Antillectual: 'We can't force people to listen to the whole album'

With a right wing government cutting on everything cultural and environmental friendly it's good to have a band like Antillectual around who still struggle for a better world by singing about change. Their new record 'Start From Scratch' recently came out one more labels than there are documents published on Wikileaks. Without further ado read what drummer Riekus has to say about downloading, guestsingers and punk.

You have spammed the international punkrock community a song a week for the past months. Besides getting some attention from everywhere this also might make people judge the record as a whole based on the snippets they hear. Aren't you afraid of that?
People will always judge a band by individual songs, there’s no use denying that. Whether it’s that one song they hear on your myspace page or the lyrics of a particular song, certain songs will stand out more than others. As a band, we like to think of an album as a whole, more than just the songs by themselves. Not everyone will share that opinion, so be it. We do encourage people to listen to the album as a whole, for example by putting a full stream + free download of our album online after the release date. We can’t force people to listen to the whole album rather than just their favorite songs, nor do we intend to force them. I guess the most we can do is offer the whole package and allow people to listen to it in whatever way they prefer.



'Start from Scratch!' is the record title. Do you also see it as a new beginning for Antillectual, it being the first record with a new bass player?
The album title is a quote from the first song, which is about the crises we are facing these days, and how we feel these crises allow us to improve things or start over. We chose the album title because this theme recurs in quite some of the songs. Of course, we as a band are also facing a somewhat new start, with Yvo leaving the band and Tom joining, and we feel this ‘new start’ has presented us with a lot of opportunities to change and evolve, but that’s not the reason why we chose the title.

As a political band with a somewhat left-wing ideology you guys must be very happy with the new Dutch government. Finally there's something to really be angry about. Or do you rather see a total leftist government?
There is no government like no government! But the new government sure provides us with enough inspiration for a whole new album, if not a double album! But it would be rather cynical to praise the new government for being inspiring for revolt. I’d rather see a government taking care of ALL its people in stead of the already wealthy white males. A total(itarian) left wing government doesn’t sound very appealing to me either, China and Cuba don’t seem very nice places to me. I don’t think any government can fulfil my needs, let alone all people in one country, but I’m sure we can easily do better than what we came up with now. On the other hand, why worry about politics when commercial enterprises have so much more influence on our daily lives than any government can ever have?



I guess working with thousands of different labels on the release of 'Testimony' paid off for you guys, since you have even expanded the amount of labels releasing the new record. So what are the benefits and what are the negative aspects of doing things this way?
Working with several independent labels on “Testimony” payed off really well for us, indeed. The main benefit of working this way is that each label is extremely specialized in their own region. They know where to promote our album, where and how to sell it, and where to book shows to promote the album. I don’t think any one (European) label can cover the areas we cover all together through the different labels, from the USA to Europe to Russia. On the downside, working with 10 labels at the same time requires a lot of time and communication, to have everyone on the same page, and have the same agreements with everyone. With the experience we have from releasing “Testimony”, it has become easier to arrange all this, and in the end we’re extremely glad to have the support of all these labels. The benefits are definitely bigger than the negative aspects.

One of the new songs features Chris Hannah of Propagandhi. From a commercial point of view this is a good thing, because more people got to know the name of Antillectual. But being a punk band wouldn't it be more logical to ask the local tramp to do some screaming? Why of all people you could have asked did you go with Chris?
I don’t really see how ‘being a punk band’ makes this a strange decision? Chris has been in a punk band for years himself. We like to aim high, but we never counted on it to actually work out. When it did we were happy as little kids. Having said that, we also have our local hero Heleen from Midnight Menace doing guest vocals, but I don’t think she would appreciate being called a tramp ;)
On a more serious note: Propagandhi is a band that has inspired us for years and years. To have one of their members contribute to our album is a dream come true. We didn’t ask Chris to contribute from a commercial point of view, and if we had done that i doubt he would even have considered helping out. Actually, according to the Propagandhi Facebook it cost us 7000 dollar to get him to sing on our album, from a commercial viewpoint a very bad idea.


Whereas you probably could write a record full of punkrock hits, you choose the difficult way. Why?
Interesting! We feel this album is a pretty big leap towards a more accessible, poppy sound. Compared to “Testimony”, the songs on this album are far less complicated or technical, and more melodic, so it’s interesting to hear that we still choose “the difficult way”. I guess it has never been our intention to produce only punkrock hit songs and anthems, and honestly, that would make a pretty boring record. We are not such good songwriters that we can actually chose or decide to write hits or not, it’s more trial and a lot of error in our case. Let’s leave the hit albums to the Pennywises and Bad Religions (pun intended!). We enjoy a lot of styles of punkrock, hardcore, orgcore and emo (even some metal), and i think those influences find their way into the styles we play on this record. Difficult? No. Variation? Yes.

You must have done some interviews already about the new record. What was the most original question, and what did you answer?
We’ve been getting quite some creative questions lately, but i think the weirdest one must have been an interview from an English magazine we literally got this morning containing only 1 question: “What was the one thing that has completely changed, or ruined your life? Please use around 500 words”. The answer was a pretty obvious one: this band. On the other hand we got an interview from the Incubate Festival website asking us if we had played in Holland before and, if yes, what was our experience.


