Chicago’s beloved punk rock festival Riot Fest has unveiled its lineup for 2023, and it is nothing but banger after banger. The 17th annual festival will run from Friday, September 15, to Sunday, September 17, at Douglass Park in Chicago, Ill. Friday’s headliners are Foo Fighters and Turnstile, Saturday will bring The Postal Service, Death Cab For Cutie, and Queens Of The Stone Age, and Sunday will close off with The Cure and The Mars Volta. Other acts scheduled throughout the weekend include Enter Shikari, Insane Clown Posse, Frank Turner, Microwave, 070 Shake, Corey Feldman, Parliament Funkadelic feat. George Clinton, Mr. Bungle, Spitalfield, Balance And Composure, and many more. Check out the killer lineup below.
Tickets are currently available on the festival’s website.
Riot Fest first took place in 2005 and has been running on strong until COVID-19 cancelled 2020’s festivities. Artists who’ve played in the past include The Lawrence Arms, Youth Brigade, Bad Brains, Anti-Nowhere League, NOFX, fun., The Tossers, Gogol Bordello, Reggie And The Full Effect, Jane’s Addiction, System Of A Down, Hippo Campus, Built To Spill, Underoath, Slayer, and My Chemical Romance
Do you remember going to Warped Tour? Did you have a subscription to Alternative Press sometime between the late 2000s to mid-2010s? Was Hot Topic your go-to store? Well, there’s a festival for you!
Taking place later this fall is the second ever When We Were Young Festival, being held at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds in Nevada. For one day only on Saturday, October 22, old school pop-punk/emo bands, TikTok musicians, and scene bands from the 2010s, will be colliding for one of the best scene festivals to hit the U.S. since Warped Tour in 1995.
Headlining this year are scene gods My Chemical Romance and a recently reunited Paramore. Joining them are Bright Eyes, Avril Lavigne, Jimmy Eat World, A Day To Remember, and Bring Me The Horizon.
Also scheduled to perform are The All-American Rejects, Hawthorne Heights, 3OH!3, The Ready Set, Anberlin, Ice Nine Kills, Manchester Orchestra, The Story So Far, Meet Me @ The Altar, Pierce The Veil (their first show since 2017 when the band took a break after longtime drummer Mike Fuentes was accused of having sexual relations with two then-underaged girls), and more. Check out the full lineup below.
You can register presale tickets right now on their website. All tickets start at $19.99 down. Presale starts this Friday at 10 am PST (1 pm EST).
The first When We Were Young Festival took place on April 8 and 9, 2017 at The Observatory Grounds in Orange County, Calif. Morrissey headlined and featured Cage The Elephant, Streetlight Manifesto, Descendents, Joyce Manor, Silversun Pickups, Turnstile, Balance And Composure, The Get Up Kids, Set Your Goals, Choking Victim, and many more. Check out that lineup below.
This is part four of four. If you haven’t read part two yet, check it out here.
Yes this is late, but better late than never.
While 2020 was shit, the albums we got that year were pretty tight. But some records were delayed for the sole purpose of releasing them when touring was given the “OK” to. As of now, touring is still off limits, but that won’t stop some bands from dropping new music this year.
In 2021, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2021, in no particular order.
The Seafloor Cinema
Album: In Cinemascope With Stereophonic Sound(Pure Noise)
Release Date: 11/12
At long last, we’ll finally be getting The Seafloor Cinema’s long-awaited sophomore album In Cinemascope With Stereophonic Sound this fall. After signing with Pure Noise Records (Counterparts, Left Behind, Red City Radio) last month, the Sacramento emo/math rock troupe are gearing to melt your minds with their tasty licks and their hilarious sense of humor. “We wanted to push ourselves in a new direction by collaborating on an album that quintessentially merged the ‘Seafloor’ sound with the accessible pop sensibilities our producer Courtney Ballard (Grayscale, I The Mighty, Stand Atlantic) is known for. We had a lot of fun, and that’s what we feel the album offers sonically – pure fun,” the band said in a press release. It’s gonna be one hell of a fun time.
This Wild Life
Album:Ever Blossom (Self-Released)
Release Date: 10/15
No longer with Epitaph Records (DRAIN, The Ghost Inside, Rosie Tucker), Californian acoustic duo This Wild Life are once again independent. And to celebrate their newfound freedom, Kevin Jordan and Anthony Del Grosso are releasing their fourth album Ever Blossom this October. The album contains some of their longest song titles to date (“When We Leave This Place We Leave Alone”, “If It’s Cool With You I’m Cool With Being Through”, ” Still Wondering Why You Left Me Behind”). Watch these two make beauty with their falsetto sounds this fall.
They Might Be Giants
Album: BOOK (Idlewild)
Release Date: 10/29
BOOKhas been in the making since 2019 when one half of TMBG John Flansburgh began teasing that their 23rd album was being made. Fast forward to 2020. COVID and New York City’s PAUSE order caused the record to go on pause for a period of time. Using the new free time, the band began restructuring the album, creating a “half dozen” new songs during the pandemic. You can expect BOOK to come out shortly before Halloween.
