The album’s aesthetic focuses on adult males reminiscing their wild youth. A long-held punk staple, the group approaches the notion anew: fully dissatisfied with their current lot in life. In “Spinning Wheels”, the band build a lonesome rock rumble of minimalist drums and minor effects to muse on personal inadequacies and an utter inability to fix them (“My ideas like spinning wheels/I don’t know where they end/Spent most of my life moving and trading all my friends”). The minor musical explosions between the layers of sorrow give their frustrations true weight.

“Hallelujah, I’m Mourning” is blasé lite-rock aggression at its best (or is that worst?). Lyrical content once again saves the day, with the band reflecting on the their early musical glory (“I want to sing for you/The way you sang to me/On milk crates in our garage/When I was only 15”), only to sarcastically celebrate their emotionally-stunted, direction-less existence with a bombastic chorus. Strong lyricism also helps power “Paper Chaser”, a raucous blast of old-school anti-capitalism punk.

If the album does suffer from any missteps, though as gleaming as each is, the band powers forward quickly. “Like A Runaway Slave” is drivel, overly mushy and simultaneously overloaded on testosterone, resulting in a punk power ballad that deserves to be stomped out in the pit. “Let It Go” suffers from the same structural flaws and overwrought emotional sentiments. It’s also a powerful reminder that going big musically can have huge drawbacks for a bunch of noisy hooligans.

But in the end, whether through cathartic insight or lackluster displays, the band wears the cuts and bruises of true growth with pride.

Essential Tracks: “Spinning Wheels”, “Hallelujah, I’m Mourning”

Other confirmed acts include Butthole Surfers, Leon Russell, The Kills, Sharon Van Etten, Minus the Bear, Mavis Staples, Little Dragon, Anti-Flag, and Seattle’s own The Presidents of the United States of America.  The Emerald City will also host a slew of indie staples like Warpaint, School of Seven Bells, PS I Love You, Astronautalis, Toro Y Moi, Das Racist , Vetiver, and YACHT.

But that’s not all. Decibel founder and organizer Sean Horton will curate the EMP Sky Church stage, which will feature a slew of acts, all working with high-end technology and multimedia via the venue’s state-of-the-art screen. Other late night shows, dubbed Bumbershoot After Dark, will take place at the EMP’s Exhibition Hall from 10 p.m. to five in the morning. More information, including lineups and ticketing, will surface June 15th.

Single day tickets ($35) and three-day passes ($75) are currently available for purchase here.

Pattered after Austin’s South By Southwest, NXNE is comprised of an interactive, film, and music segment, with various workshops, panels, and activities taking place over an entire week. This year, the Interactive Festival will run from June 16th-18th and the Music and Film Festivals run concurrently June 15th through the 19th. For the event’s 17th installment, NXNE has tapped new wave pioneers Devo, reunited punk legends the Descendents, hardcore supergroup OFF!, indie-favorites like Stars, Twin Shadow, Cults, Wild Nothing, Suuns and Art Brut, plus hip-hop acts The Pharcyde, Shad, and Digable Planets. Many of which fans can catch for free at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square and along Yonge Street. A list of performances can be found below.

But that’s just the beginning, as the festival will also feature Anti-Flag, Bouncing Souls, Men Without Hats, Dum Dum Girls, Deerhoof, The Dodos, Hot Water Music, Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield, Braids, Ty Segall, PS I Love You, Crocodiles, The Pack A.D., Metz, Dirty Beaches, Land of Talk, Chad VanGaalen, Forest City Lovers, The Luyas, Lower Dens, Gentlemen Husbands, Rusty, Royal Bangs, Julianna Barwick, No Joy, Prince Rama, Doldrums, Secret Cities, Evening Hymns, Snowblink, Parlovr, Talk Normal, PUJOL, Woodsman, Gauntlet Hair, Joey Cape, Tape Deck Mountain, AIDS Wolf, Houses, CJ Ramone, and Kevin Seconds.

