The infrequently-updated site blog, featuring a range of content including show reviews, musical musings and off-color ramblings on other varied topics.
Since beginning the tour for their latest album In Times New Roman back in June,Queens of the Stone Age have been firing on all cylinders - leaving a path of happy destruction in their wake across Europe and the United States. On December 12, the band brought their show to the multitudes of Albuquerque, NM, who were more than ready to receive their offering.
Opening the show with Regular John, vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme led the band through a high-energy set of both new and old favorites like No One Knows, If I Had a Tail and Made to Parade. In the middle of the show, Josh took a sign request from a fan for Misfit Love, an always welcome addition. Josh quipped about also being from a desert town and how, like Albuquerque, “you can call it a city, but it’s not really a city.” There’s a lightness to Homme this time around that was less evident a few years ago on the Villains tour. His trials and tribulations making it to the new album are well recorded, but the old adage What doesn’t kill you make you stronger” would seem to be in full effect and he wears those battle scars well.
QOTSA have gone through many member changes over the years, but when you see them live on this, The End Is Nero tour, it’s easy to see why this is the longest held lineup in the band’s history. Troy Van Leeuwen and Dean Fertita continue their stellar guitar work (as well as Fertita’s keyboard work). Michael Shuman on bass and Jon Theodore’s drumming, provide a drive of surgical precision and are quite simply the best rhythm section in rock. The Queens of the Stone Age juggernaut will be cutting a wide swath across Japan and Europe in the new year and show no signs of stopping. Catch this tour.
This is by no means a comprehensive list. It is largely compiled from News items, Wikipedia lists and Social Media Posts. Please note some of the additions are songwriters or composers of the songs. R.I.P
Every day is an information overload. The web has a lot of great things, but sometimes it feels like too much too.
Politics, news, rumors...it's a lot to take in. But too much music? C'mon. That isn't a real thing.
SPB has a lot of different pieces. Our focus is our written word, but sometimes it's you just want to share the music. And as somebody who won't let the mixtape die, that means you get another playlist of stuff I've found through my SPB work.
In late November, Scene Point Blank received an unsolicited pitch about a fan-made music video to the song "Shorty's Ark" from Matthew Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The creator had contacted the band and received positive feedback, and as music fans who put our own spin on our favorite works, we were intrigued about the story behind the video. Plus, I had a bunch of M.U.S.C.L.E. men too.
A guest blog by Andy Rothwell.
On Oct. 23, 2023 I put this fan-made video up on youtube:
That project started the first week of May 2021. I was visiting my parents and clearing out the closet of my childhood bedroom, where I found the ~100 M.U.S.C.L.E. men and the broken wrestling ring I’d owned as a kid.
If you don’t know them, those toys were big in Japan in the early ‘80s, and then big in the States in 1985-86 where they were called M.U.S.C.L.E. – standing for “Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere.”
Superwolves by Matt Sweeney and Bonnie “Prince” Billy had come out the week before my visit, and I had it on all week. It’s one of those albums I like every song on. At the end of 2021, when Spotify told me my top 10 songs, 9 of them were the first 9 songs on Superwolves.
Around the 15th time “Shorty’s Ark” came on, the idea for the video started to take form. A decade ago I made a handful of fan-made videos for songs by Robert Pollard, Woods, Tom Petty, and others. It had been about 5 years since I’d started a really complicated one for a Kurt Vile song, stalled in the middle, and never made another.
That night I made a spreadsheet with every animal in the song, and scoured http://blog.uofmuscle.com/ and ebay, buying vintage M.U.S.C.L.E. men that I’d never owned as a kid.
The next morning I had my first moment of regret, wondering if I should really take on a music video for no reason, or just have stuck with the plan of getting rid of my old stuff.
Over the first half of summer 2021, the project moved. In the early mornings before work I invented the lego stadium with the gears, axels, and cams that makes the M.U.S.C.L.E. men look like they are jumping and cheering.
