Despite Everything

Greek tour over and out..

2012-02-15T13:52:00.005+02:00

So yeah,we are back.
Athens has never looked so grey,tattered and depressing.
Mixed feelings and the only thing i can think of saying right is
''What a nice place to raise your children...''(Migre le Tigre)
Not a good time to post a tour report.
My fingers are numb and my brain too so i am gonna
leave you with a bitter post,two videos
and the promise of a nice tour report soon enough.

peace.
d.e.

DE/Astpai/Brackets Closed/Migre Le Tigre Greek Tour

2012-01-25T14:13:00.003+02:00

The boys are back in town.
It's the friendly Austrian Invasion..
We are stoked to inform all you lovelies
that our buddies Astpai are coming to tour Greece
once again.
And this time they're not alone..
Brackets Closed and Migre le Tigre are coming along.
Check their blogs/websites they've got tons of stuff to keep you updated
in what these guys do,and believe me they are doing it fucking good.

http://www.astpai.org/
http://www.bracketsclosed.com/

Bring your best friend or come alone.
We'll be your friends..
Peace and love
d.e.
2012

Happy new year boys and girls

2012-01-03T23:52:00.003+02:00

To hell with 2011.Let's all welcome 20-12.
it might be the end of it all,it might as well be a new beginning.
This last year wasn't an easy one,
but who said we wanted an easy one anyways..
if this is what it takes for us to feel alive,
keep on shitting on our doorsteps.
we'll just set it on fire and throw it back at your porch.
"It takes much more than this to bring us down" as the Vodka Juniors would say.
It sure does.
To hell with negativity for a while,the sun is still shinning
and its god damned January.
So boys and girls..
get your shit together and make this year extraordinary.

soo here's a special treat.
Jack has been burning out organizing footage
from past shows and here's the outcome.
not too bad for a sound guy,right?

On December 16, 2011 we had the honor of hosting Antillectual from Holland, along with local buddies My Turn for a "secret show" in our very own studio/rehearsal space. The vibe this show gave off is not easy to put in to words, but all friends/family who were there made it a dream come true, our own private venue! Amazing vegan treats from Veggie-Wedgie served all night, cold beer out of our freshly cleaned and working fridge, good company, a even more secret (and suprise) Vodka Juniors show with Zahos playing drums, and Kostis on bass, psychedelic lights, what else could we ask for? Till the next time!

D.E.

AMP magazine Fest 10 photo gallery

2011-11-23T14:51:00.002+02:00

http://www.ampmagazine.com/21267/fest-10-photo-gallery-by-rebecca-reed/
All pics by the lovely Rebecca Reed.

FEST 10-Comp 5

2011-11-09T16:35:00.004+02:00

Boys,girls,masters and festers(anybody got the Counter Attack refference?!)..
The guys in Gainesville just released this years online FEST compilation.
Under the Gun from our With my bear Hands 7'' is in it..
Here's the link for all you lovelies to download,spin one and enjoy..
Don't forget to check out InxSane,Leagues Apart,Spraynard,Bangers and the Arteries amongst the other great bands featured here..
Good shit..

Soon the last part of the US East coast tour.
till then..
Be safe..
think out loud
act louder
fuck shit up...

East coast tour 2011..

2011-11-06T23:44:00.002+02:00

photo by Beckah R.

comes to an end..we've spent some time on the road with Unfun.22 actually.
Still believe they are the raddest dudes out there.
Played house shows,early shows,diy shows,fun shows..
even lost some shows.
Our van broke down more times than you can imagine but still we made it
to almost all the gigs.
We made some new friends and crossed roads with old friends..
We played a show with In-Sane and His Day Has Come at 7 o clock in the morning
in the local recordshop Wayward Council,
and got to play with Astpai,InxSane and One win Choice
amongst other great bands.
We got used of playing 25minute setlists..
and Fest was probably the coolest thing we've ever seen.
A big thank you to all you lovely people we shared stages,floors,couches and backseats and all you people helping us out throughout the tour.
We love you.

D.E.
US east coast tour
2011

US tour update/heading south

2011-10-30T18:33:00.012+02:00

Bob is driving the Club Wagon.
Shortly after we get on the express highway Bob goes...oh shit!!
Everybody thinks the van started stalling again.
Good news is that the van is ok..
Bad news is that we forgot to put gas
and we are on the 746 parked in the hard shoulder
waiting for a fucking truck to come from the back..
and shoot us straight to the moon!
Ended up paying 45 bucks for 4 galons of gasoline
to get us to the nearest pit stop,
due to some stupid state law that forbids
gas stations to sell gas in tanks..
Arriving in Philly a couple hours later.
Going to a vegetarian fast food that sells those
incredibly good tasting ,unhealthy vegan Philly chease steaks
that Lenny was talking about.
Getting a violation ticket for parking illegaly
and heading down to Justin's house.

Today's show is a house show.
It's supposed to be an early one so we can make it
to the second house show in New Brunswick before 9.
Unfortunately that was impossible since the English lads
from Newcastle are supposed to use our backline and stuff,
so we had to cancel the second one.
Where we come from there is no such thing as House shows..
and we are super stoked to be playing our first house show in the US.
Especially at this time of year,
there are hundreds of bands driving down to Florida to play in the FEST,
while playing small house shows all over the country.
Our show is in the Olive garden.

When we arrived at Justin's house another
band was actually leaving that very moment from last nights house show.
In the morning we woke up to find hair in the backyard..
The last ones drinking found a shaving machine and decided to punk themselves up...So the verdict is...Chelsea hair for Sarah,Up the punx haircut for Decklan and handlebar moustache for the English-man.The house looks unbeleavably clean for a house that had two house shows the last two days.
Lenny is cooking veggie wraps with Black beans and cactus for all of us while we bake in the sun at Dustin's backyard..Short drive today to Baltimore..

Heading to Philly.
Baltimore,Maryland
Charm city art center..
Dead to me and Banner Pilot are playing down the road.Not expecting too many kids in the show.after the show we pack the van quickly and drive to the gig.It's the first time we see both bands playing live.Dead to me have their new album in the merch table which is not even out yet.Both bands play tight.
Chilled outside in the parking lot for a while.
Sarah get into a fight earlier on with the bouncers.
Engine starts..leaving for the suburbs of Baltimore to sleep at 's house.
Lenny shouts at the bouncers while we pass in front of the bar
''See you fucking later,fucking assholes...''
and we drive,
Wu tang playing on the radio..
Suburbs,great house...big roads with identical houses left and right.
Flags hanging in front of the garage doors.
Cars parked nietly in the drive ways.
Basketball hoops in front of most of the houses.
Game is on..Canadians vs Greeks
Off to Pittsburg.

Pittsburg..going down south
Garett's house.Bikes locked at the porch,house show once again.
Another house show..guaranteed to be fun.small sets,crowded living room,smiling faces.
load in,set gear,play,eat soup,watch unfun play,load out....
Downtown Pittsburg to grab some crisps and off to John's appartment.
On our way there we stop for dumpster pizza.10 boxes are retrieved from the garbage can in the back..Decklan is still inside the dumpster eating from 3 different slices..
Sometimes they throw bleach on the pizzas before throwing them to prevent people from eating them.
This is the land of the free afterall and nothing comes for free here..
John's place is cool.He is such a rad dude.
His roomate wakes up,digs in the pizza and cracks a beer open.Looked a bit surprised to walk down
the staircase and find 10 people in the living room..Just for a sec.Smiles and greets.
Loads of beer and talking tonight..
Talking about costumes.
Kiss are brought into the conversation.
Garett is running down the basement,grabs a pair of speakers and blasts Detroit Rock city in the small kitchen full of people.

Billy and Zahos are still sleeping in the van by the time we woke up.
Vegan pizza for all of us..Breakfast of the champions..Not!
And off we go once again...the plan is to do half the distance to atlanta and sleep at a motel on the road.

Motel 6,somewhere on the road.
We can feel that we are going south..People are getting larger,accents are getting thicker and people get weirder.
Stopping every couple hours to let the engine cool off.
Loads of steap hills in Pensylvania and the 9 seater Sloth cant cope really well with that.
Still haven't fixed the problem but miraculesly it still starts and drives us slowly but steadily.

Last truck stop before the motel..
Sarah,Bob,Lenny and Becky enter the restaurant.
Creepy dude is staring at them..All of them avoid eye contact.
Creepy dude shouts..''..look at me,i know you can see me''
He is like a fucking animal.i swear he can smell the fear.
Then looks at the girls spreads his two fingers open and
starts sticking his tongue in and out like a snake..Gross.
Getting the fuck out of here while checking the mirrors every 30 second waiting
for a pick up truck driven by a braindead redneck armed with a shotgun to come rushing behind us..
He didn't.We are glad.
Arriving at the motel,checking in a room for two.
Sneaking all 9 of us in.
Bible by the bedpost and dim lights.
Van is parked outside.
Now sleep...

Atlanta,Georgia
Waking up in the motel room.check out is at 11.
sneaking our way out.
The 89cent hot sauce is spilled on the van floor.the stinch is a mixture of
leftover beer,dump clothes and sweat and we still got at least 10 hours drive to Atlanta.
By the time we arrive at the ''wonder root'' it's almost 5 o clock.
Still got a couple hours to burn till the diy space opens its doors.
Tonight's line up is ace..
Sexy Crimes from Brooklyn,Unfun,Failure union,Hungry Hungry Humans and The Wild.
You can feel the anticipation in the room. Two days left for the Fest.
All bands are heading down to Gainsville tomorow morning.
Sexy crimes are starting in a bit.Drums and Bass,Girl and boy.All the songs are short and uplifting.
Then its us and Unfun dudes.
Failure Union play a heart warming mixture of punk and rock that kind of reminded me of The hold steady but rougher.
The Wild...the name says it all,they re fucking wild...awesome music played by awesome people.They make you wanna down your beer in a sec so you can dance uncontrolably.
The show is over now..
the room starts to get empty and people start leaving the space.
On our way to Dakota's place.
Bob is backing up the van so it's ''ass to ass'' with Failure Union's van for extra security,even though we are assured this is a safe neighborhood.
A minute later a dude wearing a hoodie walking down the road approaches pulls out a gun,pistol whips me with the handle twice on the head, before i even realize that there is a gun pointing into my face.Bob jumps out of the van and by the time i realize what is going on he is gone and there is blood dripping down my forehead.Dakota from the Wild and the drummer of Failures Union got also hit and mugged seconds before..So much for a safe neighborhood and southern hospitality..
Police arrives.They look shocked that this thing happened in this specific area.
They keep on asking the same stupid questions over and over again.
The cut is not that deep.we are all freaked out but extremely happy we are all safe and sound.
One thing is for sure..from this point onwards..we really,really dislike guns.
Getting the fuck out of there..

New Jersey-Philly posters..

2011-10-22T20:44:00.003+03:00

Two shows tonight boys and girls!

US east coast tour/Brooklyn shows-Delaware

2011-10-22T03:03:00.012+03:00

Back to Brooklyn,NY
Our first show in the city that never sleeps is in Charleston
,the bar we saw the ''babies'' playing a couple nights ago..
Cool place..plus you get to have a pizza
for just one extra buck if you buy a pint
which is quite a bargain if you ask me..
Tonight's show is also a CMJ showcase show..
I am not sure what the fuss is all about CMJ shows
but we re down with it i guess..
We had a couple hours to kill before the show,
so everyone wandered off..
Some stayed to drink,others popped by next door
at the salvation army's store to get cheap clothes..

Tonight's show is with Angelo's band Descender,
Bearface,and warm needles.
All of the bands were tight as hell and the little basement
started filling up with people..
Million thanks to Angelo and the guys for making this possible!
And right about when we thought this could not get any better,
Dario Saggy from In-sane,Stef and Jim walks down the staircase..
At the same time,we all know that miles away from here,
back home,Athens is burning once again...
It just feels like everytime we step foot outside of this shithole
hell breaks loose.
I don't even know if anything can change anymore,
not even through fire and tear gas..

It's been almost a week since we stepped our foot in the states
and i still wake up every a couple hours till finally
giving in and getting up around half eight or nine in the morning.
Same goes for Jack
Billy and Zaho don't seem to have any issues
getting the most out of their night sleep.
Bastards!

Cup of tea and muffin to wake us up
and off we go to walk downtown Brooklyn.
Today's show is in Brooklyn again,
at another part of the town..
So we have more than enough time to walk till our feet turn numb...
And that is exactly what we did..
took the subway to Union square,
passed by Broadway street down to Madison Square
and ended up having lunch at the Wholefood market back at Union Square.
NY is fucking beautiful..
People are friendly and polite
and it makes me wonder what the fuck went wrong back home
and we all became cranky and depressed..
I swear i don't remember Athens being like that a couple years ago..

Don Pedro's..
Predator Raw from Brooklyn played a heavy set that reminded me of Converge
then Ovlov a mindblowing set..Think of Dinosaur Jr. tuned down and heavier.
Then Tommy's Band.
Tommy from Black fright
is organizing the show and i have to admit that
besides beeing able to play the drums and sing
he is also
quite an entertainer with the mic..
Then its us and Unfun as usual..