What are the plans from here? Touring, touring, touring? Any new countries you're going to explore?
Yes, touring, touring and more touring! We sure wish to play at least all the countries where our record is released, and that includes the USA and Russia, of which the latter is new to us. Besides that we are planning to play shows and festivals in places we haven’t been before, Slovakia for example. We’re always interested in going new places and returning to places we’ve enjoyed playing. Willem will be doing some acoustic shows too, something we haven’t done for a while. And we will be doing everything we can to get our record out to people. To begin with, we’ll be offering all our music for free download at http://music.antillectual.com as of November 1st. Please go on, download and enjoy!

The Gaslight Anthem + Chuck Ragan - November 12th - Tilburg

Everytime I leave a show of this size I promise myself not to do it again, yet every once in a while a show comes along I simply want to see. This time being The Gaslight Anthem and Chuck Ragan in the biggest venue of my hometown.

We arrived early just to anticipate on a whole load of morons who wanted to get rid of their coats and start filling up with beer. Showopeners Sharks are everything you expect from a hyped British punkband: all the right poses, no great songs.

Luckily Chuck Ragan did a much better job playing his folkmusic. Though I guess a large part of the audience were only there for The Gaslight Anthem thus didn't think there's something wrong with talking way too loud throughout the whole set. Well Ragan played lots of songs from both his full lengths and in the end, in my opinion, was the better act of the night.



The Gaslight Anthem are probably one of the most popular bands to emerge out of the punkscene in recent years. I love their latest record and wondered if the band was able to pull of a performance better then the one they gave in Eindhoven last year. Fortunately Brian Fallon didn't try to sing this time, the band put in full gear and played probably every song on '59 Sound' and 'American Slang' much to the appeal of most of the crowd.



Thought their performance was pretty good I still think the band can do better, they proved this themselves during the encore when they finally made some connection with the audience and showed they can be one exciting live band.

Highlight of the night was the announcement of the Revival tour coming to Europe and Chuck Ragan en Jon Gaunt teaming up with Fallon to play a so far unreleased song.

Antillectual - Start From Scratch! - cd/lp

Antillectual has been spamming punksites for the past couple of months, streaming one track of their new record once a week. To be honest based on those streams I expected a record that I would enjoy less than 'Testimony' their previous full length. Well I guess I am an old fashioned 'album guy' because hearing all the songs together has made me change my thoughts.

If you don't know who Antillectual are, they're Face To Face with the political mindset of Propaghandi and borrowing the acoustic guitar from Tom Against Me! once in a while. Or you could say they're a bunch of Dutch leftwing punks who listen to nineties skatepunk, contemporary emo and sometimes grow a beard to appeal to the recent orgcore crowd.

Today the Obama government has lost a lot of votes to teadrinking, conservative, crazy Republican candidates. You kind of wish everyone of those voters who made this happen received 'Start From Scratch!'. Antillectual seems to cover part of the election topics being the crisis ('Every Crisis Is A Moral Crisis') and the fact that the US is not longer the superpower it used to be ('Chinese Takeover').

I do doubt if conservative Americans would like to hear a catcy song about America as a negative role model ('America's Worst Role Model') and that eating meat isn't all that good ('Some Of My Best Friends Are Meat Eaters'). Well I guess the band would be missing their reason to exist if they didn't fuel the left wing fire here and there.

'Start From Scratch!' is the most melodic Antillectual record to date. The band tended to get lost in their own music on previous releases thus making their songs less catchy than they could have been. This time however the band has succeeded in writing a record that balances their political views with enjoyable punksongs. The additions of guestvocalist like Chris Hannah from Propaghandi doesn't add that much to the song ('Out The Ground From Under Our Feet') but it's cool for any band to have a person they are inspired by cooperate on a track. Then again the extra vocals from the lesser known Heleen from Midnight Menace ('Buyer's Remorse' and 'So Much More') do add that extra flavour.

This record is a new highlight for the Dutch punkscene and together with The Real Danger they are the leading force not only in The Netherlands but in the whole of Europe. Both bands are as good as any of the bigger US bands.

'Start From Scratch' can be downloaded from music.antillectual.com but I suggest you head over to the Shield store because the artwork is amazing enough to get the 'real' thing.

Dead To Me - Wait For It 7"

Apparently I wasn't joking when I wrote that Dutch based Shield Recordings had no intention to slow down. Almost out of the blue (if you don't count endless Facebook messages by the labelowners they had big news to announce soon) probably the best European punk label around announced that they were going to release a new three song 7" by one of the most talked about bands of recent years: Dead To Me.

Let's make one thing clear. Like everyone I love the Cuban Ballerina and Little Brother records. But boy, did I have a heard time digesting the African Elephants full length. Was this band going to get back on track? Or were they lost to uninspired reggae and grunge? Who would have thought a Dutch label would be the first with all the answers.

After African Elephants the band apparently shifted bandmembers once again and a revatilised line-up brings some crushing new songs to the Wait For It 7".

The titletrack is a return to form sounding melodic and catchy yet somehow gritty. Here the band stays on the good side of the Clash discography. 'Attack Form' features those Jam inspired vocals which were my personal highlight on the African Elephants record. Closener 'Paystub' is a more experimental, harsher song which takes a bit longer to sink in, thus being the right 'crossover' between the material on African Elephants and a new full length to come.

