In case you have tried to email us at info@antillectual.com and your message was returned, please try antillectual@gmail.com. For some reason people have experienced trouble reaching us through our regular email address. Hopefully shit will be solved ASAP. Now go on and listen the new Face to Face.
As if we planned it: in the week that we stream “Kraken Gaat Door!” the anti-squatting law is installed. In the week we stream “Some of My Best Friends Are Meat Eaters” it turns out to be world vegetarian day. Last week we streamed “Chinese Takeover” and Liu Xiaobo (a Chinese political prisoner) wins the Nobel Peace Prize. A decision heavily criticized by Chinese authorities. The Nobel Prize committee responded: “[It is] a message to the world, that while we appreciate very much that China is becoming an economical and political power, with power comes responsibility, and you have to be prepared for and accept criticism and debate.” Sounds familiar …
So what to expect this week? Our stream is a song written (music & words) by our former bass player Yvo, sung by our current bass player Tom. So a good week for lovers of Yvo, Smash the Statues, D-beat-alike music and personal resistance.
Please read on, enjoy the song and feel free to share it with your friends.
Skip to: Special Guest / Lyrics / Liner Notes
Ten years ago Willem and I decided to play some music together. We started the band like billion other bands start; friends who share the same passion for music and want to make their own music. That decision was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life …
It’s quite hard to explain how I’ve experienced the time in Antillectual. Ten years is a long time and there have been so many beautiful moments. Probably the best thing was that I’ve always had the feeling I could express my thoughts and generate my ideas in the band. Punk has always been a form of resistance to me. Through punk and hardcore I was introduced to radical theories, direct action and DIY ethics. People talked and sang about subjects I could relate to. I saw how average kids like me toke control of their own lives and created autonomous places. I’ve seen endless info-stands at shows, the vegan catering and the DIY zines. I felt comfortable being part of that resistance. I also felt a sense of responsibility. It’s a DIY movement which basically means that everybody is responsible. Nobody is a passive bystander. It means you can book your own show, start your own band and create your own scene. If there’s something you don’t like or you like to see otherwise; do it yourself. This is what the song is about.
Responsibility is something we’ve always felt in the band. Being respectful towards promoters who work their asses of to do a show for our band. Thankful for everyone who’s cooking great vegan meals, and kids who open up their houses to let you stay in their homes. This might sound normal to everyone who reads this. But when I explained to my uncle how the DIY network basically is built upon trust and good faith, he couldn’t believe what he heard.
“So you don’t work with contracts?” No.
“You just trust those people in Italy on their word that they’ll take care of you?” Yes.
“You fly to the other side of the world to go on tour with people you’ve never even met?” Yes.
“You’re nuts.” No.So those DIY ethics are not so normal in the outside world. In that sense the punk movement is making changes. Antillectual contributes to those changes. Or at least I hope so …
So after ten years, I left the band. Leaving the band was one of those terrible decisions I had to make. The decision was made easier because I had the full support of Willem and Riekus. I’ve always had the feeling they supported me in whatever decision I would make. I thank them for that. I’m really glad Antillectual continues with Tom. This new album sounds amazing and blows me away. Good jobs guys! Keep doing what you’re doing!
We are the poets who scream
Stumble and swear
We are the artists who paint
With black and grey
We shut the fuck up
And let our actions speak
We cheat on life
With five finger discount
This is a personal fight, this fight is personal
We embrace the night with adventure in our eyes
With fire in our hearts
Every silence that we break, every life that we reclaim
We search for the beaches
Beneath the pavement*
We look for the forests
Behind the skyscrapers
Yvo (our former bass player) wrote this song when he was still in the band. He didn’t mind us playing and even recording the song for this new album. His words:
This is a personal fight. This is a personal song. Not one specific subject to find here, except for my personal interpretation of what I would call: resistance. My resistance against machines destroying what I love. My resistance against the people responsible for those machines.
Resistance doesn’t necessarily mean confrontation, barricades, molotovs and such and so on. Resistance is also the personal decisions I make in everyday life. It means to me creating a world that I find comfortable and worth living for. And this song is about those alternatives: the songs we love to hear, the poems we’re moved by, the paintings that express everything we can’t say in words, the food without chemicals… revolution of everyday life!
* “Beneath the paving stones, the beach!” – popular slogan by the French Situationists in 1968. Original: “Sous les pavés, la plage”
Follow Yvo and his current activities at the Typewriter distro (books!) website and the Eetcafe de Mallemoere (food!) website.
You know those road signs with angry -> smiley faces at the side of road constructions? You can start smiling a little. We are 9 down, 3 to go. Next week a new old song, yet still more up to date than ever. With a lengthy (nerdy?) comment from our producer Nico.