Acid baby with our friend Leeds arrive just in time for our set.
Their van got towed a couple hours..
and they are allready wasted by the time they arrive at Don Pedros.
So good to see some familiar faces in the crowd..
tomorrow is Acid baby Jesus last gig in NY,
playing in a drag queen party or something dodgy.
Let's hope they'll come back alive after this one.
Good luck babies...
So our beer coupons are almost done we are past our bedtime ..

Delaware
On our way to Delaware..
Just found out that Billy's guitar is not in the van!
We got no 2nd guitar,the adress the promoter gave us
does not exist on the map and his phone is not working.
Today's show is an early show, starts in half an hour
and we are still stuck in traffic somewhere in Soho,
200 miles away..So yeah,i guess the odds are now against us
and we are unlike to make it to the house show tonight.
We are really sorry guys for not making it down there..
It's the first time we miss a gig
and we feel like shit about it!

US east coast tour part 1

2011-10-21T00:43:00.009+03:00

The three of us had a connect flight through London..
Had a lay over in London for 9 hours..

Athens-London-New York
went to soho's crobar,met up with friends,had a couple pints,
portion of chips(with salt and vinegar) and walked around central London for a couple hours..
Around 4 we headed down to trafalgar square to get the night bus to Heathrow.
After a long one and a half hour in a double decker
full of drunk english lads we arrived just in time to check in.
Fast forward from here...
Boarding...
sleeping,waking up,having a glass of water..
sleeping,watching Forest Gump,sleeping..
having a glass of tomato juice with tabasco.sleeping some more.
Waking up..food,cup of tea,
watching Forest Gumb some more,sleeping..
Repeat times two..
Arrive in
JFK airport.
Passed the security check..

One foot in the US.
other foot up our asses.
Too many things to sort out till tomorrow.
Going to Jim's house,he is housing us for a while till we start heading to Boston.
Everything is big..houses,buildings,lanes,streets,pavements..
Everything feels like a blockbuster movie.
or maybe i am too small...
So what do we do on our first day in New York?
Going to see the babies playing in Charleston,Brooklyn.
Man what are the chances..?!?
Two Greek bands touring U.S at the same time..
Same city,same people...different background.
Feels fucking sureal..
Acid Baby Jesus are longtime buddies..and this was like a welcome to NY
present for us..
Jet lag kicks in...
Off to bed..
Waking up,
Going to buy used instruments...
Unfun guys arrive in New York to pick us up...
Lenny lost soooo much weight..
He went touring for a month with practically zero money..
So now he is slick...
tonight we sail..well not exactly,but the van is like a fucking boat...
Old,dusty and big..
screaching wheels at every turn,
roaring like a bloody monster in overdue trafic lights..

First show in U.S tour.
Boston
Two of the bands have allready played by the time we arrive..
Bummer..here in the states we learned that bands play really short gigs..
And that is exactly what we did.Short and fast...
Unfun are playing and i start having flashbacks from the previous tour with them in Europe.
Tripping balls.drinkiing PBR..the cheap beer that everyone loves here..
No water in these premises..awesome.
Credentials are playing their last show..Good vibes!
After the show we grab some food and start heading towards Zack and Vicky's home..
Chilled for a couple hours in different rooms of the punk house..
Long talks,short drinks...loud laughters..Fucking brilliant.
That alcohol filled juice coming in an oversized can keeps
going round and round like a carousel..
It sucks but something is better than nothing i guess..
Time to get some sleep..Tomorrow is Long Island...

Boston-Long Island
For some strange reason we are not really in tour mode yet..
Maybe it is the fact that we are like a fucking sponge
trying to absorb every single bulshit we see..
It is our first time overseas anyways...
Tour mode is staying up late
and still waking up early enough to go the next show..
(Aaron Cometbus said something like that some time ago)
,eating shitloads of food
and driving miles and miles with just a tiny bit of sleep..
Sooo...waking up in the Punk house...
Beautiful day,sunny..
doesn't feel like winter,not even autumn..
Chilling for a bit in the front yard
and off to the Club-Wagon to start heading down to Long Island.

Going to the van and finding out that the engine doesn't start is bad..
Especially if you got to drive your sorry ass down to N.Y
to play a show the same night.
To cut the long story short,
Lenny and Bob did their best to revive the car
but we ended up taking it to a car mechanic to check the alternator.

Getting the engine boosted up-25$
Not so New battery-20$
Fee for car mechanic to get us back to the road-75$

A couple hours later the Club Wagon was ready to hit the road..
Unfortunately we arrived again too late
to catch any of the previous bands(sorry guys)
including Crowbait, a band we really were looking forward to see..
We did get to see Everything Sucks which was great..

You can not go wrong with a band that has a Descendents refference in their name..
After the gig we went to Mike's house
had some vegan curry and talked the night out.
Mike is a great guy that runs Deadbroke rekerds for almost ten years..
plays in Crowbait and Iron Chic.
The morning after we woke up did some vinyl trading,got ourselves some casettes and vinyls and started heading towards Brooklyn..

US tour poster 2011

2011-10-12T14:08:00.001+03:00

Quit yo Jibber-jabber! You ain't hurt, yo pathetic!, Argh! If I ever catch you acting like a crazy fool again, you're gonna meet my friend pain! Snickers, get some nuts!

Big-ass pre tour update..

2011-10-08T17:40:00.017+03:00

Just a couple weeks ago,our mates from Slovenia,In-Sane came to Greece to hit the road with us on a tiny Greek tour..We played Volos,L.A. and Athens..
D just sent us these lovely pix from our show in Lofos Strefi.She always takes her time sending us her pics but every time we open that zipped file we are amazed.She is really talented and you can see it from her work.So once again we thank her for her beatiful pix!

Fast forward a couple weeks and here we are less than 5 days before we hit the road again to to tour the East coast of the U.S for the first time...
15th of October is scheduled to be our departure date.We are flying from Athens to London,staying there for 11 hours..hopefully meeting some friends and then flying the fuck away from Europe straight to JFK airport in U.S. to start our first tour overseas.
In New York we will be meeting up with Jack who arrives there a couple days earlier and Unfun from Canada to drive down to Florida.

UNFUN (Vancouver, BC) / DESPITE EVERYTHING (Athens, GR)

October 16th - New Jersey
October 17th - Boston, MA @ What We Talk About When We Talk About Us w/ The Credentials
October 18th - Lindenhurst, NY @ Sports Page w/ Crow Bait
October 19th - Brooklyn, NY @ The Charleston (CMJ Showcase)
October 20th - Brooklyn, NY @ Don Pedro's
October 21st - Philadelphia, PA @ Motel hell
October 22nd - New Brunswick, NJ
October 23rd - Baltimore, MD @ CCAS
October 24th - Pittsburgh, PA w/ Ed Hochuli
October 25th - Chattanooga, TN
October 26th - Atlanta, GA @ Wonderroot w/ Sister Kisser
October 27th - Ybor City, FL @ The Bricks w/ Tiltwheel
October 28th – Gainesville, FL @ The Fest
October 29th – Gainesville, FL @ The Fest
October 30th – Gainesville, FL @ The Fest

Unfortunately we will not have the split with In-Sane for the U.S tour cause we missed the bloody deadline..But,it will be ready by the time we come back..So anybody who wants to order it can drop us a mail at despite.everything@cballrec.com
check out the new songs by clicking the links bellow..

http://soundcloud.com/despite-everything/01-no-smoke-without-fire/s-9pN9u
http://soundcloud.com/despite-everything/02-at-arms-length/s-6ZUct

Quick Flashback..A year ago while touring Europe during our show in La miroiterie squat in Paris,we met up two folks from New york who were making a documentary about d.i.y. and the culture of the punk/squat scene in Europe.We finally got the final outcome of their effort..and here it is!
enjoy

PARIS UNDERGROUND: exploring urban scenes from Panam[e] TV on Vimeo.

Sarabante tour and stuff you shouldn't care about

2011-09-16T12:11:00.006+03:00

ladies and gents,
sorry for the lack of updates lately..
we ve got some good stuff going on in our dodgy basement.
The split with In-Sane is ready,mixed,mastered and on it's way
to the press plant.(really,really hope so..)
Artwork is ready and Aris from Heartbomb screenprints/Sarabante
is doing some final touch ups.
Dario from In-sane is in Athens spending some well earned time off
from driving miles and miles around europe.
Jack is leaving this Monday with Sarabante for the bands 1st East europe tour..
(Hell yeah!!)

Sooo support them if you are in a town nearby..
drink and smoke them up and get them hammered.
Kick ass music by a bunch of talented fucks!!

In less than a month we'll be flying to the U.S.
for our first U.S. tour.
Let's stay focused till then.
So much shit to do,
so many holes to fill.
Makes my head buzz and my fingers turn into thumbs
making everything so much harder than it really is..

That's it for now i guess.
Stay tuned ,
while this world is sinking
we'll still be singing
on and on and on..
d.e.
2011

Tonight Larissa show with In-Sane

2011-08-27T13:29:00.003+03:00

Boys and girls,
we are on our way up.
Too fucking stoked to see you guys.
LA,LA here we come..
cut your sleeves and come down to stage Club to
raise some hell!
See you soon
peace and love
D.E.

Tonight summer fucking show in Lofos Strefi..

2011-08-26T13:22:00.003+03:00

Soo...we ve arrived from Volos earlier this morning,around 8.
Billy drove all the way back..we pretended we were half awake.which is a LIE.
Jack wasn't even pretending..full on drunk sleeping.
The show was great,and seeing all our friends from Volos
was super awesome.(extra hugs to bakalis,cause he needs it!!)
..since we got to get moving and head up to Lofos Strefi to start setting up for tonight's gig,this is going to be just a friendly reminder about tonight's show.
Our brothers from Slovenia will be arriving shortly and we are so happy to have them again here with us i am about to explode in my pants..
So come one,come all,to celebrate summer's end with all these lovely bands stated above..
LOOK AT THE DAMN POSTER...
chop chop now.
d.e. over and out
see you tonight people!!

U.S. fall tour with Unfun

2011-08-13T18:39:00.008+03:00

So yeah..
Athens is empty and almost bearable.
The heat isn't...
Even the world famous "Greek Revolution" is having a siesta.
Man it's almost 40degrees out there..
who wants to riot in this heat..
So what we get?
An ugly city lacking of citizens and overflowing with
cops,junkies and cab drivers.
Dream home..
To hell with that..

This is our United States fall tour plan with Unfun.

U.S FALL TOUR W/ UNFUN UPDATE!

10/16- NYC
10/17 - Boston, MA @ tba
10/18 - Bethpage, NY @ Mr. Beery's
10/19- NYC
10/20 - Brooklyn, NY @ Don Pedro's
10/21 - New Castle, DE @ Slaughterhouse 5
10/22 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Olive Garden
10/23 - Baltimore, MD @ Charm City Art Space
10/24 - Chattanooga, TN
10/25 - Birmingham, AL
10/26 - Georgia / Florida
10/27- Ybor City, FL @ The Bricks
10/28– Gainesville, FL @ The Fest
10/29 – Gainesville, FL @ The Fest
10/30 – Gainesville, FL THE FEST

At this point we've already finished designing our
new merch ,tour posters and shit...
The recordings for the upcoming split 7" with In-Sane and
Unfun are done and getting mixed by Stelios and the artwork is
pretty much done.
So next week we have seriously loads of printing to do!
Extra credits go to Aris for the priceless help so far.
So if you are somewhere nicer than here,enjoy while it lasts.
If you are stuck back here with us..
Shit happens!

D.E.

Some kind of a review..

2011-08-06T14:00:00.003+03:00

Most of the times when people write reviews about a record,
they are being a bit anal when trying to explane how it sounds
losing the whole meaning of the music itself..
they fuss too much about all technical stuff...If the sound is fat,if the guitars are sharp and on and on..
And some times you get reviews that come straight out of somebody's heart.

Despite Everything “In desperate times”&”With my bear hands”(some kind of a)* review.

You know how there are some bands that are always there for you when shit happens?
When you come back home after a shitty day at work/school and their records are waiting for you to spin them, their tapes never move from the cassette player in case of emotional emergency?
Despite Everything has been one of those bands for me.
Every single time I feel pressured,when the times are desperate these songs helped me go through shit.
The good news is, that this will be happening for a while, since they will have a bunch of new releases soon out.
Listen and download their 2 EPs right here!
*A review isn’t always about how good a band plays, though this band is one of the best around and their gigs are always perfect. It’s not always about the sound.It’s about the heart too.

http://screaming-reality.tumblr.com/

pic by Apostolis
http://thinkisforthinkers.tumblr.com/

KS pix by D.

2011-08-01T19:27:00.002+03:00

all these lovely pix
by d.
http://pictureperfectsmiles.blogspot.com/
she is great!

