Antillectual

With a new album come new streams! On August 23 we will release our new album “Perspectives & Objectives”. Until that date we will stream new songs from the album every Monday.

We have had the privilege to travel the world and play our music all over the place. Our new album will be released in most of those territories, including Brazil, Russia and North America. The stream of “Mother Inferior” was hosted by our Brazilian friends of Daily Hardcore. Today’s guest entry comes from our friend Aleksey who releases our albums in Russia through Angry Chuck Records. A little peek inside Russia, how we have toured over there, and how our album is released:

“Despite the fact that I live in St. Petersburg with another 5 million people (the entire population of Finland or 1/3 of Netherlands), I usually see about 50-100 people at shows, with or without local bands playing. And it’s sad, not so much people love and listen to this music and even less people visit shows. Organizing booking agencies lose money, bands don’t see much support from people. But even in such deplorable situation bands from abroad want to visit Russia. When you tour in Europe or the USA you rent a van and drive between cities. Here, in Russia, it’s little bit harder to play shows:

– Russian roads, oh.. hell yeah! Like on the Moon! And distances between towns are really huge. Do you want to spend 12-14 hours on the road from Moscow to St. Petersburg in winter when you don’t see anything except snow (Hello, dudes from ASTPAI & ARTERIES)? Come on!

– Vague expectations. You don’t know a lot about Russia, you don’t know how many people know you. So you can end up playing for 15 people.

– You need invitations to apply for visas. Sometimes you just can’t make them in time.

And if you ask me about why bands come here? I don’t have an answer for you. But I call them heroes. If they come back again – I can call them idiots, haha. Maybe it’s like a small exotic adventure: it’s interesting to see another country that lives by other “rules”, to see how people live here, to take photos with bears with balalaikas and ushanka at the Red Square in Moscow, to drink vodka? In general to have fun! Even if you don’t get much money from the shows – you will have some good memories about this place and some stories to tell your friends.

Running a DIY label/distro/mailorder in Russia is just wasting your money / time, don’t even try! But I think a lot of people from small DIY labels may say the same. Anyway I’ll tell you some peculiarities:

We don’t have a pressing plant for vinyl, so we must order records in other countries. Hello to additional shipping costs. Hello to customs and slowest Russian post (please, burn in hell). If you don’t wait for your package with records less than 60 days – you don’t know anything about this life! Your package can be lost or damaged (yeah, I know it can happen to everyone, but I have some things to compare with). The same problem with orders from other labels from abroad. Prices for shipping within Russia aren’t so good, it’s more expensive than in EU / USA I think. And shipping time is… ooh, god damn, fuck Russian post again and again! I think I can talk about such problems forever.

But anyway I like to run DIY label / distro / mailorder! Now I know so much great people in Europe and USA. It’s a really great choice to meet new friends over the world, to listen to new great bands, to make your life more interesting.”

– Aleksey / Angry Chuck Records

Pre-order “Perspectives & Objectives”, or a package including it and receive a stream right after. After this, 1 more song to go! Next week another song about family. Not about a mother, but a father.

Mother Inferior

Mother married the minister, she got divorced because of the abuse
Sold her body to the businessman, as before, the kids got bruised

Mother’s task, to look after us, disregarded by her taste in men
Best for all would be to stress: please, be a single mom again

We, the kids, file for divorce
We, the kids, had it with these conflicts of interest
Keep in mind the welfare of us all
Keep your eyes focused on the ball

Liner notes:

The separation of church and state has gained ground since the 19th century. Well, kind of. Governments are supposed to be autonomous in their actions, independent of whatever external institution and should only represent the people that give them sovereignty. However, since the 1990s governments seem to have lost their autonomy and have become more and more intertwined with and dependent of economic forces. No longer the church, nor The People are the ones pulling the strings. CEOs, lobbyists and the fear for economic despair seem to be in charge. Instead of becoming a modern, independent, single mom, our governments have sold themselves to the highest bidder, without taking their kids’ interest at heart.

