So last week we managed to record all the drum and bass tracks in just over 4 days. We will be returning to the Erock studio to work on guitar and vocals next week and the week after that. We have not planned a release date yet, as we are still figuring out details on who will release it. Recordings should be done by the end of March, hopefully it will not be too long before you can get your hands on this album.

To put it mildly, we are absolutely stoked to finally get these songs recorded. If you want to keep up with what we are doing in the studio, consider ‘fanning’ us on Facebook or following us on Twitter. We will be sending out updates regularly.

Below is a little video that summarizes the first 4 days (including English subtitles). Hope you like what you hear.

video on youtube

I could imagine that our stories bore you as much as my stories bore the rest of the travel crew, but we’re still with Willem, Riekus, Maltix, P. Titty and me. This last part contains our four last shows, all in France, featuring more police, Burlesque strippers… The complete tour report with videos and pictures is right here

Thursday February 11th 2010 – Bayonne, Basque country (the French part)

Pasaia to Baiona, should be 60 kilometers, so not that long. Luckily we left in time, cause it was snowing, slippery roads and a car crash on the peage highway, meaning: a traffic jam. It took us a couple of hours to get there. When we arrived, we could hang out at Manux’ place. Got some coffee and had some good conversations about punkrock. The show this night was part of a music festival in the city at different locations. We played at bar Embuscade. Sounds like a place for Dutch punkrock! Marnix and Manux got the van to drive it to the street, but they didn’t seem to find the right way. I have been waving for half an hour at the corner of the street and they passed me 3 or 4 times. Aaaaargh! I thought I was blind!

We were supposed to be the only band playing at the bar, but after two and a half song, the police thought that it was one band too much. Again the police showed themselves your best friend! Result, we had to quit. So we decided to get the acoustic guitar from the van and play some acoustic songs. After all, there were people that came for the show and we didn’t want to let the filmcrew of the local Basque TV channel down. Willem and Riekus were used to playing acoustic songs with Yvo. For me it was new, so I focussed on drinking whisky and eating peanuts and do an ocassional vocal harmony. Kinda weird, but fun. We drank some local Basque alcoholic drinks, got our picture taken with the bartenders and went back to Manux’ house, got some food and had a good night sleep.

Friday February 12th 2010 – La Rochelle, France

Today we were heading north again. The van took us to the beautiful city of La Rochelle. On our way we passed Cognac and since we got used to drink local schnapps, we got some this night! We arrived at Barbarella and saw two showposters for this night. One was the Antillectual tourposter, second was a Burlesque strippers poster. Huh? We went inside, got a beer from the bartender and he confirmed that there was going to be a Burlesque show that night. We got picked up by Antoine from Mel Team Plugs to eat at his place. After the food we were back in time for the first Burlesque show. Imagine you’re in the 50’s with pin-ups. Was weird to see that at the punkrockshow, but I guess there was a double booking. There were two local punkrockbands on the bill and after them, there was another pin-up show. We played as last on the small stage. Willem stood in front, I wanted to do the same, but people were standing in front. I decided to play on stage and during the first song, I fell off. Fail! I got up and continued the rest of the show as if nothing had happened. We got great responses during and after the show, which is always nice. We said goodbye to the rock ‘n roll bar and got back to Antoines house to spend the night. Drank the Cognac, busted the water reservoir in the toilet and went to sleep.

Saturday February 13th 2010 – Brest, France

We got up and took off to Brest, the most western part of France. I did not realise this city is more to the west than the largest part of Wales. We found the venue and met promoter Plume, the singer of Speedball. Unloaded the van, got some cheap gas for the van and had great food. The dessert was a vegan banana kiwi pie. Yummie! Petit sstarted to drink most of the wine and got a little drunk I guess. Firsts band played streetpunk with a couple of more influences. Not really my cup of tea. Speedball played melodic hardcore that reminded me of bands like Bane and O’Hara. Actually, Plume and his outfit reminded us all of Pitter O’Hara. When Riekus sent Pitter a textmessage, he turned out to be in Brest. We hooked him up with a guestlist spot and Pitter was right in time for our show. We played after Last Exit To Brooklyn, who played more modern hardcore. I was really impressed by the amount of people at the show. It’s always nice to play when there are lots of people. I saw some people dancing and we had to play two encores. Didn’t know my old body was able to do that. After the show we said goodbye to Pittter, met another Dutch guy who was a t the show and tried to get away from drunk girls. We slept at a friend of Plume and had to wake up really eraly. Tomorrow was going to be the last day of tour, meaning a 750 kilometer drive to Lille and after Lille the drive home, with stops in Lembeek, Breda and Nijmegen.

