Weekly digest #9
Featuring LCD Soundsystem, Laura Jane Grace, Elliott Smith, Frank Turner, Rage Against The Machine and more
📷 LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy at Berlin Festival 2010 by Matt Biddulph
Welcome to Fire Red Sky’s weekly digest of punk rock, alt rock and indie music news and writing.
It’s a light read, a quick catch up on the week that lands with you every Saturday morning.
The links are mainly taken from my social media feeds, so if you want more of this sort of thing than you can follow me on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon (I’m also on Instagram).
Headlines
LCD Soundsystem will release a new album in 2025 (NME)
Motörhead announce book of Lemmy Kilmister’s scribbles and musings (Consequence of Sound)
Frank Turner confirms 2025 reunion for his post-hardcore band Million Dead: “We couldn’t remember why we broke up” (NME)
Manic Street Preachers detail new album ‘Critical Thinking’ (The Quietus)
Vans Warped Tour to return in 2025 for its 30th anniversary with 3 separate 2-day events (Scene Point Blank)
New releases
D.O.A. tribute collection includes covers from Rancid, Propagandhi, Circle Jerks, Descendents and Duff McKagan (Scene Point Blank)
Pinhead Gunpowder (Billie Joe Armstrong, Aaron Cometbus, Jason White & Bill Schneider) return with new album “Unt” (The Punk Site)
UK hardcore/thrash band Pest Control announce new EP, share 2 tracks (Brooklyn Vegan)
Treasure Pains drop debut EP “Charming” (The Punk Site)
Post-hardcore supergroup L.S. Dunes announce new album ‘Violet’ (Brooklyn Vegan)
Listen/watch
Thom Yorke offers new and rare songs at New Zealand solo tour kickoff (Spin)
Rage Against the Machine release 2000 DNC protest performance for streaming (Consequence of Sound)
NYHC vets Shutdown announce first EP of new music in 20+ years, share “By Your Side” (Brooklyn Vegan)
Caroline Polachek covers Radiohead’s “True Love Waits”: watch (Consequence of Sound)
Philly shoegazers Creepoid announce reunion show, share previously unreleased video (Brooklyn Vegan)
Long reads
Elliott Smith's From A Basement On The Hill turns 20 (Stereogum)
Read an excerpt on Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy's ska history from 'In Defense of Ska' 2nd edition (Brooklyn Vegan)
Nova Twins talk about the UK's National Album Day, why rock must “keep the word ‘community’ alive” and tease new album (NME)
Blur v Oasis was only part of the story: the case for a wider – and wilder – Britpop canon (The Guardian)
Laura Jane Grace isn’t just doing her best Operation Ivy impression (Spin)
Elsewhere on Substack
And finally…
Helen Mirren laments that Kurt Cobain died before GPS was invented (Stereogum)
Do you have a Substack article, news tip or other piece of writing you’d like to be considered for the digest? Send it to tangleofwires@gmail.com (same goes for press releases etc.)
A beautiful friendship
Genre boundaries dissolve, micro-genres rise and fall. While it was ever thus, in this post-tribalism era music is often everything all the time.