From the inbox:

Which has the better bands? East Coast or West Coast? This argument can finally be put to rest. The answer does not lie on the coasts. The answer lies within a new crop of young bands from the midwest. EXPIRE, the latest addition to the Six Feet Under (SFU) roster is leading the way. Having released a demo in 2009 followed by the Grim Rhythm 7″ in March of 2010, Expire has been busy writing songs, touring, and showing the hardcore scene what the future sounds like.

Suffer The Cycle is the new 7″ from Expire on Six Feet Under. Recorded at Young Brothers Studios with Taylor Young (Nails), Expire has put together 4 songs of straightforward, heavy-hitting hardcore. Members of Expire live in different parts of the midwest and the band seems to draw influences from the east and west coasts, finding a happy medium with heavy grooves reminiscent of the NYHC style and fast parts that are worthy of a good ‘ole California circle pit. If the best of both worlds sounds good to you, see Expire on tour, mark your calendars and get ready for Suffer The Cycle. It’ll be a great way to kick off the new year.

The new track “Sleep Lost” is up on the Six Feet Under home page.

Social Distortion – Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes by Epitaph Records

- According to the website VoxBlock, if 500,000 song streams occur from this player, total, the price of a digital download of the full-length at Amazonmp3 drops to $7.99 from its original 0 stream listing of $12.99. Interesting concept. More about it at the Vox link.

1. WE CAME AS ROMANS guitarist Josh Moore has been hospitalized with a case of bacterial meningitis.  For awhile Moore fell into a coma, but as of this morning, he’s out of it and back to breathing on his own. We wish him a speedy recovery.

2. DAYTRADER has definitely channeled their inner-TEXAS IS THE REASON on the band’s upcoming debut EP for Run For Cover Records. The all-star Long Island group successfully merges classic melodic LIHC with the New York City post-hardcore music of the mid 90s. Hard to turn this one off…

3. When did DARKEST HOUR sign to E1 music? Did we even post news on that when it happened? No matter – the band’s upcoming eighth full-length, The Human Romance will hit stores on February 22nd. The band’s last five full-lengths were on Victory Records.

4. Birthday gift request from my almost three year old: A monkey that makes blueberry pancakes. Kid’s gonna be disappointed.

5. Anyone else think it’s a little ironic, literally, that EARTH CRISIS is recording their new full-length (their sixth) with a producer named Zeuss?

6. Song of the Day: POUR HABIT – “Heads of State”. Makes me want to break out some early TEN FOOT POLE…

Just listen…

- C’mon dudes, stop being lazy and upload some cover art for this thing…

From the inbox:

With the success of their album The Upsides, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania natives THE WONDER YEARS entered the studio this past weekend to record their upcoming Hopeless Records full length with producer Steve Evetts (Saves The Day, Lifetime, Every Time I Die).

“Steve Evetts is a legend in our eyes. The man has produced some of the greatest pop punk and hardcore releases of all time. He has the ability to make anything from Saves the Day to Every Time I Die sound good. I trust his judgment, I think he’s going to help push us to make a better record than we could ever thought possible and honestly, I just want to bother him with questions about what it was like to record Through Being Cool.”

- I’ve always been a little hesitant in giving a record producer too much credit for a band’s particular sound or evolution, but sometimes a match on paper sounds too good to ignore. I can only hope that Evetts can capture a guitar sound for THE WONDER YEARS that reminds me of the heft, buzz, and warmth of some of his most well-known records from the 90s…

The third and final full-length from the Florida straight-edge hardcore band CASEY JONES is now streaming on the band’s Absolutepunk profile page. The group has self-released the outing after originally recording it for Eulogy Recordings a couple of years ago. You can check it out here.

I don’t know much about the origin of this online compilation, but it’s sponsored by a popular French music site named Alternativ News. Maybe it’s like their own version of Alternative Press but with a greater focus on smaller up-and-coming bands. No matter, the site has launched this 38 track beast with tons of quality new and recently released material from such bands as MAKE DO AND MEND, TRANSIT, HOSTAGE CALM, CSTVT, DANGERS, FAKE OFF, DEAR LANDLORD, THE RIVAL MOB, POWER TRIP, and much more. Check it out here or below.

With many of Solid State’s premiere bands growing more melodic over time (and one might say, somewhat stale… looking at you DEMON HUNTER and HASTE THE DAY), Dynasty is a shot in the arm of rippin’ death metal with bona fide technical attributes. No hokey melodic singing parts on this one… and definitely no good cop/bad cop [...]