Antillectual

2018 & Friends First Fest – in retrospect

We are thankful and happy that we get to end every year with Friends First Fest. It’s an incredible way to end the year, and yesterday was no exception! Thanks to the massive group of people making De Onderbroek packed and sweaty, the way we like to see it! Sorry to the people that got turned down at the door for the venue being too full already. Next chance next year! Not unimportant, together with Minor Operation Donations we managed to raise over 1300 euro for Help Refugees!

2018 was a strange but good year for us! We started by closing the ENGAGE cycle and shooting and releasing a video series for Change the Standard. An enormous project which we couldn’t have done or wouldn’t have been as much fun without the help from so many friends.

In 2018 we took a turn from our standard routing and started doing some things differently. Most noticeable we have stopped writing, recording and releasing albums. Instead we have started a song-by-song approach since June 2018. We were very anxious to release our first two singles (Heads You Win, Tails We Lose & The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist) but were relieved when the response turned out overwhelming. We got to record the singles with Martin Beusker at Mailmen Studio, and something we will release in 2019 (to be continued!) with our sound tech Emiel and Menno Bakker at the Amsterdam Recording Company. We’ve shot videos with Younique Film, Ivana Smudja and many of our friends for our music videos of 2018.

We played less shows in 2018 because of study related obligations, which will continue in the first half of 2019. But the shows that we did were great! The Loud & Rising Tour with Green Lizard and This Means War, festivals like Manchester Punk Fest, AntAttack, Uncle M Fest, Booze Cruise, Riez Open Air, The Sound of Revolution, Bierschinken Fest and an amazing weekend in Spain for Actitud Fest. We had incredible shows in Liège, Minden, Wermelskirchen, Kiel, Osnabrück, Hamburg and many other places. We got to say goodbye to Adhesive in our hometown/living room and met and shared the stage with all time heroes No Fun At All and Propagandhi multiple times. We also got to say goodbye to our loyal van for 10 years and hello to our new red menace!

2018, you’ve been good to us. And by that we mean “THANK YOU!” to all who checked us out, came to a show or helped us out otherwise in 2018! Another big thanks to our solid partners The Living Proof Agency, Loud Noise, Uncle M Music, Redfield Records. And last but definitely not least a big “THANKS!” our steady rock crew Roos and Emiel, and all others that joined us on the road!

Catch you on the other side! Willem, Riekus, Toon

PS: check our best of 2018 playlist here

Our new single is out today! Finally we can present you the music and the accompanying video for The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist! Merch with the artwork is now also up for regular sale via our site and available at our upcoming tour dates. This is our second single, so we officially have a “series” now!

The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist

Check our new single on Spotify, Youtube, Bandcamp or your channel of choice via antillectual.com/theinvisiblehand. Listen, download, buy, spread and add it to your playlists! The Invisible Hand is an ode to conscious consumers in a capitalist world: a world dictating you to either produce commodities under sketchy circumstances or buy them. The song is recorded at Mailmen Studio and mastered by XPZ Sound, the video is created by Younique Film.

The Invisible Hand Shirts and Zippers

Order The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist merch – organic, fair trade & sustainable – created by Daggers Design. With each order come stickers, posters and a download of the new single. Previous designs are still available, including package deals with our 10-year anniversary album Testimony.

Speaking of Testimony …

Friends First Fest 2018

The end of 2018 is near, and that means Friends First Fest is coming up. We’re thrilled (and a little scared!) to announce that we will play a special TESTIMONY set, consisting of our 10 year anniversary album in its entirety, completed with more recent singles! We’ll be playing songs we never played live before from your favorite album*! Tickets are on sale now and come with a free Testimony download! We will announce other bands and details over the next weeks.
*By us, from that year?

The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Tour

Of course we want to play our new single for you! Come to one of the following to hear it live:

• Nov 02 NL Eindhoven, The Sound of Revolution w/ Propagandhi, Dag Nasty, Life of Agony, more
• Nov 17 NL Groningen, Lola
• Dec 01 DE Ibbenbüren, Rocktage
• Dec 08 DE Kiel, Schaubude
• Dec 20 NL Den Haag, Paard w/ No Fun at All
• Dec 21 Osnabrück, Bastard Club w/ No Fun at All
• Dec 22 DE Hamburg, Punkalicious Christmas Festival (Hafenklang)
• Dec 29 NL Nijmegen, Friends First Fest (De Onderbroek)
• Jan 30 NL Arnhem, Luxor Live w/ Pussy Riot

Hopefully you all had an incredible summer with lots of music and nice weather! We had an amazing time releasing Heads You Win, Tails We Lose and playing festivals all over Europe to spread our new single. But summer has come to an end and it’s time to bring you some fresh music and accompanying shows!

The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist

We will release our new single “The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist” on October 30! Musically it might seem a mellow track but its content is heavy nonetheless:

“In a world where politicians govern their nations as companies, citizens are reduced to customers. We are left with little more influence than our spendings. Let’s use that mechanism and “celebrate” the crisis’ 10th birthday by making our purchases with even more care about who we support financially. We, the extras in the neoliberal narrative, should address them in the only language they understand and let our money do the talking. Strategic purchases, consumer strikes and boycotting companies whose policies we don’t agree with are our only bribe to get a foot in the door. Show the invisible hand of the market the visible fist of the people. Merry 10 year crisiversary!”

Pre-order new shirts and Zippers

Starting now you can pre-order The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist merch. Daggers Design created the artwork for the single and the merchandise. Pre-orders end on October 7! Previous designs are still available, including package deals with our 10-year anniversary album Testimony.

The Invisible Hand Meets the Visible Fist Tour

Of course we want to play our new single for you! Come to one of the following to hear it live:

• Oct 11 DE Dortmund, Bierschinken Eats FZW
• Oct 13 DE Rees-Haldern, Butze Am Reitplatz
• Nov 02 NL Eindhoven, The Sound of Revolution w/ Propagandhi, Dag Nasty, Life of Agony, more
• Nov 17 NL Groningen, Lola
• Dec 01 DE Ibbenbüren, Rocktage
• Dec 08 DE Kiel, Schaubude
• Dec 20 NL Den Haag, Paard w/ No Fun at All
• Dec 21 Osnabrück, Bastard Club w/ No Fun at All
• Dec 22 DE Hamburg, Punkalicious Christmas Festival (Hafenklang)
• Dec 29 NL Nijmegen, Friends First Fest (De Onderbroek)
• Jan 30 NL Arnhem, Luxor Live w/ Pussy Riot

Still hot: Heads You Win, Tails We Lose

Unfortunately we can’t give you any audio of the new single yet. But this might be a nice occasion to play our most recent single Heads You Win, Tails We Lose? Thanks for all heartwarming reactions to the song and our new “singles approach”!