Free Yonge-Dundas Square Performances
06/16: Descendents, OFF!
06/17: Stars, Land of Talk
06/18: Devo, Men Without Hats
06/19: The Pharcyde, Digable Planets

To check out the complete lineup and pick up early bird tickets, head to NXNE.com before April 25th.

This year’s lineup once again again showcases a diverse roster of national and international acts, including alt-rock legend Billy Bragg, acclaimed folk-rock outfit The Mountain Goats, psychedelic rockers Dr. Dog, indie sensations Rogue Wave, UK punk band Leatherface, and the hardcore group Senses Fail. And that’s just getting started.

Man Man, Delta Spirit, Anti-Flag, The Moldy Peaches’ Kimya Dawson, Torche, High on Fire, Anvil, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Portugal. the Man, Danielson, Of Montreal’s James Husband, Past Lives, Bear In Heaven, Freelance Whales, Dead Confederate, Fruit Bats, and Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith) are also confirmed participants. The full list of notables can be found here.

Three-day tickets are on sale now and still incredibly cheap, however, they will rise in price as the festival draws closer. From January 14th through February 11th, tickets will be available at the early-bird price of $39.50. From February 12th to March 11th, they will jump to $49.50. Walk-up 3-day tickets will be $60.00. Single day tickets will be available for $25.00/day in advance and $35.00/day weekend of. Three-day camping passes are also now available at $19.50/person. A small number of VIP passes are available at $99.50 per person. The VIP pass includes access to the VIP camping area, a three-day festival pass, and extra goodies. Find all the info here.

Of course, we’d be remiss not to note that Harvest of Hope serves to raise awareness and provide financial support for the Harvest of Hope Foundation, a charity organization that aids migrant farm workers across the country. Check out our recent interview with co-founder Ryan Murphy for the complete story.

As LiveDaily.com reports, “The Economy Sucks, Let’s Party Tour” kicks off January 12th In Detroit, works its way through everywhere but Canada (take that, hosers), and winds itself down in the band’s hometown of Pittsburgh on February 6th. The tour will be supported by the post-hardcore band Aiden and the Toronto band Cancer Bats, who will soon be releasing an album entitled Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones. Yep, you can’t make that stuff up.

Anti-Flag will be touring behind its June 2009 release The People or the Gun. Their ninth studio album, the effort is the Pittsburgh rockers return to the indie label world after their two album RCA deal (2006′s For Blood and Empire and 2008′s The Bright Lights of America).

Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com.

Anti-Flag “The Economy Sucks, Let’s Party Tour” 2010 Tour Dates:
01/12 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
01/13 – Chicago, Il @ Bottom Lounge
01/14 – St Paul, MN @ Station 4
01/15 – Omaha, NE @ Sokol Underground
01/16 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
01/19 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
01/20 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
01/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
01/22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
01/23 – San Diego, CA @ Soma
01/24 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
01/25 – Tempe, AZ @ Clubhouse
01/27 – Austin, TX @ Red 7
01/29 – Covington, KY @ Mad Hatter Club
01/30 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
01/31 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
02/01 – Albany, NY @ Northern Lights
02/02 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
02/03 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero Theatre
02/04 – New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom
02/05 – Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
02/06 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls Thea

Expected for a July 14th release, Billy Talent III promises some new tricks. For one, Brendan O’Brien, aka mega-producer-giving-Rick-Rubin-a-run-for-his-money-lately, is behind the controls, and what’s more, some guests play a role, too. One tune, “Turn Your Back”, features Anti-Flag’s own Chris #2 and Justin Sane, which add some a rather punkish vibe to the band’s typical post-hardcore sound. The demo hit the web last year and is currently being streamed on Billy Talent’s MySpace.

Last week, the band issued the album’s first official single, “Rusted From the Rain”, in addition to an accompanying music video. This song boasts another unique twist as the band delves into more modern rock territory a la Soundgarden. Aside from lead vocalist Ben Kowalewicz’s rather psychotic expressions during the video, there are no solid complaints.