Sunday February 14th 2010 – Lille, France

Today was the last day of tour and the trip was tough. First we had to go from Brest to Lille. We drove through Bretagne and Normandy to get to Lille. On our way we past Dinan and Caen, reminding me of bad music. We arrived a little late in Lille, but we were in time for the soundcheck. Shared some backline with Fast Motion and Foolish and the show started almost in time. First band played music that sometimes reminded me of Swedish Smalltown. Like! Foolish was the second band and although the guys played pretty well, I will bever be a fan of ska music. Third was Fast Motion, a band that I really like. It had been a year since I saw them, so it was good to see them again. The guys told me they were going to tour Japan, awesome! We played as last and I guess we were a bit tired from the tour and longing to go home. There were not that much people, but we gave it our best shot. After the show, we quickly loaded the van, got some food and left for Lembeek, Belgium, where Petit lives. We heard horrible stories about the weather forecast and it started to snow when we left. Belgian roads are always bad, but this night they were even worse. We made it to Lembeek, dropped off Petit and continued our way to Breda. I got out there and waved goodbye to Willem, Riekus and Marnix who had to finish the last part to Nijmegen. After 16 days on the road, we were home again. Don’t think this will slow us down, this week has 3 more shows and next week we will be recording our new album. Oh, were also planning new tours. One with High Five Drive from Canada to France, Belgium and the UK and another one through a large part of Europe in spring. See you on the road!

Sunday February 7th 2010 – Porto, Portugal
We were pretty late in Porto, but in time to unload and build up the stuff. We met with promoter Ivo, who just started to book shows in Porto again. There were four bands playing. I forgot some names, but I really liked the voice of the singer of the first band. As third played Mr. Myagi, that reminded me of Dutch band Citizens Patrol. Thrash! We had some difficulties with the sound and feedbacking stuff. Anyway, guess we played pretty decent. After the show we had great dinner at Ivo’s place. We drank some exclusive wine and of course Port wine. We had a good night sleep and left the next morning for Oviedo, because we could sleep somewhere near the venue of the next show.

Monday February 8th 2010 – Day off @ La Felguera, Spain
Holy shit, what a hellride! We had to drive only 500 kilometers, but we didn’t expect the Portugese and Spanish Himalaya. There were parts that we could only drive 30 or 40 kilometers per hour. We had to be in La Felguera at 8 PM, but we were there after 10 PM. Frodo and Patxi were so nice to wait for us. We got some food, drank Maredsous beer from Belgium and watched This Is Spinal Tap. Damn, I gotta modify my amp so it can go to 11. Next morning, we were picked up by Patxi to go to the gym!

Tuesday February 9th 2010 – Oviedo, Spain
Patxi’s dad was friends with the owner of the gym and arranged that we could take a shower for free. You really get to know eachother in the shower. I dropped Riekus’ soap. Dunno who picked it up though. After some coffees, beers and cokes at the Irish Pub we left for the venue. Got a perfect parking spot and entered a beautiful venue. Too bad they had shirry Dutch beers. We skipped the Heineken and gave Marnix a bottle of Buckler. Is that shit still around? Je zuipt of je zuipt niet! The show was opened by Mr. Lafleur, with Patxi on vocals. I really liked the melodic punkrock stuff. Nice NOFX and Propagandhi covers were played, sweet! As second was Threewordname. I really liked them too! They played more experimental punkrock. Great band! I think people enjoyed our show, so that was nice. Unfortunately we had to stop early so we had to skip some songs. After the show we had some short conversations. Actually there was a guy from Allentown, USA that saw Antillectual before. Discussed some politics, but it was also time to load the van again and leave for the sleepingplace. We were sleeping at a studio, where Willem found an LP called “Als je haar maar goed zat” and bought it. Watch out eBay!

