Loren

For many years now, Scene Point Blank has taken the opportunity as the year ends to formally "pass the mic" to our friends on the other side of the mostly-imaginary divide between listeners and artists. This year is no exception as we ask a bunch of bands, artists and labels to tell us about their 2025. What music did they … Read more

Pure Joy The 23rd FEST in Gainesville, Florida recently wrapped up. Scene Point Blank has been to the majority of them over the past two decades, beginning at FEST 5. I've personally attended roughly half of them. And at FEST 23, I saw 44 bands in 3 days (an even 50 if you count the pre-shows I attended). I took … Read more

FEST 23 takes place later this month, from Oct. 24-26 in Gainesville, FL. Something like a billion bands are driving, flying, canoeing, and snowshoeing to the festival from across the country -- many of them for the first time and many come back to play nearly every year. Scene Point Blank has traveled to “over half” of them (we’ve lost … Read more

Are you ready for The Fest!? While we’re pretty sure you’re already counting down days until your trek to Gainesville, FL, we’ve got some Fest games for you to play, including a few samples from this year’s performers. Click here to play FEST LIBS -- like a fill-in-the-blanks word game about all things Fest! We have 8 different options to … Read more

The less I say about 2025 the better. Well, except to say that Scene Point Blank's 2025 Year End coverage is in development so, actually, I'll be talking about the year a lot. Search/Play/Repeat is a sporadic playlist feature that's just about sharing music though, instead of hitting some topical … Read more

It's been a while since I put another playlist up. I actually had this 99% done a couple of months ago, but everything went haywire and the list went on hold. This edition of Search/Play/Repeat is a quick play, running about 30 minutes in total. Enjoy! Read more

Visual Learner, BlackDots, City Mouse, Couch Potato Massacre Cloudland Theater Minneapolis, MN May 7, 2025 I’m embarrassed that I haven’t covered any shows at Cloudland for SPB previously. It’s a relatively new addition to the Minneapolis scene and a welcome addition that feels as much like a community space as … Read more

Sometimes I get all introspective and ask myself why I do this. Not very often, but the answer is always because I like music. It's that simple. I like to discover new stuff and I like to share it. Every year, the staff at Scene Point Blank sink a ton … Read more

Have you heard the news? American Football -- the emo band -- has a world tour booked for 2026, beginning in May and covering parts of the United States, Europe, UK, and Canada (at present). Confirmed dates are shared below. Read more 2026 Tour Dates 05/15 - Denver, CO @ … Read more

Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms, The Wandering Birds, The Falcon), has announced a Birmingham, AL show dubbed "The War On Easter," a twist on the annual Riot Fest party in December in Chicagoland each year. Kelly be tour down south with Tightwire and The Handsome Scoundrels en route, then later … Read more

No entering 21 years as a label, Give Praise Records (and skateboards) has shared a free new sampler on bandcamp, Better Hand Plant Than Dead. The 27-track compilation has too many artists to name in an easy to read fashion here, so just hit the link and sample it for … Read more

Celebrating 25 years of operations, Graveface Records has announced the subscription based Graveface Revival Series, a year-long proejct that will issue "unreleased, unissued, and vinyl-absent recordings from Graveface’s 25-year history," the label says. "The series includes albums that were completed but never pressed, titles previously available only on CD or … Read more