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With a new album come new streams! On August 23 we will release our new album “Perspectives & Objectives”. Until that date we will stream new songs from the album every Monday.

The “axe effect”, what does that remind you of? Shredding your guitar, or making sure you don’t smell bad? I’m afraid the latter. The advertisement around us is successfully playing in on consumers’ insecurities about their appearance. Whether we look good enough, smell the right way and wear the right clothes. For some reason that reminds me of elementary school and its bullies. I hope you didn’t buy their shit back then and I hope you don’t fall for their shit right now.

Today’s guest writer is an artist named Bansky. Not that we asked him to contribute to this song, but after finishing “Bullies” we stumbled across one of his writings about modern day advertising. It is so in line with the theme of this song that we borrowed his words for liner notes and guest contribution. I’m sure he doesn’t mind:

“People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and all the fun is happening somewhere else.They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are ‘The Advertisers’ and they are laughing at you.

You, however are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”

– Banksy

Pre-order “Perspectives & Objectives”, or a package including it and receive a stream right after. After this, 2 more songs to go. Next week another song that might sound familiar, about our mom.

Bullies

“You stink, you are fat and you are ugly
What the hell are you wearing?”
Some examples from a bully’s menu
“Kids can be so cruel”

“You stink, you are fat and you are ugly
What the hell are you wearing?”
Random commercials on our TV
“You want to become cool?”

Everybody wants to be unique
But nobody wants to stand out
Sweaty, smelly, hairy, belly; not all dwarfs fit the fairy tale
Photoshop can save us all

Flash-forwards to a promising future
Give me flashbacks to a troubled past
Manipulated, objectified and brainwashed
Solutions to a problem we never addressed

Don’t believe them, the schoolyard bullies when you were young
Don’t believe them, the corporate bullies that tell you wrong
Don’t believe their fairy tales, “improving” who you are
Don’t buy what the bullies tell or sell you

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With a new album come new streams! On August 23 we will release our new album “Perspectives & Objectives”. Until that date we will stream new songs from the album every Monday.

For everyone that already heard the Future History EP, this isn’t really *new* and even the video might look familiar. But don’t be fooled, we re-recorded the song and there are some differences, enjoy those! The theme is of course still the same: how different generations look back and forth, on what has been and is yet to come. Our guest contribution comes from Chris Stowe from Anti-Flag’s A-F Records. They will release “Perspectives & Objectives” in North America and Australia and we’re very happy to have them aboard!

One of the primary things that I like and admire about Antillectual is their understanding of the level of responsibility that comes with being performing musicians. When you have the opportunity to share your music with an audience, you’re given the ability to directly affect and influence human lives. That’s a pretty heavy responsibility when you think about it. A lot of musicians, including myself at times, are guilty of squandering that opportunity to directly affect social change and to have a positive influence on the people around them. Antillectual isn’t one of those bands.
Their new track “Future History” challenges the listener to be aware that, even though we live in what appears to be a modern age, there’s still a mountain of work ahead of us as humans before we can consider ourselves civilized. It’s this dedication to using their musical influence as a mechanism of change that makes Antillectual a band that I respect and am lucky to work with.

– Chris Stowe, A-F Records

Pre-order “Perspectives & Objectives”, or a package including it and receive a stream right after. Next week an entirely new song about bullying, with a little help from Banksy.

