For those of you who want advice on how to be the next American Idol, check out this MTV article, which includes tips from the previous winners of the competition.

Rockstar Underground has made a highly entertaining, if not informative, ten minute documentary on Emo. Break out those YL t-shirts and view "Scene Doc." by going here.

You can preorder Cursive's upcoming album, Happy Hollow, right here.

Cute Is What We Aim For will be doing an in-store at Vintage Vinyl in New Jersey on tomorrow, June 20th at 7pm (day of record release). They will be performing songs from their debut record The Same Old Blood Rush With A New Touch. Tell all your friends!

Vintage Vinyl
51 Lafayette Rd
Fords, NJ 08863
732-225-7717

Coldplay has an album's worth of new material and are planning to record it in London in the near future. Also, they have chosen"The Hardest Part" as their next single and will be released in April. You can read more about it here.

Source: NME

Hit the Lights will be recording a cover of The Gin Blossoms' "Hey Jealousy" with Beau Burchell of Saosin behind the boards for the upcoming Punk Goes 90s compilation, which will be put out by Fearless Records. The band has also been added to the "Western Migration" tour's (Bayside, Punchline, The Junior Varsity, Sullivan) Anaheim, CA show on February 16th at the Chain Reaction.

The Weakend will be demoing their new album in a few weeks. No date has been set for the band to enter the studio after pre-production, and as of now, The Weakend is without a definite label to release the full length.

Ladytron has announced US tour dates for this year.

Ladytron Dates

4/14 - Washington DC - 9:30 Club
4/17 - Boston, MA - Paradise
4/19 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda
4/20 - Toronto, ON - Opera House
4/21 - Chicago, IL - Metro
4/22 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
4/25 - Vancouver, BC - Richards on Richards
4/26 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
4/27 - Portland, OR - Berbatis Pan
4/28 - San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine

Ellison, one of the first two bands on JT of Hawthorne Heights' new label, Carbon Copy, has three songs from their Indecisive and Halfhearted EP available for your listening pleasure on their MySpace page.

As Tall As Lions have about seven songs mixed and leave for The Spill Canvas tour in about a week. Read below for a lot more details.

As Tall As Lions Journal Entry

january 20, 2006 [by julio]
helllo kids...its 11 a.m and i just woke up to quite a gorgeous day. right now im listening to celia cruz's guantanamera to start off the day. great song. anyways, so we have about 7 songs mixed and i have to say they sound mazing. im personally most excited for 2 specific songs. one being a song called "kicking myself". a stripped down acoustic number that speaks of the uncertainty of love. lyrically my favorite song on the record, i get a lump in my throat listening to it. another one is a...

Giant just recorded some new material with Chris Dowhan and Andreas of Scarlet. Check it out on their Myspace.

SoTheySay and 15 Minutes Late have finished recording their debut full-length albums. SoTheySay’s album An Antidote for Irony was produced by Matt Squire (Panic! At The Disco and The Receiving End Of Sirens) and will be released March 7th, 2006. 15 Minutes Late's new album Pessimism and Satire was produced by Sean O’Keefe (Hawthorne Heights and Fall Out Boy) and will be released April 11th, 2006.

Additionally, SoTheySay has been named as one of the "100 Bands You Need To Know About" by Alternative Press Magazine.

New songs will be posted soon on their respective Myspace and PureVolume pages.

Patrick Cranshaw, who achieved cult-like status as fraternity brother "Blue" in the 2003 comedy "Old School," has died. He was 86.

Source: AcclaimedPunk.com

I've just reviewed First Impressions Of Earth, the third album from The Strokes. You can read that here. The new album is out in stores tomorrow, January 3rd, through RCA Records.

As Tall As Lions will release their new album around April/May of 2006. You can read a fan review of their recent Long Island show below.

As Tall As Lions Show Review

Written by thewindowpane (lj handle)

I was fortunate enough to see ATAL play last night at the Crazy Donkey. Unfortunately I was pushed as far stage left as you could be so my grasp on the show may be lackluster, nonetheless here goes. They opened up with Ghosts of York. Of all the new songs this is by far my least favorite. Dan's vocals seem really constrained/held back and that may be because he recently got over a cold but I just felt like the verses and the movement, even the chorus lacked passion. I dug the lyrics....

Well, the end of the year is almost here which means it's almost time to post our "Best of 2005" lists; however, I'd like a little feedback from you all. If you take a look below, then you'll see the categories I've already put into my list and have been thinking about. If there are any other categories you'd possibly like me (or the other staff) to use, then please post them in the replies. Thanks!

Best of... Categories

Best Albums
Honorable Mentions
Albums I Missed In 2004
Best EPs of 2005
Worst Albums of 2005
Albums Your Parents Will Love
Best Producer of The Year
Best New Bands of 2005
Best Music Video(s) of 2005
Worst Music Video(s) of 2005
Best B-Side of 2005
Best...

PunkRockVids.com posted three more videos from the their secret archives: Atreyu performing "A Song For The Optimists" back in 2003, The Ataris doing "San Dimas' High School Football Rules" back in 2001 and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's video for "Date With The Night".