Polo ready for circle pit!
Oh, hey there! I haven't
write anything for a blog in a while. After The Truth & Rules Summer Tour I
started to write a text about the tour for a blog but I've never finished it
for some reason. In October it was four years how I started doing this blog and
I didn't even bothered to write something for that occasion. I guess that Instagram
took over my soul, haha! Well, to tell you to the truth, I get some good stuff
from Instagram because I use it mostly because of the interest in hardcore punk
and through Instagram I got to meet and connect with some cool people including
people from some of my favorite bands. So, I guess there's some good in that.
The thing is when I want to write something kind of fast and put it right
online, I make a post on Instagram and when I want to write something more
in-depth and longer, I do it for my zine. Which leads me to a decision to start
a new zine in English, although I'm still doing the infamous International Old
School Conspiracy zine mostly written in Croatian (the last is issue 19, May
2018). But more about the new zine some other time when it will be finished. I
will probably post some stuff from the said zine on the blog too and that way
the blog will hopefully live it up again in the near future.
Front cover of IOSC # 19 zine
The reason why I'm writing
this is to make some sort of flashback of 2018. I'm not sure why we (humans)
like to put some of our life moments into these time wraps, but I guess it's
easier for us to remember the things this way from our past. But, it's still
funny when someone have one bad month during a whole year and then declare that
the next year will definitely be better. Yeah, right. I guess I will also have
some of that crap in this post, so bare with me on this one.
Sitting on a shit throne at Gaztetxea squat in Zarautz, Spain
So, the 2018. Maybe I can
start with the dogs and say that this past year bunch of foster dogs were under
my care in my home until they were adopted permanently. Each of these dogs will
be remembered in my heart and in my mind for a long time (probably more than
some people) and I'm more than happy that each of those fluffy souls were
adopted by some kind people. I also want to mention that in a month it will be
five years how a beautiful mutt entered my life. I named him Henry (after some
dude that was in a band called State Of Alert) and it's crazy that already five
years passed from that snowy day when my sister took him all frozen out of the
street. But, let's get back to infamous 2018.
Henry Garfield JR
Except of taking care of the dogs,
the big thing in my life are the bands where I play which are still The Truth
and Rules. There was also a band that lasted for 6 months (at least in
rehearsal place). The band was called Bored To Death, the songs were fast and
catchy pissed off hc/punk with critical lyrics, but I guess that it wasn't
meant to be. We couldn't find a bass player to save our life and there were
also some personal stuff that got in the way so that was the end of it.
THE TRUTH
Anyway, let's start with The
Truth, hardcore punk band that I'm part of 2011 although I'm friends with those
guys for a long time. I can surely say that we had a pretty good year
concerning playing shows and touring. We also wrote some new songs (that
fuckin' rule!) at the beginning of the year, so our set list got richer with
some new pissed off ass kicking hc/punk songs. While we are still working on a
new album, it's a slowly process because we are split up in two countries
and four towns and each of us has his own life and stuff that we do, so it
takes time to finish the album. Also, we don't want to put some half-ass written songs just to finish the album quicker. Let's back to our shows and
some statistics! From May to December of 2018 The Truth played 21 shows in 20
towns and 8 countries all over Europe and Balkan. We played on few hardcore
punk festivals this year (To Be Punk in Novi Sad, Serbia, FFUD Fest in Sereď,
Slovakia and Ulice Protiv Fašizma in Novi Sad, Serbia), we played at 10th
anniversary of longest DIY hc/punk place for shows in Croatia called Podrum in
Rijeka, Croatia and we played in Kraljevo, Serbia on a 30 years anniversary of
hc/punk in Kraljevo with many legendary hc/punk bands that were mostly active
in the 90's.
THE TRUTH and a wild Italian hc/punk crew in Trento, Italy
THE TRUTH somewhere in Spain
The Truth also did a
European tour with Rules in summer, from July 6th to July 21st we played 16
shows in 16 towns through Croatia, Italy, France, Spain/Baskia, Portugal and
Slovenia. That tour was so fucking good! Despite being summer, not every show
was 15 people only (although there were few shows with literally only few
people at the show), we played some pretty solid attended shows and some of the
shows we played were probably one of the best shows that both bands ever
played. Do I even have to mention that we met lots of awesome people, hanged
out with some friends, played with some cool bands, ate lots of delicious food,
visited too many beaches and we visited Portugal for the first time. We played
in Porto and Lisbon and it was cool to meet finally in person Boris, my
email/skype pal and a guy behind the awesome Destroy It Yourself label and
distro. It was great to talk and hang out with Boris, including talking about
the stuff we love both so much which is early 2000's hardcore punk! And besides
that, Lisbon show was great! Anyway, I will write more in detail about the tour
for my zine, but lets get it clear one more time, the summer tour was great and
one of my favorite times of this year.