Wednesday February 10th 2010 – Pasaia / Trinxterpe, Basque Country (the Spanish part)
We left the next day for Basque country. Never been there before, so I was looking forward to go there. People from Ovideo said the drive would be without mountains, well, for us Dutch these were mountains! The venue, Sala Mogambo turned out to be a great place! Too bad we had to carry all stuff up the stairs. At the show, I met again with Alaska Pipeline. I played with them with my old band in Portsmouth, UK. On the bill was also Curasan, who played instrumental postrock stuff. I missed their first half, cause I was eathing amazing potato soup and delicious couscous. Alaska Pipeline played a great show, but we were even more impressed by their artwork and screenprints. Although we had some problems with the snare and strings, we played pretty okay I guess. There were still a lot of people on a Wednesday. Even after we accidently insulted them, by speaking Spanish, speaking English, calling them San Sebastian. Sorry!
After the show we had a couple of beers and had good times with people that were still around. When the bar closed, we traded some Smash The Statues vinyl and tapes for more beer. No Dr. Pepper. When everybody left, we decided to get some sleep. We could sleep at the venue, which was great. Next morning we got some breakfast, loaded the van and took off for Bayonne. Did I mention it was snowing in Basque country? Dammit!

It’s been a couple of days since you heard from us, dear followers. The last days we’ve been to Zaragoza, Madrid, Setúbal, Lisboa, Mouriscas and now we’re in Porto. Still curious what we did? Sure? Alright, don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Tuesday February 2nd 2010 – Zaragoza, Spain

We arrived at the venue in Zaragoza and it turned out to be some hardrockbar. We heard that Adhesive and Hot Water Music played there too. We met with Luis, the promoter and his wife, some of the most friendly people I ever met. Not only did they book the show, they gave us food, a place to sleep but they also hosted our friends in This Routine Is Hell that had a day off. The show was opened by a new band called Skeptiks. These girls played some nice punkrocktunes. Only two bands on the bill tonight. At midnight I turned 28, eh… 18 and Bon Jovi sang to me while I got a Tequila. Thanks boys!

After the show we went to the sleepingplace. I was sleeping in a room with 3 cats that jumped on me all night. Guess I made some friends. Before we took off, Luis provided me with some good Spanish punkrock music. Got back to the van and left for Madrid.

Wednesday February 3rd 2010 – Madrid, Spain

This is Madrid, not Barcelona. In front of the venue we had to wait for the promoter and the owner to show up, so we killed time with the remaining episodes of New Kids, verrekte mongol jonge! This night we would play with This Routine Is Hell again. The people at True Believers did a nice job. Again, great food and a wonderful looking venue with posters of great bands like AC/DC, The Who, Green Day, Ramones and Limp Bizkit. Did I just type that? Anyway, the show was nice, although we encountered some minor problems. Hey, it’s still punkrock! accidently called Madrid Barcelo… Sorry folks! Nab, a kid from Nice who booked us shows on some of our first tours, also showed up.

We loaded the van and drove to the sleepingplace. An awesome house in the outskirts of Madrid. Joris Tarrel destroyed a painting, I got attacked by a ferret, but we had fun. Playing some acoustic songs and went to sleep. Next morning would be early because we had to leave at 10.

Thursday February 4th 2010 – Day Off @ Madrid, Spain

First day off this tour. There are worse places to be on days like these. We took the metro to the city, which turned out to be a little disaster. We checked in, checked out, had to check in again. We didn’t check in enough, got stopped by security and we were only replying with “this is a 10 way ticket!”. Apparently, when you do that enough, it works! Took a little walk in the city centre, got some coffee and met up with Nab again. He took us to a Hare Krshna place. Not really our cup of tea, but they served great vegetarian and vegan food. Sweet! We said goodbye to Nab again and split up. Willem and Petit went for coffee and internet, Riekus, Marnix and me went for the Prado museum. Convinced that there were some Picasso paintings here, Marnix went to the reception and asked where they were. Wrong museum! Major lolz @ Marnix. Ashamed to stand next to him, we left for the Reina Sofia museum. I’m not really into this stuff and I was really amazed by a giant piece of poo with metal in it, the Dali painting of The Face of the Masturbator and some Joop Klepzeiker kinda Picasso cartoon with giant falli. Marnix and Riekus were impressed by the Guernica, some big painting that I could have made when I was 10 years old.