Dead To Me shows a return to form on this 7" and it's awesome that the band joined a lesser known label to spread that word.

Some short reviews #1

Anyone who has ever done either a fanzine or an e-zine must be familiar with the fact that besides those cool records you love to write about, every now and then you also receive a package from an unfamiliar label containing records from so far unfamiliar bands. I've been saving up those packages for a while and here is my first blog entry of very short reviews:

Analena - Inconstantinopolis cd

Analena is a female fronted band from Slovenia and Croatia which plays music in the vein of Yaphet Kotto and Submission Hold. Posthardcore stuff with lyrics about consumerism, indepence and social networks. Though Analena are very good in what they do. This record, released by Moonlee Records, is just a bit too much for my taste. I like my punk a bit more simple.



Bernays Propaganda - My Personal Holiday cd

Bernays Propaganda have somethings in common with the aforementioned Analena. Both bands have Slovenian roots and are on Moonlee Record. Like Analena Bernays Propaganda also is a female fronted postpunk band with political lyrics. There are lots of differences though. For instance Bernays Propaganda is more melodic and their sound pays hommage to bands like Gang Of Four and LCD Soundsystem. This is a band that could easily play for a very broad audience and fill big clubs and stages on festivals.

Dowzer - Not As Plant cd

Dutch based Dowzer play their punkrock with great harmonies and remind me of bands like Teen Idols and Screeching Weasel. Funny lyrics and a good sound is basically all a band like this needs to gain the right audience. Especially in Belgium and Spain there should be enough punks who like this kind of sound.



Losing Must - Reclaiming Yesterday ep

Danish band Losing Must are the last band in this blogentry. Their 3 song ep reminds me a lot about early Satanic Surfers and Pennywise records. Fast skatepunk with some catchy parts. Good stuff.

After The Fall - Collar City - 7"

It's amazing what Shield Recordings has accomplished ever since their first release (which was an ep from my old band Heartfelt). Not only have they managed to release some of the best more recent records by Dutch bands as The Real Danger, Said and Done and Smash The Statues, they also worked with bands from Slovenia (In-Sane), Sweden (Atlas Losing Grip) and the United States (The Fake Boys).

Having grown so much these past 5 years doesn't seem to slow labelowners Gert and Fieke down. Besides putting together an European tour for The Fake Boys in October (they still need help on some dates), releases for Antillectual and After The Fall are already scheduled as well.

New York's After The Fall is the latest addition on the Shield roster. The band already gained quite some popularity with their 'Fort Orange'lp. This October a new full length entitled 'Eradication' will be released.

To tease fans of aggressive punkrock a bit Shield Recordings recently put out the 'Collar City' 7" containing three of the fastest and most furious punkrock songs I've heard in quite some time.

Titletrack 'Collar City' is all about working hard to get your band going just to give it all up after a while to lead a normal life.

'Coaster' seems to be all about NoFX not being the band they used to be (just check the lyrics: I was that kid who used to buy your records on the day that they came out. And I went to every show I could. I used to care but things have changed. I'm not the only one who feels this way, this shit is played out and really fucking lame. I still remember the first time hearing The Decline. I even placed some bids and won your first seveninch, the pmrc can suck on this (but I sold it). I just want to let you know that I'm giving up , and it's about time you do the same.)

The last song 'Comatose' is a personal song about expectations and love.

As said earlier this 7" is aggressive and hard. Don Fury did a good job getting an in your face sound for this band that soundwise kind be described as Propaghandi without the trashmetal, or a less melodic version of New Mexican Disaster Squad.

As a teaser for the upcoming full length 'Collar City' sure does its job. I for one am really curious how the new record, recorded by Jay Maas and featuring guest vocals from that guy from Make Do And Mend, will sound.

Sweet Empire - The Flood - 7"

There are hectic times, well at least in my personal life. Being an editor in chief does come with responsibilities, meetings, deadlines and what not. Therefore sadly enough other things sometimes slip through my hand. Writing a review for the debut ep of Dutch punkers Sweet Empire for example.

Yet I won't make it up to them by stating this is the most life changing piece of vinyl ever since the release of the first Minor Threat 7". Nor is Sweet Empire the best punk band around in the Netherlands right now (that is The Real Danger).

However I do am glad that after creating soundpollution with Pantherland (an akward attempt to mix metal and hardcore) vocalist Rowald is back to his love for punkrock and hey, the guy can actually sing!

Sweet Empire, based on these 4 songs, are the junior version of Descendents ripping it up in a New Jersey basement while not forgetting they originally liked Black Flag a bit more.

Especially the B-side of this 7" shows Sweet Empire is something more and can be something better than your average local punkband. The band is touring all over and eager to take a next step in their existence. Black Death Records did a good job giving this band a chance. Can't wait to hear new material and be in awe of Rowalds' Hypnotoad tattoo.


Myspace: Sweet Empire

Bouncing Souls

Every year when the winter is over and the weather gets better the first record I want to play is 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation' by New Jersey's finest The Bouncing Souls. The band celebrated their 20th birthday last year and honestly they are on of the few longstanding bands whose new records are as great if not better than previous releases. Recently they released 'Ghosts On The Boardwalk' and singer Greg found the time to answer some of my questions.

