The upcoming full-length album from Chicago’s The Lawrence Arms will not be released with Fat Wreck Chords instead through Epitaph Records. The announcement has come via co-vocalist Brendan Kelly’s blog where he elaborates on the change:

We're super excited to announce that the Lawrence Arms have signed to Epitaph. We went and visited them in LA, we had some laughs and some grilled cheeses. We talked to Brett underneath the original painting of the Against the Grain cover (awesome!) and we thought that, shit, what better way to come back from a long break than on the label that put out most of the records that got us into punk rock in the first place? You know what? That's all true, but sheesh...why do we even need to explain this to anyone? It used to be, a band just made a move and people were left to whisper about what happened, why, how it'll change shit etc. like a bunch of hens at their punk rock fences, but now...now I have to make some kind of statement that has to preemptively answer questions that I think you MAY ask...who cares? Good grief. Boo to whatever dingus started the whole 'band releases statement about XXXXXX.' Trend. It's boring. Sigh. Anyway, let's try and knock this out real fast:

Why did you guys leave Fat?

Fat's amazing. We love them. There's no reason to leave except for we had the opportunity to try something new and awesome and we decided to spice shit up. Mike is a good friend and a personal hero of ours. We're honored that he and Erin would even listen to our dumb band, much less bring us in and do all they've done for us. We never wanted anything from Fat that we didn't get. That includes the freedom to try new things when we decide we wanna try new things. Besides, we didn't LEAVE Fat. That's crazy talk. We'll always consider ourselves to be a Fat band. Sundowner put a record out on Fat this fall, to give you an idea of how things stand over there

Why Epitaph?

Because Epitaph is fucking awesome, and Chris and I have wanted to put a record out on Epitaph since we were 12 (Neil was listening to the Melvins then). As a longtime fan of the label, and a huge fan of the organization since visiting their HQ in January, we're beyond stoked to be working with this dedicated, awesome group of folks, who also happen to have put out some of my favorite records ever. Besides, when we realized that the only bands that have ever put out records on both Fat and Epitaph are Propagandhi, NOFX and the Descendents, we felt that there was no way we could pass up crashing that party like the crappy, not-at-all-in-the-same-league-but-doing-it-anyway bunch of dicks we are.

SO, now that you're on Epitaph, how's that gonna affect your sound?

We had this record written before we started talking to anyone about anything and we recorded it with Matt Allison at Atlas like we always do. Brett is the guy we talk to over at Epitaph, and as of writing this, he's heard zero percent of this record. He trusts us, we trust him. It's exactly like every record making experience we've ever had before. There is no puppetmastering that I know of going on at Epitaph on any level whatsoever, but even if there were, it is not in play with this new Lawrence Arms record.

So, when's this bullshit coming out? I don't know.

What's it called? Hey, we're bigtime now, and you'll wait for a press release like everyone else! Nah, I'm fucking with you. We've got some ideas, but we'll let you know when it's all nailed down.

In conclusion WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I mean, when we were kids, sitting there, getting our minds blown by Suffer, How to Clean Everything and Ribbed...I don't think any of us would have believed that in our lifetimes we'd get the chance to work with the two best punk rock labels on the earth, and now that shit's happening...Pretty fucking exciting times. It's good to be back, and here for the first time all at once.

Thanks y'all!