Nearing Valentines Day

First of all: THANK YOU!!!!!!! I have received my little CGs trophy and thanks to everyone who voted for me. As you might have realized Kastle won the CG of the year 2003 trophy (congrats Kastle!!!) and I received the CG of the year 2002 trophy. But I have to admit that I don’t think that I deserved that trophy because all the CGs do a grrreat job and it’s because of every single cool grrrl that this site has gained more and more popularity over the years. So this award goes out to all the other CGs as well, this is for you ladies! And of course to Frank! He is the one that really deserves an award for all that he has been doing for us and for everyone that is interested in grrl punk. Maybe we can give him a big, really big trophy one day! Thx Frank, you’re the best!

IFMX World Cup Freestyle MX World Cup, Koenig Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen (GER)

www.air-team.com

Yeah! I just LOVE freestyle motocross! The IFMX world cup is the biggest fmx event in Germany. Riders like Mad Mike Jones (USA), Dayne Kinnaird (AUS) and Benoit Milot (CAN) showed up and made the audience scream. A show-man like Mad Mike obviously enjoyed it to show oldschool tricks like whips, lazy boys and no-handed-landings in front of such a big crowd. But although he had quite a few good runs there was one guy who made the audience go crazy: Alio Gaup from Norway showed a couple of backflips in his runs! It’s so amazing! I have never seen a backflip on a motorbike before. It’s so cool. I think Alio is the only non-American rider who is able to do the backflip. Of course, he won the contest. He was definitely the best rider around.

There was also a highest-air contest that was won by two riders: Benoit Milot and Mathieu Rebeaud. They even made a new world record: 11metres!!

It was really an awesome experience to watch all those crazy guys doing so amazing stuff on such a high level.

Results:

1. Alio Gaup (NOR)
2. Gary Taylor (UK)
3. Sebastian Wolter (GER)
4. Dayne Kinnaird (AUS)
5. Nick Franklin (NZL)
6. Mike Jones (USA)

Of course, Sandra and me went to the obligatory after contest party that took place at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen. It was a lot of fun but I won’t go into detail. All I want to mention is that Mike Jones proofed one more time why he is called Mad Mike.

Thx a lot to all the staff at air-team.com. They did a great job as usual. Special thanks to Karsten Junghans for inviting us once again!

The Distillers, Gruenspan, Hamburg (GER)

www.thedistillers.com

Yeah! I really made it to watch one of my favorite bands at one of their few shows here in Europe. I personally think that Brody Dalle is probably the best female punk vocalist nowadays. Unfortunately I was a little disappointed at the show. I had seen the band before a couple of times. Last year they scored 10 points on my riot scale, this time they only reached like 5 points. First of all, they got a new lead guitar player. He is really good but he doesn’t really seem to have a punk rock attitude. He looks like most of the guys do here at my university… but whatever. And now a really girlish statement: Ryan Sinn was one of the best looking guys I had ever seen one year ago. Now he has long hair and is a bit chubby…. but nevertheless he is still 100% punk rock. Second girlish statement: Have you seen the Drain The Blood video already? Brody wore exactly the same outfit on stage. Besides the outlook they seemed a little bored on stage but the audience appreciated their performance nevertheless (me too). They played all their greatest hits: LA Girl, Sick of it all and City of Angels and a lot of new stuff like Drain the Blood, Dismantle Me, Hall of Mirrors,…. It was cool to listen to all the new songs live. I really like the new record. But it sounds a little too Nirvana, Pennywise, whatever for me… I liked their Sing Sing Dead House one better (it’s on my all-time-playlist). But I have to admit that I really enjoyed the show and it’s always awesome too watch Brody live. She’s really amazing.