We got some dinner in the city and left for the van. We could sleep the night at Marga’s place but we were unable to park the van, unless we were paying 60 euros. We decided to get a cheap hotel instead. Sorry for the troubles Marga! When we were waiting on a parking space outside of the hotel, we met with the police. Four cars, 8 cops. They searched the van, searched our bodies, checked everying. I’m glad we could keep our pants on at 3 AM outside in the cold winter. There was really no reason for doing this, but I guess we had to respect their authoritaah. The 4 Skins were right after all, Acht Cola Acht Bier. We parked the van at the hotel and caught some sleep. Woke up, took a nice shower and left for Portugal. Never been there before, nice to see some new places!

Friday February 5th 2010 – Day Off

Unfortunately we didn’t have a show this day, but our friends in This Routine Is Hell are playing in a squat somewhere near Setúbal and we might be able to sleep there as well. First we went into the boring city of Setúbal. Got some pizza, almost got hit by a car with no lights on so I decided to take off with no lights either. Oops! The squat had no address, but we were picked up by the boys in TRIH and went to the show. Don’t ask how we got there, but we managed. Hellrides, yeah! When we arrived, one of the dogs was friendly enough to pee on the van. Obrigado! The show started really late and some of us got some sleep. The rest watched some nice hardcore bands and saw TRIH play an awesome show. These guys get better and better! Late at night, we all went to sleep. Tomorrow LisBoah is the next stop.

Saturday February 6th 2010 – Lisboa & Mouriscas, Portugal

Today is gonna be a tough day. There are two shows, one in Lisboa and one in Mouriscas. We left for a one hour drive to Lisboa and when we arrived at the venue, Marnix realized he forgot his bag with passport, keys and other important stuff. What an ass! We unloaded the Tarrel-van and Marnix and me took it and drove back to Setúbal. Within less than two hours we were back in the city centre of Lisboa. It reminded me of San Fransisco with the hills, the trams, with the Golden Gate bridge and Jesus on the other side of the bay. Oh wait, I never been to SF. The show was organized by Joao of Infected Records, who put out Testimony. This was our last show with This Routine Is Hell on this tour. We played at some old theatre that looked really nice. People seemed to enjoy the show. Albert Fish played after us and released their new record this afternoon. By the time This Routine Is Hell started playing, we had to leave to catch the next show. Waved them goodbye and took off for Mouriscas

When we arrived in Mouriscas we were picked up by Xico, the promoter of tonight’s show. We entered a large community centre and got some spaghetti and letuce. Good food! We were harrassed by the local dorpsgek, but that was kinda funny. First two bands, Shake Shake And Show Me Your Pussy and The Wild Ones played some rokkerol tunes. Sweet! The third band, Defying Control played fast punkrock songs. I thought they were pretty amazing! At the time we started playing, it was really late, but there were still a lot of people that seemed to enjoy the show. Afterwards, a guy said that I screamed like a girl and Riekus didn’t have enough muscles. Thanks dude! I think we gave a million autographs and even Petit and Marnix signed tourposters. Rockstar attitudes among merchguys, pfff! After a quick bite we went to sleep really late. Guess we really needed sleep. Got up and got fresh fruit and home made soup by the grandma of Xico After saying goodbye we got in the van and continued our way to Porto, where we had to be early for another afternoon show.

Dear people who are still interested in our stories! Last Friday we started our tour to Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal. We will be on the road for 17 days and try to inform you every once in a while. The touring party consists of Marnix, Petit and of course, Tom, Riekus and Willem. Right now we’re on our way to Zaragoza. Here’s a little update on the first dates on tour. Hope you enjoy!

ANTILLECTUAL TOURREPORT JANUARY, FEBRUARY 2010

Belgium – France – Spain – Portugal

Friday January 29^th 2010 – Herselt, Belgium

Tour kickoff today at the Antillectual house in Nijmegen. I missed my train in Utrecht and when I arrived, the backline was already in the van. Marnix, who is joining us this tour was already there after getting lost in the town where he lives. Luckily we have a GPS this tour. We left for Herselt and arrived pretty early. Other bands this night were Timmy Hillfire, The Ignored and Second Base. In Herselt we hooked up with Petit, who is also tagging along on tour. We had great food made by Petit’s madamme, Karen. The West-Flemmish guys in The Ignored surprised me with New Noise, a Refused cover. Second base played some new songs that were really good. We drank some Juupkes and Orvallekes and left the same night because we had a 1000 kilometers to go to the next show.