The M.U.S.C.L.E. Hard Knockin’ Rockin’ ring was always a pretty bad toy. You were tempted to squeeze into the plastic hook the fattest M.U.S.C.L.E. man you could, so it wouldn’t get dislodged in the fight. Everyone broke the plastic within a few weeks. I redrew the hook in 3D, adding 9 hook sizes for using the different sized figures, and 3D printed the replacement sets.
Later in the summer, however, I switched focus. In late 2020 I’d gotten into drawing and heat-pressing parody movie posters onto mugs. It was my first hobby I could at least try to break even on; I’d opened an Etsy shop with 5 mugs in early 2021. I’d planned to add a mug every few weeks and now it had been months since I’d drawn anything.
All of the M.U.S.C.L.E. men and panels of the lego stadium went into a plastic bin in my basement, and I went back to drawing mugs and filling out the store.
A couple times in 2022 I thought about reviving the video project, but each time realized how far there was to go and dropped it again. I had other interests. I got into sign-making with my CNC, and made stuff with my niece’s quotes and nephew’s video game progress.
Finally in the summer of 2023 I picked the video back up. It was hard to get going through the repetitive stuff. I spent a Saturday taking pictures and photoshopping the M.U.S.C.L.E men. A Sunday overlapping the letters in animal names with the periods between each letter, to mimic the M.U.S.C.L.E. branding. Another Saturday printing and gluing the paper animal names to the walls of a labyrinth I'd previously made.
But the good thing about picking up an old project is some of it is already done, and you have more skills and tools than the last time you worked on it.
Making the video title board was easy with my recent sign-making experience. I got all the props ready for a shoot in my tiny Philadelphia backyard exactly when my wife’s garden looked perfect. Weekends in a row it rained, but the shoot with my niece and nephew landed on a perfect fall Sunday.
Now the video is up and I'm finally getting rid of all the stuff. Another Saturday went to dismantling 3 panels of the lego stadium; I kept 1 panel so the design isn't lost.
I accumulated a couple of extra wrestling rings off ebay for helping with some shot angles. I 3D printed sets of hooks to go with each one, and put the sets up in my Etsy store.
Now I’m thinking about getting all of the complicated props ready for shooting that old Kurt Vile video idea next summer. Easier to pick back up since I still have paintings in my basement that my wife and I did in 2015.
Just released in February, SPB’s featured stream for the month of March is a fierce and heavy split LP between Illinois bands Righteous Propaganda and Mycelium Cloak, out now -- released jointly by the two bands. Righteous Propaganda formed in 2016 in DeKalb and play brutal hardcore befitting of their …
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Winnipeg, Manitoba punk band Lost Planet Airmen just announced a new album, Take Me Home, sharing a new single at the same time -- this one called "Forgotten Son." Bassist/vocalist Danger Dave explainss “The song follows someone who is lost at a shopping mall and is adopted by a band …
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Ska-punk bands Hans Gruber and the Die Hards and Sgt. Scag previously self-released (jointly) a split in 2021, Sgt Scag VS Hans Gruber and the Die Hards. Now, the two bands are re-recording some of those songs for a 2025 do over, which will release as an EP on Ska …
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The world gets new Knub. The Baltimore, MD band is set to released Crub, out June 20 as a joint release between Hex, The Ghost Is Clear, and Expert Work. The band previously released a demo EP and a split with Brain Cave. The new record focuses on the band's …
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Night Windows, who released In Memories last year, are back with a new 3-song EP next month. The New Jersey based indie band will release Nonsense on May 2. The band shared a single from the EP today: "'Your Phone Call' came out of nowhere and set the tone for …
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Chat Pile will play at Roadburn 2025 tomorrow. In advance, the band, label The Flenser, and the festival have teamed up to present a live recording of the band's 2023 Roadburn set, which is out now on digital platforms and will be available on vinyl as part of Flenser Subscription …
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May 23 is the release date for Resolution, a new EP from Pittsburgh, PA band Old Neon. The EP was produced by Matt Brasch, mixed by Nick Steinborn, and mastered by by Will Yip.ll Captains and Forever Came Calling) Read more Resolution tracklist: 1. Nobody’s Burden 2. Better Son 3. …