Ghosts On The Boardwalk is a compilation of previous released 7” songs. Were the songs written and recorded over time or all at once?
They were written from around 8/08-3/09. We kept creating as we finished up the recordings. We finished the mixes on 3 songs at a time which made the whole process a lot less stressfull.

Do you see it as a full length record or really more as a compilation? Is there a difference in approach?
We did think about the songs being released one at a time so our perception of them was a little different. It was fun to imagine them coming out on the first of each month so we had a slightly different attitude towards each one. We imagined each one standing on it's own.

The record is released on your own label. Does this mean you’re not on Epitaph anymore?
Yes. Our contract with Epitaph is done.

You are around for a long time now. How do you keep yourself interested in playing shows? Do you think you’ll be doing Bouncing Souls for 20 more years?
We love playing BS shows, We love each other, We love the music and all of our friends all over the world who come out to see us. The fun stays with as long as we dont tohr too much. We have no reason to stop playing as long as we are able to physically.

When are we going to see Bouncing Souls perform opening up for Bruce Springsteen. Would you like to do that?
I don't know. But that would be fun!!

Acoustic punk seems to be the next big thing. You guys are pretty good in acoustic songs so when are you going to release a record like that?
We have done various acoustic stuff over the years and we are talking about doing some more. We will see. At the moment I am on an acoustic tour with my wife Shanti, Kevin Seconds and Kepi Ghoulie. We will be doing some acoustic dates in Europe from April 6-13. We are listening to Kevin's new acoustic record right now on our way to a gig in Santa Barbara. It sounds great!! Check it out it's coming out May 11.

The Anchors Aweigh record was partly about the attacks on New York resulting in quite a heavy record. Years later how do you look back at that period and record. ?
Do you think with Obama the US is starting over fresh?
Wow. That is 4 questions in one. I don't even know where to start. It's a bit complicated. When we are recording new music we usually don't look back too much. We are doing our best to express the current moment we are living in.
Obama is definitely not starting fresh. The government is so full of corruption that needs to be weeded out it cant be easy to manage all of that from obama's position. It's not an easy job but I think he is doing ok so far and I support him.

You have gone from an underground punkrock band to a bigger underground punkrock band. What is the biggest advice you can give, with your experience, to bands starting right now?
Do what you love! Support each other and music itself!! Have fun! Get better and better at having fun! That will reflect in your music and the way you do business.

Which current bands are able to inspire a bunch of guys who have probably seen it all?
At the moment I'm really digging Kevin's new acoustic stuff. I'm getting more familiar with Kepi Ghoulies songs now that we have been on tour and they are so much fun. I can't speak for the other guys but that's what I have been loving at the moment.

Propagandhi:Supporting Caste interview

To be honest I admire Propagandhi more for their lyrics and the way they do things, than for their music. Still when the opportunity did arise to interview them on their new album 'Supporting Caste' I didn't hesitate. Bassman Todd Kowalski was kind enough to answer my not that great questions.



Why leave Fat and decide upon Smallman? Was it time for something different? So far how do things work out on a ‘smaller’ label well at least from a European perspective?
Yeah, we wanted to do something different. We are friends with everyone at Smallman and they are from our hometown of Winnipeg so we thought it would be a good idea. In Europe the record is on Hassle and Hotel Van Cleef which is run, in part, by our Friend Marcus who we've known for years and years. He's a great guy! It all seems to be working out well. Why ship our records all the way across the world and have them sold as imports? Now they are domestic releases. Our friend in china might even be releasing the cd.

As punkrock veterans do you keep up with new bands and if so which new and old bands do you like and are an inspiration?
I always keep up with a lot of new bands. I really love a lot of metal bands like Cynic, Immolation, Necrophagist, and Krisiun, I like some new punk bands but don't listen to them too much at home simply because some metal bands are scorching the earth right now! I Love old bands like Born Against, Manliftingbanner, Sticks and Stones, MDC, Voivod, Razor, Crucifucks, man I could list a million of them! I'm still into it all 100%.

First you released the news you would stop with the G7 label, now the new record is partly released by it. What happened? Why did you come back on that decision?
We flow like the mighty river! We never know which way it will turn. We just figured it would be another good G7 release. Why not? Ha ha.

Can you tell me where the song Supporting Caste is about. And if it is about the Indian caste system do you really think a song by a Canadian band will change anything about that?
The song is not specifically about the caste system in India although it includes that as well. there are tonnes of unwritten caste systems in every country and between many types of people. The song is really about all the people who through history will never have their story told or acknowledged even though they did profound or powerful things, or perhaps suffered immensely for Kings, generals, saviors, etc.. to have their place of esteem and glory in the history books. the supporting caste is the majority of people working hard and keeping the world afloat.

How do you avoid simply sloganeering punk rock criticism and also do something about the topics you discuss in your songs?
We avoid sloganeering by playing and writing from the heart. We just say what's truly on our minds. We don't try to be part of some made up "revolution" or something. We're just writing songs about our day to day experiences and things that move us the same as someone writing love songs or something. Our music is fast and heavy, when I hear these sounds it does not move me to write love lyrics in the typical sense. It is truly an outlet for our frustrations in the world. I know every metal band has said that since the dawn of time, but it's true. it's hard to live in and accept a world that seems so at odd with what we believe to be fair and just.


