I Want You Dead

ΑΩ 7"

7inch.gr | World's Appreciated Kitsch

In my humble opinion, this is probably the best record (coming straight from the extreme music's local underground scene) that was released in 2011.

I know that you know that World's Appreciated Kitsch is involved in this and that some (or even many) of you will claim that I'm writing this in order to promote ΑΩ and sell more records; but stick this to your fucking heads... I don't give a shit because half of you reading this blog do not even deserve to listen to this masterpiece.

You cannot understand its maturity unveiling via its simplicity. Elitism? Yes.

This is some serious negative shit exposed and filtered through dark hardcore music.

If you are a fan of Integrity, Ringworm or Rise & Fall, go listen to these bands. They rule.

I Want You Dead do not want you to be a fan of anything.

Give your self a chance and open your minds and your hearts for once. Stray from the typical 'hardcore' stuff that you are downloading from the net. Stop worshipping your fake punk rock messiahs. Cease bowing down to the authorities imposed on you.

Stand in the storm, kill all the lights, come burn the sky.

ΑΩ is served in a gatefold cover, including a card and lyrics printed on rice paper, plus a download code, plus colored vinyl. It's limited to 500 copies and you will be able to get it from various spots all over the globe before the world ends.

This is already CVLT.

www.iwantyoudead.bandcamp.com

www.7inch.gr

www.wakhc.blogspot.com

Rivals!

Make your own path CD

Brain Ache Records

Rivals! was a hardcore band based in Athens / Greece.

They started out in 2008 feat. the 4/5 former members of xFor No Reasonx and, as far as I know, they called it quits this summer, since some of their members have formed a new power violence / fast hardcore band.

Their first full length album was released some months ago by the UK label Brain Ache Records (also home for bands like Nine Eleven, Beartrap and more).

I am lucky enough to own the limited edition of this CD incl. different artwork and screen-printed digipack.

The regular version is still available through WAK distro, as well.

So, let's get this straight.

Rivals! are playing old school hardcore with a modern touch.

If you are a fan of the straight edge revival and / or if you are interested in bands like Champion, Bane and Verse, you'll definitely dig 'Make Your Own Path'. Sing - alongs, passionate vocals, tight rhythm section, melodic guitars; I guess you already know the deal.

Lyricwise, they focus on sociopolitical issues; while they don't forget to represent the straight edge / vegetarian / hardcore ideals.

The production is awesome and this fact helps a lot the band members to unfold their talent and deliver their compositions to the audience.

All in all this is a very good local hardcore album that can easily compete with releases of the European hardcore scene.

Get your copy immediately.

'Crisis in economy, crisis in existence, crisis in you, crisis in me. Political systems submerge and emerge. People fall and rise. Friends come and go. This system cannot be improved, it must be overthrown. We have to crash it otherwise it will collapse upon us. There is no road for that; the road is made by walking. Our road is the one that we make all together. Our road is solidarity among us. Our road is the way we choose to live our lives. Music can't change the world but it changes people. And people can change the world. Just by making their own path.

www.reverbnation.com/rivalshxcband

www.facebook.com/brainacherecords

.Day 12/13/14.

.06thJanuary 2012.

23.00

We are on board sailing back to Greece.

The ship was delayed for about 4 hours because the weather is heavily windy.

We have a trip of about 14-20 hours (I am going to Igoumenitsa while IWYD will reach Patras) to cope with.

So, the tour is over and we are overwhelmed by a bittersweet feeling.

We had a great time and we will really miss the life on the road.

During the last 2 days we had no internet connection, so starting from the Zurich show we'll write down as many details concerning what happened as we can remember…

We arrived in Zurich after an 8hour trip from Chemnitz.

Marco had set a last minute show for us; consequently we drove straight to Autonomer Beauty Salon, a new squat located almost in the centre of Zurich.

As you already know, Zurich is the European mecca of capitalism, featuring huge multinational companies and stores, plus high rates of wealth among its citizens. Taking care of a squat in such a city is not the easiest thing to do, but the 30 squats that exist in Zurich prove the opposite.

So, IWYD played a very decent show in the big venue that Autonomer Beauty Salon offered.

After a bunch of drinks and a lot of discussions between us and the local guys / girls, we drove to another squat were Marco and his girlfriend reside. The name of the squat was Binz and it consisted of a huge building that provided a place to stay for 40-50 people.

