Seriously though, right? I mean have you ever actually tried to sell any of these things?!? Okay moving on, I’m here to announce a couple new Red Scare releases that will be out early next year. And I’m pretty happy to say that we’re still taking chances on new bands and fresh talent, and we can only you hope that you come along for the ride…

First up we have the debut full length from The Reaganomics, which’ll be out February 15th. We did a digital EP with these clowns a while back and they’ve since been playing shows with bands like Dead To Me, Teenage Bottlerocket, Off With Their Heads, etc. They’re probably my favorite band to see playing around Chicago right now, and their upcoming record, Lower The Bar is their first proper album. There’s songs about RoboCop, Ed Hardy shirts, Teen Wolf, and even some guest vocals from our ol’ bud Kody Lillington. It’s super fun stuff, just you wait and see. They’ll be busting out these new hits in Chicago at their record release show with Cobra Skulls on February 12th.

Next up, and also out February 15th, will be a debut record from a brand new band known as The Heat Tape. This trio is fronted by our homie Brett Hunter from The Copyrights and Dear Landlord and these guys were formed (I shit you not) in Brett’s trailer park in Makanda, Illinois. They crank out lo-fi ditties in their mobile home and they’re fucking GREAT. Imagine The Marked Men and The Thermals trapped in a double-wide, forced to make music and only permitted to consume Jolt Cola and Popeye’s Chicken. Shit’s majestic, and the 12-song record is called Raccoon Valley Recordings. Unlike other trailer-folk these guys will be getting off their porch and playing shows around the land, so be on the lookout for that.

See you under the Mistletoe.

With all these Red Scare bands attaining full blown stardom and achieving the height of success, it occurred to us that we need some fresh young talent to exploit. It’s like in that movie Mean Girls where they see the new dumpy girl and the cool kids are all, “Omigod, total PROJECT!” This is very much like that, except that instead of nubile nymphs, it’s a buncha grown men with drinking problems.

So what the fuck are we talkin’ about? Well, there’s this band from Fort Collins, Colorado called Elway and Red Scare is gonna release their debut record in 2011. Brendan is wild about ’em, so we figure why not? In fact, they’re coming to Chicago in January to record with Matt Allison at Atlas Studios. All the guys were previously in a band you may have heard of called 10-4 Eleanor, but they took that incarnation of the band out back and gave it the Old Yeller treatment. They wanted a fresh start, and now they’re called Elway (an equine reference?).

They’re a pretty hard-touring, hard-rockin’ outfit and they already have some upcoming shows booked. So stay tuned for more on Elway, and if you wanna peep these beauties or check out some of their old songs, you can visit ’em here:

http://www.myspace.com/elway

An update on Halloween? Damn tootin’. We have a lot of loose ends to tie up around here so let’s get on with it…

As you know, The Brokedowns Species Bender was released last month. In case you missed it or are too much of a sissy to buy it already, our homies at Punknews are streaming a buncha songs from the album here. Plus, I heard they “have a 30-pack backstage”, which brings me to our next item of business…

Thanks to all who came out and took part in the 5th Annual Red Oktoberfest. It was one for the ages, eh? Great turnout and all the bands were great. Don’t believe me, do ya? Well, tough guy, I captured a buncha live footage and buffoonery on a Flip cam and you can see it all here.

And finally some shit you may care about: We got a few new bands and releases to discuss. Some of the details we are still working out, but I can say that we have a couple neat releases from some Red Scare favorites in the works. Their initials might be T.B.R. and M.E.N.Z.I.N.G…aww fuck it, you get the idea. In addition to that, we have some new blood you may or may not have heard of: a proper full length from Reaganomics (titled Lower The Bar) and a digital EP from The Bombpops, a female-fronted, So-Cal punk band outta San Diego. We’ll have their digital-only EP (dubbed Like I Care) available through online retailers on November 30th, and Reaganomics should be ready for consumption by January. More to come about all that crap.

Alright, time to get back to the pagan ceremonies and bag-snatchin’. Talk soon.