You’ve toured the US with Paint It Black recently. How was it to share the stage with a band that everyone sees as the best thing in hardcore since a while. How did the tour came about and did you guys have late night discussion with Dr.Dan?
We live in Canada and don't read music magazines or blogs so I was unaware that they were thought of like that by the masses before we went on tour. I can see why they are so highly regarded. They are a great band and great guys. Dan has great and thoughtful lyrics and always has something to say. I was trying not to talk to much on tour to save my voice but I did talk to Dan and he's a very, very nice and good guy. the tour came about by someone suggesting some bands. We checked them out and liked Paint It Black and thought they'd be good to have along. It was a good choice. I have only good things to say about them.

What excatlty has Bill Stevenson done in the studio that made you sound better than on previous records?
I think a lot of people don't know that Jason Livermore at the Blasting Room is the guy who also does a lot of tracking and almost all the mixing so he should get a lot of the credit. They are very meticulous with the playing and tuning down there . they work very very hard to make sure everything is on the right track. We were in there for hours. Then they work very, very hard on the mixing process. Jason was seriously in there for hours and hours, and hours at a time with no breaks. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen someone work so hard on a record in my whole life. He deserves a shitload of credit for his efforts.

Top 3 Shelter records according to twitter

Like many others I spend a lot of time on twitter (twitter.com/xroldx) and together with my 'followers' I came up with this top 3 of Shelter records.

1. Mantra (1995, Roadrunner Records) This was the record that got me into Shelter. Actually Shelter was the first non European hardcore band that I've seen in a small club instead of a festival. The impression that show left on me, changed me for good I guess. I was already into punk, hardcore and straight edge but after that show it became a huge part of my life.

2. Attaining The Supreme (1993, Equal Vision Records) The Shelter record I play most often, songs like 'Consumer' and ' In Praise of Others' are so good.

3. When 20 Summers Pass (Victory Records) Surprisingly a lot of people on Twitter said this is their favourite Shelter record. I admit it was a good comeback after that awful Beyond Planet Earth thing, but it's not up there with Mantra. To me this will always be the Shelter record 'with that guy from Saves The Day singing'

Another record that quite a few people named (so it should be on spot 4) is Eternal (2006, Good Life Recordings). To me it's a Ray Cappo solo record. I miss a genuine band on that one and ofcourse Porcell's work.

Here you can check a complete discography of Shelter and other Ray Cappo bands. Doing so I 'discovered' that I have never heard any song from The Purpose, The Passion is that one worth checking out?

Lyric of the week: The Damned

A new thing on this blog. Every week I'll try and post a lyric that I think is worth posting because of its contents.

The Damned - Antipope (from the record Machine Gun Etiquette)

I’m going back to church tonight
Take me back when I was eight
But I don’t mean to pray
I’m gonna nick the collection plate

I’ve got nothing against church
Or the people who go there and show there
Plain ignorant and don’t understand
A congregation at weekends won’t change their behaviour
So many people are weak enough
To have to seek answers from pedlars of hope
I should know I used to go there myself
Until the day I became antipope

There’s gonna be some fun tonight
We're spreading news around the town
That the vicars' a transvestite
With a fetish for robes and gowns

Religion doesn’t mean a thing
Its just another way of being right wing
I think sex films are okay
I don’t dig that pope no way

Get A Grip oN Yourself

Yesterday me and Frankie Deny got in the car and conquered the snow and ice to go and see The Stranglers. I am a big fan of the early Stranglers records and because I'd never seen the band live I didn't really know what to expect.

The band kicked off great with 'Get A Grip', 'Peaches' and some other old tunes but then they did some later work that I found rather boring.

Still for a bunch of old blokes the band played tight and hard. Giving me a slight impression of Strangler concerts back in the days.




Didn't have the money round to buy a Morry Thou
Been around and seen a lot to shake me anyhow
Begged and borrowed sometimes I admit I even stole
The worse crime that I ever did was play some rock 'n roll.

But the money's no good
Just get a grip on yourself
But the money's no good
Just get a grip on yourself

Suffering convictions on a two-way stretch inside
The air in here is pretty thin, I think I'll go outside
Committed for insanity and crimes against the soul
The worst crime that I ever did was play some rock 'n roll.

But the money's no good
Just get a grip on yourself
But the money's no good
Just get a grip on yourself

And you should know

Now I find from week to week the sentence sticking fast
Turn the corner, rub my eyes and hope the world will last
Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole
Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n roll

But the money's no good
Just get a grip on yourself
But the money's no good
Just get a grip on yourself

Dillinger Four - Civil War (cd)

The uncrowned kings of punkpop deliver again! No, I'm not talking about The Offspring or Green Day but the Dillinger Four. It took them six long years, but finally a new record is out for everyone into sincere, catchy music to enjoy. This release has been controversial since an editor of a college radio station lost his job over it. (The damn fool shouldn't have mailed around his password to fatwrecks'stream)
But it's not just that hype that makes 'Civil War' an important record. No it's songs like 'Gainesville', 'The Art of Whore' and 'Parishiltonisametaphor' that make this album a must-listen-if-you-appreciate-good-music-that-isn't-made-by-boys-in-skinnyjeans-and-makeup.
It may not appeal to as many people as The Gaslight Anthems' 59 Sound (which even my mom loves) but that doesn't mean 'Civil War' is less good. It's just more punk, more underground and finally more songs by the great Minneapolis Four.