2 of us slept there while the other 3 took the decision to sleep in the van because we strongly believed that this was not a nice place for us to spend the night in… Trying to find a hostel cheaper than 50 euros per person at 4 o' clock in the morning in Zurich seemed like an utopia, so our van was the only option.

As you can imagine that night was totally bad for us, since it was raining, it was fucking cold and we had to fit 3 people in a 6-seat van… That night was the worst of the tour and affected for a couple of hours our mood during the next morning.

Nevertheless, we started the trip to Firenze on Thursday around noon.

We passed the borders, having to cope with a heavy snowfall and a traffic jam due to it.

Luckily, after Milano the weather was good and we managed to arrive in Firenze around 21.00.

There we met the Straight Opposition guys that drove from Pescara from the show, Undisputed Attitude from Vicenza, plus the local crew.

The show took place in a 12-year old squat located in Prato area, called C.S.A. Next Emerson.

A local band played first and Undisputed Attitude were next. I really liked their modern hardcore fueled with lots of energy and passion.

The squat was packed with more than 150-200 people attending the show.

IWYD hit the stage afterwards. Their show was really good and they had a pretty cool feedback from the Italian punks.

I watched 1-2 songs of Straight Opposition (actually it was the 8th time I'm seeing these guys live) and 3 of us left in order to find a hotel to spend the night since we were extremely tired to sleep either in the squat or the van. After trying for almost an hour without a single result, we returned to the squat. The last band, Disease, were finishing their set, so after a while we packed the van with our equipment, left 2 IWYD members in the squat and we drove to the Firenze center on our mission for a hotel / hostel.

Eventually we found one at 3.30 in the morning, took a shower and slept nicely for the next 5 hours.

We woke up early on Friday morning, picked up the others from the squat and started the trip to Ancona.

And here we are, in the ship, trying to kill the countless hours.

Just lost 10 euros in 10 sec in the roulette, I guess I have to stop.

Tomorrow, IWYD are playing in Prokat 35 in their hometown (Patras), while I have a 12hr trip to Larissa, where I have a show with my band (My Turn).

5000km / 10 countries.

11 shows / 1 cancelled.

Countless burgers.

The tour is over, but the memories remain.

Get prepared for a tour zine / memorabilia to be released before the end of the world.

-a. & iwyd-

.Day 11.

.04thJanuary 2012.

01.07

After visiting Kreuzberg once again and eating proper food this time (no burgers today) we said goodbye to Stefi (she is in the train right now on a 12hr trip back to Wien) and left Berlin.

The trip to Chemnitz was short, so we arrived around 20.00.

Nadelle was waiting for us in Subway To Peter; we had a short soundcheck and then a delicious meal including crispy mushroom-balls, french fries and salad.

The show started around 23.00 and IWYD played an OK / cool set in front of a decent audience of 40-50 people.

Nothing special to write down today.

We are now in the club and in a while we'll visit the band room to get a sleep.

The weather is very windy and cold, so a walk downtown is not an option.

Btw, we just got a last minute show in Zurich thanks to our friend Marko.

IWYD will play in Autonomer Beauty Salon tomorrow night.

The drive to Zurich is long; something like 9-10hrs including a stop at the borders since Switzerland is not in the European Union.

We'd like to thank Ste from Kalashnikof that he helped us find a place to sleep in Villa Vegan in Milano.

That seemed to be our only option for tomorrow night till Marko gave me a call a couple of minutes ago.

So, that's all for now.

Enjoy the photos below and sleep tight.

-a. & iwyd-

.ΑΩ

photo session 2.

1. Collapse_Subway To Peter / Chemnitz

2. Black sailing_Subway To Peter / Chemnitz

3. Plates waiting to be filled

4. Koma F / Berlin

5. Koma F / Berlin

6. 22 Jahre Koepi Squat

7. Love punk. Hate punks

8. ...

9. Gorilla Biscuits graffiti / Coretex Records

10-12. Schokoladen Squat / Berlin

13. Schokoladen's band room

14. Windwheels on the road

15. Praha / new year's eve

16. We are anonymous / Abex hostel_Prague

17. EKH Squat's band room / Wien

18. Yummy record store / Wien

19. Always question authority

20. Shit art

all photos by a.

