Archive | music/audio

16 August 2010 ~ 20 Comments

New Album Stream ep. 1: Every Crisis Is a Moral Crisis

In this first one of 12 weekly episodes, we present the first song off our new record “Start From Scratch!”: Every Crisis Is a Moral Crisis, with lyrics, liner notes and a sneak peek of the artwork. Greg Rekus, singer and guitarist of Winnipeg Canada’s High Five Drive and day job sound engineer, is our guest this week. The first time I (Riekus) met him was a midnight encounter in a Paris gay bar, don’t ask! We got to know each other better when High Five Drive and Antillectual toured the UK, Belgium, France and our home country this April. In this week’s episode, Greg talks about the sound of our record, veggie beef and Uma Thurman. Confusing, isn’t it? Read on, figure out what Greg is about, enjoy the song and give us your feedback.

Skip to: Special Guest / Lyrics / Liner Notes / Artwork preview / Confirmed labels

Greg Rekus says

One of my favourite elements of Antillectual is the guitar work. This song is packed with tasty little riffs and guitar parts that ignite the impulse to reach for a guitar and attempt to decode the combination of fingering, palm muting, picking and other assorted tricks Willem hides up his frayed hoodie sleeves. The lyrics hit you right away like an anthem you had on the tip of your tongue but just couldn’t spit it out. “Bring it on! Let’s start from scratch!”. Hear it once and you are singing it immediately. The recording is big. Huge guitar tones, gritty, beefy (veggie beef of course) bass sounds, nice crack to the snare. Riekus’ drum sounds are killer. They don’t have the super triggered, robotic sound that some people were sure was the key to good records several years ago.

High five drive played with them live a bunch this past April. Many bands just aren’t the same live as on record or vice versa. Either the record is lacking the energy of a band losing their shit on stage or the live show is missing the precision and polish of a good recording. Antillectual is one of those rare bands that straddle that line of energetic live performance while maintaining the tightness usually reserved exclusively for wet knots and Uma Thurman costumes. I’m super pumped on this recording and can’t wait to share the stage with them again!

Lyrics

Bring it on
Let’s start from scratch

We need a reality check
Armed with second opinions
Not afraid to use them
Now it is time, time for plan B

My First Crisis
This is not a drill
Too true to be good
Think outside the box, it’s time for plan B

Every crisis is a moral crisis
Now we can become what we want to be
Let’s start from scratch

The system broke
Repairing is not possible
Replacing the only option
Recycling what is useful

Now the dust has settled
It’s up to us
We want regime change

Let’s start from scratch

Liner Notes

We have reached another breaking point in history. The current financial crisis has made an enormous impact on so many people that it seems things are going to change. If things are going to change, we have to make sure they change for the better. Political and financial systems are extremely slow when it comes to change. People, on the other hand, can change their ideas and behavior overnight.
Whether a crisis is about the financial world, immigration, the role of the media and youth culture, how to treat whistle blowers, animals, political themes in general, or the upcoming influence of “new” powers like China and India; all crises should lead to an evaluation of how we deal with these topics in the future. What we think is right and wrong about it. What moral standards should apply for any of these topics. Every crisis is a moral crisis.
Now that the old balance is unstable it is time to tip it over and install a new balance. This is the time where people are up for trying new, better ideas. Now we can be the architects of our own world. For real change to occur, we need more than just a new messiah. We need people to believe in themselves and each (each!) other instead of a new president or a new financial system to improve the quality of life.
We should not be afraid to take a closer look at things when it gets hot under our feet. There is a lot to improve in the world. If we want this crisis, and more importantly the reaction to this crisis, to be fruitful, it is up to us to give directions. So bring on these crises and take those chances. Let’s start over, let’s start from scratch.

Artwork preview

cover-SFS-front
Artwork by David Finke of FairTradeMerch

Confirmed Labels so far:

Discos Rayados Records (Spain)
Effervescence Records (France)
Infected Records (Portugal)
Lockjaw Records (United Kingdom)
Shield Recordings (Benelux)
Square of Opposition Records (USA)
No Reason Records (Italy)
5 Feet Under Records (Scandinavia)

That’s it for this week’s album preview. We’ll be back next Monday with the second song: Buyer’s Remorse. Expect some candy-sweet guest vocals and another Special Guest.

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09 August 2010 ~ 4 Comments

Bring it on!

At this very moment Dutch right-wing politicians are working on a new coalition. It will include the most xenophobe party ever to participate in a government; the Partij Voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom; which doesn’t seem like a bad idea, right?). If stuff doesn’t suck already, stuff will suck harder if that coalition comes into power. Now it is time, time for plan B.

At this very moment we are finalizing our own new coalition as well. Almost a dozen labels all over Europe and the USA have gathered their forces to release our new album “Start From Scratch!”. The release is set for November 1st, pre-orders will be taken earlier. Next Monday, August 16, we will start to stream a song from the new album every week. Next to the music we will post lyrics and accompanying liner notes of each song. On top of that we will post a contribution to each song from people that helped recording the record, wrote songs, did guest vocals, designed the artwork; but also from people who helped the band the last couple of years: supporting us on tours, behind the screens or on stage.