Rise Against - Appeal To Reason (cd)

Bad Religion and weak. That are the keywords for this new record from Rise Against. It starts of great with 'Collapse' which sounds a whole lot like Bad Religion and has great lyrics about the decline of the United States.
Sadly the record declines after that as well. The songs that follow can be categorized as poppunk and numetal not unlike the songs on previous records 'Siren Songs' and 'The Sufferer and the Witness'. The problem with these new songs however is that they don't get stuck in your head. You never want to scream along and it all tends to be boring elevator music.
It says enough about 'Appeal To Reason' that the best song is the acoustic 'Hero of War'. That's the only emotional song on a record which leaves the impression Rise Against wanted to get out of their contract with Universal fast so made a quick record to fulfill their obligation. I don't think their fans are going to appreciate it though, they expect more of this band. And they should receive more.

Only fast bands allowed

This show is going to be a blast!

Bruises everywhere: Paint It Black redux

Paint It Black, ZXZW, 20-9-08
Originally uploaded by xroldx

If one thing this weekend has made it once again clear that nothing gives me more energy than good music. I prefer a great show over all the energy drinks out there.
The weekend kicked off with State Of Affairs playing a show on this two day mainstream festival in a big park in Breda. Though circumstances were very different and I felt akward on stage we did pretty well. Some punks came to me afterwards and tell me how much they liked it. It's always weird playing hardcore for a crowd that doesn't know about Minor Threat or Youth of Today, but I think we got the message across anyhow.

Than it was back in the train to Tilburg to see Paint It Black, with Dan on vocals. The band also played as part of this big underground festival (ZXZW) with over 275 bands, so I was uncertain of the crowdreaction. After taking some pics on my mobile I went upfront and quickly things got going a bit with Frankie Deny (from Heartfelt and Cracks In The Wall) doing weird moves and runs, some stagedives and lots of singalongs. My throat is still sore and I've bruises everywhere. The show was one rush, at least for me.

I didn't plan to go and do much on sunday. That was until Sjarm 13 (formerly Modern Life Is War) dropped by to see our new girl. He was going to see The Real Danger at ZXZW. Since the weather was good I put my son Jelle in the buggy and walked together with Sjarm and his girl to the venue. On arrival more and more people showed up and Jelle had a great time running in and out of the venue. Climbing on benches and whatnot. So I stayed till The Real Danger started. I guess Jelle likes punkrock cause he didn't want to leave. He was crying for a while on the way home.


That night when the kids were asleep I went into the centre one last time. C'mon it's not everyday you have the opportunity to watch a legendary punkband for free in your own city. So I went out to see Wire. Though I find some of their records pretty boring, their liveset was great. It's always inspirational to see really oldschool punks still making music and still playing tight. They didn't play 12xu but the other songs didn't disappoint me.

Next year I'm going to try and see more of the ZXZW fest. This time I missed out on Trash Talk, Blacklisted, Vogue, Sick Mormons and more.


Click here for more pictures of Wire, Paint It Black and State Of Affairs.

Current State of Affairs

So here's a quick update on Dutch newest youth crew outfit State Of Affairs:

New Drummer - As you might or might not know we've replaced our old drummer Mark for Ray. Ray is known for bands like MM and Operation Phoenix, plays tight as shit and loves the straight edge. You bet he's the best man to do the job and has already proven that last friday when we opened up for Paint It Black and Trash Talk.

New Shows - That's right we've got some new dates. This saturday 20th september we'll play the big Breda Barst Festival in.. Breda. We're probably going to play Frankie Denys' Short Fast and Loud Fest as well which will take place on October 4th in the Hall of Fame skatepark in Tilburg. There we'll share the stage with Seein Red, Citizens Patrol, Cracks In The Wall, Room 13, Milkman and more.
And on November 19th we'll play the infamous Innocent, Hengelo with VERSE, Anchor and I Rise. Looking forward to that one!!!

New Songs - We're currently working on new songs for a seveninch or something.

check myspace.com/stateofaffairshc for regular updates, info to order our demo etc

Paint It Black replaces singer

Paint It Black - Arnhem - 12-09-08
Originally uploaded by xroldx

So I was looking forward to seeing Paint It Black again for a long time. You bet I was dissapointed past friday when I found out Dan Yemin wouldn't be singing.
Apparently Paint It Blacks guitarplayer was so smart to wash his passport and wasn't allowed to leave the country. So Dan had to play guitar and this dutch guy Nico (from the Hunger) was found to do the vocals, the new unit only had time for one rehearsel. Still Nico did a pretty good job, considering how difficult the lyrics and songlines of Paint It Black are. Nico also went with the band to Sweden to do another show, the guitarplayer however should be in Europe right now, getting back on tour, which means Dan will be back on the mic. I hope to see that myself when they visit my hometown next week.


You can read Dan Yemin's account of what happened here.


