A week ago, we left on our second transatlantic tour with Jena Berlin from Philadelphia. Finally, we got some time to hook up to the internet and share our experiences and pictures with you. Below you will find the tour report up til now. More pictures will be up later, as we are having some trouble with our Picasa account. For now: greetings from Triebwerk, Wiener Neustadt, Austria
The full story: transatlantic tour 2 – tourreport
While we are working on upcoming tours and playing shows this summer, we found some spare time to work on this site. In addition to the show archive , we finally put up some pictures of our latest trips. In the photos section we've added these albums: give it a name fest, germany / austria june 2008, germany / italy / switserland juli 2008
The last set of pictures was taken on our first ever trip with Pitter on bass. Willem already introduced him in an update . This is your chance to see the man in action
See it all in the photos section
In case you have any pretty (or less pretty) pictures of our shows, we'd be delighted to receive a copy in our mailbox
And already a new update. We plan on giving you more and more (smaller) updates, in stead of drowning you in huge updates once a month. We'll see if it works. For now we have a shows archive to announce. If you visit the shows section and you scroll down you can check the shows we have done in the past. Maybe the archive is not 100% complete, but it's close enough and we'll improve it. If you miss something, let us know. For now it shows we have done over 300 shows in 7 years.
Secondly we added some shows across the Atlantic after this summer. We'll be going on tour with One Win Choice from New Jersey, check them out here. That's it!
Welcome to our new website! This site is online since a couple of days now and we're very happy with all the positive reactions we've had so far. It is still not completely finished, but you can check more than you could ever do on our myspace: Tour reports, shows, reviews, photo’s, subscribe to our RSS-feed, order T-shirts, hoodies, girlies, albums, etc. And on the new website you can comment on news items, reports, reviews, interviews, everything without having to register or anything. Please, feel free to leave a comment, we’d appreciate it! A lot of thanks to Suzette (www.hi-fibre.com) and our own Riekus for creating this website.
Yesterday we also sent out a brand new news letter. If you want to sign up for it please send us an email. Below you can find some high lights from it:
If you want to order our album, we have some “Special Offers” for you: old & new album = 15 euro, album & T-shirt/girlie = 15 euro. From now on you can also go to www.interpunk.com to order our new album on both vinyl and CD.
Speaking of reviews, we’re getting back more and more of them and they keep amazing us. Even people in Germany seem to be able to enjoy our music, how’s that? Some quotes:
8.5/10 Antillectual has every right in the world to be mentioned among bands like THE LOVED ONES, A WILHELM SCREAM or AGAINST ME! When listening to "Testimony" you realize how much heart those guys put into writing and composing. You get the feeling of holding a record in your hands that European punkrock can pin its hope on. (Slam Magazine (ger))
The Nijmegen and Arnhem based Antillectual is possibly Holland’s hardest working punkrock band. The frequent playing caused Antillectual’s growth into a determined, politically aware punkrock machine. (Oor (nl))
With the current lack of serious substance in mind, Testimony is a release that definitely should be cherished. (Fret Magazine (nl))
97/100 Punk has seldom sounded so inspired. An album for the year lists! I doubt the new Anti-Flag album will be a match for this album. (Up Magazine (nl))
88/100 A band that spreads its message with this much passion and integrity and, on top of that, is a treat for the ear, what else could one wish for? How beautiful punkrock can be sometimes. (Punx.nl (nl))
Where most bands try it, Antillectual does it and makes it look really easy. A true parade of different punk rock styles. (Asice.net (nl))
8/10 Testimony is more than just a very good album. It’s a labour of love, with songs that are not merely entertainment, but which also carry a message. (Disagreement.net (lux))
Antillectual convinces me totally. This is one of the best punk/hardcore releases in recent months. (Dedication.it (ita))
Testimony is undoubtedly an incredibly coherent and meticulously thought out piece of music. (Lamette.it (ita))
This is a band that does the walk instead of doing the talk. And we don't have too much of this today. (Misfitzine (por))
If you have a zine or know a zine that should feature a review, get in touch with us and we might be able to arrange something. You can check the complete reviews we received here.
Because of the release of our album “Testimony” we did several (online) interviews. You can find some of those here:
KD Cobain (Italy, in English and Italian)
Bobby In A Volvo (Belgium, English)
Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll (Italy, Italian)
All interviews we’ve ever done will also be available on our website.
We just got back from our tour through Scandinavia a couple of days ago and on our myspace you could read some reports from that trip. You can find the complete written report here and check some pictures here. And long awaited: here is a diary of how we recorded “Testimony” in August of last year. All other tour videos are still to be found there too, you can subscribe yourself to our account too.
And if just coming back from a tour isn’t enough, we’re preparing two new ones at that. This time we’re going back to places we’ve been before: Germany, Austria, Italy and France. There’s still some dates left open and we would really appreciate your help since the dates are coming closer and closer:
Fr June 13 Germany, Regensburg, Jahninselfest. W/ The Gaslight Anthem
Sa June 14 Germany, Zwiesel, Jugendcafe
Su June 15 Slovenia/Austria – Available!
Mo June 16 Slovenia/Austria – Available!
Tu June 17 Italy/Austria – Available!
We June 18 Italy – Available!
Th June 19 Italy – Available!
Fr June 20 France – Available!
Sa June 21 Lux/Fr/Ger – Available!
Su June 22 Holland, Steenwijk, Trashfest
We Jul 16 Germany: Available!
Th Jul 17 Austria: Available!
Fr Jul 18 Austria: Vienna, Arena. w/ Supernichts
Sa Jul 19 Italy: Carpenedolo. Extreme Sounds Festival
Su Jul 20 Italy/France: Available!
Mo Jul 21 France: Available!
We also get the luck to play some of the coolest shows the upcoming months including very nice festivals. Yesterday we already played with Strike Anywhere, Agnostic Front, Madball and many more (great) bands on the Jera on Air festival in Ysseltsteyn, the Netherlands. May 17 we will be playing the Give It a Name festival in Milano, Italy. The festival features (great) bands like Strike Anywhere, Story of the Year, Silverstein, Vanilla Sky and again many more. We’ll also be playing on the Jahninselfest in Regensburg together with The Gaslight Anthem and the Trashfest in Steenwijk in June, the Mystage fest in Drachten, the Funtime fest in October and the Offshore Skatefest in August, both in Belgium. On top of that we have some more awesome shows with Strike Anywhere, Story of the Year, Brat Pack and The Real Danger. If you want to help us out with a show, you’re very welcome. We’re always looking for shows!
That's it for now, enjoy the weather!
Again it's been a while since we interrupted you. And yet so much has happened in the mean time. The new release is going like crazy, we went on tour which was a mixed succes and we played a release show that was beyond our wildest dreams.
The tour report for the tour in March, the pictures we took and the video material we shot will be up soon. As soon as the new website is up, we'll post it there. What I can tell you already is that this tour was not our best ever, we had 2 last minute shows, and 3 days off, the most we've ever had on tour, and I must say it's the worst thing that can happen to a bad and its motivation. On the other hand, the shows that we aplyed were really awesome, with quite some people coming out, and being in Portugal for the first time was really amazing. A lot of thanks go out to Joao from Infected Records who did an amazing job arranging everything for us in Portugal. Again, more soon to come.
4 days later after we got back from Portugal we had the "Testimony release show. We expected it to be a great party. But what happened was beyond our craziest imagination. The show got sold out during Gewapend Beton playing third, and unfortunately a lot of people got sent back home when they tried to get in after. Even some idiots felt the need to fight their way in. Thanks to all the bands (New Pokerface, Smash the Statues, Gewapend Beton and The Real Danger) for showing up and playing their asses off. Also a lot of thanks to Hans and Niels and everyone else at The Stage, and most of all, thanks to all people showing up, singing along, going crazy during the show and buying the new album. If you don't believe any of the above, we got pictures to proof: check. See?
in response to the new album we got a shitload of new reviews. too much to mention them all. again, as soon as the new website is finished we'll post them there. here is the review of asice.net, one of holland's most important punk/hardcore portals:
Antillectual – Testimony (Shield)
Antillectual is the only Dutch DIY band, besides No Turning Back, that is willing to take that next step in music. Touring constantly across the globe to spread their music and message, these three guys from Nijmegen and Arnhem wholeheartedly dedicate their lives to this band. Where most bands try it, Antillectual does it and makes it look really easy.“This is or testimony of the things we see happening around us and we do not agree upon”
This line is taken from the explanation of the opening track “Testimony” (a Boysetsfire-esque intro song) and pretty much sums up the lyrical content of this record. Some isssues they adress, like war, feminism and broken promises, are more important than others (“scene” issues or corporate advertising) but all lyrics are spot on and written with sincerety. And sincerity is the basis of all great things. Every song is explained to make sure that you know what they are singing and screaming about.
In comparing “Testimony” with “Silencing Civilization”, one is struck by the musical progress since that time. Dynamic changes, intelligent songwriting, richly colored melodies. A true parade of different punk rock styles. Being a conservative prick when it comes to punk rock music, I’m losing my head over songs like “Sponsorship for life” and “Benefit of the doubt”. Unbelievable! But all the pieces work extremely well together even though the ending can be a bit of challenge due to the length of both the song “I hope you got my letter” and the Shawshank Redemption sample.
A Sturm und Drang approach to political punk rock is certainly not unique but proves to be the most memorable. It should be no suprise that fans of Propagandhi and Strike Anywhere will do themselves a huge favor by checking out this uncanny record.
Rating: 4,5 out of 5
if you want to order the album, or some other stuff get in touch through email.
some interesting offers:
– our old and new album together for 15 euro
– a shirt and an album together for 15 euro
furthermore we have a lot of new shows added, especially in may with some very cool bands. check them yourself. hope to confirm some more soon as well. in april we will be hitting the (serious) road again, together with our good friends from smash the statues. really looking forward to that one. unfortunately we're still looking for some shows, if you can help us out it would be highly appreciated. also if you have a show for us anywhere else, we're always looking for places to play, even more now we have a new album to promote. so please, let us know!
As said, we're working on a new website, we're actually filling it in with content and doing tests, so it's finally getting somewhere. no promises on when it will be online though, those have been broken more than enough. hope to see or hear from you soon!
Eindhoven
Krefeld Hannover
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