.Day 10.

.03rdJanuary 2012.

13.30

Yesterday's show was the best one of the whole IWYD tour till now.
Koma F was packed with almost 100 people, IWYD ripped it and we had tons of fun & mosh.
Krystal Meth,a local band feat. Gichti from Koma F on the vocals, played first delivering fast 80s hardcore / punk, not unlike Black Flag.
We definitely live for this kind of shows.
Nevermind the mud in the ground and never fucking mind humidity overwhelming the air.
That's punk and we are happy to be among this.

But, the Koma F show was just the best way to end a super awesome day.
We left Schokoladen at around noon and went downtown for punk shopping.
Punk shopping means vinyls!
Visiting the Bis Auf's Messer record store helped us a lot to spend all the money we hadn't spend in the whole tour. Buying records is something like a ceremony, so we got trapped in Bis Auf's Messer's web for more than an hour.
Coretex Records was next. We spent the rest of our money there, as you can imagine.
So, it was time to get something eat and we decided to visit the Yo Yo vegan fast food restaurant.
After a half a dozen of burger menus and the usual argument whether veg(etari)anism is a political choice and / or good for our mother Earth, we went back to Schokoladen.
Andy was kind enough to let us sleep in the squat for an extra night and, as you know, accommodation is vital for a touring band.
We entered Kopi squat at 20.30 and the rest is history.

Today we have a kinda short trip to Chemnitz.
Chemnitz is a city with a 250,000 population, located somewhere in middle-east Germany.
It's like 3hrs or so, I think.
The show is taking place in a small club called Subway To Peter.
We'll update this blog again tonight after the show.
Get prepared for tons of photos.

-a. & iwyd-
.we are decay.

.Day 9.

.02ndJanuary 2012.

13.05

After spending new year's eve in Prague's streets, we started the trip to Berlin early in the morning on the first day of the year.
The trip was not long enough; it took us almost 4hrs to arrive in Berlin's center and then we headed to Schokoladen, a nice squat / venue located in Mitte district.
Andy, the local promoter was waiting for us, we unloaded the van, had a short soundcheck, ate pizza and started the show around 19.00.
The guys actually played a 45' min. show including songs of their LP, their new 7" and covers by Integrity and Terror.
Since it was a matinee, the concert had to end around 20.00, and so it did.
There was a karaoke party afterwards, and we decided to head for a walk downtown.
We visited Kreuzberg, ate burgers, did some night sightseeing and then we were off to Warschauer strasse, where we found a cosy bar (called Soylent if I'm right) to spend a couple of hours.
On our way back to Schokoladen we got completely lost, the U & S were not working, so some of us took a taxi and some others changed a couple of buses in order to reach our home for that night at around 4 o' clock in the morning.

We just woke up and we are ready to visit some nice spots in Berlin.
Tonight's show is around 22.00 at Koma F / Koepi 137 squat, so we have enough spare time to hang around.

Yo,

-a. & iwyd-

.Days 7/8.

.31st December 2011.

20.38

So, here we are, in a cheap hostel somewhere in Prague / Czech Republic almost 3 hours before we say goodbye 2011 and the last year of the world's existence will rise.

Actually, on our way to Berlin and after countless attempts to find a friend's place or a cheap hostel to stay there, we decided to try our luck in Prague. And we were kinda lucky to find a 6-people dorm for 100 bucks in new year's eve.

Rewind: Our trip to Wien was short.

We arrived downtown at around 15.00 and headed straight forward to Yummy record store.

We bought some fanzines and left some records / books.

Formosa was next; a nice vegetarian restaurant.

And then Cafe Ciro for coffee / tea and discussion.

We entered EKH at almost 20.00.

EKH is a 21 year old squat, located in Wien's worker's district.

It's a definitely crust(y) squat, kinda like Villa Amalias in Athens or Koepi 137 in Berlin.

The show started a couple of hours later and Broomriders played first, delivering a 45' set of post - rock, psychedelic rock / ambient music.

IWYD played one of their longest sets ever. Their show was decent even though the sound on stage was not good.

At the time IWYD were playing I got a text by Stefi telling me that she was about to join us for the next 3-days.

Stoked!

Well, after the show ended we spend an hour or so in the squat's bar drinking beers and club mate, and then we went to get some sleep.