Hawthorne Heights
Album: The Rain Just Follows Me (Pure Noise)
Release Date: 9/10
It’s been a busy year for Hawthorne Heights. The group celebrated the 15th anniversary of their sophomore effort If Only You Were Lonely by playing it in full on a livestream. Currently they’re on the road with Bayside and Senses Fail. And after all of that, they’ll be unleashing their eighth studio album The Rain Just Follows Me tomorrow. What a year indeed.
Kendrick Lamar
Album: TBA(Aftermath/Interscope/Top Dawg)
Release Date: TBA
Kendrick Lamar hasn’t dropped an album since DAMN. in 2017, and fans are growing restless for a new album. However, since last year, rumors of a new Kendrick record started being spread. But as of April 2021, news about LP5 dropped when Kendrick’s long-serving engineer Derek “MixedByAli” Ali hinted that it might come out this year. Even more news was revealed when rapper The Game said that while chatting with Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith, Kendrick would have new material out “real soon.” “I talked to Top Dawg. You know, he told me Kendrick ’bout to hit niggas with some shit real soon and shit. So, you know, who knows how real soon that it but if Kendrick is working, that shit is always major,” the rapper said to his fans on Instagram Live back in June. But then shit got real when in August he noted that this record would be his last with Top Dawg. Oh, and he’s registered some new songs with ASCAP earlier this week. New album this year? Maybe.
Lil Nas X
Album: Montero (Columbia)
Release Date: 9/17
He’s here, he’s queer, and he’s one of the biggest stars in the modern rap game. Montero Hill — aka Lil Nas X — turned the rap game on its head with his hit “Old Town Road.” Three years later, the Georgian rapper is ready to release his debut album, which takes its name from Lil Nas X’s real name. Originally slated for a summer release date, it is now being scheduled to drop September 17.
Big D And The Kids Table
Album: DO YOUR ART (SideOneDummy)
Release Date: 10/22
The underrated heroes of ska-punk are back! Bostonian ska-punk outfit Big D And The Kids Table haven’t released a brand new album of original material since 2013 with the double release Stomp and Stroll. But now we won’t have to wait long for the Matt Appleton (Goldfinger, The Inevitables, Reel Big Fish) produced 20-track(!) record, which drops shortly before Halloween. And from what’s been unleashed so far, it’s gonna be a blast.
Ice Nine Kills
Album:The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood(Fearless)
Release Date: 10/15
Boston’s Ice Nine Kills have been going on strong following the release of their last album The Silver Scream in 2018, a record packed with references to classic and modern horror films. The horrors commence with The Silver Scream 2: Welcome To Horrorwood, featuring tracks based on Child’s Play (“Assault & Batteries), Resident Evil (“Rainy Day”), and American Psycho (“Hip To Be Scared”). Just like the last album, the record is packed with guest vocalists like Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix, Senses Fail’s Buddy Nielsen, and Cannibal Corpse’s Corpsegrinder.
Thrice
Album: Horizons/East (Epitaph)
Release Date: 9/17
Coming out next week (well, the digital version only) is the newest album from beloved post-hardcore-turned-alt-rock legends Thrice, Horizons/East. The album is their eleventh record and marks their second release with Epitaph. According to Guitar World, “guitarists Dustin Kensrue and Teppei Teranishi looked to new sources of inspiration for their guitar parts on the record, building songs using jazz-inspired quartal chords and even turning the Fibonacci sequence into a guitar riff.” Get ready for one of the most interesting sounding Thrice albums when it drops next Friday. Physical copies come out October 8.
Spiritbox
Album: Eternal Blue (Rise)
Release Date: 9/17
In 2020, I welcomed you all to the ghost zone that was Spiritbox in my Prenatt’s Picks series. Who would’ve guessed that in the span of a year that they would be one of the biggest names in hard rock? And they haven’t even dropped a full-length album yet! Well, until now. Coming out next Friday, Canadian heavyweights Spiritbox will unveil their long-awaited debut Eternal Blue to the masses via Rise Records (AFI, The Distillers, Memphis May Fire). Vocalist Courtney LaPlante told Kerrang!, “We are very anxious to release our album, it is a body of work we have been accumulating for over two years. Having the recording process put on hold for so long due to the pandemic has made me see that I can never take the experience of tracking an album for granted ever again.” Get stoked for probably one of the best rock records this fall.
This is part three of four. If you haven’t read part two yet, check it out here.
While 2020 was shit, the albums we got that year were pretty tight. But some records were delayed for the sole purpose of releasing them when touring was given the “OK” to. As of now, touring is still off limits, but that won’t stop some bands from dropping new music this year.
In 2021, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2021, in no particular order.
Weezer
Album: Van Weezer (Atlantic/Crush)
Release Date: 5/7
Tomorrow’s the big day! After the surprise release of their baroque-pop influenced album OK Human back in January, Weezer are following that record up with Van Weezer, an album packed with elements of stadium rock and power pop. If you’ve longed to hear Weezer playing songs with an extra emphasis to rock, you won’t be disappointed with this beauty comes out at midnight.
