Debuting in 2017 with the full-length Imitation, Ternopil, Ukraine-based punk three-piece (bass, drums, vocals – no guitar) Raw Grip is now set to drop their followup EP entitled Kaleidoscope as a collaboration between No Funeral Records (CA), Dead Red Queen Records (USA), Surrogate Rec. (UA), Bastard Flower (IDN), Fresh Outbreak Records (IT), and Law of Cycles (USA).

With five tracks and a total run time of just six and half minutes, I might have expected this EP to be a vicious straight up assault on the listener, but was pleasantly surprised to be drawn in instead by plenty of crunchy instrumental licks and jagged, mathy rhythms. The absence of a guitarist gives this band a fantastically chunky sort of sound, and screamo-style vocals are the cherry on top of the musical mixture the band produces.

On May 21, Friend Club Records will release a 20-song cassette featuring brand new material, songs previously shared online, and material from the label’s 2021 releases – oh, and some friends via a partnership with Slow Down Records of Norway. We're excited to give everyone a premiere: streaming in-full, On Second Thought, Volume 2.

Enjoy songs form Eugenius, All Hallowed, Least, Eugenius, Wet Tropics, Spaceships, Turquoise, Ray Gun Solace, Sammy Mellman, Nomos Amata, and many more below.

Preorders aren’t online yet but stay tuned – we’ll update this as soon as possible once they are. One hundred percent or all proceeds will benefit Campaign Zero.

It’s hard to concisely sum up a 20-song collection, so instead of giving a bio or history of the groups, we’re just rolling with some highlights picked out by the label. It’s Friend Club’s second compilation since the start of 2020 and, the label adds, “The past year has been an amazing learning experience for us and this comp shows how far we've come.”

The Fest 19, pushed back from 2020 to 2021 for reasons we're all familiar with by now, has announced several lineup additions for the 3-day festival in Gainesville, FL.

The Fest is an annual Scene Point Blank event and, for many, nears the status of a pilgrimmage at this point. Anyway, the newly announced bands are all pretty exciting, including Brendan Kelly, Pears, The Casket Lottery, Direct Hit, Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band, Superbloom, and more.

Here is the full "new update:"

PEARS, The Casket Lottery, Direct Hit, Ratboys, Be Well, Brendan Kelly, Sundowner, Ray Rocket, Elway, Militarie Gun, Ceschi, Pass Away, Heart & Lung, NØ MAN, Camp Trash, Antagonizers ATL, Joystick, Bottom Bracket, Bandaid Brigade, Pseudo, Racones, Totally Slow, Minimum Rage, SACK, Superbloom, Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band, Bricheros, Better Now, Big Loser, Fortitude, Teresa Rose, Thunderclap, Wired Up, Telepathic Lines, Johnathan Coody, Secret World, and Jen Pop.

Tickets for The Fest 19 have already sold out -- in part due to transferred sales from 2020's postponement and additionally due to fewer tickets being sold in the current pandemic-effected environment. More tickets may become available due to refunds, same-day sales, etc.

DFL, or Dead Fucking Last, have shared a new song called "YRUDFL," their first song since 1997.

The new cut is being shared by Say-10 Records and SBÄM Records in a message that shares excitement about the new song but with uncertainty about the group's next move.

Listen via Spotify below.

Armageddon Label will release Warning, the debut album from Swedish punk band Exil on July 23. The band may be new, but it's members have played Asterisk*, Demon System 13, Bruce Banner, Epileptic Terror Attack, Feral Brain, Imperial Leather, Infanticide, and more.

The sound is rooted in classic US and UK hardcore, on display in the single, "Maniac," previously released on the Greetings from Sweden - Quarantined Hardcore vol 1 compilation (embed below).

Comprised of  Lauren Voss (vocals, guitar, synth) and John Panza (Hiram Maxim/ drum machines, samples, synth), Arms & Armour have announced a new EP called This Wide Unknown, which releases June 21 via Erroneous Exegesis Records (run by Panza).

"As a band that began more than a decade ago as a guitar and drums act, we've moved deeper and deeper into electronics in recent years," Panza says of the band's evolution over time, adding, "This approach also plays well into the themes we have explored recently...From agency to pregnancy to motherhood to exegetical frameworks that compel us one way or another, make us feel pity, shame, envy, compassion, derision, and especially vulnerability. We work to find a melding of voice and music that unsettles as much as it inspires. Arms & Armour is flesh as much as it is protection.”

Voss adds that, "The concept for this album is centered around the Divine Feminine and all the beauty, power, and horror that energy encompasses...It’s creation coincided with the birth of my daughter, and though much of the music had been written prior to pregnancy, it had a profound impact on the production of our EP and the direction we have been going.

"While the divine feminine is a more common and even widespread topic in music today, motherhood is less so. This is due to a lot of reasons I won’t go into here, but it was important to me to challenge the perception that women in music quit and disappear if we choose to become mothers."

The EP was recorded by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Unsane, Violent Femmes) at BCStudios.

On June 18, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will release Butterfly 3000, the band's 18th studio album and second of 2021. The new record comes courtesy of thei rown KGLW label with 10 songs in total that are described in advance as "accessible and jubilant" dream pop.

Available digitally now and on vinyl in November, Paula Rebellato (Rakta) and Douglas Leal (Deafkids) have teamed up for a new project called Acavernus & Yantra. The record, called Gnose, is described as an experimental, hypnotic, and ritualistic album. 

It was originally conceived as a live performance in 2019, but grew into an album -- recorded in part at home during pandemic-related shutdowns.

The album is available via Buh Records in Peru.

Riot Fest returns for 2021 on Sept. 17-19 in Chicago, IL. Headliners this year include Devo, Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Run the Jewels, Ciricle Jerks, and more. It's a rather extensive list, so feel free to hit the bump and look at the full thing below.

The recurring festival has also set dates for 2022, planning a 3-day run on Sept. 16-18, 2022, to be headlined by My Chemical Romance.