Tour Dates:

Europe 2004

Date	City		Venue
Wed-Feb 11	London	UK	Brixton Academy
Fri-Feb 13	Glasgow	UK	Barrowlands
Sat-Feb 14	Leeds	UK	University
Sun-Feb 15	Birmingham	UK	Academy
Tue-Feb 17	Berlin	DE	Knaack
Wed-Feb 18	Essen	DE	Zeche Carl
Thu-Feb 19	Paris	FR	Elysee Montmartre
Sat-Feb 21	Munich	DE	Backstage

“Demons”, Gleis 22, Muenster (GER)

www.rockagainstmusic.com

If you like punkrock in a straight in the face r’n’r way you will love the Demons. Like all bands on Gearhead records they really do rock. Fast, loud and wild. It was their first tour in Europe and wow, the audience really went crazy. I had to hide myself in the back of the club so I didn’t get hurt. Last year Frank gave me the “Demons” album Stockholm Slump and I really liked it so it was my duty to show up at their show. They played a lot of my fav songs like the wild Devil in me and the soft Sparkle. After the show I sat down with Mathias (voc), Micke (dr), Muffins (bass) and Stefan (guit) to do an interview with them:

Can you give us a brief band history?

Mathias: Me and Stefan, we met when we were kids. We met in the early 80ies when we were teens and started to play together. And then in the early 90ies Micke joined us. Then we actually quit and started the English united Five with Muffins here. That’s about it. We’ve been playing together since ’95.

What bands influenced your sound?

Mathias: Early punk music. `77 stuff.

Stefan: Sex Pistols, The Damned.

Muffins: MC 5

Stefan: New York Dolls

Mathias: And even garage rock from the late 60ies and stuff like that. Punkrock in a rock’n’roll way.

Is Gearhead the ultimate record label for you to sign with?

Micke: I think in many ways yes. They know exactly what we wanna do and they understand our music. Well, I would say yes.

Mathias: We have faith in them.

Muffins: And they believe in us. I think we are a perfect Gearhead band.

Micke: The only negative point is: Everything is going great in the States. But in Europe things are developing a little slow. That’s due to the lack of a real distribution.

Mathias: The only small problem is that they have their base in San Francisco. We have our base in Stockholm. We email back and forth but sometimes it doesn’t work. But that’s just a small problem, really.

How did you get in touch with Gearhead?

Mathias: Actually we made this carnage on a Swedish label.

Micke: The first thing we did in `98.

Mathias: And I sent it to Mike Lavella. But he didn’t get back to us. We got really pissed. We thought at least he could have send us something. But apperantly it got lost. We sent another copy without knowing that, of course. And they got it. And they were really excited.

Micke: Actually he told us that he never received the first one. But as soon as he listened to the second one he got really crazy about it. He got in touch with us rightaway. He came to Sweden for a Gearfest and we had a meeting and basically signed the contract

So you obviously like the other bands on Gearhead as well-

All: Yeah, defintely!

Micke: They are good friends with us. The Dragons and the New Bomb Turks are on Gearhead and we toured with them the States. A lot of great bands.

What is that thing about that you don’t play Busted anymore?

Mathias: Well, we do. We just didn’t rehearse it. I had to make a joke out of it. But if we knew that people wanted to hear it we would have loved to play it.

Micke: We always pick 20 songs for each tour and then we forget about the rest.

It’s just always like: What do you want to hear? No, we don’t play that. Then I’m asking myself what’s it all about anyway?!

Mathias: Well, I was hoping that he would say something else. Next time. We promise it.

Is it difficult for a Swedish band to tour the States? Does the audience appreciate your stuff?

Mathias: It’s not really difficult. No.

Micke: I think it’s easier. I think it’s the element of we are from Sweden. From far away. That makes it interesting actually. We always get good response from the crowd. Good reviews. The States are actually one of the best places for us to tour. And that also has to do with that our records are available everywhere in the States.

How do you keep your motivation level up?

Stefan: It’s fun.

Muffins: When you play a really good show then you want to do this.

Micke: We are actually very emotional. If there is a bad gig and a bored crowd then we want to go home and stop playing. But when we have a good gig it’s like yeah, let’s keep going. It’s always about the crowd.

Mathias: It’s the year old feedback thing.

Muffins: But that’s why we’re doing this.

What are your plans for the near future?