THE FEST 10

2011-07-25T13:14:00.004+03:00

dudes and dudettes...
We are thrilled to announce that this october we will be playing in THE FEST 10 in Gainesville,Florida.
It is a dream come true to us..
The FEST happens every year,during the Halloween season in Gainesville,Florida.
Gainesville is the home of many great bands such as Against Me,Hot Water Music...and many more.
What is so great about the fest is that the whole town is transformed into a punk rock heaven for 3 days every year.
What is even better is that this is the 10th year anniversary of the Fest and so many great bands will be playing..
Just to name a few...Touche Amore,Polar Bear Club,RVVR,A Wilhelm Scream,ASTPAI,Asshole parade,Lemuria,Dead to me,Bouncing Souls,Bridge and tunnel,Hot water Music,Against ME,Comadre,In-Sane,Iron Chic,Magrudergrind,None more Black....i am so excited i can go on about this forever...
Every single bar,garage,venue,house,basement is booked for the 3 days..
More than 5000 thousand people are attending...
This years Fest got sold out 3 times already..
Anybody who wants to learn more about the Fest can go visit their webpage
http://www.thefestfl.com/

Since Gainesville is a bit far away we decide to combine it with a bit of touring..
So this October we will be doing an East Coast tour in the US with our buddies from Canada,Unfun to promote
our two upcoming releases coming out this September.Two split 7'' with Unfun and In-Sane.
Hell fucking Yeah!!!
D.E.
2011

VCA gig report...

2011-07-13T14:31:00.009+03:00

A million thanks to all you people..
There is no way to describe how much fun we had last friday..
You guys/girls are fucking brilliant..
We owe this to you and we are grateful for that.
Your smiles and hugs keeps us going..
and when you sing along with us time stops..
Makes everysingle drop of sweat worth a million bucks.
'Nough said..
Super thanks to the boys from Larissa for coming down again and again..
(we are still cooking for you guys next time you come down)
It was a hard day's work for all of us to set this up
but with the help of the guys over at Melanthiou street ,it was a blast.
Our love and hugs to Stelios for helping us with the sound,
Gareth,Malcolm ,the union,the chef..and of course each and every one of you.
Thanks from the bottom of our hearts.

D.E.

2011-07-13T14:29:00.002+03:00

This is how we look in real life..
thanks Despina..

Next stop...Athens city,Vicious Cycles Athens aka VCA

2011-07-04T15:06:00.004+03:00

Lasses and lads..

This friday...

One year,
One gear!

Bring your bikes,your good mood
and leave your worries and issues back home..
It's time to celebrate bikes and rock and fucking roll..

So if you are either into one,the other or both..
come and dance,sing with us...
or just get wasted and give us a hug afterwards.
Gareth and the VCA team is organizing this mind-blowing
street party in the center of Athens,just outside the shop.
One bike is going to be given for free to a lucky bastard.
It is an early show/event and it starts around 8 and it will finish by 12.
So come early..

Peace love and bikes..
d.e.
2011

Nafplio city rockers...

2011-07-02T09:07:00.005+03:00

Today we will be playing Nafplio..
For those who forgot their early school years,
Nafplio used to be Greece's first capital.
So its after 8 and in a bit we are going to be loading
the backline and PA and heading "Down south" as Vodka Juniors would say...
The show tonight is with local friends Bandage and Myturn and Grosso Nierte.
The atmosphere here still stings of teargas and chemicals and people still are numb from the past
days..
Destination...
anywhere but here..

Our next show is gonna be this coming Friday outdoors in the dodgy street of Melanthiou,downtown Athens..for VCA's
1year/1gear party..
So if you like bikes and/or rock and roll come get hammered with us..
more info about this,later on this week.
Straight outta Athens ashes..
d.e.
2011

Lixouri festival pics

2011-06-29T14:12:00.013+03:00

These wonderful pics were taken by our friend Natalia a bit before she twisted her knee while trying to dance/attack
alex from Wish Upon a Star.We wish her to get well soon.
The gig was fun..getting the fuck away from Athens and spending some time with our friends
outside the hectic environment of our shitty hometown was refreshing .
A big thank you to the guys/girls that housed us,followed our caravan to the island,came to the show and shared the stage with us.Bandage,Middle fingers high,My turn,Wish upon a star...and those who made this whole thing possible.

While i am posting these words there is riots spreading everywhere in the center of Athens while our
"whorehouse of representatives" are voting for our future of modern slavery..
so i think this post is gonna end somewhere here..I don't feel like writing anymore..
and i certainly don't see this shit going anywhere,anymore..
over and out.
d.e.

KS gig with Boredom/Middle Fingers High video

2011-06-14T23:32:00.002+03:00

As we've allready told you guys before we got three new releases planned for this year.
Two split 7" and our debut full length L.P.
This is one of our newest songs performed in Katarameno Syndromo on our comeback show with Boredom
and Middle Fingers high.

and for those of you who actually care about the lyrics...
here you go!
enjoy

If you are going through hell,keep going

Sometimes
I want to feel alive,
fix me
,make it good again,
just like a stone
roll down a hill
till i reach the shore

in my head,
over and over again,
stuck on repeat
If you are going through hell,keep going

sometimes
i cant pick myself up,
my solitude is my only cage
like an animal in captivity
i have nothing to offer but
blood,toil,tears and sweat.

in my head,
over and over again,
stuck on repeat
If you are going through hell,keep going

No smoke without fire-new song

2011-06-12T14:38:00.002+03:00

No smoke without fire is one of our new-ish song from our upcoming split with In-Sane.
This is an old recording we did while being on the "Castaways" tour in Tom's S.T.R.E.S.S studios in Graz.
On our day off Tom from the legendary Antimaniax was kind enough let us crash in his house and lend us his equipment to
record this song.
So this one was recorded while on tour in a day.
Enjoy

No Smoke Without Fire by Despite Everything

NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE

Say what man,
I am shooting stars like a madman,
but the fuckers won't come down
and i've been swimming in the open sea
like a sailor left to drown.
Now the lights are closing in
and i know the waves are breaking out
in a shore far away,
I just wanna scream and shout.

This time hell yeah,
the candle is burning at both ends,
dry land,not in sight
and i won't go without a fight

This damn thing has worn me out
and i just cant keep up your pace,
will i catch my breath again
if i could forget your face.
Will i sink myself again
Breathless in half-empty bottles
Left to mould in a bottomless grave
strike a match to burn the ashes.

This time hell yeah,
the candle is burning at both ends,
dry land,not in sight
and i won't go without a fight.

the road...

2011-06-06T18:26:00.000+03:00

via somewhere..sometime ago

Live in Budapest

2011-05-31T00:28:00.002+03:00

Thanks to Aris we got this great footage from the gig in Budapest.
So if you like em, next time you see him around buy him a beer or give him a smoke.
D.E.2011

KS gig with Boredom/Middle Fingers High

2011-05-24T21:29:00.009+03:00

I don't think there is anything left to say
about our last show in K.S.
Spiros just sent us these lovely pix and
for that we are grateful.
For those who do not know him,
Spiros is a really talented guy balancing between photography,bikes and punk rock.
He was a guitarist for numerous legendary bands in Athens...
He still plays guitar i guess...
What he really is great at though ,is taking pictures.
Let's hope he is gonna put down the camera for a bit and grab the guitar for a while..
for old time's sake.
till then pop by his website
http://www.spirostergiou.com/
and support his amazing work..

Just a quickie...

2011-05-23T15:15:00.003+03:00

So,wasn't it suppose to be the end of the world,this saturday?
what the fuck?
all this anticipation for nothing?
not even a mass suicide or something?
Bollocks..Back in the 80's people would be tripping balls on LSD
and killing each other while chanting to soft ass rock music..
'00's are so lame..
But since the world did not came to an ending,
we decided will be doing as many shows as possible this summer ,
mainly in islands and festivals in the countryside..
Looking forward to feel the sun burning on our face and the salt stinging in our eyes
and see new places and faces..
We will keep you updated through here for upcoming gigs..

Till then..
Peace,love and prosperity
d.e.
2011

Secret gig video

2011-05-22T19:57:00.004+03:00

There are a couple videos on line from our
secret gig in Athens a couple months ago.
This is one of them and it is clearly visible that D-bill
from Anti-Mob is harassing us while playing
and living proof that Billy from Endsight is far too creative
when it comes to filming D.i.y shows..

Fucking A.

2011-05-20T22:23:00.008+03:00

During the greek tour with BOREDOM and SARABANTE,
we visited L.A. for the second time.
L.A. stands for Larissa.
Larissa's scene is getting bigger and bigger.
Loads of new bands and a crowd consisted of super cool kids
that will sing along and stage dive for as long as there's music playing.
They move around their city on bikes,
and travel around greece to watch shows on weekends.
they drink/or not their nights out
and dance their asses of all night long
and still they will wake up next day to go to
work/school/university.
They do not have the complex's that big city crowds have..
You know that tough-thumbs in the armpits-kind of guy.
We think this is great.
When i am listening to all these punk rock songs
that talk about kids in the scene,
that's how i always imagine them..
Young and passionate..
Feet up-head down..
Fucking A.

That feeling..

2011-05-18T18:39:00.019+03:00

There are moments where time just stops.
A millisecond is more than enough for somebody to push the button on his camera.
The flash goes off ,the moment freezes and the camera captures the energy and smiles of people
too absorbed living the moment..
So this post is for all you people that work behind the scenes to make "things" happen.
This is for all you boys and girls that cook,do sound,stay at the door,take pictures,serve drinks behind the bar
and do all these things that make us smile.
For all the bands that travel miles and miles to play a show in a smoke filled shithole..
For all the local bands that make us feel alive over and over again..
For all you people that make these walls and ceiling dripping of sweat
and echoing of laughters and voices..
And last but not least..
this is for someone special who came to this world just a couple months ago..
Welcome aboard little one..

This one is for all of you..
From the four of us..
you mean the world to us.

d.e. 2011

all photos by Angelos Giotopoulos
http://angelosgiotopoulos.photoshelter.com/

Billy's post

2011-05-16T23:06:00.002+03:00

There is only one thing that can follow such an important update about our new releases..
And that is a picture of Billy beeing all cheeky and stuff..
Billy thanks all you great people for reading this blog.
He will be sending good Karma to all of you for the next 20 minutes.
and remember kids..
stay in school.

Athens is on fire..Just let it burn

2011-05-15T21:14:00.004+03:00

So we are back home..
Athens is on fire again,
Athens is a shithole.
Everything is grey and people are rude as fuck..
We got a new wave of right wing pricks roaming the streets..
protecting the "concerned citizens" from anyone that doesn't match their standards.
The resentment is reaching it's peak and still we are too dumb or numb
from being fucked over and over again to react..
I don't even feel like writing these lines.
Two of us had to deal with the Greek army.Fucking pointless.
All these doctors and hospitals messing with people's heads.
Sorry for this nervous breakdown.

Anyways,we got at least some good news coming up.
Some new releases are coming soon..
Two split 7"s,one with the radest dudes Unfun from Canada(www.myspace.com/unfundudes)
and another one with our buddies from Slovenia In-Sane(www.myspace.com/insaneslo).
Plus we are currently working overtime on our first full L.P.
For all you nice people around the area of Patras or those who are willing to drive a couple miles
to watch a show..we will be playing a show there on the 21st of May at a 2 day festival
in the university area.

Enough said...
back to our caves!
It's much better in there.
d.e. 2011

More trees...

2011-05-05T00:17:00.003+03:00

Less Assholes..

via Happy silent life.

Is this the new slogan for Athens one of the gnarliest,most miserable cities of Europe?
We'd vote that in a split second.
Learn from the kids assholes.

Fucking rad maaaaaan!!

2011-04-24T01:38:00.002+03:00

So! This is our new Split t-shirt with UNFUN!

front side is done! exposing the next one!

2011-04-23T21:25:00.001+03:00

YES!NEW COLORS!

2011-04-23T21:00:00.001+03:00

screenprinting session..part 1...fuck

2011-04-23T20:32:00.005+03:00

ladies and gents...at this very moment we are about to start reprinting covers for our very last e.p.'s. left and a brand new surprise super limited tshirt design.we ll be posting pics of the process just to keep us entertained while the rest of greece is having fun drinking waiting for Jesus to rise from the dead..Hail satan!

"Neverender Spring tour 2011" over and out..

2011-04-13T00:05:00.003+03:00

It's almost midnight and we are leaving in a bit for Venice.
Stefi decides to come to Greece with us.
Shit yeah!
Our boat is in less than 10 hours and we are 550km away and as always we are running late.
550km..
Billy drives most of it..
A couple pit stops for coffee and food.
Everybody is sleeping.
No cars on the road.
Even the truck stops are full of truckers sleeping.
No trucks on the highway.
Roads unfold at night..
Six o clock in the morning..
We change..
Billy goes to sleep.
He deserves it..He is a hero.

