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Television, formed in New York City in 1973, is an American rock music band. Although Television never achieved more than the tiniest cult audience in their American homeland, they achieved significant commercial success in Europe and today are widely regarded as one of the key founders of punk rock. Television was a part of the early New York punk rock scene, contemporary with bands like the Patti Smith Group and the Ramones. In contrast to the Ramones' focus on minimalist amateurism, Television's music was much more technically proficient, defined by the dueling guitars of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. In retrospect, Television pointed beyond punk rock to new wave and post punk.

I was kind of surprise to find out that Bad Religion's 14th studio album, New Maps of Hell, is being released in a few weeks (July 10th), and crazy, they are on the Warped Tour. Bad Religion came from Woodland Hills, California, and started in 1980 in high school. They were already well established in the punk community when I first heard of them in seventh grade. I had a skater friend (I think his name was Chris), who knew I was just starting to get into "alternative" music, so he gave me Generator (1992).

The incomparable punk band Rancid began recording today in a studio on the California coast with long-time friend, producer and label president Brett Gurewitz, who has worked with Rancid on virtually every record in their extensive, accomplished career.

Black Flag - The first four years

I'm just surprised that Danzig spent so much time unemployed and living in his parents' basement, instead of working for the New Jersey Tourism Board. There's more to NJ than shopping, folks -- Infection and possible death. Remember, biohazard is just a beach away. Just kidding. They picked up those syringes ages ago.

In 1996, their hit song "Popular" from the album "High/Low" made Nada Surf an MTV buzz band, although their two albums following " The Proximity Effect" (2000) and "Let Go" (2003) they made afterward didn't attract much mainstream attention... which is why I hadn't heard much from the band until their last album " The Weight is A Gift" (1995), produced by Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie).

In the five years since the release of Indestructible, the members of Rancid have been anything but dormant. 2004 saw the release of guitarist Lars Frederiksen’s second solo album Viking, a scorching homage to Lars’ vida loca, equal parts violence and love. 2005 marked the release of Haunted Cities by singer Tim Armstrong’s side project, the Transplants. Additionally, in 2007 Armstrong released a superb solo record, A Poet’s Life, which spawned the summertime hit single “Into Action,” heard on radio stations across the country and on dance floors around the world. Meanwhile, bassist Matt Freeman’s legendary skills were highlighted on both the Transplants record and tour, and also on worldwide tours playing with Social Distortion. Seemingly, the band has so much creative output, it cannot be contained in a single project.

S♥M♥A♥S♥H