Antillectual

It’s time to unveil the Friends First Fest plans we’ve been hinting at! Are you ready?!

We’re very excited that we can do FFF with the current Covid measures in our favorite venue: De Onderbroek! Happening on Wednesday December 29, check the FB event to RSVP. The setlist will consist of our 11 old: START FROM SCRATCH! We’ll play it from left to right, from front to back. Tom Nieuwenhuis will join us on bass for this one, he recorded the album with us, and rehearsing the songs has been amazing!

Unfortunately, we still have to take into account that future anti-Covid measures might make FFF 2021 impossible. That’s why we will wait with ticket sales and line-up announcements. To be continued!

So, fingers crossed for now, and either way we will do our best to throw the best FRIENDS FIRST FEST ever in 2021!
(Painting by Willem’s mom!)

We had an incredible time at Die Börse in Wuppertal! Our first “post-pandemic” show, with our new bass player Ben!

As you could have read in our latest newsletter Toon decided to leave the band right before the pandemic. We’re incredibly thankful for his dedication during the 5 years he was with us and we wish him all the best with his musical endeavors!

During the downtime we had plenty of time to think about what to do. Instead of looking for one and one bass player only, we decided to build an “army of bass players”.

This makes it easier for us as a band to be flexible and doesn’t require people to cancel their own lives when helping us out. At the moment Gijs (Zero Zero Zero, Tenement Kids) and Ben (Dependent) are jumping in.

The spirit is high, we’re very excited to play with them, come welcome them at the upcoming shows!

This is the news we’ve been dying to send you: WE ARE DOING SHOWS AGAIN! After being on our biggest break ever, doing some small projects and missing you a lot, we are very excited to make new plans, and music! We actually have some shows lined up, which we will be playing with new line ups…

Pandemic Projects

We decided to lay low for as long as we couldn’t do “normal” shows. We did do some things though:
Riekus recorded a “Drum Chronology” : all 54 of our songs in 5 minutes! While normal shows were impossible, Willem did some acoustic online shows. Here you can check Willem at SBÄM Online Fest 3. Unscripted Moments aka the Propagandhi podcast did an episode with Willem talking about Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An for which he did an acoustic cover with the Punk Cellist. It was scheduled well in advance, but the release of our Covers EP happened in the middle of the pandemic. While vinyl sold out in the pre-order, we still have some tapes and it’s on all digital channels via our website.

New Line Up

As you read in our latest newsletter Toon has left the band. During the downtime we had plenty of time to think about what to do. Instead of looking for one and one bass player only, we decided to build an army of bass players. This makes it easy for us as a band to be flexible and doesn’t require people to cancel their own lives when helping us out. At the moment Gijs (Zero Zero Zero, Tenement Kids) and Ben (Dependent) are jumping in. The spirit is high, we’re very excited to play with them, come welcome them at the upcoming shows!

With the prospect of new band members, shows and tours, we should also think about new releases, right? Check! We’re working on new songs that we would love to release. Perhaps as an “album”? No deadline, release date or any other timeline yet though. You’ll read it here first!

Upcoming Shows

Even though this list is shorter than usual, we’re very happy with the fact that there is a list period!

• Oct 22 DE Wuppertal, Die Börse. w/ Venturas
• Nov 27 BE Wommelgem, Fort Fest 2021.
  w/ The Kids, Crackups, Dee Cracks, Priceduifkes, Captain Kaiser and many more
• Dec 29 NL Nijmegen, Friends First Fest #6
• Jun 18, 2022 De Minden, Kraetzeval

Wanna see/book us/make this list longer? Get in touch with us or Steve at Merit Based. Steve (you might also know him from his band Belvedere!) is taking care of all our European bookings, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Merch

As you know, we’re not in it for the money, but it does make our van go round. If you wanna support us keeping our heads above water, paying our bills now that we’ve been running dry for over a year: please check out the merch in our webshop, it’s the best way to help us out. We have all full length albums (LP+CD) available, some Covers EP tapes, the Fever and “Ramones” design and some limited leftovers. We’ll cut your shipping costs if you add the comment “Newsletter Friends First”!

That’s it for now, thanks for reading, till next time!

Missed our previous newsletter? Find it here!

Twentytwenty has truly been a shitty year. Looking back at the end of it, with a bright light glaring at the end of the tunnel, let’s have a look back at the fun things we did get to do, instead of all stuff we missed out on.

We did only 1 live show this year (probably the first time in 20 years with less than 50 shows?), with Anti-Flag and our buddies in Smash the Statues at Patronaat Haarlem on January 30. Couldn’t have picked a better one as the single 2020 show!

On March 17 we released our cover of Hanging on the Telephone (original by The Nerves/Blondie). We dressed up for the music video and recorded it at our HQ.

In April/May/June Willem did acoustic online shows for Wish You Were Here Fest, We Are One Tour, Booze Cruise and SBÄM Fest among others. If all else fails; go acoustic!

On May 12 we did our first physical release in 4 years: a vinyl Covers EP with 4 covers of The Police, Ramones, The Stooges/Iggy Pop and The Nerves/Blondie. It sold out pretty much during the pre-order and the response was really overwhelming. Thanks for supporting our (physical) release!

On June 30 we released a drum chronology: Riekus played a chronological medley of snippets of all 54 of our songs in 5 minutes! Madness!

On December 9 Unscripted Moments (Propagandhi podcast) aired an episode with Willem talking about and covering his favorite track. Check the acoustic cover (with the Punk Cellist!) of Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An:

Hope you had some highlights this year as well! Either way: see you on the other side!

Today, November 1st, 2020, marks the 10th birthday of our 3rd full length album “Start from Scratch!”. It (still) is an important album for us and a favorite of a many. SFS seems to have been the first album that got us worldwide attention. In celebration of the album’s anniversary we had all sorts of wild plans, involving Friends First Fest and other activities, none of which will happen this year. Maybe we can make up for it next year?

If you read the title, track list and liner notes it seems that a lot of themes are relevant still, or again. We could have written songs like “Every Crisis Is a Moral Crisis” (how to deal with a heavy impact, worldwide calamity), “America’s Worst Role Model” (a horrifying American President), “Chinese Takeover” (growing influence and power of China) to describe the situation we’re in right now. Classic themes never get old!

When we released the album in 2010 we did a song-by-song introduction to the album, including guest contributions by people that did guest vocals, recorded it, released it, and other friends! Fun reads about your favorite song or the album as a whole when killing time these days:

1. Every Crisis Is a Moral Crisis (Greg Rekus, formerly of High Five Drive)
2. Buyer’s Remorse (David Finke, did the album artwork, FairTradeMerch)
3. The Hunt Is On! (Nab Ortega, formerly of Just Say Yo Zine)
4. America’s Worst Role Model (Fieke Houkes, Shield Recordings, released the album)
5. Cut The Ground From Under Our Feet (Chris Hannah, Propagandhi, did guest vocals; Thomas Nijboer, former roadie)
6. “Kraken Gaat Door!” (Etjen van der Vliet, Just Like Your Mom)
7. Some Of My Best Friends Are Meat Eaters (Marnix van Holland, formerly of Punx.nl)
8. Chinese Takeover (Lenneke Knape, formerly of Rockit Promotions)
9. Our Hearts (Yvo Kouwenhoven, former bass player)
10. The New Jew (Nico van Montfort, of XPZ Sound, recorded the album)
11. Classic Themes Never Get Old (NoReason Records, released the album)
12. So Much More (Heleen Tichelaar, did guest vocals)

Check the complete album on LP/CD, Spotify, Bandcamp, Youtube, Apple Music.