The funny thing is, John Rossall’s The Glitter Band (you know, the backing band of Gary Glitter back in the days) don’t know that they’re performing before a deaf audience. The landlord didn’t think it was relevant to mention it when making the booking. It’s so sad, it makes Anvil in ‘The Story Of Anvil‘ look like rock ‘n’ roll superstars, compared to this.

Feel blessed by the insights of this guiding light and make your life less miserable by following the tips and hints of ABME. Find the true meaning of kvlt and check some of the following interesting posts.

• - The “worst” black metal releases in 2011 
• - How to ruin your black metal band
• - ABME on fashion : The patch vest
• - Your n00b summer reading list

“Do you like Motörhead?”

And enjoy this new talent. Who wants him on Incubate 2012?

We really hate ACTA. We do. Everything about this law that is about to be passed, is wrong. Here’s why:

Yes. Everything they told you in this video is correct. You can think that it’s ridiculous and that it will not happen. But the vote to ACTA is being held soon!

Here’s 3 things you can do.
1. Read about ACTA. Know what it’s about. Because if you do, you will know how bad it is going to get.
2. Sign the petitions here and here.
3. Mail to these people that they must vote AGAINST ACTA. We didn’t vote for them, yet they still represent The Netherlands, and they make laws that concern us.

You can make a difference. Here’s your chance. Make sure that we can keep blogging. And we promise you to bring you another kick-ass Incubate festival!

Goddamnit, there’s always someone doing that.

Gaudeamus Muziek is giving away 3×2 tickets for Enfant Terrible presenteert Elitepop. It’s on Thursday the 2nd of February in Huis a/d Werf, Utrecht. Elitepop is an evening with electronic live music from the universum of Dutch label Enfant Terrible. All you have to do is send an e-mail to win@incubate.org and put ‘Enfant Terrible’ in the subjectbox.

A total of five acts will give a performance that night. Those five acts are, Logosamphia, Woud, Neurobit, Puin + Hoop and Neugeborene Nachtmusik. These artists all have an electronic background that’s between pop and art. Logosamphia is coming with a live performance which tends to noise and improvisation. Lo-fi, experimental, ambient and improvisation are the keywords of Woud. Neurobit is performing with Nintendo Gameboys and DS-devices to create minimal music. The last to Puin + Hoop is making improvisation with experimental and Neugeborene Nachtmusik creates dark and ritual post-electro music.

These five artist all have one thing in common, improvisation. A great way to spend your thursday, don’t you think? So send an e-mail to win@incubate.org and win those tickets! Good luck.

HGich.T are some really weird German people who like to wear diapers, setting toilet paper on fire and doing crazy stuff in the woods. Check out the video below!

via Huhhuh

(via Buzzfeed)

C is for Cookie.

The 8-year-old Juliet made this brutal track, about the love for her dog! +1 for the Australian hardcore scene.

Man from the South is playing with Bird at Ketelhuis in Eindhoven this sunday, January 22nd. The show starts at 15:00 and it ends at 18:00 and you can win tickets! Man from the South is a solo-project of Paul van Hulten. He is also known as Paul from Woody & Paul. It will be the first time he plays solo on Eindhoven’s soil.

Ketelhuis is a beautiful industrial room which accommodate the perfect atmosphere and acoustic for the melancholic semi-acoustics song from Man from the South. His supporting program is Bird. Bird is a trio from the Netherlands. Two guys and a woman playing indie/folk like acoustic songs. They make records DIY-style and playing at places where there’s a breathing space for music. A place where Bird feels at home.

Both artists have played at the Incubate festival and now it’s chance to see them live again! All you have to is send an e-mail to win@incubate.org and put Man from the South in the subjectbox. We’ll pick one lucky winner and notify him or her as soon as possible! Good luck.

Hilarious video from the man who goes by many names: Ant1mat3rie, Mattatjeoorlog, Mattieherpes and ofcourse his real name Matthijs Vlot. Vlot made a video for the re-edited project of Incubate 2010. Check out is other videos which are funny too!

Hello from ant1mat3rie on Vimeo.

I have a love/hate relationship with Eurosonic/Noorderslag. The first 25 years of my life i lived in and near Groningen, so i know how the city behaves without music industry people. This year is my 9th time to visit the festival, the first time as a delegate. In the past i saw some amazing shows at Eurosonic by bands like Serena Maneesh (Incubate 2010), Dungen, Wardruna (Incubate 2009), Hello Saferide, Joensuu 1685, Finn. (Incubate 2009), Zu, Islaja, etcetera. So yes, i love festival for the fact that they always have some great new bands. Groningen is a great town. Vera is great.

I’ve got reasons to hate the festival as well. Eurosonic/Noorderslag’s goal seems not to be creating meaning for artists and audience, it seems to be there to facilitate economic transactions between people working in the music industry. Its conference is for the middlemen, not for artists. Artists are hardly to be found at the conference and for delegates the bar seems more important than the stage. The main goal for a big part of the 3000 delegates is to drink as much beer as possible and stay as long as possible in a bar called Knarie (which is very uncool according to our cool/uncool list).

