Antillectual

Shred Fest & Fresh Merch

After a false start last fall live events are really back this time! We can finally reveal the new festival we’ve been hinting at: SHRED FEST, a combination of music and skating! And there’s a pre-order for great looking new shirts and sweaters:

Fresh Merch

With shows on the way we wanted to make new merch. We made a poll and people picked the Bijstand mural design by Mike Nicolaassen. You can pre-order a shirt, crewneck or zipper with an album of choice! We have all items in 3 color options (black/navy/burgundy) and a wide range of sizes available for pre-order only! Pre-orders are up until Sunday Feb 27, orders will be sent out at the beginning of April.

Unfortunately our financial reserves have vanished during the pandemic, this is the ultimate way to support us. Thank you for helping us out this way; it means the world to us, and makes new recordings possible(!)

Shred Fest

When Friends First Fest #6 got postponed to Dec 2022 we wanted to do “something” as soon as measures would allow it. SHRED FEST is our impromptu festival happening at skate park Waalhalla in Nijmegen on April 2nd. Combining a rad line-up (announcement soon!) with skate demos, contests, jams and food! You heard the announcement here first, keep an eye on our social media or the FB event for updates! Bring your board / bmx / blades / scooter kid or borrow some gear from Waalhalla and come SHRED with us!

Deconstructing I WROTE THIS SONG

To kill the downtime we’ve been doing all sorts of pandemic projects: a drum chronology, acoustic shows and covers. The latest (and hopefully the last) one is a series about the deconstruction of I WROTE THIS SONG. The first 3 episodes give a peek at our songwriting process through demos, instrumentation breakdowns, the song’s structure and music that inspired the songwriting. Subscribe to our Youtube channel for new episodes!

Upcoming Shows

We’re very excited to see you in real life again at one of these:

• Apr 02 NL Nijmegen, Shred Fest. FB
• May 28 DE Unkel, Belly Up Fest.
• Jun 03 DE Essen, Café Nova. Info / FB
• Jun 04 DE/FR TBC.
• Jun 05 LU Esch-sur-Alzette, Mad Ones Fest. Info / FB
• Jun 16 DE Göttingen, T-Keller.
• Jun 17 DE Leipzig, Beard Ättäck Fest (Conne Island). Info / FB
• Jun 18, 2022 DE Minden, Kraetzeval. FB
• Jul 26 NL Utrecht, dBs w/ Strung Out. Info / FB
• Jul 27 NL Vlaardingen, Kroepoekfabriek w/ Strung Out. Info / FB
• Dec 29 NL Nijmegen, Friends First Fest #6. FB

Wanna see/book us/make this list longer? Get in touch with us or Steve at Merit Based.

Next time we will hopefully share even more new shows with you! That’s it for now, thanks for reading, till next time…

Missed our previous newsletter? Find it here!

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It’s time to unveil the Friends First Fest plans we’ve been hinting at! Are you ready?!

We’re very excited that we can do FFF with the current Covid measures in our favorite venue: De Onderbroek! Happening on Wednesday December 29, check the FB event to RSVP. The setlist will consist of our 11 old: START FROM SCRATCH! We’ll play it from left to right, from front to back. Tom Nieuwenhuis will join us on bass for this one, he recorded the album with us, and rehearsing the songs has been amazing!

Unfortunately, we still have to take into account that future anti-Covid measures might make FFF 2021 impossible. That’s why we will wait with ticket sales and line-up announcements. To be continued!

So, fingers crossed for now, and either way we will do our best to throw the best FRIENDS FIRST FEST ever in 2021!
(Painting by Willem’s mom!)

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This is the news we’ve been dying to send you: WE ARE DOING SHOWS AGAIN! After being on our biggest break ever, doing some small projects and missing you a lot, we are very excited to make new plans, and music! We actually have some shows lined up, which we will be playing with new line ups…

Pandemic Projects

We decided to lay low for as long as we couldn’t do “normal” shows. We did do some things though:
Riekus recorded a “Drum Chronology” : all 54 of our songs in 5 minutes! While normal shows were impossible, Willem did some acoustic online shows. Here you can check Willem at SBÄM Online Fest 3. Unscripted Moments aka the Propagandhi podcast did an episode with Willem talking about Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An for which he did an acoustic cover with the Punk Cellist. It was scheduled well in advance, but the release of our Covers EP happened in the middle of the pandemic. While vinyl sold out in the pre-order, we still have some tapes and it’s on all digital channels via our website.

New Line Up

As you read in our latest newsletter Toon has left the band. During the downtime we had plenty of time to think about what to do. Instead of looking for one and one bass player only, we decided to build an army of bass players. This makes it easy for us as a band to be flexible and doesn’t require people to cancel their own lives when helping us out. At the moment Gijs (Zero Zero Zero, Tenement Kids) and Ben (Dependent) are jumping in. The spirit is high, we’re very excited to play with them, come welcome them at the upcoming shows!

With the prospect of new band members, shows and tours, we should also think about new releases, right? Check! We’re working on new songs that we would love to release. Perhaps as an “album”? No deadline, release date or any other timeline yet though. You’ll read it here first!