Future History

Class, please open your books on chapter 3
About a period in time not that unique
The best intentions unveiled by history
The past has been written, let’s try to read

Will you remember?
How we loved to play keep-away
Girls and gays were seen as a different race
Considering other races animals
Treating animals as bad as beasts

Will you remember?
That we forgot to put things in perspective
Future history, a past yet to come

Will you remember?
Progress was not us moving ahead
It only meant the rest was moving back
Having more future in front than past behind
What harms us most now never came to mind

Liner notes:

Only in hindsight do we know which periods in time were important and which ones weren’t. Only in hindsight do we know which issues really mattered and which ones really didn’t. Nonetheless, everyone thinks they live in the most influential era. Everything going on right here, right now is what seems to matter most. But 100 years from now there will be significantly less attention for immigration, (other) religions or local institutions like the European Union. The world is becoming one globalized place where all human and nonhuman variations manage to coexist. In the end our era will be just another chapter in history books. Including its own idiosyncrasies and anomalies like racism, sexism, homophobia and our lack of animal rights.

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With a new album come new streams! On August 23 we will release our new album “Perspectives & Objectives”. Until that date we will stream new songs from the album every Monday.

Another faster song, finally! This song sums up pretty well what could be considered the “main theme” of the new album, although we never set out to write a concept album: in an ever-evolving world where being informed about the well-being of people and species across the globe is quickly becoming less and less of a problem, there is really no excuse anymore to say “I never knew about that”. We all represent and testify to what happens around us and further away. If there ever was a time to take things into our own hands and improve them, now is the time. Do It Yourself, but even more: Do It Together! This one goes out to all members of parliament, which includes you and us. Here’s what our long time DIY-friend Etjen from Just Like Your Mom has to say about it:

Members of parliament?

Let’s just skip this topic and write something about why I admire bands like Antillectual?

My first encounter with them is from way back in the days.. The days when I was organizing benefit gigs to support Animal Rights issues.. The time that Antillectual was our ‘house band’..

But also the time when we (Antillectual and I) started to work together in a DIY but also professional way.. As some of you might know I’m involved in founding Just Like Your Mom. With this company we try to support touring bands on the road, we do tour management, van/ backline hire, and make sure that bands can tour just like being on the road with their Mom. Oh, and we also do some vegan catering.

Without Antillectual there would not have been a “Mom”, and all of her activities.. The simple fact is that back in those days I decided to loan some money from 2 bands: Antillectual and Bambix, I would buy a tour van and would drive both bands around for free for a year. After that, they would start paying for the rent of the tour van and that was it: the start of Just Like Your Mom.

Now we are both many years further and we both still work in the same way:  taking control of a situation and turning that situation into something that allows you to make the world around you a better place.

As I’m writing this I’m sitting backstage at a festival in Ghent (Belgium) called de Gentse Feesten. Over the last 9 days, 43 “Mom” crew members have been selling vegan food on this festival and we fed over 10.000 people with our delicious food.

To me,  taking control of your own life and the lives of others around you is the key to how we should organize our own world. Fuck those so-called “members of parliament” and build your own society;  where we can make money to pay our rent, but also a society  where we can live and work together no matter what you do or where you’re from.

As said on a previous album.. ‘If you want things done right, Do It Yourself’

– Etjen – Just Like Your Mom toursupport catering & events

Pre-order “Perspectives & Objectives”, or a package including it and receive a stream right after.

Do those backup vocals at the end of the chorus sound a little familiar by any chance? Tom, Tim and Koen (“The Legion of Ex-bass Players”) took a little time to come over and sing along.

To All Members Of Parliament

In a world of shifting paradigms we can’t but do it together
Increasing international affairs, we’re all in this together

The map we use to see our world has expired long ago
Its architects don’t see the change, they never check below

It’s perspective, if anything, a different view in closeup
Locals have revamped the scenery, I hope the news catches on

I am a member of parliament
Representing all citizens
Not just one single nation but the whole fucking world
Let a new solidarity trickle up
You are a member of parliament
We all are members of parliament

Liner notes:

Your identity is constructed from several “sub-identities”. You are an inhabitant of your city, a child of your parents, a citizen of your nation and a member of a subculture among many other roles. The idea of nationality is forced upon us since the 19th century. And in today’s globalizing world I have a hard time identifying with fellow citizens of our nation alone. The more we get to travel around the world, the less I understand why we should adhere to our narrow minded nationality. Or to a European Union or other broader, but still exclusive groups. If anything, we are members of the nation of the world, of humanity. And as members of this international community we are all responsible for each other’s well being, each representing each other.