The plan was to drive to a hotel South of Paris, catch some sleep and hit the road the next morning. When we passed the first peage, Petit found a nice way to thank the French. We needed to lose weight anyway. After midnight traffic jams, snowstorms Parisienne and a Hors Categorie drive to the hotel, we managed to get some sleep.

Saturday January 30^th 2010 – Fumel, France

On our way to the South, we started with nice weather that changed into snowstorms again. If we wanted snow, we would tour Sörmland, Sweden! Why did we bring swimshorts anyway? We arrived at the venue and the other bands, Open Nightmare and Ivan Rebroff’s Armpits were already there. We had great food and had some nice conversations. The show was at Pavilion 108, a pretty big venue. The other bands played pretty well, especially Ivan Rebroffs Armpits blew me away. Too bad their drummer didn’t play with dinosaur bones. After the show we drank a couple of beers and went to the hotel, had another drink and went to sleep. Guess we were tired after a long day in the van. After breakfast, we drove to Toulouse, enjoy the beautiful French landscape. We went to Pierro’s place and again time for some relaxing.

Sunday January 31^st 2010 – Toulouse, France

We went to the venue, a pretty new squat. Too bad I stepped in a dog turd. Too good, Marnix stepped in one too! Again, we had a great dinner. First band was Monsieurs de Fursac. They played instrumental noisy rock. Like! Second was Ivan Rebroff’s Armpits again. I was hanging out at the merch so I couldn’t see the show, but I guess they rocked as hard as in Fumel. Great band! Before our show, we were asked to play Ordinary, but I don’t know how to play it. Sorry Toulouse, next time I’ll be able to play it! Think we played a decent show. I saw people singing along, that’s always nice to see. During the evening, Marnix was attacked by a drunk French woman. Something with biting I guess. Kinky!

After the show we drove back to Pierro’s house and had a good sleep. Lovely breakfast in the morning and excellent coffee and tee. I can imagine why the people in our tourcrew that have been there before called this their second home. We left, got some gas, got some food and took off for Torelló, close to Barcelona. Weather seems good outside of the van. Have to get my swimshorts out of the bag! Yeah!

Monday February 1^st 2010 – Torelló, Spain

Driving thru the beautiful landscape, we found our way to Torelló pretty easy. The way to the venue was harder. We drove down some muddy roads, watched some episodes of the Dutch New Kids show and managed to find the way to the venue. This night we were playing together with our buddies in This Routine Is Hell. Show was cool. I didn’t expect that many people on a Monday, so that’s awesome! This Routine Is Hell played a lot of songs from their new record. Like! Poke! We tried some new songs too, worked out pretty okay I guess. Think the old songs were also pretty new for the crowd. After the show we went to Toni’s house. Stole the internet of the neighbours and some guys went to a bar. At night, Boris Tarrel stepped on my hamstring, ouch! Then he started snorring really loud. If this continues every night, I might have to think about some punishment. After saying goodbye to the house and the evil cats (the cats had discovered the whole house in shit the day before we were supposed to sleep there, nice!), we continued our way to Zaragoza.

- Warm Winter Tour
- Dutch Export
- Recording a New Album
- Tour with High Five Drive

Warm Winter Tour

Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal seemed to be the best destinations when touring in January and February. If you live in the area, please drop by and say hi!