I climb on the steering wheel.
The sun is coming up..
Everyone is sleeping in the van.
Listening to Rolling stones..
but not rolling stoned..
11 o'clock.
Venice.city of love?
My ass.
Tourists everywhere.
The boys went out to stretch.
Italian cop approaches.
..”Bla bla blah.(in italian)
..”English please?”
..”no English please..this is Italy!”
..”no shit,and I thought I was in Paris.”
Getting the fuck out of here..
fuck these rude fucks.
Too many fucks in this blog.
Pardon me.
Going to the port..
Italian cop approaches again.
..”you got any drugs?”
..”NO!”
..”Ok”
Pointless..
Boarding..
33 hours and counting.
Hell awaits..
Everybody is knackered.
Sleep now..
It's Tuesday now..we'll be home soon.
Well not so soon..
but soon enough.
Thanks to all you great people.
Peace love and prosperity.
D.E.
'Neverender Spring tour 2011”
over and out.

Spring tour update-Bandhaus/Neudstadt

2011-04-12T23:58:00.007+03:00

Monday 11th of Apri 2011

Waking up,
having breakfast,
Toni arrives at Stefi's house.
On our way to the Bandhaus.
Brackets Closed,Toni's band, are kind enough to let us use their studio room.
Thanks guys..hope to return the favor any time soon.
We get a message from Igel..they re playing the show with us.
Stoked about it..We ll see them in a couple of hours.
I think this is the best ending for this tour..
Playing just for friends in a dismal sweaty band practice room.
The night was awesome..
Trying to describe it would be an automatic failure..
Some things are better kept like that.
Igel played some new songs that rocked the shit out of our brains
and of course the good ol' stuff we were hopping to listen to..
WE FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND!

Spring tour update-Last minute gigs in Austria

2011-04-12T23:43:00.010+03:00

Sunday 10th of April 2011

Somehow we always end up in Neudstadt..
After the gig in Furstenfeld we decided to go back to Stefi's house.
At this point the tour should have been almost over and we should have been on our way down south.
Just a couple days ago,we were trying to find alternatives on what to do with our 3 days off.
We had ideas of crashing in Jacks's house in Switzerland for a bit
or maybe pass by Ljubljana to see Lucas since
the rest of the In-sane guys were on tour again.
This is where Cis and Stefi stepped in.
First Cis arranged the Furstenfeld gig.
Then he said he could probably arrange one more show for us.
And once again he did it.
So tonight we are playing in a small beer house in a town i cannot pronounce...sorry guys!
After a long lazy breakfast and some bumming around playing with Hesi(coolest dog ever),
we started heading towards the town after greeting our companions for the “Neverender Spring tour”, UNFUN.
In a couple hours they are flying to UK to continue with some shows in England,eventually
coming down to Greece to join us and BOREDOM from Austria on our mini Greek tour.
We did 8 shows so far with them and had so much fun that we can't even describe how wicked this trio is.
We are happy to have spent this tour with them and looking forward to welcome them to Southern Hell called Greece.
So back on the road now..
The drive was quite small and the weather was super nice.
This is the point we started appreciating going on tour on Spring.
All our previous tours were winter tours and man they were cold..
Too fucking cold..for us.
We arrived and met Cis and the guys from “Dead Poet's Society”
the band we were playing with.
Since it's Sunday and tomorrow most people are working or have stuff to do,
the show was an early show..
I am loving all these early shows..
“DP'sS” started the night with a really cool setlist of emotional HC.
These guys are very young but they rock..
We were next..as promised.

Once again so many familiar faces from the area around Graz and Neudstadt where there..
all the way to the front,shaking and smiling and dancing and clapping..
We enjoyed every single second of the show.
Then with the help of our new friends we packed everything up while listening to
mister Frank Turner's tunes and moved on next door to the bar to drink..

Just a couple drinks later we ended up playing Jenga..
The owner of the bar was kind enough to treat us with Austrian specialties.
The whole time he was playing all sorts of Classic rock tunes and working on making us feel like home.
The level of this guy's coolness can not be measured.
A couple games of Jenga later we decided to split.
While finishing our drinks Stefi and Cis joked about one more show before we go.
Their exact words were...
..”so guys,why don't you play one last gig in the bandhaus tomorrow?”
The bandhaus is a really cool building in Neudstadt that houses some of the coolest Austrian bands..
Just to name a few,Astpai,Brackets Closed,Rent to kill and Soey..are playing there!
The Bandhaus is also where we played one of our most enjoyed
shows on our previous tour in Astpai's band practice room.
How could we say no to this..
Immediately phone calls were made by our new “tour managers”
and to our great surprise the gig was settled.
We just had one request for this gig.
We wanted to play with Igel vs Shark..the hardest rocking band since AC/DC.
No jokes..this trio is the real troopers of Rock 'n fucking Roll.
Almost 4 o clock.
Heading back to Neudstadt..Again and again and again.

Last minute show in Neudstadt..

2011-04-11T19:40:00.004+03:00

It seems we just can't leave from Austria.
In yesterday's after party our new "tour managers" Stefi and Cis
proposed to play tonight at the Bandhaus.
How could we say no..Fuck yeah.
So tonight is our last show for the "Neverender Spring tour 2011"
We are playing with one of our favorite local bands Igel vs Shark.
Tomorrow we 'll go down south in peace.
Tonight though,let's raise some hell.
Looking forward to see all you guys tonight..
You are our heroes..

Monday afternoon randomness..

2011-04-11T19:38:00.002+03:00

Touring..

2011-04-10T16:43:00.012+03:00

Sunday 10th of April 2011

Waking up..
Watching Bud Spencer movies.
Wake and bake.
About to order Vegan kebabs.

Saturday 9th of April 2011
We were supposed to play in Pollau.
The gig got cancelled.We were bummed out.
Nobody likes day offs..
We spend too much money and get bored easily.
Fortunately when Cis from Oil and Water came to our EKH show,
he told us that he would try to hook us up with a gig.
And so he did...
So here we are Furstenfeld playing in a small pub.
People from Wiener Neudstadt and Graz are there.
We get to drink for free till 9.
After that we have three beers each.
Fair enough.
The show was great once again..
Austria...why you treat us so good?
Thanks to all you guys showing up and of course Cis for making this possible.
After the gig..a guy,pardon me for not remembering the name,
played an amazing set of acoustic songs.
Including some Against-Me and Frank Turner covers.
Thumbs up..
Off to bed..

Spring tour update-Wolkensdorf

2011-04-10T16:40:00.002+03:00

Friday 8th of April 2011

The drive was approximately 300km..
The city is Wolkensdorf.
The line up is UNFUN and us.
Getting pissed before the show is not a great idea.
Who cares?
There's a a good crowd and people are enjoying both our sets..
Every night we play louder and louder..
I think it's because of the UNFUN dudes..
Man they're loud as fuck.Got to keep up with them!
There is a guy all the way to the front shouting at Lenny..
“Cut the feedback..Cut the mother fucking feedback..”
yeah right..You wish mate..
I love when people get annoyed by such small things..
This is a fucking punk rock show and like it or not..It is going to be loud.
My tooth aches..
I feel like shit
Everybody is partying.
Its freaking cold.
What happened from now till the next morning cannot be written.
Apologize for the inconvenience.
Waking up.
Cleaning the band room..
Back on the road.

Spring tour update-Budapest

2011-04-10T16:38:00.001+03:00

Waking up in Budapest.
Late..
Jack is battling with rendering some videos from last nights show..
Soon enough we will upload them.
The footage is actually really cool.
The rest of the boys went to the house of terror.
The house of terror is a museum situated in the building where in the 1940's the
Hungarian Arrow cross party had it's headquarters.
Back then it was called “house of Loyalty”.
During the 40's the house of terror housed some of the most notorious communist terror organizations and
was a witness to the most shameful and tragic periods in modern Hungarian history.
While I am writing this I am reading a mail from the boys back in Greece that
Neo-Fascists near our collective back in Athens are attacking the somalian-community and shops
owned and run by immigrants.So I guess even though loads of years have passed since then..
fascism is still relevant.It just comes in different forms and shapes..disguised under three-piece suits
and the worrying eyes of concerned citizens.
Fuck this shit..

Randomness..

2011-04-09T18:12:00.002+03:00

stefi's house..
She is great..
She took all of us to her amazing house,
cooked vegan pasta for us..
Super sweeet...

2011-04-08T21:08:00.002+03:00

Thursday 7th of April 2011

Budapest is so fucking awesome..
It has everything a city needs.
A river is crossing throughout the whole city..
bridges connecting east and west,north and south!Massive buildings
with amazing architecture..
Tonight we are playing in a band practice room.
Haven't done this for quite some time and we really are looking forward to it.
There are so many kids going up and down the stairscase..
If the show was in a small venue it would be sold out...but it's not!
There is an entrance fee box in the front door and cheap beer
in the hallway..feels right.
I heard Hungarian is a really difficult language.
Sounds like it is..
Man,basement shows are the shit.
No formalities,no tickets..just a stamp
on your hand and you are in..
people come for the music,
nothing more,nothing less!We do not know anybody here but it feels
like we are playing for the kids back home..
Door is open,beer is cold,music is loud..
A friend back home would say..
If it is too loud..you are too old..
Let's keep it loud and young.
UNFUN played their best set so far..
Loud as hell..People are dancing.
Beer is spilled on the floor and guitars..
The carpet is soaked...
The amps are full on and the heat in the room is reaching it's peak.
Damn this feels good.
We are on next..
People start filing up the room..
Everyone is sweating..
Lenny,Bob and Declan are singing along to our "Bon Jovi "
song..
We can feel the love..
There is a pile of people in the middle of the room..
Billy pushes me there..
Shit..
If this moment could last for ever,
everybody would be happy..
People pilled up like bricks..
Smiles..hugs and broken glass..

pit stop

2011-04-07T19:13:00.001+03:00

Truck stop somewhere in Hungary.
Sleeveless time..
so freaking hot.
Found one thing McDonald's are good for..
Free wifi..and shiters..
Back on the road..

Spring tour update-Prague-007/Vienna-EKH

2011-04-07T16:30:00.009+03:00

Thursday 7th of Apri 2011
We went to bed quite late...and woke up around half ten to go to the breakfast room.
As expected the breakfast was unreal.
Tofu scramble,Pancakes,bean paste,chickpeas,Marmite for Jack...so many things I cant even remember.
Then Andy took us on a tour in the depths of the squat to see the roof garden,the rabbits in the backyard,
the truck cinema..We got invited to play on their house benefit show in the end of June.
Shit yeah..hopefully we re gonna make it..
We love this place..Hail to all you nice people treating us so good.

On the road again.280 km to Budapest.
It's a sunny day,and we are all in a good mood.
It's our second time playing in Budapest.
Do not know what to expect.
We are going to find Eri there..
Awesome.
Passed the borders.
Didn't get stopped this time...Yet.
Let's keep it this way.

Wednesday 6th of April 2011

Today it is the EKH show.
We fucking love this place.
Andy,Amy,and the rest of the guys are super nice..
and they make the best breakfast in the whole fucking Europe.
The show was on a weekday,so it was kind of small...but who cares?
Every single person in the basement was either a friend or somebody we met on the road.
Can't go wrong with that..
Stefi and Cis was there,Alex from Astpai,Andy and his brother..the rest of the squatters
and of course their lovely dogs.
...it was more like a small family reunion.
The show was great.No words can describe the feeling of playing just for friends.

Tuesday 5th of April ,Klub 007 gig

This show is actually the reason this tour was organized out of thin air.
When we played Prague last October,Pavel our friend/promoter
asked if we wanted to support Presley Bastards for this gig.
When we decided to play the show somehow we thought that it would be great if we could
do a small tour to accompany this show..So the idea for a small Czech tour first appeared.
A couple weeks later after talking with the dudes from UNFUN we decided to make it a small euro tour.
So here we are now..
UNFUN started the night with a mind blowing set..
This guys are loud as fuck,but every time I hear their songs I get a creepy feeling.
You know when sometimes you get goosebumps and your heart beats faster?
That feeling.Every gig we play together I am loving more and more their songs.
And the best part of it is that these guys have nothing to do with most of the bands you will EVER
meet on the road.
Even though it was just our 2nd time playing in Prague,
there were so many people we knew that it automatically boosted us up.
We enjoyed our set so much and it was great to see so many familiar faces.Good fucking times.
The guys from JUST FOR BEEING were there,KUNG FU GIRLS,BURNING STEP dudes..
Pavel,Rash with his girl..
By the way Rash is the guy that booked us a show some time ago in Benesov.
Last tour when we visited Prague he told us that he just started brewing his own beer..
This time he came with a present for us..
What else?...4 bottles of his own Special brew..
We loved the beer and we love him..
When PRESLEY BASTARDS went on stage we were amazed.
These guys rock so much.
They are members from Deathbed and Endstand
and as we were expecting they kicked ass..
Anthemic ,hardcore influenced punk rock.
If you haven't heard of them..do so!totally worth it.
A big big thank you to all the people who showed up and of course
Pavel for making this possible.

Despite Everything greek tour poster.

2011-04-06T15:07:00.003+03:00

Aris besides a great roadie and a super fun person to be with..
is a great artist too.
He designed yesterday our greek tour poster..
So here it is..hope to see you guys and ladies when we get back home.
More updates and pix on Prague's show later on.
Gotta hit the road.

Spring tour update-Prague/Day off

2011-04-06T14:57:00.005+03:00

On Monday we had our first day off..
That means no gig, loading or unloading,soundcheck and shit.
We Spent the whole day walking around the city..
Went to eat at “The Loving Hut”(some of us),
and went to a couple pubs..
First it was Chapeaux Rouge and then an Irish Pub in the old town.
Later on we decided to pop by CROSS club,
a huge 3 floor club,that each room plays different music and has different shit going on.
From Jazz and Punk to Rave and Techno..
Lost the last train and had to take two different trams to go back home.
Full fucking day..

Tuesday 5th of April.
Prague.
Waking up.
Descent day.Neither warm nor cold.
Jack is gone.
The rest of us went on a walk to the centre again.
Did a bit of shopping and had breakfast.
Around 5 we started heading towards Klub 007.
Klub 007 is inside the uni of Prague.
Its one of the most historical punk venues in Prague.
Name a band you love...
They played a show there for sure..
Propagandhi,Kvelertak,shit,so many great bands played this stage...
Stickers and posters everywhere.
Eating baked beans and pickles.
Waiting for Pavel to come over with PRESLEY BASTARDS.
The Canadians are nowhere to be found.
Pavel arrives.
Eating Pasta with Spinach and tofu.
Quick soundcheck.
Show starts in a bit.
Unfun are playing first,
then it's us and then Presley Bastards.

Spring tour update-Sedicany/road to Prague

2011-04-04T16:57:00.003+03:00

Monday 4th of April 2011
Bad weather..
Raining like hell..
Somebody stole spring from us...
On our way to Prague.Again.
Today is our first day off..
Stoked.
Prague is one of our favourite cities in central Europe.
Today is going to be all about
walking in the city and eating.
We want to visit this vegan restaurant called The Loving Hut.
RAD...

Sunday 3d of April 2011
A couple hours later we woke up to this mess..felt a bit unwelcome..
so we decided to go to the fountain in the central square and eat breakfast and enjoy the sun.
It was almost 30 degrees and the weather was brilliant.
Lenny and the UNFUN dudes cracked their first beer minutes after waking up..
These guys are bulldozers.
Our drive to Sedicany was small.
49km.
Piece of cake.
All of us were a bit hangover.
Thomas,the promoter took us to an old cottage,that used to be his summer house.
We had goulash for lunch and laid in the sun for a couple hours before going
to the venue.
Tonight we are playing a small show in a small town.
Its Sunday and we are not expecting a lot of people.
Doesn't matter.
Thomas's band “JUST FOR BEING” started the night
with their catchy punk rock tunes.
One more nice small show.
We played for a really young crowd.
Super fun.
After the show we went back to the cottage and light
a bonfire out in the fields..
I know it sounds weird but it was the best ending for the day.
We sat around the fire drinking wine and beer and baking bread
and slept next to a wood fire stove to warm up.
It was fucking unreal.
Enough said.

Spring tour update-Prague/Tabor

2011-04-04T16:28:00.005+03:00

When the morning came we took our turns to hit the shower before leaving for Prague to pick
up Pavel and go to Tabor,the place we are playing tonight.
It's a beautiful day out today...Smells like spring,sun is shinning!

Center of Prague..fucking beautiful.
Eating indian food.
Just 100km to reach our next destination.
After all these long drives its exhilarating.
We constantly get ideas to move to Prague.
Back in the van.
We are on the highway again...
E55,driving slow..
The van can't or won't go over 100km per hour.
Who cares?
A bird just flew on our windshield..
I think we hit it.
Automatically killed our mood
Shit..

Saturday 2nd of April 2011
Tonight we are playing a small bar show in this town called Tabor.
Its and early show again,which is good..We won't have time to get drunk
before the show,but we 'll have enough time to get wasted after!!
Radim ,the promoter,after unloading and setting up,brought us all
this amazing home cooked food.We stuffed our mouths with all sorts
of treats,sweet and salty..had a quick pint and started our set.
It was Saturday and there was quite a few people in the bar.
Saturday's show was great..The sound was amazing and everybody had fun..

Now the real story begins here...
After the show we went drinking in a punk rock pub.
We had pint after pint..after pint and at some point things just started getting
weirder and weirder.Every single person in the pub was completely
and utterly drunk.People were falling off the stools..
and more beer would appear every now and then.
Around 4 or 5 some of us went to sleep..
The rest moved on to a different bar...
What was happening in the house though was a whole different story.
The dude housing us ,was so fucking wasted that in an act of jealousy(What the fuck?!?)
he smashed his whole house,bleeding everywhere on our stuff leaving
a house that looked like a warzone .
Broken glass everywhere,blood on the floor and walls, a broken door..broken mirrors and windows.
Billy had to call an ambulance to pick him up..at 6 o'clock in the morning.

Spring tour update-Litvinov

2011-04-04T16:11:00.004+03:00

How the fuck we always manage to get out of schedule?
Seriously..We are trying our best,but somehow we are always a bit late.
Fortunately yesterday we were fashionably late..
We arrived in Ponorka around 7:30.
Pavel one of the coolest people we 've met while on the road last year was already there
with the UNFUN guys.
While the rest of the bands where doing soundcheck we had some great vegan Goulash
they guys made for us and had our first pint.
25kc per pint..which is insane,that is 1euro.For a pint in a bar..
People started coming in around 9 and the show started a bit later.
The line up was the Assassins ,Burning Step ,Us and UNFUN.
The local bands were sooo good.We did play a show in our last tour with Burning Step
and it was really nice to share the stage(floor) with them again.
When our time came, we were already tipsy and so was everybody else in the room.
That's the reason I guess why everybody was cheering and clapping and dancing.
Then it was UNFUN's turn...
Ok..UNFUN are so not UNFUN..these guys are super fun.
By the time we set everything up and did a quick line check they were wasted.
And I mean Wasted with a capital W.
They played a kick ass set of noisy heartwarming punk while been completely
off their heads.I have no clue how some people can do this..
but they did it..and did it in the best way possible.
After the gig we bummed around in the bar,
drinking pint after pint,shot after shot...something white,something green..
Whiskey for some absinth for others..
Then it was time to go to sleep..but this never happened.
We went to a different bar and kept on drinking with some of our new friends,
spending our merch money in cheap beer,jukebox...and more whiskey.
Just to name few of the songs that we chose..
Andrea Boccelli ,Backstreet boys,Britney(in her glory days) where some of the tunes that WE chose..
I shouldn't have said that but..what the fuck.
Around 5 in the morning we started heading towards the sleeping place.
Jack and Zachos took one for the team and slept in the van,since we were in a really dodgy area.
Then it was silence..
Everybody asleep.

Randomness..

2011-04-04T16:07:00.007+03:00

Spring tour update-Mannheim/Road to Litvinov

2011-04-02T14:52:00.006+03:00

The show in Mannheim was supposed to start around 9.
It was almost 10 and we were still stuck in a gas station
getting frisked by 2 idiot cops...
Made me think of a song Dario from In-Sane used to play for us.
Mrtev Polizei..Dead cop!!
After half an hour of searching through our personal stuff and the van,
we got dismissed.
When we finally arrived in Juz ,the youth center we were playing it was almost
11 o'clock.We set up the backline as fast as we could,ate a very very late lunch or dinner and the show started half an hour later.
Point of Break played their set of old school Hardcore..Amazing guys..Great black Flag cover.
We played in front of a crowd of 30 kids.Weekdays are always hard..We know that..
We weren't their cup of tea,since most of them were old school punks,
but a couple songs later we got them moving around and dancing..
The vibe was good and we had great fun..
After the show we went to Maschd's house had a couple cold ones with some locals
and went to bed around 3 or 4.

Friday 1st of April ,2011
German band breakfast is always the same..Loads of nice homemade spreads and jams and bread,
accompanied with some tea and coffee.
Next stop Litvinov- Czech Republic.
538km.
Gps says we will be arriving around 17:00!
Computer says no...
Billy is driving ,again!
He is a machine..

Spring tour update-Graz/Mannheim

2011-04-01T11:46:00.006+03:00

Later on...
So,we arrived kinda early in Graz,which was a first!
Usually we arrive half an hour before soundcheck,and we are racing
with the clock,to manage to unload,set up,do a line check,quick soundcheck,
eat some food and digest before playing the show..
It was around 5 when we arrived at Michi and Marian's house.
We had a good hour before going to SUB and decided to walk a bit towards the centre
and grab some food from the local super market.For those who do not know,
Michi and Marian are two amazing guys really active in their local scene.
They have been organizing shows and running this place called Sub in the centre of Graz.
First time I visited this place was a couple years ago,when playing with Vodka juniors in
an epic show..since then ,they have been helping us every time we ask..and I mean EVERYTIME!
So many beautiful people were at the show once again..
Old friends ,new ones ,familiar faces ,new faces...
The line up was Oil and Water and Us...
Oil and Water is a 5 piece band with 3 guitars in the veins of the
legendary Weakerthans featuring members from Astpai ,Brackets Closed and the
coolest British dude ever Jack , playing his acoustic guitar and downing pints.
The guys played a super wicked setlist constantly changing instruments with each other..
Then it was time for us to start...
With our bellies full of Michi's goulash,we played and to our great surprise,so many people
where there to sing along with us dance and lend us their smiles..
Unfortunately everything nice must come to an end...so when our playlist finished,
we played a couple old songs,that we kinda fucked them up to be honest
and stayed till 4 o clock to drink a bit,chat a bit and dance a bit...
Then it was time for us to go back to Michi's place to get a good 3 hours of sleep..
Tomorrow 730km to Mannheim...Deutschland here we come again!!

P.s.Michi and Marian will be visiting Greece with their band Boredom
,a d-beat crusty holocaust in a couple weeks to do a small Greek tour with us
and Canadian dudes Unfun.
Check these bands out..
They both kick ass..
Off to sleep and off our heads now...
goodnight people.

Thursday 31st of March 2011
Day 4...
Alarm rings at 8.
Beautiful day out there.
Eating breakfast in the van..
updating blog,
listening to Bad religion.
Another 650km to go..
need sleep.
Billy driving ,Ari sleeping ,Jack sleeping ,Zachos trying to stay awake.
Those fucking strawberries keep on falling on my laptop.Fuck this,i am out..
648km still..
Sleeping some more!
Waking up..
border police..passport check.
pit stop,piss stop,eat stop...
we re late,30 km from Mannheim!
Gas stop,getting stopped AGAIN..
searching the van,our pockets...
Still not loving police..

Spring tour 2011 starts here...

2011-03-31T04:58:00.001+03:00

Tuesday 29 March 2011
Spring tour starts here.
This is the 2nd day of the spring tour and we are still on the god damned boat.
We have already been on the boat for more than 20 hours and there's another 13 to go.
We did pretty much everything possible to entertain ourselves.
Played the guitar a bit,slept way too much,drank the remaining bottle of rum and
ate overpriced food at the self service restaurant and drank overprice warm beer from the bar...

Wednesday 30 March 2011
After a couple hours of bumming around,
we finally went to sleep around 2 or 3..
The problem when it comes to sleeping on a boat is that the lights are on all the time
and usually the place reserved for cheap bastards without a cabin are next to the slot machines..
That means that all night long half drunk truck drivers were smoking,
gambling and getting wasted while we were trying to cover our eyes from the lights and
our ears from the shit that was surrounding us.
We arrived in Venice at 8 o'clock,as planned and now we are on our way to Austria.
Venice to Graz is 430km...So we are almost 430 km away from the kickstart..
Our first show is tonight in Graz and we are super stoked to see all our friends..
Tonight we are playing with Zock's new band called “oil and water”.
Looking forward to that.

tour mode activated...

2011-03-29T17:00:00.003+03:00

The last week has been so fucking hectic..
but not anymore...
Tour mode has been activated.
We loaded our brand-not so-new van..
had our last pints in shitty old Athens,
picked up Aris,that weird dude that is supposed to be our roadie..
(So far he is just a bad bad influence for the toddlers Billy and Zachos)
and around 6 o clock yesterday we did the familiar drive from Athens to Patra.
The boat was scheduled to depart at 12:00 o clock at midnight.And it did.
Seventeen hours and half a bottle of captain Morgan later,
we are stillon the fucking boat,and it feels like it's going slower than ever.
We 'll be arriving in Venice around 7:30 in the morning.
may the force be with you..
D.E.
2011

Anarchy in the U.K

2011-03-09T13:28:00.003+02:00

Lydia send this to me..
Must be the funniest thing i've seen all week.

peace love and a cup of tea..
d.e.

yesterday's secret show was a blast..

2011-03-06T18:29:00.004+02:00

What the hell..
yesterday's show was fucking A.
The boys and girls from Villa Amalias invited us to play for the squat's 21st birthday.
It was supposed to be a secret show..but it was far from that.
We haven't played a show in the squat since 2004 with our previous band 925.
That's 7 fucking long years.
Seven years later,here we are playing with Blacklisted,an amazing band from Patras
in the same room that used to be the band room back in the days..
So many people came despite the freezing cold.
Old friends,new friends..
As always,d-bill,midas,stathis from the Anti-Mob crew did the best to
welcome us back.Bit of poking,beer showers,slaps and hugs and kisses.
Thanks to all you people that shared this moment with us,
sang at the top of your lungs.
Unfortunately our brothers from the vj crew were not here.
they have been touring greece for quite some time now.
i bet when we were playing our show,they were playing their kick ass set too..
Fortunately so many good friends were there..Wuas,Ageliki,Stavros and the boys from rhythm records.
Drossos was also missing,since the previous day that he went drinking with Zachos.
We hope he is all good..
Soooo,
Happy birthday Villa Amalias.
The king is dead,
Long live the queen..

d.e.2011

Touring..

2011-03-04T01:00:00.004+02:00

So, i was always wondering..
what touring bands do when beeing on tour?
As much as i would love to say,
party on all night long and drink throughout the day,
the truth is far from that.
At least in the real world where i live,
where you have to drive 400 to 700km per day,
unload the van,set up,soundcheck,play load and go.
With some good time management,you are lucky if
you can squeeze a late breakfast/early lunch
and a quick walk around the city
accompanied with a cup of tea or coffee.
Every time we arrive in a city we've never been before,
Billy disappears for a good half hour..
then he comes back with something like this..
not bad at all..

speak loud,
act louder.
d.e.2011

it's too easy..

2011-03-01T21:45:00.001+02:00

Aaron Cometbus
some time ago..

randomness..

2011-02-28T20:08:00.002+02:00

like you've never thought of this..

found at prolly's blog
http://prollyisnotprobably.com/

tour mode activated...

2011-02-27T03:03:00.003+02:00

friends,boys girls,mutants..
it's been some time since we came back to our shitty little city,
to reorganize , get our heads straight and get busy..
The past 4 months we have been practicing new songs,recording and
working on our first full length record..
We are stoked with the new songs and
we ve been having itchy finers for quite some time now..
Haven't played a show since our return and we've been charging for weeks and weeks.
We will be having a small secret show here in Athens sometime soon.
Besides that we are very pleased to announce our upcoming tour
with Unfun from Canada.
These guys are fucking awesome and
their name comes from a Jawbreaker song..Can't go wrong with that..
So they're twice as good as you think.
Some of the dates are allready sorted out.
We could need a helping hand or a kick in the butt with some of the dates underneath.
Any help would be much appreciated.

So we ll see you people on the road..
Talk loud,Act louder
d.e. 2011

March 30 - DE - HELP!
April 1 - CZ - Litvinov @ tba w/ UNFUN
April 2 - PL - Wroclaw @ tba w/ UNFUN
April 3 - CZ - HELP! w/ UNFUN
April 4 - CZ - HELP! w/ UNFUN
April 5 - CZ -Prague @ Klub 007 // w/ Presley Bastards, UNFUN
April 6 - CZ - Brno - w/ UNFUN
April 8 - AU - Vienna @ tba - w/ UNFUN
April 9 - AU - Graz @ tba - w/ UNFUN
April 10 - SL - Ljubljana @ tba

news..

2011-02-22T21:58:00.003+02:00

We might be having a small secret show sometime soon..
Till then
talk loud,act louder..
bake cookies.
d.e.

We might be having a small secret show sometime soon..
Till then
talk loud,act louder..
bake cookies.
d.e.

new online review from stereoworld.gr

2011-02-15T03:33:00.001+02:00

ARTIST TO WATCH

Despite Everything
Ένδοξο DIY

14 Φεβρουάριος 2011
Χρήστος Δουκάκης

Αθηναϊκό κουαρτέτο που μέσα σε λιγότερο από τρία χρόνια από τη δημιουργία του, έχει καταφέρει στηριζόμενο κυριολεκτικά στο ταλέντο, τη σκληρή δουλειά και την πηγαία δυναμική του να προκαλέσει όχι μόνο αίσθηση, αλλά και να ηχογραφήσει/κυκλοφορήσει δύο εξαιρετικά 7ιντσα, τα In Desperate Times (2009) και With My Bear Hands (2010).

Μουσικά κινούνται στο χώρο του μελωδικού punk rock με διακριτικά στοιχεία από hardcore, που ποτέ όμως δεν υποσκελίζουν τη μελωδία. Έχουν βρει συναυλιακό καταφύγιο σε χώρους ατόφιας καλλιτεχνικής έκφρασης και ελευθερίας (βλ. Κ/Σ ή καταλήψεις, για εκείνους που γνωρίζουν), ενώ αποτελούν ενεργά μέλη της εγχώριας DIY σκηνής. Εργάζονται σκληρά για να στηρίξουν τις κυκλοφορίες και τις περιοδείες τους, και αποτελούν πρότυπο αφοσίωσης, αφού τους χαλεπούς αυτούς καιρούς μόνοι τους οργανώνουν και χρηματοδοτούν τις περιοδείες τους, τόσο στο εσωτερικό όσο και στο εξωτερικό. Τον ερχόμενο Απρίλη συγκεκριμένα προετοιμάζονται για μια μίνι τουρνέ στις Πολωνία, Τσεχία και Σλοβακία. Παράλληλα, βρίσκονται στη φάση ηχογράφησης του ντεμπούτου full-length που αναμένεται να κυκλοφορήσει την προσεχή άνοιξη. Από τα χαρακτηριστικότερα δείγματα των δυνατοτήτων τους αποτελεί το Under The Gun, ένας απόλυτος συνδυασμός πανκ τραχύτητας και αβίαστης μελωδίας. Και φυσικά μην πάει το μυαλό σας σε τίποτα pop punk κατασκευάσματα... Μιλάμε για «ματωμένη» μελωδία βγαλμένη απευθείας από την ψυχή.

Ατόφιοι, αυτοδημιούργητοι, ταλαντούχοι και «παιχταράδες»… Ή αλλιώς Despite Everything.

Despite Everything/Antimob @Patras

2011-02-13T04:08:00.000+02:00

photo by George Skafidas

Castaway February-March '10/tour map

2011-02-13T04:00:00.001+02:00

"With my bear hands" ep lyrics

2011-02-13T03:47:00.002+02:00

so here are the lyrics for the second ep,"with my bear hands".
read them and come to one of our shows
and lend us your voice.
sing your heart out and
we'll do the same.
peace/love/prosperity
d.e.

How do you feel about your job?

2011-02-06T19:02:00.001+02:00

Barcelona,6/11/2010

2011-02-02T01:17:00.002+02:00

So..After the first gig in Barcelona with Pau's band,POWER!
one of the guys invited us to play at this small bar festival,
with his other band.
That day was supposed to be our only day off
throughout the tour
and we had already planned a nice breakfast,
walk around the city
visit some recordshops..and were looking forward
to get some rest and recharge our batteries.
Like this would ever happen..
So we ended up doing all of the above,played the gig
and went to a crazy street party afterwards.
Not as planned but certainly exciting..

peace
d.e.
2011

Back to the basement that we love..

2011-01-29T16:28:00.002+02:00

Friends
it has been quite sometime since we last updated our shitty blog.
truth be told we have been super busy working on new songs
and trying to deal with life's shit.
Busy is good though.
We are constantly rehearsing on the new songs and getting
ready to hit the studio to record our first full L.p.
so stoked about that.
Last night we spent the whole night in the studio,with
our friend Stelios recording the drums for 4 new songs.
Around 7 in the morning we called it a day and fucked right off
to go get some sleep.
Two of them are gonna be used for the upcoming split 7'' with our mates
In-Sane, which is finally on the works.
hell yeah..
We will be supporting PRESLEY BASTARDS@klub 007 in Prague,
and doing a small Czech tour between the 1st and 6th of April peace
love
prosperity
d.e.2011

we are the kids..

2010-12-06T23:36:00.003+02:00

.
athens is on fire again,
the streets smell of teargas and burnt plastic,
its us against them all..
we were raised in a city that lost it's charm before we were even born.
we were told what we should be.
we were pushed aside when we didn't became what they expected us to be.
we were told that life isn't meant to be fair

its not ok to be different,
to think different,
to live different..
we grew up and here we are now..
we are the kids that your parents warned you about.

Are we sinking or are we floating?

2010-11-27T18:29:00.005+02:00

boys and girls,ladies and gents..
we 've been super busy after our return from the tour.
Jack is at the States,New york,New york!!
the rest of us are stuck in this sorry excuse of country working
and reminiscing..we got some good stuff coming up soon.
Upcoming gigs..new tour coming up,new releases.
but one thing at a time.
as soon as we got some free time we re going to
post the road diary from the "with my bear hands" tour.
so stay tuned,
stay safe..
peace and love
d.e.

2010-10-22T21:58:00.005+03:00

We arrived in Patra around 4 and boarded on the boat around half past five. By the way the port is a fucking warzone. There is an ongoing war between the port police and immigrants trying to get the fuck away from greece. I don't blame them. This place is dead anyways. 3 of us were bloody sick, so we kind of passed out and slept for way too long.. Played a bit of poker, Dario lost 4 euros to Jack. Met with the guys from Lucky Funeral on the deck..which was great fun. Really cool guys and an awesome band. They have their new L.P. out now and it is super good. Rock, punk, sludge and ultimate dudeness.. They happen to be on tour the same dates as us, which was a great coincidence. 21 hours later and almost half a day of sleeping we arrived in Ancona. We drove to Misano Adriatico, had some pizza, Italian style and came to Il Mesicano. We played with local band Drabness which were great!. It was a small show, but a perfect kick off for the tour. Ate loads of beans, and drank huge amounts of tea. Went to sleep with the early morning light. Tonight we are going to spend the day here and tomorrow we play a show in Vicenze at People club with Fighting with wire, Argetti and Devotion at Underground Fest.. We hope we are going to be done by half past eleven so we can pop by the place where Lucky Funeral are playing and listen to their tunes..
Super thanks to the Spankies guys and girls for treating us so bloody good.
Hope to return the favor soon!
Day 1 and 2 over and out..

D.E.

2010-10-20T03:50:00.002+03:00

Hey there folks.
The time to hit the road again is less than 4 hours away.
And i can't fucking sleep.
All of us have been working overtime to make this possible
and now the fun part starts.
In a couple hours we re going to load the van and start heading to
Patra to board on the boat to Italy.
Our first show is on the 21st in Misano Adriatico@Il Messicano.
For all you lovelies in Greece we re coming back with a big suprise.
Our friends Astpai from Austria are coming back with us to tour Greece.
They re a great band and even better guys.
So long and we ll see you on the 12th of November at Katarameno Syndromo.
Ps.I think Southern Rock dudes Lucky Funeral are on the same boat with us
starting their tour.Wicked.

Stay sane,stay safe.
D.E.
2010

"with my bear arms" winter tour 2010

2010-10-13T01:23:00.002+03:00

gosh,it's been a long fucking time since we updated our blog.
we have been super busy working on our new songs,trying to organize the tour,
print our merch and make the rent at the same time.
Finally we are getting ready to hit the road again.
Its been too long and our hands are getting itchy
to get into trouble again.
It's that time where you feel that if you stay in this godamned city one more day
,your fucking head is going to explode.
So the countdown has started..The kick off of our winter tour is on the 20th of October.
We re going to be roaming around Italy,Austria,Czech Republic,Germany,the Netherlands,Belgium,France and Spain,finaly coming back with Astpai to do a small Greek tour.Patras,Larissa,Thessaloniki,Agrinio and last but not least..the loveliest basement on earth..Katarameno Syndromo...new and improved,with a brand new floor to dance and twist and shake a leg..If you happen to be there ask the bartender for the house special "mida de coco"!
Once again,our great companion/friend Dario from In-Sane
(http://www.myspace.com/insaneslo)
is going to be doing all the dirty work,driving us useless fucks around.
So big ups to him for tolerating with us for another tour.
9 days till we get the fuck out of this place.
I guess we ll meet on the road..

"when rain is pouring down on our cities made of steel, we're bound to rust away."
D.E. 2010

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/despiteeverything

Keep it real Zine Interview

2010-07-07T17:27:00.003+03:00

Keep It Real no.9 | Despite Everything interview

1.Hey ho let’s go! Introduce the band to our readers please. Is Despite Everything the continuation of your defunct band 925 or is it something new / fresh?

Off we go then.. We are Despite Everything and the band is Zahos playing the drums. Fullstop..naah, Billy on guitars and vocals , Jack plays bass, sings and occasionally shouts. Peio focuses on playing the guitar and sings when we allow him or steals jacks mic... D.E. is not a continuation of 925 but surely it has something to do with us playing music together since then.. dont know, the chemistry? maybe..overall, new drummer, new band!!

2.You exist for a year or maybe more, if I am right… Even though you’ve only played a bunch of shows till now, you have already confirmed a whole European tour this March and a UK tour next September. What the fuck? You guys seem to work a lot behind the scenes! Give us some more info about the tours.

