A curated list of the latest news from the rock, punk, hardcore, and metal (and more) realms.

Heralded roots rock band Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is hitting the road once again, ready to blast out their exciting blend of alt-country, blues, and punk-infused music. The band will be joined by Dom Flemons and J.D. Wilkes on The Big Damn Blues Revolution Tour, which will travel the East Coast and Midwest of the U.S.

Official news: “The Big Damn Blues Revolution Tour brings together three amazing artists who are master musicians and showmen. The Reverend Peyton, Dom Flemons, and J.D. Wilkes also have a special bond in the blues-roots-folk music that they love and live. This unique tour showcases the best their genres have to offer and culminates every night in a special jam session with all three artists.”

TOUR DATES

Big Damn Blues Revolution Tour Dates:

Wed., Nov. 6  ASHEVILLE, NC  The Grey Eagle
Thurs., Nov. 7 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.The Ramkat 
Fri., Nov. 8  RALEIGH, NC The Pour House Music Hall 
Sun., Nov. 10  ANNAPOLIS, MD  Rams Head On Stage 
Tues., Nov. 12 BOSTON, MA City Winery  
Wed., Nov. 13  BROOKLYN, NY  Knitting Factory 
Sun., Nov. 17  HAMDEN, CT Space Ballroom 
Wed., Nov. 20  BUFFALO, NY The Tralf 
Thurs., Nov. 21  CORNING, NY Corning Museum of Glass
Fri., Nov. 22  MORGANTOWN, WV 123 Pleasant Street 
Sat., Nov. 23  COLUMBUS, OH Woodlands Tavern 

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band with J.D. Wilkes

(These dates without Dom Flemons)

Sat., Nov. 9   LEESBURG, VA  Third Annual Chad Dukes Veterans Day Jamboree at Tally Ho Theater  
Thurs., Nov. 14  SELLERSVILLE, PA  Sellersville Theater 1894. 
Fri., Nov. 15 TUCKERTON, NJ  Lizzie Rose Music Room 
Sat., Nov. 16 SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY  Caffe Lena 
Tues., Nov. 19  SYRACUSE, NY  Westcott Theatre 

Fri., Nov. 29  INDIANAPOLIS, IN  The Vogue

Sat., Nov. 30  NEWPORT, KY  The Southgate House Revival

 

Canadian progessive metalcore band Living Machines recently unleashed a music video for “Harvest.” The track is a hard-hitting cut from their upcoming album II: Inferius. The outfit are known for combining their music with other storytelling formats, including a graphic novel series that accompanies each new release.

Official news: “Harvest” was a pretty big step forward for everyone in Living Machines, both musically and professionally. I wrote most of the instrumentals for I: After Onyx myself, so having everyone involved in the writing process was fairly new territory for us. With Robin and Mason handling virtually all of the riff writing on II: Inferius and our new vocalist Ryan bringing a lot of vocal variety to the table, we knew we'd craft a sound that was notably different from our first EP: sinister, more aggressive, yet keeping the melodic aspects of the story-telling hooks alive. I feel that the darker tone of these songs is in some ways a reflection of us working through our lineup change and searching for a sense of stability. I'm really grateful for how pivotal the guys have been in bringing this next chapter of Gemini to life in a way I wouldn't have thought possible.

As far as the story goes, “Harvest” is the first part of the main story-arc for Gemini (taking place roughly 40 years after The Great Collision). Our first EP serves as a prologue and was mostly written to establish the world, introduce the alien race that coexists with humanity (the Aluna) and a pair of key characters. Now that the world has been built, we dive head first into a new tale that will span our next 5-6 albums. I'm pumped that we're finally getting right into the meat of the story.

“Harvest” takes listeners into Gemini's secret underworld for the first time. Anton Waltz, a scientist hired by the Shadow Council to uncover why the Aluna live such long lives, harvests hearts from Aluna corpses based on the hypothesis that their genetic makeup may actually be the key to eternal life. Worried that his supply of corpses is slowly drying up, Anton and his partner Brix Rennick devise a plan to wipe one of the ocean colonies off of the face of Gemini, and dig up Aluna corpses from a sacred graveyard on the ocean floor below it.  All in all, everything gets pretty dark from here on in, so saddle up. "

 

Australian metalcore/trap metal band The Weight Of Silence come from the town of San Remo on Phillip Island. Their sound is brutal, but still contains a melodic element. The band has performed at major festivals, toured Asia, and are spearheading the trap metal movement. A new album is scheduled for release early next year. They just released a music video for the wicked “Runnin’ Through The 666.”

Official news:  Vocalist Jacob Pedersen states, While we’ve focused our recent two singles on the trap metal movement , our brand new single “Runnin Through The 666” could almost be placed as melodic hardcore!  This is the sound we started this band on, and even though we’re all about evolving with our sound, we will never forget where we came from. This one is for our day one fans!" 

 

Indie rock icon Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth – enough said) destroys (or is that rebuilds?) the music video format with a visionary (yes, with tongue a bit in cheek) video for her latest art-rock single “Air BnB”.

Official news: “[The song is] from Kim Gordon's new album No Home Record [to be] released on Matador Records on October 11th.”

 

Illinois-based screamo/rock band Frail Body have signed to Deathwish, Inc. and will be releasing their album A Brief Memoriam on November 1st.

Official news: “[The band] embodies the spirit and soul of what many define as “screamo;” their songs are lamentations about nihilism, death, anxiety, existentialism and hopelessness of existence in modern American society, and both lyrically and sonically they unfurl with ground-shaking emotion.”

TOUR DATES

09/23 - Oklahoma, OK at 89th St *+

09/24 - Little Rock, AR at EJ’s *+

09/25 - Louisville, KY at Louisville Community Center +

09/26 - Champagne, IL at House Show

09/27 - Naperville, IL at The 105

09/29 - Oshkosh, WI at Jambalaya Arts

09/30 - Burnsville, MN at The Garage ^

10/01 - Quad Cities, IL at Blackhawk Room ^

10/26 - Mt. Pleasant, MI at House Show 

10/27 - Detroit, MI at The Trumbullplex

10/31 - Rockford, IL at Culture Shock Records

w/ Jeromes Dream *

w/ Meth. +

w/ Defeater ^

 

Renowned synthwave act Gunship have entered the world of virtual reality quite literally with their upcoming score for new cyberpunk VR game LOW-FI.

Official news: GUNSHIP are big fans of VR. Like you guys, we grew up reading about cyberspace, the metaverse, the matrix, and more recently the Oasis.  LOW-FI is being built by Blair Renaud and his band of VR renegades - these guys were responsible for Technolust, a game which we all felt was as close to getting inside Blade Runner as was currently possible.”

“These guys are pioneers, let's help them push VR forward and see what we can create together!  We are hugely excited to channel our years of obsession surrounding dystopian sci-fi narratives and cyberpunk lore into some original music for LOW-FI.”

“A word on the game: As the player, you are “low-fi”, the street name given to those who cannot merge with the platform, a ubiquitous virtual reality simulation where most of the population now live their lives. You are a police officer and have been transferred to a particularly crime ridden section of city-block 303. The only inhabitants of note in your jurisdiction are other low-fi, and the human intelligence (or lower) artificial life forms who have remained among the citizens after the AI singularity.”

art-rock deathwish, inc. frail body gunship kim gordon living machines matador records metalcore reverend peyton roots rock

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