After the release we will take the world by storm through endless touring. If you want us to paint your town red, get in touch and we will work it out.

So, next week we will post the list of cooperating labels, the first song on our new album (Every Crisis Is a Moral Crisis) including lyrics, liner notes and comments from a punkrock celeb and the front of the artwork. See you next week kids!

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25 June 2010 ~ 1 Comment

Spotifying

So it has been a week since we landed home after our tour. Thanks go out to everyone who made it such a blast! Especially Thomas and Rudy for helping out on the road and at the merch table. Tom is working on a tour report, which will be finished soon. At this moment we are working hard on the release of our new album “Start From Scratch!”. Expected release date is sometime in September/October. More real news when there is confirmed news.

In the mean time please give our older albums another spin. For the people in Holland who are able to enjoy Spotify since last month, our album “Testimony” and acoustic EP “Pull the Plug” can be found over there. Anyone in the know of how they ended up there? Please, enlighten us! We would love our other stuff to get up there too.

Enjoy the sun and hope to see you at one of our upcoming shows:

Jul 9 GER Verden, Break the Silence Fest.
w/ Brat Pack, Oi Polloi, Vitamin X and many, many more.

Jul 17 NL Vlaardingen, Open Air Skate.
w/Drunktank, Gino’s Eyeball, Maybee, Roadsign, Parkiet On Speed

Aug 5 NL Meppel, Cafe Clouso, donderdag meppeldag!
w/ Bivouac, Ravens

Sep 4 NL Zwolle, Rock ‘n’ Roll Festival.
w/ Peter Pan Speedrock, Fakkelbrigade

Sep 17 NL Zeist, De Peppel

Sep 18 NL Tilburg, Incubate Festival.
w/ A shit load of bands

Oct 8 NL Goes Café de Vrijbuiter, BoemTikFest 2010.
w/
The Real Danger, John Coffey, Starve, State Of Affairs, Audiofungus, Hard Rain, Broken Dentures

Oct 16 GER Wemelskirchen, AJZ Bahndamm

Jul 9 Germany Verden Break the Silence Fest w/ Brat Pack, Oi Polloi, Vitamin X and many, many more.
Jul 17 Netherlands Vlaardingen Open Air Skate/punkfestival
Aug 5 Netherlands Meppel Cafe Clouso, donderdag meppeldag!
Sep 4 Netherlands Zwolle Rock ‘n’ Roll Festival w/ Peter Pan Speedrock, Fakkelbrigade, more tba
Sep 17 Netherlands Zeist De Peppel w/ Rentokill
Sep 18 Netherlands Tilburg Incubate Festival
Oct 8 Netherlands Goes Café de Vrijbuiter BoemTikFest 2010
Oct 16 Germany Wemelskirchen AJZ Bahndamm

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15 September 2009 ~ 6 Comments

Squatting continues! (new song)

Hey everyone, what’s up? We have been laying a little low on our updates, basically because we are working our asses off booking the last dates for our tour with After the Fall, writing new songs and all that.

In the meantime, let us share a new song with you. It is one of the songs that will end up on our new record and it is our first song ever with a Dutch title: “Kraken gaat door”. It is derived from the slogan of the Dutch squatting movement and translates to something along the lines of “squatting continues”. While the Dutch government is working on legislation to make squatting illegal, we think it is more important than ever to point out what benefits we all have from the squatting movement. For example, a lot of popular venues in the Netherlands originated from the squatting movement (Melkweg Amsterdam, Doornroosje Nijmegen to name a few). Somehow people tend to forget this and rather speak of squats in a negative tone..

Well, here goes. This video was shot recently at the Skatefest in Olen (BE), by our friend Tom of Smash the Statues. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhHYiDHjEm8

(you can skip straight to the song at 1:07 if your Dutch is not too good)

Keep an eye on your e-mail inbox in the next week, as we will be sending out a fine newsletter

Oh, and if you have any options for shows on October 9 or 10, please hit us up!

Oops: apparently, Tom didn’t film this (he’s in the pit somewhere), so it must have been our friend “rental” Thomas. Thanks Noam and Tom for noticing

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04 July 2009 ~ Comments Off on “Pull the plug” out now + acoustic shows

“Pull the plug” out now + acoustic shows

We recently announced the release of our acoustic 7″ titled “Pull the plug”. Those of you who follow us on Twitter might have heard about it already: the 7″ is finished and we’re damn proud of it. The first pressing comes with a lovely, screen printed sleeve and pink or black vinyl. Check it out:

4961_94530198871_38254963871_1946384_1076799_n

In support of the 7″, we’re adding more and more acoustic shows to our roster. This Sunday, we will be having the release party at Knoflook, Den Bosch with Mischief Brew. Come and say hi if you like low-volume punkrock. Other acoustic shows:

Sun Aug 9      Arnhem      Sonsbeek Avenue Festival
Tue Aug 25      Nijmegen      De Bijstand       w/ Oldseed
Sun Aug 30      Nijmegen      Rock Royale       w/ Lea, more
Thu Sep 17      Amsterdam      Winston Kingdom  w/ Kevin Seconds, Mike Scott

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