Well ,that’s about right, we’ve been around for a bit more than a year , played our first show with our buddies from Slovenia In-sane and a couple more gigs around Greece.. the idea of going on tour was in the back of our heads since day one.. Gladly jack is really good in organizing and with the priceless help of some friends the initial plan became a tour schedule..We’re leaving on February 25th, and so far the countries confirmed are Macedonia (or FYROM or whatever our politicians want to call it depending on your geographical positioning in Europe), Romania, Hungary, Poland, Deutschland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia.. We will be back in Greece on march 26th, playing a gig in Katerini and the finale of the tour is in Athens the very same day we arrive with a double release party at the loveliest basement of the world, Katarameno Syndromo on the 27th of March. Tour dates are posted at our shitty myspace page (www.myspace.com/despiteeverything) detailed and updated whenever needed.. Uk tour is not confirmed yet but on the works. The plan is England, Ireland, Scotland and some parts of western, central and northern Europe.

3.We’ve been waiting for your 7” release since ages. When will it be released eventually? Who’s to blame for this huge delay? Maybe Jack, your bass player? (You know, here in Greece, we always put the blame on foreigners!).

Dude, we’ve been waiting for that 7inch more than you.. Just joking... Of course it will be released and of course it would be easier to put the blame on the foreigner, but that’s the main reason why this shithole turned into a capitalistic , cruel and lifeless police state. The truth is that we’ve been trying to do pretty much everything on our own, and man there’s a lot of stuff that needed to be done.. Let’s say that deadlines and having to work to pay the rent hasn’t been our best friends.. So I guess there’s no need to blame the foreigner. Plus we thought that since we failed miserably to put it out on the original date planned , it would be really great to have it ready before the beginning of the tour, together with the 2nd one that was already pretty much done at that point.

4.Like 925, you have a strong Do It Yourself stance. That means you refuse to play in clubs, you only play in squats and autonomous centers. Even if I’m bored asking this question over and over again, why the fuck you don’t play in clubs, concerning the fact that ½ of Despite Everything perform in clubs with other bands, as well? And the rest are attending club shows, as far as I know. Isn’t this a paradox? No offense, though.

Actually having a strong D.I.Y stance has nothing to do with half of us performing in clubs or attending shows. In our humble opinion when you do everything on your own, meaning recording, printing, mixing, putting out your new record, organizing your shows, it becomes a matter of choice. You choose where you want your music to be played and heard. We do not refuse to play in clubs, we just choose to organize our own gigs cause we do not like middlemen, and frankly we do not need them. It’s so much more fun and healthy when you do it yourself. Let’s not forget though that there aren’t youth centers and squats in every place we would love to play.. So even in our upcoming tour, we are doing some bar shows in small cities.. of course the entrance fee is something that matters to us. We would only play gigs with an entrance fee to cover the expenses of a gig and not for profit. We know how expensive and time consuming this whole thing can be and wouldn’t expect from a kid just like us to put money from his pocket to organize our show. That’s the main reason why we do not ask for money.. plus money is evil! We read it in books..

5.Boring question no.2: What’s your opinion about the Greek scene?

Gosh man..what is this? are you really trying to make everybody hate us? Look, of course it would be easy to start bitching about a thousand things that annoy us, but this scene is where we grew up, played our first gigs and led us to becoming who we are today.. so its more of a love-hate relationship. We love it but we believe music must be spread around.. there are so many cool places, and so many cool kids around, that it would be a shame to get stuck into playing the same gigs over and over again. There are things that need to change in our opinion, but lets focus on improving ourselves first.. and evolution is going to come.. RIGHT NOW! (in the words of Jesse Michaels)

6.Some of you are veg(etari)an, right? Why did you choose that way of living? There’s space to preach now. Do it, I support this ideology, too!

Yes, that is true.. its a personal choice.. which we wouldn’t want to start preaching about. For sure there are enough people preaching about it already. In a simplistic way we would just say we love animals.. all kinds of animals, even the bad, ugly and stinky ones..

7.Crisis, H1N1, wars, demonstrations… Are we approaching the 3rd world war? By the way, what issues do you cover via your lyrics?

Well, apparenty things aren’t doing so well lately for the human race according to the media. Unfortunately we would need a couple hundred pages to analyze this, but lets say that we are unfortunate to live in a transitional stage of the modern history. The number of people protesting in the streets is a sign of the resentment.. People are tired of promises and one thing is for sure, life aint getting easier. Is the 3rd world war going to be a class war? who knows?
Will our streets become batllefields? maybe.. they’ve already become. One thing is for sure, this is not the time to take freedom for granted.. in our songs we cover all issues that matter a healthy thinking individual in a personal twisted way.. And by the way H1N1 virus is pure bullshit..
People are still dying from thirst and hunger and cold around the world, and others live under the gun.. Somebody should tell politicians to prioritize their agendas next year!

8.I know that some of you participate in the autonomous centre called ‘Katarameno Syndromo’ (Cursed Syndrome). May you give us some more info about this project?

Katarameno syndromo is a collective of friends and people that enjoy doing things their own way whatever that means.. It is not a project, its more than that! Its a group of people living our everyday life and trying to squeeze all these things that make us feel alive between working and living amongst idiots that forgot what it is to be happy.
In simpler words it’s a dirty dodgy basement that houses independent concerts and happenings away from the commercial claws.. Whoever is interested in knowing more about it can check our blog (http://kataramenosyndromo.com/)

9.Last question: Despite what exactly??? ‘Everything’ is an easy answer! Thanks for your kindness to answer my crappy questions.

Despite all obstacles and barriers, fair ideas reach their objectives. Like stones rolling down hills , it may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.
Jose Marti
Peace love and prosperity.
d.e. 2010

2010-07-07T01:00:00.002+03:00

Small talk..

dudes and dudettes..
we came back from Crete,the island of the Minoans..
the show was great..we met loads of new people,
got to play with our friends Xasma,
drank a bit,swimmed a bit,puked a bit!!
Next stop is on the 31st of July,right about when the temperature starts
to become unbearable..
We are playing at Arm Your Desires Fest in Tyrnavos.

Besides that our friend Lukasz from Poland was kind enough
to write a review on our first two ep's..

http://www.contraband-radio.net/recenzje/pyty/389-despite-everything-castaways

Its in polish,so if anybody speaks,lucky you!
For the rest of us,
i think its time to go on and learn a new language..
or if you are too lazy
translate it from fuckin google..
Lukasz is a great guy,who plays in "We are Idols"
a polish RnR bulldozer..
He also has a punk radio and knows the best polish tongue twisters.
Till the 31st..
so long friends

2010-06-26T21:40:00.003+03:00

What?

Fri,21 May 2010

2010-05-21T20:18:00.003+03:00

tonight we drink,tomorow we play...we are having a show in agrinio city,and we re so looking forward to it.We are sharing the stage with bad luck.Its been quite some time since we played our last show,so we have all this energy building up.All this time it's been all work and no play..3 new songs are on the works and it was about time we hit the road..So tomorrow we'll raise some hell..

Benesov,Czech Republic

2010-04-08T16:20:00.001+03:00

Friday 12th of March ,Benesov ,Czech Republic,302 km to add up to the sum of km so far .Distance is already starting to feel irrelevant .The destination is what counts ,and it all becomes an endless countdown to the next city .It doesn’t even matter at this point if you keep up with the countdown or not .Arrived on time .Each and everyone of us did his part and ate a huge portion of Chinese food served in a bucket .That’s a first .Plus a veggie burger ,just in case . No soundcheck and straight to the couch in the “waiting room” till the show starts .The venue is already full and the kids are already half drunk. ,makes us wonder if everybody is going to be passed out by the time we get on stage(well floor actually ,no stage tonight thank god) .We still got a good hour before the headstart with Kung Fu girls playing their first live ever .Drinking some local brew and finding things to do .Visiting the toilet too often ,Challenged Billy in the hand slapping game ,totally owned ,learned some Slovenian expressions and then ..The first band goes on stage ,and it fucking rocks !!We cant believe this is their first gig ever.. Goood start .PNS got on stage after a while .The people passed out on the floor,woke up and started pogoing ,if this is an actual verb .Rash has been drinking since we laid a foot in the venue .And he is still alive and kicking .We all look tiny next to younger kids that are a foot taller than us .The tension is building up ,and finally we get on stage! When did all these kids learned the lyrics of songs that Jack still confuses?And why this guy is giving a bloody high 5 to peio and laughs like a maniac? They must like us and it feels bloody good to see smiles and hands up in the air..The clapping goes on and on to the sound of the kickdrum and before we realize it ,our setlist is over .Shite..,Loved every minute of the show but now it’s time for 80’s pop and disco .Drinking our merch money .Dancing and twisting and before we know we are at Rash’s friends house ,with Rattttka and the boys eating burnt bread with garlic .What a Blast .What the fuck..was this night in Fast Forward for everybody?I guess so..

2010-04-06T03:52:00.005+03:00

The show started around 11 o’clock with local Berliners “off the hook” .They played a mixture of melodic hardcore and punk that reminded us a lot of endstand .The guys lacked of a bassist but still they were great on stage .While some of us were cuddling the only heater in the room ,trying to warm up a bit ,the “aggronauts” started heading towards the stage .We’ve already met the guys before at Andreas house during late lunch or early dinner .There is something great about trio bands with female drummers ,and this band had It .Their awesome punk rock tunes and catchy melodies was more than enough for the crowd to start warming up as the room in koma F started filling up .When we got on stage we were almost numb from the cold .Besides billy and harry we were happy to see that there were some Greek kids in the audience .That ,together with the moldy smell ,it kind of made us feel like home .By the time we started playing the basement was packed and you know sometimes you have this feeling were, the moment you get on stage ,you can feel that tonight is going to be a good night .Berlin was our best show so far .We really couldn’t believe our eyes .The whole basement was dancing and singing along with us .We finished our set and started packing up with a permanent smile attached to our faces .Thanks to Andrea and Max for the unbelievable night in Berlin .Since food is the most important thing in touring ..and man we eat loads of shit ,after packing up we went to grab a falafel .Then off to Billy’s house to rest our sore bodies .The morning after we had some hours to kill before getting back on road .We ate breakfast by the river and then Billy took us to a couple local record stores to trade some of our 7inch’s.We ended up buying shitloads of new records ,had a last ride through Berlin ,which was amazing ,kissed Billy farewell ,not goodbye and then we re off with the wind on our backs. The drive this time was something more than 400km and the destination was Osnabruck .It seemed that a cold wave has been following us from Poland and once again the landscape was white and the cold was a bit too fucking much for a bunch of Mediterranean assholes and their Slovenian friend .It has been also quite sometime since we’ve had some bad luck and right about when we though that our skeletons were back in our closet ,Karma strikes back .An ordinary piss stop turned into a fucking adventure .We locked both the car keys inside the van in the middle of freaking nowhere ,while the temperature was minus something degrees outside .Good one huh ?Did we mention that we still had 250km ,we were already late ,and the show was in a couple hours ?Well I guess I did now ..Salvation came not from the sky ,but from the highway in the form of a yellow angel with the face of a walrus and NO,I am not on crack .The yellow angels are a service squad ,that patrol the highways and help idiots like us FOR FREE !!After pulling out of his trunk a weird balloon thingie and a slim Jim ,for those who are into car theft ,it took him 15 minutes to open the door ,and saluted us , with a friendly advise .To keep a set of keys on us .Like we didn’t knew .We arrived in Osnebruck fashionably late ,had some warm food and played our set .Leuven was next and we had quite a day so nobody was in a partying mood .Dario recorded the whole gig that night and did a hell of a job.. On our way to Leuven then and the weather is much warmer ,there is some sun and the pit stops are no longer a freezing torture .Its been almost a year and a half since some of us visited Leuven ,during the Vodka Juniors winter tour and we were very excited to be there .After some pasta Daan prepared for us ,we went to the infamous Rock Club to do the thing .The line up tonight was Overweight ,a ska punk rock band in the veins of Mad Caddies with an amazing brass section and really cool songs ,Us and the local heroes ,Face the Fax .If we had to describe the show somehow ,the perfect words would be ,all ages punk rock show .Young kids ,older kids ,some old people that were passing by ,boys and girls .Good times !After the show we sat at the bar to have a couple cold ones and while Jack was making friends with the son of the Chief of the Police Department ,the rest of us killed our time drinking cheap beer and playing arcade games at a coin operated machine .Then it was time for the bar to close and so it did .What do you do when the bar is closed ? Southpark and warm tea I guess would be cool . Tomorrow we have the Gent show .Thank god its only an hour away. Gent .Student city ,with a traveling carnival in the middle of the city that looks like a portable gamblers paradise with cheap greasy food .The whole city smells like a giant deep fried French fry .We re playing tonight at the Frontline with Face the Fax and The Ignored amongst others.. Day fucking off .We‘ve had only a few of them in our tour schedule .We woke up after the show in Gent at Daan's house drunk and hangover from the previous night so we decided to have a nice and relaxed evening .Went to the grocery store and bought shitloads of food .Dario and Jack were the chefs for tonight and they did a pretty darn good job .We ate till our stomach was about to explode and went punk rock bowling which was fun,fun,fun.. Now back to Deutchland and Essen to play with the Dimensions and Tora Torapa. First the Torapa's went on stage playing a mind blowing set of post rock-hardcore with 2 drummers .Members of them also play in the hardcore band ,the rituals ,which will be visiting Greece around march for a couple shows .So whoever is around Athens at that time pay a visit to Kalidromiou and enjoy the show .The dimensions went on next with a very energetic set of simple but catchy as hell songs and one jawbreaker cover and another one from The Undertones .We were still digesting the soy kebabs and pasta by the time we went on stage .When we finished our set, ,we realized that all these days we’ve been travelling approximately 300-400 km per day ,it takes us 10 minutes to unload the van,20 minutes to set up ,and another 15 to load the van again tetris style ,to play a set that is less than 40 minutes long .But in any case ,it’s worth every km and every minute spent waiting.. After the show we went to Joe’s house to talk a bit about stuff and get some sleep .We fell asleep to the sound of the Tora Torapa’s vinyl accompanied by some weird sounds of heavy sleeping .The morning after we had to leave the house pretty early ,as Joe had to go to work and we had to travel for 456km through the German highways. He made sure that there was breakfast on the kitchen table and some warm tea for us before he went to work at 7 o ‘clock .Eating and sleeping is two of the most important things when being so many hours on the road and it is amazing how all these people treat us so well , considering that we know each other for no more than a couple hours .Once more the morning cold was more than enough to wake us up and get us moving towards Leipzig. So what do you do when you have to spend so many hours in the van ? Sleep ?Read ?Listen to music…You do a bit of everything and when you’re done ,you still got a couple more hundred km to go .So you look out the window and you feel grateful to be far away from home .Even if it is freezing cold and your toes are turning blue from the snow stuck on your not so warm shoes.. We arrived in Leipzig a bit early and after parking the van, we walked a bit around the city .Immediately we got this strange feeling that we were in a ghost town .All the people walking or biking in the streets looked like punks , crusties and hardcore kids .We stopped a couple locals to tell them about our show later on , walked and walked until it was 5 o’clock . Then we went to Zoro , one of the famous squats in the area that houses diy gigs.We went upstairs to the 2nd floor to the local record shop,spent a good hour looking through vinyls,traded some of our 7inchs and killed some time.We were happy to see our good friend’s ,antimob,7inch next to other cool stuff and it made us feel good knowing that good music is spreading around Europe.The record shop owner was a big fan of the infamous greek MOUNTZA zine .We talked about it and told him to come later on to our show to pick up the new issue.Asthma made sure we had a full box of ‘em for our distro .We walked past empty parks , huge metal installations in the middle of the street and black flags waving . We saw a vegan restaurant and popped in to eat a quick veggie burger and a salad . We knew that Andrea and the crew had prepared some food for us , but couldn’t resist the temptation .As we live amongst a meat eating nation we ‘re not used of seeing vegan restaurants ,and every time we happen to pass by one we get that roar in the belly .We were really happy to see that together with Andrea , Anne ,the drummer from the Aggronauts was there too .Chilled a bit ,ate some more ,drunk some peppermint shots and started heading towards Schupen .The line up was Guts and Guns and us .The room got warmer by the time the 5 piece band with female bassist and vocalist finished their set of raw melodic-in your face-hardcore with the help of a turbine puking fire at the corner of the room. We felt kind of weird playing our melodic shit after this truly great band .We were happy to see that some of the guys we met at the street and record shop a couple hours ago were there too .When the show finished , we had a couple cold ones with the guys and talked about the gig . There is nothing you can compare to that feeling you get, when you see somebody singing along to your lyrics or banging his head to your music . We are really grateful to be part of this movement and even more to be able to share the stage with so many cool bands and meet all these great people on the road .So in case we forgot somebody pardon us , your help and kindness is much appreciated.

