Our two newest flaming piles of dissent are officially out today. Hiretsukan “End States” and our compilation entitled Take Penacilin Now were voted by Alternative Press as the “two hottest CDs to pick up this summer.”* Can you afford to miss out? No. Didn’t think so. Head to your local independent record store, or check them out here on the site.

Check out the Take Penacilin Now website.

HIRETSUKAN are also on tour RIGHT NOW. Check the dates here.

We’ve also just rebuilt our website from the ground up. CAUTION! Those prone to seizures should not proceed, as the flashing animations and brilliant colours might be dangerous.

*May not be true

This from our affiliates out in Quebec …

“GFK has to announce that, due to personal reasons, Yannick our drummer is leaving the band. He will be part of some shows in the beginning of the summer and then we will take a break to set ourselves back on track with somebody else. If you know somebody that can be a great drummer for us, PLEASE email us. Please contact Remy at remy@exoshop.com.”

True story: when I was 14 me and Ernie Cholakis made a poster for Canada Day featuring a charred paper Canadian flag and the heading "CELEBRATE CANADA DAY? FUCK THAT!" In the diatribe that followed, we equated patriotism and nationalism with homophobia (among various other "obias" and "isms").

13 years later, Canada became the third country in the world to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples.

Coincidence? You decide.

HIRETSUKAN. DO YOU RETSUKAN?

HIRETSUKAN’s new album "End States" comes out in nary two weeks, but you can order it now from us here.

We also have a new MP3 available for download, in case you thought the mind-blowing shred-factor of the first MP3 you downloaded was some kind of fluke. Download "Click and Repeat." And in case you haven’t already, "Manual Function."

Apparently the band is interviewed in the latest Maximum Rocknroll and the June issue of Impose Magazine. We fear it. The only thing more embarrassing than us opening our mouths is when our bands do. If you are curious, and brave, check them out.

Thankfully, HIRETSUKAN is hitting the road in honour of "End States" for 5 weeks starting July 8th. I could bulk this thing up by pasting the dates right here, but I assume all will appreciate it if I just put a link. If you live in the United States, please click it to see if they are coming to your town.

Finally, the band has just overhauled their website. There’s a couple of funny pictures on there. Check it out.

THIS IS NEXT

We were going to call it "Rock Against Bush: Volume 3" or "Punkorama Volume: Political!", but we settled on a line from an Anthrax-laden letter sent to a United States Senator. Apparently marketing is not our strong suit. G7’s first-ever compilation of difficult and uncooperative music, TAKE PENACILIN NOW, is available to order now.

NOAM CHOMKSY vs THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

We know it’s been far too long since we’ve had a proper spoken word release, so rest assured this is a good one. I recorded it myself for fuck sakes! "The Imperial Presidency: Sovereignty, Terror and the Second Superpower" is Chomsky’s first talk given after the re-election of Bush Jr, and is a lively chronicle of the systematic power plays which have effectively wrenched power from citizens’ hands and made the world an increasingly unstable place to inhabit.

The CD comes out on August 23rd. You can check out the shizzle on the dizzle here.

GREG MACPHERSON TO SINGLE-HANDEDLY TAKE ON THE UNITED STATES

Once GREG MACPHERSON is finished frolicking around various parks and hippie-dippie grass-fests this summer, he will be launching an 18 day invasion of the United States armed with nothing but an aging Ford Festiva and an electric guitar. (Note: by "invasion" I mean a wholesale dumping of cash into the oil-greased US war machine.) Click below for the details. He’s booking this thing himself, so if you can help fill any of his holes (ahem), feel free to get in touch.

PROPAGANDHI ALBUM TITLED, COVERED, NOT MUCH ELSE

The fourth installment of words and notes from PROPAGANDHI is still being meticulously assembled, dissembled, then re-assembled, but here’s what we know thus far. It is being mixed with the assistance of Winnipeg’s own Craig Boychuk, will be titled "Potemkin City Limits", feature cover art by Eric Drooker, and will come out this year. Hopefully in the fall. The next time you hear from us about this thing it will be with the whole package, including an MP3. Really!

On a final note, we had planned to make some hilarious joke playing on the announcement of Vans BAD RELIGION shoes a few weeks back, but were too busy puking to type it out. So let’s just say that that is so fucking retarded we cannot even believe it, and it makes us puke.

That wraps up the Canada Day edition of the G7 newsletter. Hard to believe it was 138 years ago today that the Dominion of Canada was formed by a bunch of honkies from England. They almost called it the Kingdom of Canada. Can you fucking believe that? I guess no more than you could believe that we still have the fucking Queen on our money. Or that the aforementioned honkies also wiped out a sizeable portion of the native population of the land, who’s surviving generations are faced with rampant racial discrimination, police profiling, and live largely in abject poverty. Fuck that!