Of course, you could always just listen below:

“Turn Your Back”

“Rusted From the Rain”

For many more, including myself and Pittsburgh’s Anti-Flag, substance amongst the rhetoric was still needed. For one night however, we were allowed to celebrate, keep those bar tabs open until 5 a.m., and subdue the skepticism that still lingered. After meeting up with drummer Pat Thetic at The Black Cat, the conversation took off before I had a chance to ask my first question, which of course would be the question of the week, and really the question that we will be asked for the rest of our lives.

CoS: So what did you guys end up doing for the inauguration?

Pat Thetic (PT): I was watching it on TV, just in the middle of a million people watching it on TV. We thought there was going to be a lot of traffic coming in because, as always, the powers at be like to scare people out of taking action and being a part of things. We were scared that there was going to be a lot of traffic, so we ended up leaving very early in the morning, and because of that we were actually able to make it down before the event happened.

We drove down, there was no traffic, got to the rock club, parked the cars and walked down to the mall right in time to see the swearing in. It was pretty amazing. We’ve been to D.C. many times, and there is always a lot of tear gas and cops in riot gear, and this was the first time we have been here that it wasn’t a police state. Every one was here to have a good time, and it was actually a celebration. It doesn’t happen very often so you have to take those winds and swallow them and make them a part of your experience. It’s a good thing.

CoS: How has this election, being as dramatic as it was, changed your views, and the bands views on America now?

PT: Has not changed them at all. We have a president who looks better than George W. Bush, but as with everything else, we need to see action. Barack Obama is not good on gays. He has that guy, that fascist conservative (Pastor Rick Warren) who was there that thinks gay people should not have the same rights as anyone else. He still allies himself with people like that. I think that there is a lot of hope that he will make better decisions, but until we actually see those decisions in action, we still hold him to the same standards as everybody else.

CoS: To play devils advocate a little, do you see him using that Pastor (Rick Warren) as a way to show that he is willing to reach to those with differing opinions?

PT: Yeah, I don’t buy it. I wouldn’t reach out to Mussolini and say, “Hey Mussolini, come and be a part of my tent”. If you’re a dick, I don’t want you to be a part of my tent. I don’t think there is value in making a tent big enough to include people who hate, and people who don’t accept all. I understand the argument, and I don’t buy it.

CoS: So do you think Obama will end up doing what he has promised to so many people?

PT: It’s funny, we have been having a lot of these conversations. I remember when Bush 2 won his first term as president. Those of us on the left said, “Well the president doesn’t really have that much power. He can’t overturn Roe V. Wade” and we actually joked that he wouldn’t be able to actually go into Iraq. The economy was so bad, and getting worse then, and that he would be getting out in four years, so how much damage could he really do. We were very surprised by that in a negative way. He got two Supreme Court Justices, and has been able to change the course of history in a dramatically bad way.

Now as we are looking on to somebody who is a little more aligned with our belief structure, we’re asking ourselves, is he really someone who is capable of making change. And I’m hoping that he is. I’m hoping that he’s going to be able to make the same amount of good change as president as Bush was able to make bad change. But we do have to realize that there are limitations on a president, and even if they were Jesus Christ, and their beliefs were completely aligned with mine, it would be very difficult for them to get there complete agenda passed in four years, or eight years. Hopefully he has the power and the intelligence, the passion to really make change, because we need it very badly.

CoS: During the election, what was your biggest issue, and what are you hoping Obama will hit first?

PT: Well I’m not a one-issue voter. I’m not in the NRA, or not in the NRA. But the war in Iraq is ridiculous. Sure the economy sucks, but nobody is talking about why the economy sucks, because there were very bad decisions that were made. There are billions of dollars being spent on a war to kill people and not achieve anything, and that is pretty fucked up. So I would like to see that and I would like to see the infrastructure change that he is talking about. That is a very valuable thing. I think that the more we have access to, not just bridges and roads which help us communicate, but to the Internet that allows us to communicate better. The more communication we have, ultimately the better we all are. Even if we communicate bad ideas, if there is enough communication then the good ideas will come to the surface. I think he needs to be better on gay rights and rights for everybody and not separate because you choose to love somebody of the same sex. Immigration too is another one I hope he comes up on and is able to make a major impact.

