The Lawrence Arms sign to Epitaph

Punk trio The Lawrence Arms have announced they've left Fat Wreck Chords to join the Epitaph roster for their forthcoming album.

Bassist and co-vocalist Brendan Kelly took to his blog earlier this week to announce the move.

"We went and visited them in LA, we had some laughs and some grilled cheeses," says Kelly about signing with the iconic punk label. "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?"

Kelly has made it clear that the split from Fat Wreck - who released the band's last three studio albums - is amicable.

"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." 

The Chicago band are yet to announce further details of the record; it'll be their first since 2006's 'Oh! Calcutta!'.