2010-03-31T00:55:00.002+03:00

Poland is a country full of diversities, it’s a cold country still haunted by the ghost of communism, but polish people are warm and friendly. It’s one of the countries that suffered the most from the Nazis during the 2^nd world war, but still not too many years after the war’s end there are loads of right wing extremists roaming the city. The antifa movement is big and grows stronger day by day, with active people and squats fighting everyday for their existence.. When we arrived in Lodz, we got a message from Romek telling us to wait at a nearby street.. it seemed that police had raided the squat. He managed to move the show in such a short notice,at a jazz bar nearby. We arrived there and started setting up our equipment. It was much warmer than the squat but still wasn’t exactly our thing. The band we played with was children of the barrel, a crossover thrash punk holocaust. We were told the story behind their name, and it was shocking. 5 years ago, the parents of 5 kids killed their children put them inside a barrel and kept them in there for some time until the police found out.. There is no words that can describe that and the feeling in the stomach is not from too much vodka, but disgrace for the human race. The gig started, and things started warming up..after children of the barrel finished their set, we got on stage and to our big surprise people started moshing to our not so moshable music.. it wasn’t violent moshing however ,more like a well planned dance.. when our setlist was done, they made us play a couple more songs which we gladly did, loaded the van and left the bar to buy some more vodka and grab a falafel before we went home. It was past 12 and it was Zahos birthday this time.. We made him drink some mint flavored vodka and went towards Romek’s house. Everything was frozen outside and cold as hell. When we arrived at the house we sat with our polish friends, drank the remains of the alcohol left and went to sleep early in the morning. a couple hours later ,after eating some breakfast and chatting a bit more we left with a smile to go to Wroclaw. Romek is an amazing guy, with a weird sense of humor and two awesome dogs.And here is the part where we have to thank him for being so kind.

Thursday,

The drive was long and Dario once more proved to be an excellent roadie/driver/friend. While each and every one of us took his turn sleeping at the bed in the back of the van, he drove patiently throughout the white polish landscape. CRK was the name of the squat we were playing at, and its one of the longest running squats in Poland. Bands like Catharsis, Tragedy, Bratpack, Sista Sekunden, and many many more have shared the stage there. We arrived on time for some warm food the guys had made for us.. two different kinds of pasta, salads and vegan desert..the whole vibe was more than amazing.That must have been the healthiest squat we ve seen in our lives. Everybody was happy and active. Once again after dinner we did the routine, loading, setting up, line check.. Set up our distro next to their huge distro. The bands playing were Dead Yuppies and an old band called Adwent. Besides being thursday and freezing cold, the gig room filled up nice and easily warming up the atmosphere. It was a nice thursday punk rock evening and we totally loved the first band Dead Yuppies and especially their amazing quarantine cover. It was quite late when we got on stage. Our friend nefeli, from Greece who happens to study in Wroclaw was also there and she said that the gig was really cool..we have no reasons not to believe that, since everybody looked happy and smiling.. we were told that we sound something like early propagandhi.. cant see the resemblance but for sure it is a compliment, as propagandhi is the shit. We then headed towards the squat bar to find our newest friend Lucasz, drummer of the amazing hardcore/rock n roll band “we are idols”. Talked and talked until zahos got really drunk!! happy birthday fucker!!..Jack followed after that. Then, off to bed ,hammered and loudmouth we woke up Dario.(sorry buddy!!) We had been told that breakfast was at 11, and so it did. Watched some hilarious videos on you tube with the hangovered squatters, did an interview for Hubert’s radio station. We talked about the politics in Greece and Poland. To our surprise they knew pretty much everything going on. Once more, when we started bonding with people we had to leave for the next city…with a promise to be back, either as a band, or just a backpack.

Berlin oh berlin..here we are eating food at andreas house with trio band “aggronauts”. Already informed bill (aka Familly Battle Snake) and Xarinio about our arrival and on our way to kopi. Kopi had last week its 20^th bday,and more than 4000 people passed by to celebrate..its been snowing for 4 months non stop, and the cold is untolerable. the roof is dripping water, and the smell of stale piss and beer is more than familiar to us. We've been hearing from bill that the crowd here is really hard to please. So that is a test for us first timers in Berlin.Lets see whats gonna happen!

2010-03-31T00:47:00.002+03:00

We woke up the next day to the sound of wicked and twisted barking.. had some soup for breakfast , said goodbye to our new friends , and started heading towards the van to depart for Cluj Napoca. A really cute and old dog took a piss on jack’s bag ,which everybody thought was hilarious.. besides jack of course!! when we arrived in Cluj it took us some time to find the club we were playing..when we finally found it , Paul welcomed us with some beer, and we sat to relax and watch the documentary being shown on the projector.. it was an amazing documentary about wto, imf and the protests in Chile, Argentina , Genova… it automatically killed our party mood.. maybe because it reminded us that not everybody in this fucking world is fortunate to work, and live a decent life.. the documentary finished and with heavy legs we started unloading the van , and setting up the p.a. and backline.. the gig started around 10 o clock.. stuck in a rut played first their awesome set of old school hardcore ,and by saying old school hardcore, we don’t mean that stupid macho shit.. hardcore in the veins of what happens next , life’s a halt, with a girl drummer..crazy shit! They also played black flag’s rise above. By the time we got on stage we felt a bit better.. and the guys brought back the party mood from the first song..chairs, superslides,doggy piles, stagedives (with no stage!) We finished our set sweaty and dirty to the sound of an encore?!?(wtf?)..after the show we went to stuck in a rut’s guitarists house for some warm vegan food, his lovely sister made for us with her new wok, and lots of talking! we had a really long conversation with the guys, accompanied with a couple 2.5l beer bottles.. the morning after we had some tea and coffee,and left for Hungary..A million thanks to the “Transylvania bandana Collective” for the great time and hospitality..and of course Paul!! Paul is also responsible for the upcoming Vodka Juniors Romanian tour which is gonna be a blast,since the juniors have already a steady and growing fan club in transylvania.. keep an eye on the dates at their myspace(www.myspace.com/vodkajuniors).

We arrived kinda late in Budapest,to do a quick soundcheck thanks to Dario (you re the man!) It was a Monday evening, so the club wasn’t exactly full..Kernel Panic played first, a technical mixture of punk rock and hardcore, that kind of reminded us a bit of choking victim. Female screaming vox and a left handed drummer!(fuck yeah!). We played once again our set and went to get some rest and have some gulash at Szilveszter’s house. The morning after was our first day off, so we left the van parked to walk around Budapest. Went to Tesco’s, got some food for the road ,and went towards the river.. Had a really long coffee/tea/beer only to find out on our way back that the van had a wheel shackle. Some more badluck. Paid the fine and left for Poland..We come from a southern country, so the cold was like a finger or two up our asses..We stopped at a truck stop, cooked some pasta in the snow, and slept in the van. Now we are on our way to Lodz and everything is white..and I got fuckin headache from writing all these crap in the van..peace out from somewhere in Poland. Tonight we have the gig in K50 (which we were warned has no heating.. so a nice bottle of vodka is waiting for us to keep us warm..

Almost Spring Castaways tour update part 1

2010-03-31T00:45:00.001+03:00

so far,so good..so what!!
tomorrow we have our first day off and we thought it was about time to update this shitty blog with some news..so here it goes
the departure date was planned to be the 25th of February. That day, jack and billy had been folding 7" for hours, nina had been ironing patches and bags and Dario was sleeping to get some rest from the long trip from Slovenia to Grecia.. (the sick bastard had just came back from a month's tour with his band in-sane, and the next day left Slovenia to come and pick us up)
we picked up peio from omonia square (where else?!?) and drove to zahos workplace to pick him up so we can get the fuck out of Athens.
we decided to spend the night at ntolas house in larissa.. he waited patiently for us to arrive.. had a good nights sleep and next morning it was the official departure date and the first gig in kumanovo, macedonia.
the gig took place in the smallest bar on earth.. local band fonija played an awesome set.. we were amazed to see these youngsters playing a kick ass set of punk rock-hardcore .we were also very happy to see our friends zoro and marko that we met earlier that year on the endsight tour.
we left the same day a couple hours after the gig towards Craiova, Romania..
Passed through Serbia, Bulgaria, and arrived in the Romanian borders on the 27th, which was peio's birthday..everything had gone well till then,and it was about time something went wrong.. the border police told us in broken english not to stop for the gypsies..
so, a couple houndred meters from the border we saw a bunch of them standing in the middle of the street trying to stop us.. dario almost ran them over.. and we were so relieved to get away from them..
little we knew, seconds later a police car stopped us and we had to pay money to let us go.. for not stopping at the imaginery stop sign where the gypsies tried to stop us. later we connected the pieces of the puzzle..the gypsies were collaborating with the cops and we were the victims of a well planned scam..
with slightly lighter wallets and our wings hurt we continued the long road to craiova..
when we arrived there bogdan met us and took us to the smoky basement bar where the gig was going to take place at.. To our big suprise the guys there welcomed us with a birthday cake..silly hats and party mood that totaly made us forget the morning incident.. the gig was a blast..and one thing is for sure..that was peio's best birthday ever.. a big thank you to the people who housed and fed us. Its way passed our bed time... more updates coming soon!

editorial

2010-01-10T19:44:00.002+02:00

"the promise of christian heaven,the home of old age,is the sanitarium for crippled bodies and weak minds.endure,submit,suffer and wait,wait until every bit of self respect has been knocked out of you,waiting for the christian heaven...Redemption through the Cross is worse than damnation, because of the terrible burden it imposes upon humanity, because of the effect it has on the human soul, fettering and paralyzing it with the weight of the burden exacted through the death of Christ.I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made."(Emma Goldman)