CoS: Obviously the band has been around a very long time, but the Bush administration has given you guys a lot of fuel in terms of your music…

PT: Yes…wait, how old are you?

CoS: (This is where I get called out, in a friendly way) 22

PT: Okay, yes. Because you are 22, your perspective is a little skewed. We were around for the Clinton’s and George W.1, and we were screaming even louder against those people. I don’t think that just because there is somebody slightly more progressive now that there is any less fuel for us to talk about. One of the interesting statistics is that Nixon actually was much more liberal than any of the presidents we have had since then. And because in time we have become more conservative, we like to say, “Oh Clinton, he was so liberal” when in reality he was the one who brought us NAFTA, and the wars in Kosovo. We have to be aware how much we have all moved to the right, and there is a lot more room to move to the left. Juxtaposed to Bush, Obama looks great, but we want some one who looks great next to Gandhi, to Martin Luther King, and that is where we want to go to.

CoS: So how did you guys end up doing this big event? What was the process with that?

PT: Actually, the impetus is the question you just asked, “Well now that you have someone who is a little more progressive, are you going to give up?” Our answer has always been that we will celebrate that there is something good happening, that there is something better than the shit that we have had, but that doesn’t mean that the work is over. We celebrate. It’s January 20th, 2009, but on January 21st we will still have gay people who can’t get married, who can’t love each other, who can’t get health benefits, who can’t see their partners if they are going to be sick and dying in the hospital. We still have a war in Iraq that is costing billions of dollars out of our hands, and that is not achieving anything. We still have an immigration policy that makes immigrants second-class citizens, and not just second-class citizens, but second-class human beings. These are things that need to be addressed, and change never comes form the top down, it always comes from the bottom up. Unless there continues to be this pressure for change, and not just rhetoric, there will never be change. So that is what this show is about. This show is about saying, “Yeah, this is great, things are good, but now the work begins again to ensure that this change actually happens.”

Somewhere between Whitewater and Deep Blue, Electronic Freedom and welfare reform, the formation of Apocalyptica and the demise of Jawbreaker and Sublime (Bradley Nowell, R.I.P), there was music in 1996.  Clinton and Gore gained another term and we had begun to toy with an awkward mid-decade crisis before the world first learned of a Backstreet fan girl, before boy band phenomena swept the nation sans NKOTB, and before we could sic Eminem on them all. We had crossed through the glory of [The Offspring's] Smash and the ad nausea mourning of Kurt Cobain in ’94. We suckled upon The Bends and Collective Soul until the dying breath of ’95.

So what was it in 1996?  Shania Twain killed country music, and I was still in middle school during the latter half of the “angry white boy” era. This countdown embraces the early adolescence in me, and one hopes it can center you with the same crash and clatter I received. To anachronistically semi-quote the aforementioned Slim Shady: “Will the Class of ’96 please stand up?”

10. Tori Amos – Boys For Pele

Essentially a lengthy multi-instrumentalist piece for the pride of femininity, this was Amos’ first attempt at producing her own album. Hot off splitting with boyfriend and co-producer Eric Rosse, Boys For Pele represented the strength of being a woman and the complexities inherent to it. Imperfections are married to layered sounds with the profound acoustics found inside churches in New Orleans, LA and Ireland. Amos believed there was power and texture in the American South, but this is not easily grasped in the critically-bashed, difficult, and cryptic poetry. This was challenging airplay unit shifting and indeed marked the start of her playing producer on every consecutive release afterward, cementing a place for Tori Amos as a free- spirited woman in a man’s world.

9. Primitive Radio Gods – Rocket

While few know the band, many know the single “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” from its heavy radio play and prevalence in the dark comedy, The Cable Guy . While few remember the lyrics to this lengthily titled track, everyone knows the music and the sample from B.B. King’s “How Blue Do You Get?”.  Everyone who is not familiar with the entirety of Rocket, it is on this list because it is by far as unappreciated as Pearl Jam’s 1996 tour-killer, No Code. It’s a phenomenal record considering the overall production started when Chris O’Connor took a ’69 Ampex and $1000 to the test, resulting in demos later converted to this ’96 sleeper.