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With a new album come new streams! On August 23 we will release our new album “Perspectives & Objectives”. Until that date we will stream new songs from the album every Monday.

“New”. You might have heard the acoustic version of this song on our Future History EP, but this is the real (electric) deal! The topic is still the same though: the role of women in society in general and in the punk scene in particular. Our friend Arina has first hand experience being a girl in this punk scene, watching and playing in bands, and is a music journalist. Read what she has to say:

I don’t like pink but I love punk. Being the bass player of an all female band, I have experienced that even in the punk scene, people don’t expect girls to play in bands. Backstage, I have been asked several times whose girlfriend I am. A question based on the assumption that my reason of hanging out there could only be that I had a boyfriend who was playing in a band, and not me playing in a band. There are many similar examples. Too many to list here.

Therefore, I was positively surprised when I heard the Future History version of Pink Print for the first time (by the way, the Perspectives & Objectives version is better).

Yes, surprised. I didn’t realize female participation in punk could be an important topic for an all male band (pleonasm..?) like Antillectual. Willem and I talked about it several times. I felt free to bring up all the issues, examples and doubts I have on this theme. The problem he’s having with the sentence “This song goes out to all the girls” seems to be the same as my dilemma of festivals with exclusively all female bands. Do I want to play there too?

On the one hand yes, the music scene might need such ‘reversed’ initiatives (and hey, who doesn’t love festivals?). On the other hand no, instead of creating ‘our’ own (girl) scene like the riot grrrl movement did in the nineties, I prefer an equally mixed audience at concerts. Or at least a mixed place in which women feel welcome and safe (not just a live-size version of a donut). Separate girl and boy scenes may not contribute to this goal.

Is it really that bad? I’m not sure. If it was, I wouldn’t have enjoyed all these great concerts over the years and I wouldn’t have had such good times on its after-parties.

To add another positive observation: my impression is that there is a growing awareness among bands. Many attacked the Groezrock video by an energy drink brand. Pink Print fits right into this tendency, meaningfully criticizing its own scene. I hope many people will listen to this song, regardless of their favorite color.

– Arina Banga

Pre-order “Perspectives & Objectives”, or a package including it and receive a stream right after.

Coincidentally, Dying Scene – who hosted this song last Friday – also posted an editorial on the subject of ‘women in punk’. Quite an interesting read: I am a woman, and I have a right to be here.

Pink print

I would hate this to sound sexist: “This goes out to all the girls”
So few here, girlfriends, wives and cooks. From the back of the room, only here for the looks?

I hoped we could provide a safer alternative in this gated community
But it seems we’ve failed
Contrary to popular beliefs girls are not just donuts.
How we warn our daughters shows how civilized we are

What do you expect, examples given and standards set?
How we treat our maids shows how civilized we are

Stop burning the witches, burn our blueprints on their stakes
And use the second sex’ craft to bake a pink print for a change

Liner notes:

Girls in our scene are underrepresented, in both audiences and bands. When playing with (partly) female bands or in front of an equally mixed audience I often feel like addressing them. What always holds me back are other bands dedicating songs to girls, “This goes out to all the girls”, for all the wrong, sexist reasons. It would be cool if girls at shows were not only welcome for their looks, boyfriends or cooking skills, but also just for being there or for their music. I think a lot more girls would eventually join in. “From the back of the room” is a documentary about actively involved women in the punk/hardcore scene.
Girls and women in our society aren’t treated much better. There still is a lot of sexism, hidden or not. A very recent example is the scandal of Dominique Strauss Kahn raping a black maid and getting away with it. Not because he was innocent, but because the girl wasn’t “credible” enough.

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