As a delegate I have two goals for the 4 days of the festival. I try to have my meetings in the daytime and see bands in the evening. First day of Eurosonic/Noorderslag is just a starter. First thing to do is pick up the badge and anonimise the RIFD chip that goes with every wristband. There’s no opt-in here, only opt-out. That’s a shame. People don’t have to know where I am or where I was. If I want to tell people, it’s my own choice and I will choose my own medium for it. I don’t want e-mails from booking agents later telling me I was at a show of their band and need to book them. There’s many other reasons why I don’t want to be followed if I don’t know who gets the information afterwards.

Ok, first meeting is with Jason Edwards, booking agent at UK agency 13 Artists. Two of his artists (Gallops in 2011 and Hyetal in 2010) played at Incubate before. We discuss possibilities to have Grimes and Factory Floor at Incubate in september. He’s a very nice guy, I hope it will work out with the bands. In the mean time the festival opening starts, including free drinks, so everyone is close to the bar and the networking starts. Thanks to Jason I meet Emma Hogan, agent of Let’s Wrestle (Incubate 2011) and Pulled Apart By Horses (Incubate 2009), and Ben Coleman (programmer at Green Man festival). Via Bernadette of Austrian Music Ambassador Network I meet Reini Seyfriedsberger of Ink Music (Suuns, a.o.) and Waves Vienna festival.

After sharing dinner with the Alles Los crew (dutch bookers for The Ex, Loops Haunt, Soap&Skin, Ford&Lopatin, Bert On Beats, Daniel Haaksman, etc.) I head to De Spieghel for Norwegian all-girl band Razika. Catchy songs, but a very static performance. Not so good. French Films are from Finland and is the band everybody was talking about when I was at Finland’s Lost In Music festival in october. Pop tunes for people that like The Vaccines or The Drums, but I like French Films much better. Lisa Hannigan has about 83 musicians on stage, but basically all she needs is herself to be pretty boring. Definitely not my cup of tea. Best band of the night is 120 Days from Norway. I’ve seen them at Eurosonic a few years ago and since then I heard nothing of the guys. Now 5 years later nothing much has changed except that they’re not 17 anymore and their sound is more polished and bigger. Good professional show, that almost makes me dance (i’m not a dancer). Recommended if you like Factory Floor, Gatekeeper and K-X-P.

Since it’s sometimes hard to understand what we’re doing for people who haven’t visited Incubate yet, I try to meet some booking agents we work with, so I can explain them a bit and give them our festival guide to get an impression. On thursday i’m meeting Clemence and Ditte of Elastic Artists, one of the bigger UK agencies. Clemence is representing bands like Of Montreal, Nguzunguzu, Small Black and Blouse, while Ditte has Jacuzzi Boys (playing in Eindhoven soon!) and Paws on her roster. All these bands would be very cool for Incubate, so it’s good that they’re responding very positive to everything I tell them about the festival. The same goes for Nathalie of Primary (WU LYF, Creep, Ariel Pink and TEARIST), Isla of  Nomanis (Papercuts, Cass McCombs, Peaking Lights, Thulebasen) and Ron of Mojo. All very nice people! Ron suggests an amazing project for Incubate 2012. Hopefully more about that soon!

Something that can help with booking a band is talking to other festivals that might be interested in the same bands and see if the combination of two or more shows is interesting for a band or booker. Last year Waves Vienna had a great line-up, two weeks after Incubate. That’s why I meet up with Johanna and Reini who work at the festival. In 2012 their dates are three weeks after Incubate, so the chances that we’re really gonna work together are not big. It’s always good though to hear from each other how the other is organizing their festival. For the same reason Frank and I have a very positive talk with Lode of Leffingeleuren. Leffingeleuren 2012 will be in the weekend of 14-16 september, Incubate is 10-16 september, Lode has a great taste, so we’re excited to work together on some bands.

At thursday night there’s three bands worth mentioning: Thulebasen, Thread Pulls and Iceage.
Thulebasen recently got much more attention because of the success of their friends Iceage (who they replaced at Incubate 2010), but this band is totally different from Iceage. No punk, but psychedelic noise rock weirdness, recommended if you like Black Dice. First part of the show is still a bit boring, but the longer they play the better they get (and how more empty the room gets).
Thread Pulls is another psychedelic noise rock band, a duo from Ireland with drums, guitar, treated vocals and trumpet. Amazing live performance, best band of the day, will definitely try to book them for Incubate this year.
Secret closing act at the Belmont showcase is Iceage. They play in Het Paleis, a venue not made for live music, especially not for a band like Iceage. The music industry audience and the bad sound don’t help either. A bit of a letdown, but every reason to come back on friday in Vera. Frank and I start a moshpit from the start and finally there’s a show at the festival with a non-lethargic audience. Even Vera’s promoter and living legend Peter Weening is jumping in the front. The only two other artists on the friday to make a very good impression are Mirel Wagner from Finland and the mind blowing Za! from Spain.

Saturday is Noorderslag: I don’t like crowds, so I leave early to see Crowds in Vera.

Making Hitler-sandwiches?