Antillectual

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.

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Last Saturday we played our last show ever with Yvo on bass. A crazy sold out show was a nice way to close this chapter. In Tom we found an amazing replacement presenting us a very glourious future ahead. Our first step is a tour that will hopefully get us somewhere warmer.

– 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.

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This weekend Buma Cultuur (the Dutch authors- and copyrights organization) released a press bulletin mentioning Antillectual as one of Holland’s main export products in 2008. The press release was published in mainstream media (online and offline) like De Volkskrant, Nu.nl, de NRC, Het Parool and many, MANY other media. For an English version of the article go here.

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!

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This is the end of our winter break. Behind the scenes a lot of stuff has happened for us the last couple of weeks. And it’s about time to get out again. First of all “us” isn’t the same people anymore.  Second of all: despite that our ambitions are bigger than ever. Third of all: please read on below:

– NEW bass player
– NEW tours

NEW tours
Tom has been working hard to learn our set and the newly written songs. To get both our new bass player and the new songs kicked into perfect shape we planned a run of shows close to home:

Nov 21 NL Sevenum, OJC Walhalla w/ The Real Danger, This Is Cowboy Poetry
Nov 28 NL Breda, Kraakkroeg Voorerf Benefiet Klimaat Actie Kamp. w/ Blame Coca Cola, Rat Label
Dec 4 Bel Antwerpen, de Koevoet w/ Kingterror, Bitedown, GBO
Dec 5 NL Tilburg, Little Devil Shield recordings 5 year anniversary party. w/ Smash the Statues, The Real Danger, Argetti
Dec 19 NL Emmen, Huize Spoorloos w/ Barley Wine
Dec 24 NL Meppel, Cafe Clouso Xodus Kerstpunk. w/ Smash the Statues, Ravens, Omission, The Hunger, The Arrangement, Knekelput
Jan 16 NL Barneveld, Villa / Stedsj
Jan 23 NL Nijmegen, De Onderbroek Yvo & Smash the Statues Farewell show w/ Smash the Statues, In-sane, The Acoustic Alarm

After that period we embark on a European tour and record the new album. Below you find the tour schedule. As you can see we are still in need of shows. Please help us out if you can!

Jan 29 Fr Valenciennes, Available
Jan 30 Fr Lyon, Available
Jan 31 Fr Toulouse, Les Pavillons Sauvages w/ Ivan Rebroff’s Armpits, Messieurs de Fursac
Feb 1 Sp Barcelona, Available
Feb 2 Sp Zaragoza, Available
Feb 3 Sp Madrid, Sala Barracudas
Feb 4 Sp Burgos, TBC
Feb 5 Por Lisboa, Available
Feb 6 Por Porto, Available
Feb 7 Sp Vigo, Available (or Por)
Feb 8 Sp Giyon / Oviedo, Available (or Por)
Feb 9 Sp Bilbao, Available (or Fr)
Feb 10 Sp San Sebastian, Available (or Fr)
Feb 11 Fr Bayonne, TBC
Feb 12 Fr La Rochelle, La Barbarella
Feb 13 Fr Paris, Available
Feb 14 Fr Lille, La Chimère

NEW merch and web shop
Since we are almost out of shirts, patches and zippers and we have new touring plans we ordered some new merch. For the first time we will be doing girly zippers. Don’t let us down girls! If you pre-order our news designs you will get 2 free extra posters, 2 buttons, 2 stickers and 4 samplers, not a bad deal I assure you. Check out the designs and let us know what you think. Zippers come in 2 fancy colors, shirts and girlies in 3 colors.

In case this didn’t lead you to our site yet, please reconsider, since we have a completely new merch store, which makes it even easier to get what you want. Those of you privileged to receive this newsletter can also just reply and place your order.

That’s it for now. Because of the winter people are looking for HOT stuff. And we’ve heard twitter and facebook are HOT. So if you want us to feel appreciated interact with us on Facebook and Twitter.

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So, sunday night we arrived back home more or less safely from a tour that showed us a lot of asphalt, gas stations and “European Unity”. We have posted some professionally shot pieces of picture here. We dropped off the Americans at the airport, they should be home right now. The shows were a blast! Thanks to the people that came out and to those who organised the shows! Also thanks to Thomas, Frank and Pieter for helping us out on merch, van and bass (in that particular order).

For now we will be working on the new songs and some more “behind the scene” activities. You will know soon. Until that time please check out this great free sampler. Next to our acoustic contribution it contains mostly European bands.

Among others:
ASTPAI
DEATH IS NOT GLAMOROUS
JENA BERLIN
THE TWISTED MINDS
PLAGUE MASS
OK PILOT
ONE WIN CHOICE
RED TAPE PARADE
SMASH THE STATUES
HIGH FIVE DRIVE

What is there not to like?!

Least not, but last: we are looking for shows to try out our newly written songs. It is always best to kick them into shape on a stage. If you want to hear them, help us out with a show! Greatly appreciated!

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