We woke up in the morning, had some vegan breakfast, met again with Stefi and started our trip to Berlin.

As I have already mentioned, we decided to spend the night in Prague instead of Berlin.

And here we are now, getting ready to hit the streets and the bars of Prague.

Happy new year to every single one of you.

Take good care of each other.

Luv,

-a. & iwyd-

.Days 5/6.

.30th December 2011.

01.30

No update yesterday because we didn't have a decent internet connection...

So, on Wednesday (28.12) we left Rebuild HC HQ around noon, headed to the venue, packed all our equipment in the van and started our long trip to Zagreb_Croatia.

We passed the borders around 16.00, after an almost half an hour search of our van by a 2.10m tall / 150kg weight border policeman. He was obviously searching for drugs, but as you know we are good guys and we never carry such bad things...!

The weather was extremely foggy so we had to slow down a bit; consequently we arrived in AKC Medika at around 19.30.

There we met Jere, Ariana and some other guys that was helping us with the show.

We had dinner and then we went to set up the back line.

The guys co-operated with a local football team (NK Zagreb) antifa supporters club in order to avoid having 2 shows in the same place. So, you can imagine that by the time we arrived there were already tons of punks & skins drinking and messing around outside the venue.

I have to mention that AKC Medika is a huge youth center (with both a legal & illegal part) consisting of a variety of autonomous spaces, from venues to cultural cafeterias.

The show started around 21.30. 3 oi! / street punk bands played before iWYD.

The most well known one seemed to be Oi! Front, a skinhead band covering songs by The Oppressed and more.

To be honest, that wasn't the friendliest environment for an IWYD show.

Nevertheless, the guys played awesome and tried to capture the attention of the crust / hardcore people that attended the show.

One more band played afterwards and we loaded the van with our stuff and drove to Ariana's place, where we ate & had a good sleep.

We woke up kinda late the next day, so we didn't have the chance to do some sightseeing...

We started the trip around 15.00 and we had to do a first stop at the Croatian / Slovenian borders.

That stop was definitely unpleasant... The policemen insisted that we had to follow them in their office.

Then they asked us a lot of times if we had drugs... and in case we had any, we should tell them before they started body-searching us and we could go, or else we would end up in jail... We told them that we didn't carry any.

I was the first (and luckily the only one) to get searched. A policeman told me to follow him in a room, where the only things I could see was a toilet and a table... I put off my shoes, my jacket and my hoodie... He kept asking me who's smoking marijuana... I kept telling him that no one is into this stuff... Then he found some antifascist stickers inside my wallet. He went crazy for a moment and then started asking who gave me these etc.

He kept a sticker and started yelling along with his colleagues...

After a while, he let us go...

As you can figure out, I got terrified for a moment or so...

Nevermind...

We continued the trip and arrived at Wiener Neustadt, a small city near Wien, at around 19.30.

Stefi was waiting for us at her house.

She is kind enough to host us, even though I asked her to do so only 2 days ago...

We went downtown to get some food and then we visited a local bar full of teenagers listening to metal core and shouting to each other... We played some table soccer and flipper, had some drinks and returned home.

Tomorrow we have a short trip to Wien... It's about 50km or so.

The show will take place in EKH squat. IWYD are playing along Broomriders.

Greetings to everyone.

All the best,

-a. & iwyd-

1. War Collapse_Croatia

2. Vegan food_AKC Medika

3. We are everywhere 2

4. AKC Medika cultural space

5-9. IWYD_AKC Medika / Zagreb

10. Christmas spirit_Wiener Neustadt

11. Η φάση

.ΑΩ

photos.

1. 'There's No Santa' matinee_Skopje

2. Vasko & Tina's kitschen

3. Novi Sad walls downtown

4. Rebuild Hardcore Collective HQ

5. Bojan's cat

6.We are everywhere

7. GNWP

8-12. IYWD_CK13 / Novi Sad

all photos by a.

.Day 4.

.28th December 2011.

02.05

Tonight's show was great.

CK:13 is an awesome youth centre dealing with concerts, art & the anti-authoritarian movement.

We went there around 19.00, after spending a few hours in the Rebuild Hardcore Collective's office.

We also had lunch at Bojan's house; he prepared goulash (a local meal) for us.

