Dig the Silver Jews? Listen to our recent interview with founder David Berman here.

Bob Dylan, currently touring in Europe, has now added a slew of dates to his already full summer touring schedule. Check out the dates here. Santa Barbara Bowl sounds good…

San Francisco punk band and former Synthesis Band You’ve Never Heard Of…OF THE DAY!!111 La Plebe, is up to some big shit, touring Europe ( including a few dates with Lagwagon) and just being all around badasses. Synthesis correspondent Wyatt Nation hit them up a week or so back to chop it up and the results are ready for your perusal over at the old Synthesis.net music page.

Amy Winehouse’s trial date for a drug possession charge in Norway was postponed this week until further notice.

Super cool Blake Fielder-Civil (Winehouse’s husband who is also involved in the case) can’t make the trip since he’s currently sitting in a jail cell in Britain on assault and bribery related charges.

Anne Vedvik of the Bergen courthouse said Winehouse had been due to appear on Friday and “The hearing has therefore been postponed to an undetermined date.”

Winehouse was arrested at their hotel with her husband and her hairdresser in Norway last October after they were caught with marijuana in their possession. She was later released after paying a 500-euro fine. Interestingly enough, agreeing to pay a fine in Norway is the equivalent of admitting to the charges. This also makes it somewhat difficult
to obtain visas in the future - which is probably why she ran into trouble for the Grammy’s last week.

We here at Synthesis really hope she pulls herself together

Paramore has dropped off their European tour with New Found Glory due to “personal issues” within the band. Here’s the statement from their website:

As most of you already know, we have cancelled the rest of our UK/Europe RIOT Tour. First of all, we want to say we are so sorry for letting all of you down. We feel terrible about it and really didn’t expect for this to happen. It probably doesn’t sound like much but we just hate that we won’t get to play this show for those of you who had hoped to see it. There are a lot of internal issues that have been going on in this band for quite a while now. A lot of it started right around the time we were gearing up for the RIOT Tour in the US. We were able to fight through all of it for this long but unfortunately we weren’t able to keep it together long enough to make it through ’til the end of this tour. We really feel that taking this time is going to give us a chance to get away and work out our personal issues at home and on our own terms. We just aren’t willing to risk the life of our band over one tour. That probably sounds terrible right now, to say that finishing a week of shows wasn’t worth it… but if we can use this next month wisely then we will be a lot healthier for the tours ahead. We hope that - even though it might be hard to understand - that you guys can support us at this time.
Maybe one day we will tell the whole story but for now, just know that all five of us are going to work so hard to get it right. You deserve that and we deserve to make this last as long as possible - and to enjoy every second of it. We love you guys so much. If you could pray for us or just keep us in your thoughts it would be really helpful. You guys have gotten us so far and been the best motivators since day one. We are so sorry for the trouble we caused you guys who bought tickets, fan club members and to all the promoters and venues that we won’t be there to put on a show for. We are extremely sorry to New Found Glory and all their fans who wanted to put on and see a show and who we’ve let down. And lastly, to Lost Alone.
We will keep you guys updated.
Love,
Hayley, Jeremy, Josh, Zac and Taylor

Translation: one or more members of Paramore are about to get kicked the FUCK out. Stay tuned. For more information check out this video (courtesy of the always astute Absolutepunk.net peanut gallery):

Space Shuttle Endeavor had a successful launch last night and is currently somewhere between earth and sky on its mission to the International Space Station.

On board is Barbara Morgan, the teacher who was the backup for Christa McAuliffe, who was lost with the rest of the Challenger crew in 1986.

The Endeavor hasn’t flown since before the tragic Columbia disaster in 2003. Their mission is to install a gyroscope on the space station so that it doesn’t have to use fuel to fire rockets to maneuver itself correctly (or something like that). There will be three space walks, the use of a robot arm, and all other sorts of rad things that you used to want to do when you were in 4th grade.

Now all I want to do is sit around and celebrate by watching videos of The Final Countdown over and over. This version in particular: