Wishing you a happy, healthy, punkity rockity new year!

As 2007 slips away (as well as all those references to that whole "punk turns 30" thing), it's time to look toward 2008.

I wanted to wrap up my little bit of time left with you in 2007 to talk about New Year's Resolutions. Are you making any? I'm making a few. As they apply to this site, I want to continue to wade through the plethora of new releases that come in here in order to spread the word about what's good – and what is not so good – in punk music.

I'm also resolving to see more shows. It's off to a good start with a performance by Impercept at a loft party in Detroit tonight, and I've got my eye on a few upcoming shows as well – Flogging Molly, Naked Raygun and NOFX are all on my radar for starters.

Are you planning on catching more shows this year as well? If so, here are a few bigger tours you might want to make note of:

• Green 17 – Flogging Molly starts their annual countdown to St. Patrick's Day on February 1 in Austin. From then on, it will be whisky-soaked mayhem as they wind their way across the country before settling in for the tours climax in Mesa Arizona on St. Patrick's Day. Even if you can't see that one, scope out the other dates, because any night with these guys really feels like it's March 17 (full dates are listed here).
• The Take Action Tour – (stated in my best old man voice) …I remember back when this was the Plea For Peace tour and Alkaline Trio played on it… (back to my normal voice now, which isn't much different from my old man voice) Even under it's current moniker, Take Action is a great tour with proceeds going to a great cause. Take Action, in addition to being a good rock show, spreads awareness of youth community issues and organizations. This year, Take Action is partnered up with Do Something, an organization that distributes weekly grants to young peoples with ideas on improving their communities. The Take Action tour kicks off on February 14 here in Detroit, and the lineup features Every Time I Die, From First To Last, The Bled, August Burns Red and The Human Abstract (a full listing of dates can be found here).
• The Fat Tour – After years on the Warped Tour, NOFX is doing a club tour, and they'll be bringing some of their Fat Wreck Chords labelmates with them. The opening leg of the tour kicks off in Orlando on February 22 with No Use For A Name and the Flatliners, although American Steel is slated to take over the opening slot in later legs of the tour (full tour dates – still unfolding – can be found here).
• Taste of Chaos – The man behind the Warped Tour apparently doesn't like time off, and Kevin Lyman is back once again with his Winter post-hardcore tour. This year, the lineup consists of Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine, Blessthefall, MUCC, D'espairsray and The Underneath. Taste of Chaos kicks off on February 29 in Denver (you can see all the dates here).
• Warped Tour – Granted, it's a summer thing, but it's never too early to start planning for it. While the dates still have to be relased, the folks at Vans have begun to release the lineup, announcing that the following bands will be part of the core lineup, playing the entire tour: Gym Class Heroes, The Briggs, The Academy Is.., The Bronx, Reliant K, The Street Dogs, Reel Big Fish, Norma Jean, We the Kings, Devil Wears Prada, Pierce the Veil, The Color Fred, 3Oh!3, The Lordz, Katy Perry and Shwayze. Also, if you didn't catch take action, or still want more, Every Time I Die and From First to Last will also grace the Tour this year. Stay tuned for more bands and complete dates as they are announced.

So those are some of the big tours to look forward to. Are you planning on heading to any of them? And what other tours are you watching out for? In that vein, what albums are you looking forward to? I'm already watching out for new albums from Valient Thorr and Appalachian Terror Unit myself, so it looks like 2008 is promising to be a good year.

Photo - Reel Big Fish - © Nicole Lucas