So, we parked the car near CK:13 and we unloaded the van.

Backline; check. Merchandise / distro; check.

The show started at 21.30. Vault Of Pain played first, delivering beatdown hardcore; definitely not my cup of tea, but they seem dedicated and that's cool.

IWYD were next. This was absolutely the best show of their tour till now.

Tight & heavy metallic hardcore at its best, you know the deal.

Bao Vau hit the stage afterwards. I just learned that they are active for a decade or so.

They play rap core; not my style again.

Losin' It cancelled their appearance since they had some technical problems or something...

All in all, it was a very nice show with more than 100 people attending it.

I have to mention that there were a lot of girls among the audience and almost all of them were beautiful (σεξισμός φάση).

Seriously, it's very vital for a hardcore / punk scene to have both men & womyn equally participating in it.

So, come on girls, take some action!

The show ended around midnight.

We are now in the Rebuild Hardcore Collective's office discussing about dadaism & Steve Jobs.

Tomorrow we have a 4-5 hr long trip to Zagreb.

There's a show in AKC Medika squat feat. many local bands varying from oi! to metal.

I Want You Dead are in the bill, as well.

We are lucky enough to have a special poster only for IWYD, thanks to Jere (of the band Dispro) that is taking care of our show.

We'll keep you updated.

Peace,

-a. & iwyd-

.Day 4.

.27th December 2011.

12.30

We just woke up at the Rebuild Hardcore Collective HQ.

Sleeping bags save lives.

Getting ready for a walk downtown.

Novi Sad is a very beautiful city.

We have to be at the club around 18.00, so we have enough time to hang around.

Van essentials till now: Dimitris Dimitrakas, Ringworm, Duke Ellington, Agalloch, Coleman Hawkins, Desiderii Marginis, Social Distortion.

.Day 3.

.27th December 2011.

03.55

When we started the trip from Skopje to Sofia this morning, we couldn't have imagined what would follow...

We reached the MK / BG borders 2 hours later and at first they simply did not let us in because as they claimed we

didn't have the original license for the van. We gently tried to convince the border police that we are just a touring band

that has to play in Sofia in a couple of hrs, but we didn't succeed.

A bunch of more tries and countless phone calls (to the company we rented the van from and to the greek embassy) we were stuck in the middle of nowhere trying to figure out what the fuck we could do.

The first thing we did is something that we hardly do. We cancelled our appearance in the Sofia Xmas fest.

We felt terribly sorry about this but we couldn't act in a different way.

It seemed that we were in a very bad situation; there were some rumors that we were about to face a huge problem even if we tried to drive to Serbia or even get back to Greece. The whole tour was on a high risk.

It actually occurred our minds to return to Greece and cancel it...

So, the van company owner insisted that we had to wait for a day in order to send a new van from Thessaloniki in the GR / MK borders. That means that we had to cancel the Novi Sad show, as well, and then travel all the way to Zagreb passing 2 borders and dealing with corrupted border policemen.

2 of us did one last attempt to pass the MK / BG borders without the van in order to ask the BG border police whether they would let us in or not, but the MK border police went really angry and acted definitely hostile towards us.

I must admit that we were in a very unpleasant situation with constant fear of what will happen next...

Nevertheless, we decided to risk some more and reach the MK / RS borders.

After a while we made it to Serbia (a bottle of whiskey was the tax we paid by the way...) and we started the long trip to Novi Sad totally relieved.

Our enemy at that time was the weather. We had to be very careful because we were traveling inside a huge foggy cloud.

We arrived in Novi Sad around 1 o' clock, after 14hrs being on the road...

We met Bojan (the local promoter) downtown. He was kind enough to host us for one more night.

We went downtown to make some exchange and get some food.

Bojan & I got followed by 6 nazis after we bought our food. Fortunately nothing happened.

We learned that there's a nazi party tomorrow, 300m away from the place that our show is going to take place...

I don't think that we'll have any problem, though.

We are now having some rest at the Rebuild Hardcore Collective Headquarters; a office / bar that Bojan and a lot of other guys playing in bands, photographers, artists, activists just launched. It's one of the best hardcore / punk places I've been.

I wish we had such a thing in Greece...

That's all I guess.

We had a very hard day. We need some sleep.

Take care.

-a. & iwyd-