Antillectual

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.

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This weekend we played Yvo’s goodbye show. It was heartwarming to see so many people coming out. There was quite a line outside of de Onderbroek before the doors opened. Crazy! First of all we want to apologize to the people that could not get in because the show was sold out when they arrived. Second of all it was really good to see so many faces from Sweden, Slovenia, Italy, Germany, Belgium and other countries. People we met them on tour,  gave us a place to stay or played a show with us. Thanks for coming down, it felt right to turn the tables and host you in our country and city! We will put links to pictures and videos on our Facebook and Twitter once we get them ourselves. Send them to us if you have any.

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!

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Maybe a little late as we are in the third week of the new year already, but the year started off pretty weird with our name popping up in the Buma press release. Ah well.

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!

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The times they are a-changing in the Dutch punk rock scene. After the break up of befriended bands like Smash the Statues, 1000 Miles Ahead and Progress Antillectual couldn’t fall behind. For some it might be a surprise, others might have seen it coming since Pieter (Omission, Rush n Attack) replaced Yvo on the past three tours. But Yvo has decided to leave Antillectual. Read his statement on how and what below.

“This is it, I quit! I could not combine my family life with the band anymore. I always gave everything I had for this band, and I wouldn’t want to give any less. As much as I love Antillectual, I want to focus on my family life now. They need me, I need them. It sounds as simple as that, but we all know decisions like this are tough … This is probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made in my life. Antillectual is the very first band I ever played in. When we started I never would’ve thought this band would have such a huge influence on me. On every single tour I was overwhelmed by the inspiring social centres we’d play, I was touched by the people and collectives taking care of us, I was moved by the late night talks and discussions. Beautiful landscapes and fucked up border cops. Endless drives and endless landscapes.

Above all, Antillectual was the proof of taking matters in our own hands. We wrote the songs, we screamed from the top of our lungs, we booked the tours, we brought political books to shows, we organized shows, we almost killed ourselves a couple of times. We trusted strangers on the other side of the world, we made friends who we might never see ever again. Why? Because it felt like the right thing to do. And that’s exactly the reason why I’m stepping off this crazy train ride. Antillectual was my place, my home, and my safe haven. I could say what I want, do what I want, I could be the person who I am. Something that can be hard in daily life I’ve discovered. I’ve read several articles and books describing Autonomous Free Zones. Well, Antillectual was one of those zones for me. At least that’s how I experienced it. Now is the time to create those autonomous zones/ spaces in daily life.

Even though a part of my world has crumbled into pieces, I’m also looking forward to new challenges. Raising my kids in a loving and caring way is the biggest, most intense and beautiful challenge of all. Next to that I’ve always said I should spend more time on political ideals so I’ll be working on that. So I hope to see you on the barricades!

I wish my dearest friends in Antillectual all the best in the world. Thanks to everyone.

Love & rage, Yvo”

Riekus and I understand Yvo’s decision, even though we would have loved to continue with him. We wish Yvo all the best in his future life and activities. In “true Antillectual style” Riekus and I have already been working hard on our next chapter. And with the break up of Smash the Statues it seemed the most logical step to ask our friend Tom if he felt like playing bass in our band. And he did. This makes us more eager and ready to go on than ever before. We are sorry for Yvo to leave, but Tom is the best replacement we could hope for. A lot of new perspectives are opening up to us. New songs are being practised; new tours are being booked.

Tom’s first show will be our next show in Walhalla, Sevenum (NL) on November 21. Yvo’s last show will be on January 23 in De Onderbroek in Nijmegen (NL), which coincides with Smash the Statues’ farewell show. Be there! We are playing all previously booked shows and we are looking for new shows to get both Tom and the newly written songs kicked into shape. Antillectual will continue to bring the Typewriter book distro to shows.

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When Yvo and I (Willem) were young(er) we used to watch every touring band that visited Holland in a place called Doornroosje (sleeping beauty) in Nijmegen. A couple of bands that we saw there when they were still pretty unknown: Ten Foot Pole, Pulley, New Bomb Turks, No Fun At All, Lagwagon, Blink 182, Good Riddance, The Ataris, Refused, Green Day, and millions more. And of course all the Dutch heroes of that time. We once played the small side hall of Doornroosje at the last edition of a punk festival called Punk = Dead.

On June 10 The Gaslight Anthem will play Doornroosje and doing the support for that show will be the first time we get the chance to really play there. I think the expression "excited as little kids" is appropriate for us. So please come out and join us in this great melancholic and nostalgic victory! It will be worth it, since you won't be able to catch The Gaslight Anthem ever again in such an intimate venue. And we're gonna play quite some new songs too.

Furthermore we receive more and more reviews from Japan. Hard to tell what they mean, even though 5 stars seem good, right? Or do they rate the other way around? Check them here and here.

In other Asian news; our last album "Testimony" will be released in Malaysia through Embrace records. On tape! How awesome is that? The release is planned for June. Check Embrace records and order a copy at their site when it's out.
Tape! Nuts!

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