Jan 29 BEL Herselt, De Choke. w/ Second Base, more
Jan 30 FR Fumel, Pavillon108. w/ OpeNightmare, Ivan Rebroff’s Armpits
Jan 31 FR Toulouse, Les Pavillons Sauvages. w/ Ivan Rebroff’s Armpits (release show), Messieurs de Fursac
Feb 1 ES Torelló / Barcelona, l’Eclèctic
Feb 2 ES Zaragoza, Sala Ultimátum
Feb 3 ES Madrid, Sala Barracudas
Feb 4 Available
Feb 5 Available
Feb 6 POR Lisbon, Casa de Lafoes Afternoon show. w/ This Routine Is Hell, Albert Fish, Barafunda Total
Feb 6 POR Mouriscas, GDR Os Esparteiros. w/ Defying Control, The Wild Ones, Shake Shake and SMYP
Feb 7 POR Porto, Bar Altar Afternoon show
Feb 8 Available
Feb 9 ES Oviedo, La Antigua Estacion. w/ Threewordname, Mr. Lafleur
Feb 10 ES Pasaia (San Sebastian), Sala Mogambo. w/ Alaska Pipeline, Curasan
Feb 11 FR Bayonne, Bar Kixkil Ostatua
Feb 12 FR La Rochelle, La Barbarella
Feb 13 FR Brest, Espace Léo Ferré. w/ Speedball, Jeune Seigneur, Last Exit To Brooklynn
Feb 14 FR Lille, La Chimère

As you can see, we are still looking for shows on February 4, 5 and 8 in Spain or Portugal. Let us know if you can help us out.

Dutch Export

Since we are known to tour a lot Buma Cultuur (the Dutch authors- and copyrights organization) mentioned us in their press bulletin announcing that the export of Dutch pop music was raised by 15% in 2008. Read the Dutch version and the English version.

Recording a New Album

A week after we get back from tour we will be entering the studio. It has been almost 2 years since we released our last full length album “Testimony”. We will record 12 new songs with Nico van Montfort at the Erock studio in Panningen. On the upcoming tour and shows we will play a lot of these songs to get them into shape. A release will follow later this year.

Tour with High Five Drive

We never promised to slow down. After we finish recording, mixing and mastering we will embark on another tour. Together with High Five Drive from Canada we will be playing shows in France, the UK and Belgium between April 25 and May 1. Routing to be announced soon. Get in touch if you feel like helping us out.

Other shows:

Feb 17 NL Utrecht, ACU. w/ Nothington, Bivouac
Feb 19 BEL Wachtebeke, VZW MaNo. w/ Bound In Blood, Rumble Fist, The Dancing Morons
Feb 20 NL Krommenie, De Groote Weiver. w/ Sweet Empire, Union Town
Feb 27 NL Nijmegen Waalhalla. w/ Static Thought
Mar 6 NL Hoogeveen Het Podium. w/ Nuestros Derechos, Nuclear Driven Animals

If you feel like the recession is over and your liquidity is increasing (what?!), please consider visiting our webshop to fund our upcoming recordings. In the next issue of your favorite newsletter you will find some news about our new release, and more new touring plans. We hope.

We promised you to post our year/decade lists. It might seem late, but it’s better than putting out year lists before the year/decade is even over! We will start off with the year list of our now more official than ever before new bass player Tom. Read, and you will understand why he fits this band so well.

1. Propagandhi – Supporting Caste
Hard choice between the new Propagandhi and Strike Anywhere record, both blew me away. But I love the combination between punkrock and thrash when it’s well done. Guess these guys are the only ones who know how to combine those two in a good way. And of course the lyrics, probably even more important than the music.

2. Strike Anywhere – Iron Front
I loved Change Is A Sound and Exit English. Dead FM was a bit disappointing, but with Iron Front, Strike Anywhere is back. Aggression, nice melodies, political lyrics. I love it! Listened to this one maybe even more than my number one of this year.

3. Megadeth – Endgame
Metallica released another abomination, Megadeth released another killer. Dave Mustaine is probably my favorite metal guitar player. Those riffs destroy! The ballad kinda sucks, but the rest is fucking awesome!

4. In-Sane – Trust These Hands…Are Worthless
I’ve been waiting a long time for the new In-Sane record. In my opinion the best European punkrockband at the moment. Awesome guys, great musicians. These catchy songs with heartfelt lyrics are worth the wait. Great record!

5. Over Stars And Gutters – Consider This Your Curse
Pretty new US band. Willem hooked me up with this one. Melodic yet raw. Pretty orgcore if you ask me. Hope to get my hands on the vinyl soon and hopefully this band will come over in 2010, because the record rocks!