Rise Against
Album: Nowhere Generation (Loma Vista)
Release Date: 6/4
Announced back in March, Chicago punk rockers Rise Against unveiled their ninth album Nowhere Generation. It will be their first album released via Loma Vista Recordings (Ghost, Manchester Orchestra, Show Me The Body). “I’ve come to realize that people want honesty and that music can be a catalyst for change,” frontman Tim McIlrath told 98KUPD on the record. “I think in many ways, we’ve been on a mission to rile people up, and I feel very lucky to be able to do that. Our hope on this record is to jostle people awake, even it if makes you uncomfortable.” And knowing Rise Against, they surely won’t disappoint.
Billie Eilish
Album: Happier Than Ever (Darkroom/Interscope)
Release Date: 7/30
After making waves with her Grammy Award winning debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Billie Eilish has returned. She spent her time during the pandemic crafting tracks with her brother Finneas. So far, she’s dropped three tracks off of Happier Than Ever. Who knows if she can top the massive success her debut gave her when the album drops in late July.
Oceans Ate Alaska
Album: TBA (Fearless)
Release Date: TBA
It’s been four years since the world got a new album from British prog-metalcore act Oceans Ate Alaska. But all of that changed when we finally got a new song from them back in November, “Metamorph”. The track marks the return of original vocalist James Harrison who left OAA in late 2016. While no word of a follow up to 2017’s Hikaru has been made, one has to hope that a new OAA record will drop sometime this year on Fearless Records (The Almost, NOT A TOY, Varials).
Drug Church
Album: TBA (Pure Noise)
Release Date: TBA
I absolutely loved Drug Church’s last record Cheer. I put it as my favorite album of 2018. Three years have passed and no word of an album as announced (except the killer song “Bliss Out” dropping during the pandemic), until they told BrooklynVeganthat LP4 was on the way. While announcing their upcoming EP Tawny, coming out May 28 on Pure Noise Records (Action/Adventure, Four Year Strong, Meg & Dia), the Albany post-grunge act said that a fourth album would be coming out in 2021. When? Who knows. Let’s see if it’ll be #1 on my list yet again.
twenty one pilots
Album: Scaled And Icy (Fueled By Ramen)
Release Date: 5/21
Scaled And Icy, the new album by alt-hip-hop duo twenty one pilots, seems to be picking up right after the end of their last record Trench. The title is an anagram for “Clancy Is Dead”, the main protagonist from Trench. While working on Scaled And Icy, Rolling Stone wrote, “Scaled and Icy was created largely while the two band members Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun were in Covid-19 lockdown in their respective homes. The two collaborated on the album virtually, with Joseph writing and producing in his home and Dun recording and engineering his drum takes from across the country.” So far, fans are loving the new songs that are dropping.
Senses Fail
Album:What The Thunder Said, Hell Is In Your Head and TBA (Pure Noise)
Release Date: TBA
Yes that’s right. We’re getting TWO Senses Fail albums coming this year on Pure Noise. The news about the two records came out back in September, along with announcements for vocalist Buddy Neilson’s other projects Speak The Truth…Even If Your Voice Shakes, Bayonet, Sweater Weather, remixes, and full acoustic renditions of Let It Enfold You and Still Searching. Are we strong enough to handle all of this post-hardcore awesomeness?
The Maine
Album: XOXO: From Love And Anxiety In Real Time (8123/Photo Finish)
Release Date: 7/9
The Maine were busy in 2020. As Alternative Press put it, “[they] have been working every possible second of 2020 to bring us a new record in 2021, which is crazy considering frontman John O’Callaghan got married and drummer Pat Kirch became a husband and father this year. While in quarantine, the band performed livestreams to say goodbye to their 2019 record, You Are OK, play through Forever Halloween for the first time ever and record a cover and music video for Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar.” To keep that busy streak going, they worked on their eighth studio album XOXO: From Love And Anxiety In Real Time and are partnering up with Photo Finish Records (3OH!3, Handsome Ghost, SHAED) to help distribute it. O’Callaghan told AP, “It’ll be a concise record in that it’s exactly what we wanted people to hear. And I’m just really excited to finish the damn thing.”
Lorde
Album: TBA (Lava/Republic/Universal)
Release Date: TBA
Fans of Lorde have been dying for a new record from the New Zealand alt-pop artist for years. Ever since Melodrama came out in 2017, we’ve been craving anything from Lorde. But the pandemic, as well as her Antarctic expedition in 2019 and the passing of her dog Pearl that same year, caused the making of her third album to be continuously delayed. She’s working on the album with longtime producer Jack Antonoff (fun., Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift).
AFI
Album: Bodies (Rise)
Release Date: 6/11
Goth-punks AFI have returned and are releasing their 11th album Bodies next month on their new label Rise Records (Chapel, Flogging Molly, Make Them Suffer). From what we’ve heard so far from the album, it sounds like nothing the band has done before, and it’s a beautiful breath of fresh air from a band that’s been trucking along for the past 30 years. “Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together,” guitarist Jade Puget told Louder about Bodies. “Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what’s come before. But as artists, we can’t do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.”
Punk Goes Prenatt 