Please welcome Cody Nelson, whom is our newest addition to the AbsolutePunk.net staff. He'll be focusing on bringing comedy content to the site, such as reviews, interviews, and weekly round-up. It's an area I've wanted to cover on the site for a while, especially with all the interest in stand-up and the like in our Entertainment forum.

I am pleased to announce Chris Collum and Jake Jenkins as our latest additions to the AbsolutePunk.net staff. Chris will be focusing on covering the ever expanding world of indie music while Jake is the first of two reviewers to be covering hip-hop. Congratulations to both of them and be on the lookout for their first reviews this week.

Have you ever wanted to know what Jason Tate's least favorite genre of music is? How about which unsigned bands Drew Beringer would sign? What would Eda eat for a last meal? You can find these answers and much more in Part II of our Staff Interview, which you can read here. Did you miss the first part? You can read Part I here. Thanks for all your questions, and we'll do it again this time next year.

You gave us questions, and we answered the good ones. You can check out Pt. 1 of the 2012 Absolutepunk Staff Interview here. Come back next Friday for Pt. 2.

Staffer Thomas Nassiff recently laid out his top ten Pop-Punk Records of All Time. You can check out his picks here and hash it out with him and the rest of the AP.net community in the replies.

Good morning guys and dolls. Paul Tao and I will be coming at you from the annual South by Southwest this year. We've got a ton of shows planned to cover, and I'll be ankle deep in interviews as always. Be sure to check the front page every morning for photos and a round-up of the day before. Also, follow us over at our live twitter where we'll be updating our wacky adventures for the week. Hope to see some of you guys in my backyard soon.

Everyone please take this opportunity to welcome Ryan Gardner (ThisMusic193) to the AP.net staff. Ryan will be helping Linda and Keagan with the mailbox listings and will be doing other various awesome stuff. Give him a proper welcoming in the replies.

Our own Keagan Ilvonen recently talked with Nerve.com about five albums we should all be listening to at the moment.

I just wanted to make an announcement that we have quite a few new additions to the AP.net family and everyone should take notice. Please open your arms and fully embrace Stephen Chamberlain, Kyle Huntington, Ian Walker, Alex Djaferis, Christian Wagner and Jonathan Bautts. All six of them plan on helping us bring the best AP.net we possibly can for every music fan out there. So show some love and give them a proper hello in the replies!

For our proactive, tenured users, there might just be an opportunity for you to shine and/or not shine in Mr. Tate's latest blog entry.

We hope it has been a good journey for you so far, but now it's time to bring The Absolute 100 to an end. Here you have it: the final part of our favorite 100 lesser-known bands of 2009. Which bands are your favorites? What bands do you think will make the list in 2010?

We're coming close to the end: The Absolute 100 - Part Three.

Part Two of The Absolute 100, the second installment of our favorite "small" bands, is good and ready to be read. See a few gems in the mix? Don't see a few? No worries - Part Three will be posted next week. Keep a watchful eye for more bands off your radar.

And it's on! The Absolute 100 is back. A gigantic assembly of 100 staff-picked favorites, The Absolute 100 is our annual list of lesser-known bands that we'd take to any talent battle. Part One is now posted (with song streams included) for you to browse and enjoy. We'll be posting the next three installments throughout the month of September.

It's finally here! The staff interview - Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.

Ever wondered what we, the staff of AP.net, do behind the scenes? Maybe you're curious what our favorite band is, what we do in our spare time, or even what we ate for breakfast? It's time for you, our cherished AP.net members, to interview us. Ask us all, or direct it to just one. Questions can go in the replies, and we will post a mega-interview with answers-galore.

Our valued staff member Anton Djamoos has written up an article under the banner The Problem With the Scene criticizing the fashion-centered "scene queen." Read Anton's critique here, then give him some feedback so he'll deliver us more such articles.

The staff members at AP.net know how much you idolize us and want nothing more than to be able to give a hearty handshake or warm hug to display your affection. There's no better way to do that this summer than at the Warped Tour, where many of us will be attending. Buzznet has put together a nifty list of ways to get a VIP pass, which will help you achieve that goal of giving staff love.

Everyone give some love to our newest staff member, Julia Conny. She is going to be primarily doing reviews and driving teenage boys crazy. Welcome, Julia!

Staff recommendations are listed below (click "Read More" to view all). Watch for other AP.net staffers to add their recs for the weekend. Also, let us know what your recs are!

Gabe: Here are my recs. Enjoy!

Ryan: My recs for this week can be found here.

Caleb: GO BEARS!!!! My recs are right hurr.

Garett: The recommendations of myself and forum member Kelley Nicole.

Rick: I had multiple members of our General Forum join me for recs. See what we've been listening to, you can find it here.

Jared: Pistolita

Tony: I had Brian (guitarist from Adrastos) join me with some great recs, which you can read here.

Drew: Latterman

Jon Foucart: Check 'em out here.
... read more

Hey guys and girls, my name's Rick Pandorf. Jason's just been cool enough to hire me on to staff to cover Hip Hop, so definitely look for news and reviews from the genre coming soon. My forum name was FullCollapse3k, but I didn't spend a lot of time in the news forum, I spend most of my time in the general forum. If you want to contact me about music, sports, the weather, life, whatever, just get me on AIM at therealnoise. Glad to be aboard, and if you have any recommendations, particularly in Hip Hop you'd like to see on here, get at me with those, too.

It's such a slow day and I'm tired of looking at the same news on the main page, so I figured I'd give you all something to talk about. If you are to lazy to read everyones "End Of The Years List" I have placed the entire staffs number one albums below:

Jason Tate : The Spill Canvas - One Fell Swoop
Jared Kaufman : Thrice - Vheissu
Pat Marquez : Minus The Bear - Menos El Oso
Gabe Gross : Thrice - Vheissu
Garrett Press : Gatsbys American Dream - Volcano
Rohan Kholi : Cartel - Chroma
Scott Weber : Gatsbys American Dream - Volcano
Drew Beringer : Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
Caleb Cattivera : The Receiving End Of Sirens - Between The Heart and The Synapse
Brandon Herbel : Panic!...