Antillectual

Isn’t it a jolly good time? Our tiny country is covered under a layer of snow, resulting in a total meltdown of all activities. The climate summit in Copenhagen last week seems to have become a meltdown of equal scale: all initiatives to save our civilization have been meticulously snowed under by lobbies to preserve our right to welfare. In Greece (no snow there) people have been “celebrating” the 1-year anniversary of the popular outrage and riots of last year. After those events things only got worse, even EU “help” didn’t help. And our good friend Silvio Berlusconi is gaining popularity despite the fact that he has to face both court and church (quite literally, speaking of Smash the Statues).
Ah well, Merry Christmas everybody!

But to all this, there is an antithesis: stuff that is valuable and maybe fun. For us; we are practicing our asses off, writing new songs as if they are climate agreements and practicing like the sustainability of the world as we know it is depending on it. We are scheduling more and more shows to kick the songs into shape live. And, we’ve set ourselves the toughest deadline there is: recording dates are planned! At the end of February we will be entering the studio with our friend Nico van Montfort of XPZ sound. We plan to record 12 or 13 songs for a new full length. More about that later.

In case both Sinterklaas and Santa forgot about you, and you want to treat yourself before the end of the year: check out our new merch. Pre-orders have been sent, regular orders are up now. Check the picture below, we are extremely happy with the new stuff. The design is actually red and silver (does it get any more Christmassy?) and we have t-shirts, girlie shirt, zippers and girlie zippers in several colors and sizes. On top of that we also have new patches, including one with Noam fucking Chomsky! Check our merch store for orders.
Have some fun during the holidays!

Tomorrow we will have the first rehearsal in our new practice space at the Onderbroek in Nijmegen. Can’t wait to try it out and blast our amps at full throttle. Riekus also bought a new nice flightcase for his drum stuff, and Tom just bought a new bass. Aren’t we ready for some thrashing of new songs?

This upcoming weekend we’ll be playing Antwerp (December 4, Koevoet) and Tilburg (December 5, Little Devil). Please come out and join in!

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.

And then we can hit the stages again. We are really eager to come out and play. For our standards it’s been a while since we played. And a lot is happening behind the screens and as soon as we get out, you will notice.

In the mean time Punk Your Store has aired. It is supposed to be(come) the European Interpunk. That means that you are able to digitally order ALL punk/hardcore albums ever released. Well, a lot. And being resided in Europe that means for Europeans no longer having to bother with importing taxes and more bullshit like that. And another good reason to go there: they have our stuff …

And last, a news letter will be sent out next week. Keep you children at home.

Originated out of jealousy this goes out to all Yanks, tourists and other Fest visitors who are gonna celebrate the best weekend of the year this weekend in Gainesville. I wish we could be there ourselves, but hopefully we will be back next year. Have fun watching our friends from Static Radio, After the Fall, One Win Choice, Fiya, Bridge and Tunnel, Iron Chic, Strike Anywhere, and of course the “usual suspects”. If you happen to run into Thomas (our friend who helps us out with merchandise on tour) offer him and his girlfriend a place to sleep, they are still in need of one I guess.
Oh, and could someone tape the Samiam show?