Blog: BUZZGRINDER

One of the three founding members of the iconic Beastie Boys , Adam Yauch (aka MCA), has passed away today, as reported by Rolling Stone .

Good Fight Music , founded by Carl Severson (who founded Ferret Music), is teaming up with eOne Music , as part of a music label partnership. The first handful of releases in 2012 will include: The Contortionist , The Chariot and Conditions . The eOne Music metal roster includes Hatebreed , Impending Doom , High on Fire , and Black Label Society , so it appears Good Fight is in good company.

Marilyn Manson - Born Villain Release date: May 1, 2012 For once Lady Gaga looks pretty hot.

There's a lot of news in the world of Reggie Watts these days. You can see the best hair in biz May 11 on Comedy Central, when Reggie Watts: A Live at Central Park makes its debut. It'll subsequently be released May 15 in a CD/DVD package. The very next day, monsieur Watts will hit the road on a nationwide tour, bringing his comedy beatboxing to a venue near you. And if that wasn't enough, the premiere of Comedy Bang! Bang! on IFC is slated for June 8. [...]

Torche - Harmonicraft Release date: April 24, 2012 Artwork by one-word-name guy Santos . Despite the gnawing dinosaurs, I don't think I've seen more un-rock album art for a heavier band since Jame Dean Trios' Getting Scary . Then again, I live in my parents' basement with no Internet connection so I don't see much else besides fighting cats and grass outside my window.

So yeah...this is me...wearing a bear hat and dancing in a mall...then again, the video itself is pretty self-explanatory.

Hank III - Long Gone Daddy Release date: April 17, 2012 I did an Internet dive to unearth the illustrator of this but I came up empty handed. Maybe hanging rosaries off my rear view mirror, smoking, and removing all of my blood and organs would bring me better luck.

Daniel Johnston recently published his first-ever comic book, Space Ducks: An Infinite Comic Book of Musical Greatness . It's 109 pages about, well, ducks in space. To celebrate the release of the comic (and a pretty swanky iPad app ), Johnston has given us an album to go along with it. Space Ducks: Soundtrack will be available on CD and vinyl this summer, but you can stream the entire record right now. It features seven Johnston originals, plus tracks inspired by Space Ducks [...]

If you're a normal Buzzgrinderer, it's probably not breaking news that May 15 marks the release of mewithoutYou ’s first independent full-length, Ten Stories . That said, you can get a lot more information on the album and the circumstances surrounding its creation in this new clip. And as the late Billy Mays would say - wait, there's more. The band recently premiered a new song from the record, February, 1878 . Based on what members of mewithoutYou have said in interviews, 1878 is a pretty accurate representation of [...]

Little Tyrant Productions recently shared a video of Travis Shettel performing performing The Rock Revolution Will Not Be Televised . These days, the former Piebald frontman is hard at work on a new project, TS and the Past Haunts . It also includes members of Summer Darling and Kissing Cousins .

Demon Hunter - True Defiance Release date: April 10, 2012 In terms of metal, there's few things that exemplifies the genre more than a demon skull with a bullet hole in the forehead and a lit candle atop. View variants here .

High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis Release date: April 3, 2012 The album is a about Jesus' time-travelling twin, so the art (by Tim Lehi ) should be just as weird. Lehi offers a look at one of the other panels on his site here .

Meshuggah - Koloss Release date: March 27, 2012 Cover art by Luminokaya , whose work as a whole is "a result of a huge amount of data coming from the great field of energy and information in forms of light and energy waves, visions, images, dream-state objects, trans personal visions and visions beyond personality, and also symbols, signs and channeling". Which is weird because that's how we write for Buzzgrinder, too.

We've lost a musical icon. The legendary Earl Scruggs has passed away at the age of 88. Sure, he might not have "invented" bluegrass like Bill Monroe - but man, he was a big part of the early days with Monroe's Blue Grass Boys . And while he didn't popularize the use of the banjo, he certainly did help revolutionize it. If Scruggs hadn't picked it up, the banjo might still be an instrument relegated to the rhythm section or a Vaudeville comedian's act. We certainly wouldn't [...]

Obits - You Gotta Lose

• Obits - You Gotta Lose

Tigers Jaw have premiered a track from their upcoming Run For Cover Records split with Black Clouds .

Anti-Flag - The General Strike Release date: March 20, 2012 Vocalist Justin Sane goes to my mother-in-law's pharmacy, so I feel obligated to post this. That red thing in the background might have been something that caused him to go to the pharmacy at some point. Western PA can have some weird disease protocols.

Frank Lenz is no stranger to film scoring. He provided the tunes for Strictly Background a few years ago, and now he's back at the documentary soundtrack game. Lenz has lent his talents to a doc about Christian card counters. And yes, that's exactly what it sounds like - church-going folks that play blackjack professionally. Titled Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians , the picture has been featured everywhere from The New York Times to Variety . The soundtrack is out today [...]

• Frank Lenz - Bankroll Dinner 2

The Decemberists - We All Raise Our Voices to the Air (Live Songs 04.11-08.11) Release date: March 13, 2012 Rock.

Maranatha is the studio project of Collin Simula, former drummer of Symphony in Peril . The latest Maranatha release, Incarnate , features Simula taking on all writing and recording duties. I spoke with Simula about the album and the inspiration behind it. What are the plans with this release? Are you forming a full band? Maybe a proper release with a label? Some one-off shows somehow? Plans-wise, I'm kind of just riding it out, honestly. I didn't realize it would take off as fast [...]