8. Current 93 – All the Pretty Little Horses

Complemented by it’s bookend albums (Where The Long Shadows Fall and The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home), this atmospheric release by English band Current 93 contains multiple references to Patripassianism, death, pain and the “inmost light” or soul. Dense layers of loops and haunting vocals are delicately intertwined, creating a wide array of images. Think of this as a dark and dreary day in the Catholic church, accentuated with beautiful artistic value, while not being so overly pushy in its religious subtexts.  Unlike the album before or after it, the whole recording is not a single track but could almost be mistaken for one due to the seamless flow of sounds encompassing it.

7. Soundgarden – Down On The Upside

After Superunknown, Soundgarden embarked on a tour supporting it before tensions within finally began hitting new highs. The more experimental Down On The Upside was sadly the last release from a band who probably would have went sonically downhill anyway had they continued on. Leaving the music scene at their peak was a smart move, only second to recording this album prior to Soundgarden’s dissipation.  While Chris Cornell did go on to Audioslave, develop a real asshole ego and make a crappy 2008 solo CD, we can be thankful for his pre-douche offerings, “Pretty Noose” and “Blow Up The Outside World” via Soundgarden.

6. Jay Z – Reasonable Doubt

It is said that Jay-Z is a master at freestyles in the studio. It is also said that this debut release from “Tha ROC” can be hailed as a true classic of hip-hop culture. The Source ranks it among the 100 greatest albums of all time, and one could definitely see why  this record is looked so highly upon within the scope of its genre. Rap got a ride with an album packed to the brim, featuring smoothly delivered lyrics and guest appearances that include Memphis Bleak and Jay’s fellow Brooklyn bad ass Notorious B.I.G. Popularizing the Mafioso rap game alongside Biggie’s ’94 debut Ready To Die, Jay-Z cemented his future status with Reasonable Doubt.

5. Tool – Aenima

Anyone who does not include this recording in a ’96 Best Of music list is either a ridiculously stubborn hipster or just plain deaf. You do not have to be a “metal head” to appreciate the intricacies involved with Aenima (or for that matter, anything regarding Tool pre-10,000). Songs like “Hooker With A Penis” ferociously attack silly people who blindly follow trends alongside label executives who beg on their knees for a hurried single release. The title track itself is a creative and lengthy, evil laugh poking fun at Los Angeles, dictating the city’s own personalized doomsday with vivid imagery. If you need a good dose of elaborate progressive rock song structures that do not bore the bejesus out of you, go with this record.

4. Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar

Yes, you heard it here on this and every other ’96 listing under the sun. Yes, we are going to include the band who in one foul (and we mean foul in every nice way possible) swoop made goths popular. Yes, we know the bandleader went repulsively “emo” on Eat Me, Drink Me.  Yes, we did a Dusting ‘Em Off piece for this particular record already, and you are probably asking why on Earth should we include it here?  That can be answered with two words and one definite article: “The Beautiful People”. Before Manson and Co. became household names, this magnum opus of theirs reigned as a must-have for every pissed off teenager whose mother would later warn them about Columbine copycatting. Face facts, Antichrist Superstar will never go away!

3. Anti-Flag – Die For The Government

Aside from a much sought after collectible demo EP, this is considered Anti-Flag’s debut album. I know someone is going to ask me why I picked this as opposed to Rage Against The Machine’s Evil Empire. Well, it seems to me that Rage gets a lot of credit as political rock but everyone keeps forgetting political punk.  Nothing says patriotism like Die For The Government, does it?  Sadly, bassist Andy Flag left after the release of this album, so perhaps the sound changed a teeny bit. In the end though, we all remember that “you’re gonna die, gonna die, gonna die for your government…die for your country” and that is shit! A strikingly simple opening to a phenomenal punk recording by a band that could trump the Sex Pistols any day (Yeah, I said it).