6. Atlas Losing Grip – Watching The Horizon
After an excellent album, Atlas Losing Grip teamed up with Rodrigo from Satanic Surfers, one of my favorite punkrock singers. Good choice! The music is still fast and technical melodic punkrock, but with the new vocals it is absolutely brilliant! Must have for all melodic punkrockers!

7. Nothington – Roads, Bridges And Ruins
Didn’t get the chance to listen to this one a lot. Should have listened to it earlier. I already liked their previous one All In, but this one is better! Maybe less Leatherface and less Social Distortion than the previous record, but a more mature sound. Can’t wait to see them live in a couple of weeks!

8. Banner Pilot – Collapser
Fat Wreck still puts out great new bands once in a while. Banner Pilot is one of those. Bought this LP without really knowing the band, but it was recommended so I gave it a try. Didn’t regret a single euro. Good stuff!

9. Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed
The new Frank Turner is a really good record, but it can’t compete with Love Ire And Song, the previous one. That one really gave me goosebumps. This one is still good, although I was a bit disappointed. I was probably hoping for a new Love Ire And Song. Next time, less band, more Frank please!

10. Municipal Waste – Massive Aggressive
Hazardous Mutation and Born To Party are my favorite Municipal Waste records. The new one doesn’t bring you new stuff, but good old crossover thrash/hardcore. One of the few bands that I do like in this style. For everybody who is still into headbanging!

The past is written: 2009 has been a turbulent but all in all good year for us. We have played awesome shows with No Use For A Name, The Gaslight Anthem, and many others. We did cool tours together with Rentokill and After the Fall, resulting in 80 shows in 2009. We released our first acoustic EP ever and played some acoustic shows around that. Unfortunately a lot of cool Dutch bands have quit this year (Smash the Statues, 1000 Miles Ahead, Progress) and so did Yvo. Really too bad, but fortunately Tom from Smash the Statues was able and willing to take over the four strings, making him the third guy playing bass for us last year (a lot of thanks go out to Pitter for helping us out on tour!).

The future is unwritten, however: 2010 is going to be even busier than 2009 has been, if it’s up to us . In 1 week we will be leaving for a 3-week tour. 2 weeks later we will be entering the studio to record our 3rd full-length album. This summer we will release it and tour the shit out of it, throughout Europe and most likely USA, hopefully together with even more awesome bands!

In the next weeks you can find a small overview of the records and bands we enjoyed this last year and/or decade. To show off with our great and/or bad taste! Subject to discussion!

To conclude I wanted to emphasize one last time that we will be playing our “Good bye Yvo-show” this Saturday, January 23, at De Onderbroek in Nijmegen. OUR LAST SHOW WITH YVO ON BASS! Together with Smash the Statues’ last show ever featuring In-sane and The Acoustic Alarm (The Indecision Alarm playing acoustic). Come out and play! This is gonna be memorable. So far people from Belgium, Germany and Italy have announced to come over for this show. It’s gonna be awesome. See you there!

Have a good year!

Apparently Dutch pop music generated 50,2 million euro, 15% more than the year before. Now you know how we can afford our lifestyles!

Other Dutch artists mentioned:
André Rieu, Epica, DJ Tiësto, Peter Pan Speedrock, Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Within Temptation, Laidback Luke, Born from Pain, Marco V, Sander Kleinenberg, No Turning Back.
What a great company!

But to all this, there is an antithesis: stuff that is valuable and maybe fun. For us; we are practicing our asses off, writing new songs as if they are climate agreements and practicing like the sustainability of the world as we know it is depending on it. We are scheduling more and more shows to kick the songs into shape live. And, we’ve set ourselves the toughest deadline there is: recording dates are planned! At the end of February we will be entering the studio with our friend Nico van Montfort of XPZ sound. We plan to record 12 or 13 songs for a new full length. More about that later.

In case both Sinterklaas and Santa forgot about you, and you want to treat yourself before the end of the year: check out our new merch. Pre-orders have been sent, regular orders are up now. Check the picture below, we are extremely happy with the new stuff. The design is actually red and silver (does it get any more Christmassy?) and we have t-shirts, girlie shirt, zippers and girlie zippers in several colors and sizes. On top of that we also have new patches, including one with Noam fucking Chomsky! Check our merch store for orders.
Have some fun during the holidays!