regarding nostalgia.

-My grandmother died five years ago today. There are some things from high school I always carry with me, like my aversion to using the phrase "passed away" or my love for her. I like to think she's feeling whole and loved, wherever she is.

-New Found Glory has a new song, "Listen to Your Friends," from their upcoming full-length Not Without a Fight. It uh... sounds like standard New Found Glory, so take that as you will. You can only stream 30 seconds of it via iTunes; ya gotsta pay if you want to hear the whole dang thing.

-Thursday, on the other hand, is streaming their single, "Resuscitation of a Dead Man," from their forthcoming Epitaph debut Common Existence, on their MySpace. Of course, you could always buy that too... Not sure how I feel about this one. The vocals sound a lil too processed for my taste, and I secretly think the boys from New Jois are trying to do a Full Collapse retread, which is lame to me but good news for most folks, I guess.

-Anyone else think it's funny that both of the above bands are on Epitaph now? That label cranked out so many vital albums for so long, but they've been mostly bricking shits for the last like five years or so. Here's hoping these two records turn things around. Sure, The Weakerthans and The Bouncing Souls have done well on Epitaph, but Escape the Fate? I Am Ghost? The walking hate speech speak & spell that is Sage fucking Francis? Argh!

-Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil founder Black Shwarzenbach is finally starting to announce the shows for his new band, Thorns of Life. Of course, these shows are in fucking California... Apparently, dude and his crew played a secret show in Philadelphia at the end of November. Curses!

-Punknews still hasn't run their "best of '08" lists. The anxiety is disconcerting me. DISCONCERTING.

-UPDATE/SPOILER ALERT: So, I was looking up some information about Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, which was re-released this year, for my year-end list. Dennis, brother and band mate to Beach Boys maestro Brian Wilson, put out this severely underrated beauty back in 1977, and Legacy Recordings was kind enough to remaster the album, as well as package it with Bambu, its unreleased follow-up. The result is 33 tracks of gorgeous, sunny pop in the vein, of well... Beach Boys, but with rawer, bluesier, and more emotional overtones.

Anyhoozle, turns out you can stream most of the album on Dennis Wilson's pseudo-official Web site (I say pseudo because he's been dead since 1983). And I strongly advise you to do so. If yer one of those hipster indie twee bucket motherfuckers, add this piece of butter to your precious white bread toast.