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.
Dutch grindcore band Suffering Quota has announced their four full-length, the new Sisyphean Life, coming out on Sept. 25 via 7 Degrees Records and Tartarus Records. Read more
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Fresh off releasing new album Jenkem at the start of the month, the Dwarves will support the record with dates throughout North American and Europe this year -- all listed right below. Read more 2026 Tour Dates Europe 07/01 – Trutnov, CZ – Obscene Extreme Festival 07/02 – Brno, CZ …
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Members of Upon Stone and Human Garbage have teamed up for a new project, a heavy hardcore band named Bloodshed. After a 2025 demo, the band is back with a new single "Abhorrence" as they officially join with DAZE. The band builds of metallic riffs and a strong '90s influence. …
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Still touring in support of new album Foundations of Burden, Pallbearer has scheduled a final run of dates for 2026, spanning August and September. Slowhole and Ordh will join this latest leg. Read more Pallbearer Foundations of Burden tour: Aug 20 Shreveport, LA — Bear's * Aug 21 Houston, TX …
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The Sleights will release the new Don't Worry! It Will All Be Over Soon on August 7, a new LP from the Colorado Springs, CO based punk band, has released two LPs, two EPs, and a split up until this point -- most recently This One's Gonna Hurt in 2025. …
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Irish post-hardcore band DazGak has a new EP out next month with 6 songs in 18 miutes. The record is called Stimpy, out on Floodlit Recordings in the UK and Smithsfoodgroup DIY in the Netherlands. Members of the band also play in God Alone. Calling themselves "math pop," Stimpy marks …
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Agriculture is set to take last year's The Spiritual Sound album on the road this fall on a month-long journey with Uniform and Pure Hex. Dates below. Read more Agriculture on tour: Oct 29 San Diego, CA — The Casbah ^ Oct 31 Pioneertown, CA — Pappy & Harriet's ^ …
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PJ Harvey shared a single called "Voyager," available as a 7" from Partisan Records now. Meant for her next album, English physicist Professor Brian Cox invited Harvey to write a song for his "Emergence Tour." Accordingly, she put the song to tape, recording with a full orchestra. Harvey adds: I …
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Squid Pisser just announced the August 29 release of a new "full-length EP" called Throat Slave, coming via SKiN GRAFT/Sweatband Records. Read more A single is out now:
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Indie rock hitmaker Phoebe Bridgers is back, sharing "Lost Boys" from a new album out on Dead Oceans this August, Lost Weekend. It's the first new material from Bridgers since 2022 and her third album overall. Read more The Lost Tour Dates: September: 09.14.26 — Indianapolis, IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse* …
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Celebrating 10 years since the release of Fever Dream, Greg Puciatio's The Black Queen has added a second run of tour dates to the project's 2026 schedule. Following previously announced summer dates, new stops have been added in September-October. The toru features Fever Dream played in full, plus other select …
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Faith Coloccia + Tashi Dorji haved teamed up for a new 7-track collaborative record called And Their Power Was Alive, out Sept. 25 on Whited Sepulchre Records. Faith Coloccia is known for work with Mamiffer, Everlovely Lightningheart, and Pyramids and Tashi Dorji is similairly known for textural and noisy experimentation. …
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Belgian band 30,000 Monkies has a new album on the way, a record called Super Rebound, out on Sept. 18. The band also shared a video for the title track, which fits it's punchy tones. Read more
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Dutch doom outfit Svjetlost, a solo project from Jamie Kobić (Gavran), will release a debut album called The Forever Silent on July 24. The new record, coming via Shadow of Sorrow Records, draws influence from staples Sleep, OM, and High on Fire, plus the artist's own Bosnian musican heritage. Read …
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Canadian punk band PUP shared a new video today for "Concrete," a one-year-in-the-making video from last year's Who Will Look After The Dogs? album. “About a year ago, on our way to Australia, we decided to stop over in Vancouver, visit our pal Sterling, and shoot a video for ‘Concrete,’ …
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On Thursday, Heavens To Betsy played their first show in 32 years in Portland, OR. The band followed the event with bigger news: a US tour that hits the West and East Coasts. The band features Corin Tucker (pre-Sleater-Kinney) and Tracy Sawyer. Dates are listed in the pic. Read more
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French post-hardcore band Yarotz shared a single, "Strengths and Fears" this week, an equally aggressive and plodding f-minute song from their self-released Resurgence LP, due on Sept. 25. Read more
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UK punk duo The Meffs will release a new LP on Sept. 11, 2026: the new Business, releasing via FLG record label. The band features Lily Hopkins on vocals/guitar and Lewis Copsey on drums/backing vocals. Here's a new single: Read more UPCOMING TOUR DATES: July 2 – Glasgow - @O2 …
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Smirk, a project from Nick Vicario, shared the new song "Going Off To Die" this week, which appears on Speculative Fiction, out on July 3 on Smoking Room. The new album, the press release tells us, "deals with a new twist on an age-old theme for punk rock: unrest in …
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Last month SPB reviewed Mirrors & Smoke, a self-produced EP from singer-songwriter Nicole Alexis. Now the Nashville, TN based artist is back with a full-length on Hard Working Record Company. Listen to a song below. More details will emerge concerning the record later. Read more
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