Our new album will be out in less than a month. The labels have received their albums and are taking pre-orders for “Start From Scratch!”. Please visit their sites, pre-order our album and support us, the labels and get yourself a nice pre-order-extra.
If you happen to live in France make sure you check out Effervescence Records’ web store for another reason. They now carry the Fat Wreck Chords catalog. Including albums by NOFX, Propagandhi, Rise Against, Good Riddance … you know the list.
In case you are a US citizen, check out the Square of Opposition Records for a similar reason. After our last tour we left our band stock with them. They now have that stuff up for sale. Including our old albums on CD and LP, limited USA tour shirts and great Square of Opposition Releases.
Angry Chuck Records (Russia)
Destiny Records (German, Austria, Switzerland)
Discos Rayados Records (Spain)
Effervescence Records (France)
Infected Records (Portugal)
Lockjaw Records (United Kingdom)
Shield Recordings (Benelux)
Square of Opposition Records (USA)
No Reason Records (Italy)
5 Feet Under Records (Scandinavia)
Remember that ‘new’ Guns n’ Roses album? Not so happy how it turned out? Neither were we, and we somehow managed to link our discontent to the uprise of the economies in the Orient. Seriously though, this song is about the effects of the ever growing economies on that side of the world on the western world. To put it in Johan Cruijff’s words: “to every advantage, there is a disadvantage” (or something … ).
Our guest is Lenneke Knape. She works with bands like NOFX and Blink 182, runs Rockit Promotions, used to host “Witlof” on KinkFM and was kind enough to share some of her experience with us while we were planning the release of our album. Our appearance at the Groezrock festival earlier this year for example was largely thanks to her efforts.
Please read on, enjoy the song and feel free to share it with your friends.
Skip to: Special Guest / Lyrics / Liner Notes
When Antillectual approached me some time back to ask if I could help them bringing their plans to the next level I was thrilled. They’ve been around for such a long time that, if you are the least interested in punk rock music you must have been living in a cave if you haven’t heard about them yet. Obviously they are one of the most hard working bands in the scene around here. For me they are also the most political minded band I’ve ever worked with. However, don’t expect any clever lines on politics from me, I grew up on bands like Fear, Social Distortion, NOFX, Blink182 and the first band I worked with were the Vandals.
Nevertheless I have deep respect for their devotion and passion for the subject. I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity to write something to go with the release of their track “Chinese Takeover” to reach out to all of you working in the industry and all of you loving and living music, to help these guys to get their name out there, to get them booked on every stage in the entire world. They will seriously rock their hearts out.
My wish for them is that all of you will find out what I found out, which is that Antillectual is not only a very good band who produce awesome albums, care about the world, and are the sweetest guys around, mainly they are an asset to punk rock music these days and I want everybody to be aware of that.
Take a look at our economy
Take a look at our politics
Take a look at our morality
What a chance to progress
A Western world at sixes and sevens
Now is the time
To push over what is staggering
And welcome the new paradigm
Crisis
Opportunities for others
The orient knocking on our door
Claiming what is theirs
And a final closure of colonization
But to every advantage
There is a disadvantage
Together with their takeaway
We import and accept their standards
Chinese democracy doesn’t sound that good to me
The balances in the world are shifting. The powers that were are no longer the powers that will be. In Asia there are countries whose economies are growing even faster than their population. And with their economies, their political power is increasing enormously as well. Hopefully the new balance will be a more equal balance than before, bringing wealth and freedom to regions that have been colonized and oppressed in the past.
Too much power for one country or one particular group of countries is never healthy. If the balance flips over to the other side we have to be on our toes. Because Chinese democracy is not only a terrible record. Our moral standards are not the same as other societies’ standards. We should be on the lookout for not only the economic takeover that so many people fear, but also for a moral takeover: disrespect for human and animal life and environmental abuse.
On the other hand: there is so much more we can learn and take over from the east than just their takeaway. It also is an opportunity for us to grow.
That’s it for this week’s song. We’ll be back next week with a track that was written by good old Yvo, D-beat lovers beware!
You may or may not have noticed that a few shows have disappeared from our schedule. We were supposed to play a show with our fresh label buddies Dead To Me in Luzern on october 1st. Unfortunately, Switzerland is a little too far away to just drive down and back for 1 show, and we ended up being too late to book a few shows on the way down and back. We’d really have loved to play that show, but it just didn’t work on this short notice. Many thanks go out to Alain from Sumsrecords for trying to find us shows. And don’t worry: we will come back to Switzerland. The Dead to Me show in Luzern is still happening, just not with us. To those attending the show: enjoy!
Eindhoven
Krefeld Hannover
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