Oh besides Paint It Black, Trash Talk played as well. I've never seen that band before but damn they blow everything away. Somehow it reminded me of the first time American Nightmare played in Europe. Citizens Patrol was also on the bill and did a great job as ever. Our own set didn't go as good as I think we can be. It was sloppy but people seemed to like it fair enough.


Click here for more pictures of this show.

Enter Room 13

While most of us can only drool when reading Steven Blush's American Hardcore and wonder how great and dangerous hardcorepunk was back in the eighties there are still bands out there right now proving hardcorepunk can still be aggressive, confronting and out of control. Though a lot of bands try and emulate what they've seen from old footage of Minor Threat and Black Flag, only a few actually pull it off without coming over as a copycat. Room 13 definately is a band that cleary doesn't give a shit and do their own thing. And they're good at it. With a 7" coming out soon it was time to enter the room with vocalist Niels. (All pictures by Casper de Bruin)

Where does the name Room 13 come from?
Room 13 is ofcourse a song from Black Flag's 'Damaged' lp. But it’s also a line from a Circle Jerks song. Sometimes i like the name, sometimes i don't. I definately like the two songs and the lyrics -keep me alive, don't know if i can do it- very desperate and harsh. But i hate the fact there are bands called room 11, room 101 etc. It's just a name. Before we got this name we were called Sniff Some Glue, so i guess Room 13's a pretty cool name.

Did the band start out with the intention to play early 80's hardcore punk or did you have other plans?

When we started out we were just fooling around. Me and Luuk wanted to play the songs 'One Track Mind' from Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, and Herman Brood and his Wild Romance – 'Rock and Roll Junkie'. Rock and roll / punk rock with piano's and stuff, but we sucked big time.

Then when we were rehearsing someone played the first riff from the song 'Minor Threat' and the rest jumped in. We forgot about the rock and roll bullshit and played what we liked the most. At first we played some songs from Circle Jerks and Government Issue and then we started to write our own songs.

You aren't the original singer of the band, so how come you got the mic after a couple of shows?
Luuk, Marco, me and Gijs, who played guitar when we started out, play in bands together for ages. From 15 year old local punkrock cover bands to our hardcore band called Ceasefire. At one time we were fed up with making music so we switched instruments. Luuk wanted to sing and Marco wanted to play drums. I played bass and then, when Gijs quit, Luuk brought Alex and his brother Jeroen to play guitar.

The thing is, we sucked, but we liked what we were doing so we knew, if we ever wanted to record something better than the almost hilaric demo songs we did in this formation, we had to switch back.

You guys seem to have a kind of nihilistic attitude about everything you do. So do you really don't care or is that just the way things come across?

We don't care about being tight or well organised or something. Speaking for myself, i don't rehearse to be tight so the audience will like us more. I want my songs to be an expression for the things punching my mind whole day long. When we play it's almost the only opportunity i get to do something with them. If people like it, fine, if they think it sucks, that's o.k. with me too. It's not my intention to enjoy people...ofcourse it's also about fun, but it's definatelly not about disco.

You recorded the 7" with Patrick Delabie what was the best story he told you and why did you choose 195 studios for the recordings?

It’s no secret that this man is very enthousiastic about hardcore and punk and delivers good work, so easy decision. No clicktrack bullshit etc, in the 10 hours we spent in his studio, we finished everything. Yeah ofcourse he told a lot of good stories about the Bad Brains, Black Flag, nNirvana etc. but I was too busy finetuning my lyrics so I can’t really remember haha.

My favourites are: Delabie teaching our drummer Luuk “how dead stop would do it”…Delabie telling me i should listen to the Replacements – 'Sorry ma forgot to take out the trash'…Delabie who tried to give us the same sound as the Saints’ 'I’m stranded'…Delabie yelling: more Darby Crash on vocals…Delabie telling us: people who think there’s too much feedback on these recordings suck. Good times.

The new 7'' is called User/Abuser what is that song about?

The song is about being a model citizen… about how fucking snobs look down on you… about ending up in the gutter… that’s it.

Can you tell me where the inspiration for 'Ball and Chain' comes from?
The inspiration for that song comes from being a couch slouch, having big plans but always fuck them up… I wrote it when I lived on my own in the worst fucking city of Holland, Breda. The room was just a small white prison cell. I was a total wreck back then, and I’m still glad a good friend of mine gave me a room in the house in Tilburg where he was living at that time…thanks Haak.

Anyway, I was sitting in that room, listening to one of my favourite songs ever, 'Ball and Chain' by Janis Joplin, or Big Brother and the Holding Company whatever…and the lyrics really got stuck in my head. So I stole them. I’m sorry Janis.

Why is Breda such a bad place to live in?

Well, sure this will sound stupid to a lot of people who've been living there for ages, but my school sucked, all of my jobs except the one at the mercedes car dealer but especially my factory nightshifts sucked, the bars sucked, the fancy students sucked, nac sucks big time and all (except from 1 girl ofcourse) the people i met there sucked. I come from a real small Brabant village and the change to some randstad wannabe shitplace just freaked me out...

Which current bands do you think earn more support and from which bands can't you understand people still go out to see them play?