Upcoming Shows

Even though this list is shorter than usual, we’re very happy with the fact that there is a list period!

• Oct 22 DE Wuppertal, Die Börse. w/ Venturas
• Nov 27 BE Wommelgem, Fort Fest 2021.
  w/ The Kids, Crackups, Dee Cracks, Priceduifkes, Captain Kaiser and many more
• Dec 29 NL Nijmegen, Friends First Fest #6
• Jun 18, 2022 De Minden, Kraetzeval

Wanna see/book us/make this list longer? Get in touch with us or Steve at Merit Based. Steve (you might also know him from his band Belvedere!) is taking care of all our European bookings, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Merch

As you know, we’re not in it for the money, but it does make our van go round. If you wanna support us keeping our heads above water, paying our bills now that we’ve been running dry for over a year: please check out the merch in our webshop, it’s the best way to help us out. We have all full length albums (LP+CD) available, some Covers EP tapes, the Fever and “Ramones” design and some limited leftovers. We’ll cut your shipping costs if you add the comment “Newsletter Friends First”!

That’s it for now, thanks for reading, till next time!

Missed our previous newsletter? Find it here!

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2020

Happy new year! 2019 was amazing to us, hopefully 2020 will be as great, or maybe even better!? We will unveil some of our 2020 plans below; this year we’ll release more music than last year, both digital and physical!

2019

We wrote a little report about what we did last year: festivals like Brakrock, SBÄM and KNRD Fest; with bands like Descendents, Pussy Riot and Pennywise; in places like Finland, Turkey and Schiphol Airport! Check the piece on our website. The last thing we did in 2019 was Friends First Fest, find the event for FFF 2020 on FB.

Release Hanging On The Telephone

After releasing our version of The Police’ Truth Hits Everybody we will release another song from our cover recording session: Hanging on the Telephone, originally by The Nerves, popularized by Blondie. On February 25 we will set it free, including a music video and the usual digital suspects!

Release Cover EP

But that’s not all: we recorded four covers in total, spring 2020 we will release these as a physical, vinyl EP. More info like the artwork, tracklist, etc will follow, but for now we are looking for partners to release/distribute this EP together with us. So get in touch if you are a label, booker, promoter or anyone that wants to help us out spreading our upcoming EP. Let’s Do It Together!

Shows

We already have some nice shows, supports and festivals scheduled for 2020! Including trips to the United Kingdom and Switzerland!

• Jan 30 NL Haarlem, Patronaat. Anti-Flag After-Show
• Apr 24 CH Lugano, Punk Rock Weekend
• May 21 UK London, The Amersham Arms
• May 22 UK Manchester, Retro Bar
• May 23 UK Bristol, Booze Cruise
• Dec 27 NL Nijmegen, Friends First Fest #6

That’s it for now, till next time! Then we will share Hanging on the Telephone with you and tell you more about our cover EP! Thanks for reading, stay in touch …

Missed our previous newsletter? Find it here!

– Willem, Riekus & Toon

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Releasing singles gives us the opportunity to address “hot” topics immediately. We couldn’t bring you FEVER at a better (or worse?) moment: climate change protest is gaining attention worldwide. Check the beautiful FEVER video, new merch and lyrics & liner notes below. We hope to catch you at one of the shows!

Artwork and Video

Tes at Segolia Design created the beautiful FEVER artwork and she also made an animation video representing the song’s content in an incredible way. If you look closely you will even find us in it!

Merch

With a new single comes new merch! The FEVER artwork comes on organic, vegan and fair trade shirts; in both tight and regular fit. Find them in our webstore, together with our other shirts and albums. Thanks for supporting our band!

1st Friends First Fest #5 Announcement

The presale for Friends First Fest has started! Beware: only a limited amount of tickets is available and previous years sold out. The price is flexible to keep it affordable for all. People under 18 can attend for free, and we have a small batch of “Long Time Friend tickets” for just 5 euro. All proceeds are donated to Brigada De Alter though, so we do encourage you to pay a little extra if you can. The line-up will be international, so foreign friends: remember that Nijmegen is close to the Münster / Ruhr / Köln area!

Line-up:

• Talk by founding member Yvo: “Live your dreams, survive your setbacks”
• Food by Guerilla Kitchen Nijmegen
• Antillectual (surprise!)

More bands to be announced soon, keep an eye on the FB event!

Spreading the Fever tour

Come hear our new single live at the following shows:

• Nov 09 BE Liège, Prince Bishop Festival
• Nov 14 TR Izmir, Up Stage
• Nov 15 TR Ankara, Telwe Performance Hall
• Nov 16 TR Istanbul, Karga Bar
• Nov 17 TR Istanbul, Yuri Gagarin *Acoustic*
• Nov 23 DE Alfeld, Alfeld Rockt
• Nov 30 DE Mönchengladbach, Don’t Wate (Y)our Time Festival
• Dec 06 DE Hildesheim, Kulturfabrik Löseke
• Dec 07 DE Jena, Rosenkeller
• Dec 28 NL Nijmegen, Friends First Fest

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