Micke: We have a lot of plans for next year.

Muffins: A rare disc compilation first. Two US tours. A Europe tour. Lots of tours. And a Japan tour.

Have you been to Japan before?

Mathias: No, it’s our first time.

Micke: We’re going to play 5 shows in April. In Tokyo and Osaka and a few other cities. That will be after we released the private disc compilation. Then we are going to do a European tour again in February. Down to Holland, Belgium and Spain and stuff.

Are you guys doing this for a living or is it more or less?

All: More or less.

Micke: When we are a lot on tour it’s fine but when there’s too much time between tours then you gotta go and DJ or something like that.

Muffins: Get some job.

Mathias: Steal things or do other weird stuff.

Do you want to add anything?

Mathias: Watch out!

Micke: Next year there’s going to be a lot of stuff happening. Two new albums and a lot of touring next year. This is going to be the busiest year in our history next year.

Mathias: And we’ll play Busted next time

Here are their US tour dates:

Bottom of the Hill San Francisco CA 040226 Opener tba/”Demons”/Starlight Desperation/Detroit Cobras

Blank Club San Jose CA 040227 Black Furies/Bodies in Basement/”Demons”

Spaceland Los Angeles CA 040228 “Demons”/Kaito/British Sea Power

Casbah San Diego CA 040229 Opener tba/”Demons”/Dragons

The Scene Glendale CA 040301 Opener tba/”Demons”

Stork Club Oakland CA 040302 Opener tba/Black Furies/”Demons”

Samurai Duck Eugene OR 040303 The Sawyer Family/Jimmy & the Hellenbacks/”Demons”

Dante’s Portland OR 040304 Opener tba/ Fireballs of Freedom/”Demons” Crocodile

Café Seattle WA 040305 Opener tba/”Demons”/Bob Log III 3B’s

Tavern Bellingham WA 040306 Opener tba/”Demons”/Bob Log III

B-Side Spokane WA 040307 Opener tba/”Demons”

Larimer Lounge Denver CO 040309 Two openers tba/”Demons”

Triple Rock Social Club Minneapolis MN 040311 Two Openers tba/”Demons”

The Bull Green Bay WI 040312 Two openers tba/”Demons”

Empty Bottle Chicago IL 040313 Opener tba/”Demons”/Deadly Snakes

Lager House Detroit MI 040314 Opener tba/”Demons”

Cafe Bourbon Street Columbus OH 040315 Opener tba/Gypsy Witch/”Demons”

Hi-Pointe Cafe St. Louis MO 040316 Two openers tba/”Demons”

REPLAY LOUNGE Lawrence KS 040317 Drapes/”Demons”

Green Door Oklahoma City OK 040318 Two Openers tba/”Demons”

Rubber Gloves Denton TX 040319 Two Openers tba/”Demons”

Emo’s Inside Stage Austin TX 040320 SXSW Conference

The Bones, Zwischenfall, Bochum

www.bonesrockroll.com

And here a quick Bones update: They are about to release a new record on peoplelikeyou records in April. They will also launch a new homepage as soon as the record is out. In Bochum they performed a lot of new songs and I love them! Their songwriting has definitely evolved. The songs are more melodic, catchy and just way cool. My favourite one is: This is not a Love Song (also I have to admit that this is quite a dull title). I’ll keep you updated!

The Bones will join the PLY festival tour once again. Make sure to catch them on the road with bands like Demented are Go, The Huns feat. Duane Peters + Corey Parks and Damnation

Alter Stadtbahnhof, Schweinfurt GER, 040408

SO 36, Berlin GER, 040409

Club Vaudeville, Lindau GER, 040411

Arena, Vienna AUS, 040412

Backstage, Munich GER, 040413

Soundgarden, Dortmund GER 040414

Schlachthof, Hamburg GER, 040415

Het Zaaltje, Morkhoven BEL, 040416

Centrum, Erfurt GER, 040417

El Effenaar, Eindhoven HOL, 040418

Have a nice Valentines Day!

GreeZ

Sabine Schenk