Let me think, I’d say Marked Men, a US punkrock band that reminds me of bands like the Weirdos and Ramones, but with a modern sound like Leatherface or something. They’ve got some very awesome records out. And after you checked out Marked Men, listen to Total Abuse.

A band I really don’t like? It would be to easy to name a band that plays a style of hardcore I don’t like anyway…so I say..Municipal Waste.

Are you still as much into hardcore as you were three years ago or in a different way?
I don’t know. I listen to some other bands and I don’t go to shows as often as I once did, but I still like hardcore for the same reasons as when I came into it…maybe even more.

What are your reasons for listening to and playing hardcore, and how come you like it even more now than when you first came into the scene?

The reasons i started listening to it were that it was harder and more agressive than anything else i've ever heard, and probably i was looking for something like that. I saw Reaching Forward play its last shows. I knew shit about hardcore, but my favourite songs were from the Agnostic Front 'United Blood' single, that and Minor Threat, i didn't knew shit about people and some kind of scene...i went to some RxF gig, not many people showed up but i didn't care. They played their set and it drived me insane, fucking powerfull, and on top of it they covered 'United Blood' and my blood boiled, it gave me this feeling nothing else ever gave me before. I went to shows more regular with my friends and the handshaking bullshit began. Sure you meet cool people, but a lot of morons too. Nowdays i care less about the social scene thing and i walk my own way instead. I don't see some friends as often as i used to and that sucks too but those who are true stay true. If this sounds likes hippie shit, so be it.

How come almost everytime you guys play something odd seems to happen ;-)

Haha you tell me! Stupid behaviour, alcohol, bad luck…I guess some kind of combination.

Myspace: Room 13
Label: Crucial Attack

Atlas Losing Grip or the comeback of Swedish Punkrock

Swedish punkband Atlas Losing Grip pleasantly surprised me with their debut record ' Shut The World Out' on which they manage to put me in a timemachine and warp me back to an era when Swedish punkbands like Satanic Surfers and No Fun At All were on top of the foodchain. Time for a little chat with bandmember Stefan.

Please explain the bandname to me because it's not a common name for a band I think?
Ok dude, the band name is not so hard to understand with some fantasy and some knowledge about stuff like greek mythology. According to the original myth Atlas was a titan and was punished to carry the weight of the heavens on his back. A common misconception of the myth says that he was forced to carry earth on his back. Anyhow, feel free to interpret as much as you want, the world will remain fucked.

During the nineties bands like Millencolin, No Fun At All and Satanic Surfers were really popular worldwide. What happened with the Swedish punkscene afterwards cause I can't recall such bands coming out of Sweden for a while except for maybe The Hives.

Actually I don't know what happened. I spent the nineties going to a lot of concerts with both swedish and international bands and we were really spoiled here in Sweden since a lot of the bands from here got so appreciated worldwide. You could check out great bands all the time. That created a huge interest for melodic punk and when the interest of that music started to fade away back in the late nineties I guess people just bought what happened and moved on. I believe that crust got bigger for a while and then the emo crap started to persist to torture our ears. I really hope that the melodic punk rock will find its way back somehow, now that everything is supposed to be soooo retro. By the way, I personally hate the Hives, haha!

Rodrigo from Satanic Surfers did some vocals on three of the songs on the 'Shut The World Out' record. Why did you ask him?

Well, Rodrigo is a good friend with a great voice. It felt natural to ask him, I thought the melodies in those songs would suit his voice perfectly. I've always loved Satanic Surfers, hold them as a strong influence of A L G and thought it would be cool to have him sing a couple of lines on our album.

How does a Swedish band end up on a Dutch label?

We got a deal with the Japanese label Bells On Records at first and we spoke to the guys of Antillectual after a gig and they told us to contact Shield Recordings which we did. Shield liked our shit and we liked theirs so everything worked out just fine.
There are also other labels included in this release. No Reason Records in Italy and DV..s Records in France.
We also have distribution deals with some other labels such as Eating Shit Records in Spain and one for Portugal coming up.

The song 'Tearing International Treaties' is about the US governement and their refusal to particpate in the Kyotoprotocol. But what does the Swedish government do to protect the earth? Is that enough? What do you do yourself?

In Sweden people are pretty aware of the climate issue and I think that people try to live there after. Yet with the government we have here today I'm not so sure that the climate issue is one of the highest priorities. The international work to limit the climate changes is mostly regulated by the UN and I don't really know Swedens part in the whole situation.

All the members of the band support fairtrade, vegetarianism/veganism and recyceling for example.

Can you tell me what the song 'Affordable Solutions' is about?

It's about the care of old people, people with psychological problems and how a lot of them are stuffed with drugs instead of having their real issues and the roots to their problems dealt with, how money and lack of empathy lay ground for suffering - both mental and physical.


One of the songs on the new record is an Adhesive cover, why that band and why that song?


I love Adhesive and they are friends of ours. The lyrics of the song are sane and true and it is a great song. Thats why.

Can we expect more new bands coming out of Sweden and if so which bands?

If you like more aggressive hardcore check out our good friends in Balance and also check The Indecision Alarm (if you did'nt already), Sista Sekunden and We Live in Trenches.

Thanks for the questions! Heavy Mental! / Stefan

Myspace: Atlas Losing Grip
Label: Shield Recordings