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Cleopatra Records just announced a 15-song compilation titled Anarchy on Abbey Road - The Filth, The Fury and the Fab Four, a tribute to the Beatles. It will release on cd, vinyl, and digitally. A full track listing is included below, with new takes on Beatles classics by Fear, 999, …
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Dollar Store, a band comprised of Jeff Ott (Crimpshine/Fifteen), Leda Gannon (Wire Graffiti), Harrison Joyner (Apogee Sound Club/Future Twin), and Dave Slaverave (The Boxcutters/Agonist Party), has shared their first single, "Equivocator (Chicken F**ker)," which will be on the band's new debut album next month, Gentleman Nation. The band formed in …
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Formed in 1995 and releasing a couple of EPs before breaking up, Swing Kids is featured in a new documentary (streaming below) called Reunite at The Casbah. Tragically, founding guitarist Eric passed away, which led to two reunion shows for charity. Additional 2025 shows are planned in Berkeley, CA and …
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Dark metal Cleveland band Axioma has announced a US tour, covering much of the eastern half of the country, this summer. The tour includes dates with Pelican, Fiend Without A Face (Brett Hinds), Garbage People (current members of Inter Arma, Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats), Quiet Man, Bruce Lamont, Black …
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Casual Hex shared a new single today, "The System," which will appear on the band's next album: Zig Zag Lady Illusion II on June 13 available from Youth Riot Records. The band includes Erica Miller (also of Big Bite), Jessie Odell, and Nick Anderson and play a noisy take on …
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New song "You Can Hate The Eradicator, But Don't Hate The Game" begins with a rhythmic squash ball bouncing in the court before it kicks into The Eradicator's signature pummel. It's the first single off a new EP, out this fall. The EP will release on Stonewalled, titled You Can …
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Annual NYC event Punk Island is back, moving to a new location this year at Randalls Island on Sunday June 8. The all ages, free punk party returns for its 17th iteration and is run by the Punk Island (P.I.) Collective. Preshow benefits will take place at The Pidget Pack …
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Post-hardcore band With Patience has a new full-length album out on May 9, Triptych, which was mixed by J Robbins and mastered by Bob Weston. The two names attached give a good clue as to the band's heavy, crunchy approach. With Patience previously released the Three of Swords EP. Read …
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Illuminati Hotties recruited Stefan Babcock (PUP) for a guest appearance on the new song "Wreck Your Life," also the lead single for a new LP out in about 6 weeks. The EP is called Nickel, available May 30 on Hopeless Records. Sarah Tudzin offers: There are a handful songs that …
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Long Island, NY based raw and melodic punk band Somerset Thrower just shared the new single "Never Going To Therapy," which is also the first single from the band's new record this summer, Take Only What You Need to Survive. The new record comes out on July 11 and is …
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Forty years after landing on Earth, GWAR return with a new album, The Return of Gor Gor, out on July 25 on Pit Records. A lineup of BälSäc, Beefcake, JiZMak, Blothar, and new addition Grodius of the Maximus Clan wrote the album in search of a pet Tyrannosaurus Rex, or …
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Slovenly Recordings has three new releases -- one out now and two more on the way. The label released En Las Sombras Se Mueven Mucho Mejor from Los Idiotas ((Valladolid, Spain) on April 1, a full-length LP of garage punk. Then, next month Puppy and the Hand Jobs will release …
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Announced a month ago, Canadian heavy punks Propagandhi are back, set to release At Peace on May 2 (Epitaph). The political-as-always band just unveiled a new single/video from the record, "Cat Guy," which is emblematic of the band's style while countering sober political truths along some cute cat clips. The …
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