: Sliimo

Posted in Records on September 4, 2026

Sliimo returns to earth with a brand new record, a self-titled (2026) effort that expands on the band’s sludge/stoner space metal. Described as “a sci-fi space metal band from the moon of Nar Shaddaa, but way of Providence, RI,” the mission is “to show that goofy freaks have a place … Read more

Fucked Up's Rooster

Posted in Records on September 19, 2026

Fucked Up is concluding their Zodiac Cycle, which began 20 years ago with Year of the Dog in 2006 and ends with Year of the Rooster on Nov. 13, 2026. … Read more

Fashion Change before Halloween

Posted in Records on September 19, 2026

Fashion Change will release a new record next month, when Paranoid comes out on Oct. 30 on Iron Lung Records. Formed under the shadow of 2020 lockdowns, the band's inspiration … Read more

Classic Traffic plays Real Music

Posted in Records on September 19, 2026

Classic Traffic delivers a blast of power-pop on the new single "There With You," an early taste of the new album Real Music, out Oct. 9. The new 8-song record … Read more

Double Space's "Dune"

Posted in Records on September 19, 2026

Danish sludge/noise rock band Double Space just shared "Dune" this week, a new single from the band's forthcoming album Not In A Million Years, out on Virkelighedsfjern. Read more DOUBLE … Read more

Sniff a new Siouxie & The Skunks

Posted in Records on September 19, 2026

Wild Honey Records just sent out a save the date -- ahem, we mean preorder notice -- for Songs About Hiding, an upcoming new album from Siouxie & The Skunks. … Read more

The Middle-Out new single is out

Posted in Bands on September 19, 2026

Two years after releasing their debut album, Detroit, MI punk band Middle-Out returns with the single "Pipe Wrench," coming via Punkerton Records -- which also released their self-titled debut. The … Read more

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