2. Sublime – Sublime

There were many deaths in the ’90s that hit music hard, but not unlike Cobain’s melodrama, Sublime is one of at least five groups who were destroyed before their 15 minutes barely clicked into start. Reggae/dub trio front man Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose before the ultimately successful Sublime hit stores. This eponymous record was their major label debut, breaking Sublime into public view. Furthermore, this album helped push the third-wave ska movement into national stardom, helping bands like Slightly Stoopid survive. I put this here as a testament to Nowell, Hoon, Williams, Wood and Strait: “Love is what I got.”

1. Weezer – Pinkerton

Some might claim that putting this at #1 is a silly fan boy attempt to gush wildly about Weezer. I want to note that this list is (yet again) not in any particular order. Secondly, Weezer took a ballsy step recording this album when they did. The artistic integrity overall shines more than the singles alone, yet it did not live up to their previous release, Weezer (The Blue Album), in terms of sales or charts. The concept being loosely based on Madam Butterfly, any cryptic allusions were partially lost on an unassuming public save for Weezer’s then-budding fan base. However, Pinkerton shed even more light on a group who would soon show a generation of geeks that even they can make a rocking themed album. Pinkerton is not the best of its kind, but it certainly belongs somewhere on the 1996 lists.

Finally, the honorable mentions…

The Olivia Tremor Control – Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle
Tupac Shakur – The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
Stone Temple Pilots – Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop
Modest Mouse – This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About
Opeth – Morningrise
AFI – Very Proud Of Ya
Slipknot – Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.

There was so much symbolism in the event it was hard to ignore. The most startling and ironic being the image of the former vice president being wheeled in, hunched over in a state of further decay. And even that was oddly perfect. When the former president was announced and presented, two million boos and shouts washed over the capital like a wave. You could see it in Bush’s eyes that he was ready to leave. That he had been beaten down over the past term, and the resounding disapproval was the confirmation he didn’t need.

That night when I stepped out of the U street metro station onto U and 13th, I was greeted by the flurry of secret service vehicles with sirens ablaze as the convoy transported any number of dignitaries that were in town tonight. Across the street, the now even more famous Ben’s Chili Bowl, where President Obama had stopped on the 10th of this month, had a line that snaked out the store and around the corner into the ally. The city was alive with the excitement of change as its residence and guests were attending any number of the 900 balls and events taking place that night. One such event was Demand In D.C. at the cities own Black Cat Nightclub.

Its tag line read, “applauding the empowerment of people through art, film, and music”, and that it did with a line up that included United Nations, The A.K.A.’s, the late addition of Darkest Hour, and Anti-Flag. The clubs backroom had been turned into an art exhibition hall with strong political pieces in different mediums. It was a night where every band was well represented in the crowd showing one of the beautiful things about punk rock. When Anti-Flag hit the stage, the room was at a fever pitch and ready to party. The band knew that too, and the politics were largely left in the music, with only a few poignant comments made here and there to remind people that we are the only ones who can truly change this nation. The set was solid, and beyond energetic. The Pittsburgh natives are true renaissance men when it comes to their craft, being able to perform with a constant level of ferocity while remaining calm and intelligent when addressing the audience.

The set mostly stuck to oldies with only one song (“The Modern Rome is Burning”) off their 2008 release, The Bright Lights of America. Punk anthem “Underground Network” showed its self early stirring up one of several circle pits and scream-a-longs. By mid-way through, the classic, “I Fought the Law” filled the room with shouting voices and flailing feet. After a set of non-stop political destruction, a break was offered to revive the party spirit with another sing along moment, “Spaz’s House Destruction Party”. Towards the end of the set, the old classics came out with “Die For Your Government” being one of the highlights of the entire night.

Even though Anti- Flags views would be considered radical to most, all shared the overlying message of the night. Everyone in D.C. was united under one purpose this past Tuesday, and that was to celebrate history. Even with speculation of the new president remaining strong for the band members, for just this one night we were all able to breath again, enjoy life, and celebrate America.