RULES
Rules also played a bunch
this year. We also recorded in January (!) but waited the mix for too long. Now
that the mix is finally done, we're planning to release those 6 songs (plus The
Rites cover) on a vinyl, but before that we're re-releasing the first tape. This
time on Mad Schnauzer and Destroy It Yourself! I've already mentioned DIY
label being from Lisbon, Portugal run by our dear friend Boris. Mad
Schnauzer is a DIY hc/punk label that is run by three The Truth members
(the infamous „last seat“ in the van, haha!) and so far the Schnauzers already
released some interesting bands from Balkan like Left To Starve, Eaglehaslanded
and The Truth of course. And some new releases are in the plan. We also wrote
few songs during this year which we still have to record but at least these
songs already became the part of our live shows.
LEFT TO STARVE/RULES and our driver Stojka
RULES at Venster 99 in Vienna, Austria
Photo by Paayarazzi
As I've said before, Rules
played a lot this year although the beginning of the year and the winter was
dead quiet. But, at the beginning of spring, Rules and Left To Starve headed to
9 days (7 shows) tour through Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia and
Croatia. Unfortunately, we had two days off in the middle of the tour which
sucked big time, but beside that the tour was cool, we played some great shows,
met lots of familiar faces and got to meet some new nice people and even made
some new friends. Also, before that tour I haven't played a single show from
November 2017, so I really needed that tour to keep me sane. I've already
mentioned the summer tour with The Truth that Rules played which I will repeat
again, was fucking epic! Rules also played solid amount of local shows
including a first hc/punk show in a newest squatted building in Zagreb,
Croatia, called BEK. We also played on some great hc/punk festivals: Fluff Fest
in Rokycany, Czech Republic, FFUD Fest in Sereď, Slovakia and NÖ Fest in Horná
Lehota, Slovakia. All these festivals were a great and positive experience for
us and we're thankful that we were a part of each of those festivals. So, from
March to November of 2018, Rules played 29 shows in 26 towns and 9 countries
all over Europe and Balkan.
RULES at Psych Tent/FLUFF Fest in Rokycany, Czech Republic
Photo by Mišo Ljuboje
Photo by Maja Duljević
RULES at FFUD Fest at Camping Sereď, Slovakia
Photo by Déé X Géé
Both Rules and The Truth
have some plans for 2019 but, I'm gonna say more about that some other
time.
Summer Nightmare Tour - THE TRUTH & RULES Summer 2018 Tour
All photos by Vjetroslav Prdinski
As for the rest of DIY
hc/punk stuff from Croatia, there is some interesting stuff happening from time
to time, there are some still relatively new squatted places going on (and also
other squats that are now functioning for quite some time). There is of course
bunch of bands all around and too many shows (in Zagreb especially). Yes, too
many shows that became so predictable and boring, it's like watching a
simulation of a hc/punk show through a digital screen, that's how most of
today's local hc/punk shows seem to me. Also, too much cartoon punk bands
that are not exciting in any way except if you are satisfied with mediocre
boring bands and stale performances. Also, absence of any direct self/criticism
that goes along with lots of people, concealed sexism that crept under lots of
people who are active in punk and lack of „fuck you“ attitude to bunch of things
that shouldn't be a part of DIY hc/punk. Also, when you confront some people
with these critics, they will say that everything is fine and that we should
all just relax and have fun. Which leads me to a drug abuse problem in Croatian
DIY hc/punk which was maybe more actual in 2017 then it is now (at least I hope
it isn't so anymore), but still, too many people here are seeing punk just as a
fun and destructive platform without thinking of the consequences. I always
thought of hc/punk as a learning process and never ending questioning process of
everything around you including yourself. Yes, „fun“ part is also important in
punk, but if „fun“ only means being wasted as fuck at any occasion and not
thinking about your actions, then I have to strongly disagree and call you a
fucking poser. Now I will say that cliche line that not everything is bad and
that there are also some positive people, actions, events that are active in
Croatian DIY hc/punk. Of course there are those too, but there has to be some
criticism and I think that one of the main problems in today's Croatian hc/punk
is the lack of criticism and the fact that people are not communicating (except
the few ones) about certain things that I've mentioned above. I don't even want
to go too deep into a sudden interest for fanzines by some NGO projects in
Croatia because those NGO people's perspective on zines is that zines are
something that was happening in the past which really don't help at all those
few active punk zines in Croatia. Not that punk zines need any help from any
kind of mainstream and zines will continue to exist no matter if people from
mainstream culture and press think they're relevant or not. So, I'll stop here
about the „scene“ topics before you call me cynical and jaded old bastard. I'm
all of that but I'm also that asshole that still care about DIY hardcore punk.
THE TRUTH - Ulice Protiv Fašizma
THE TRUTH at FFUD Fest at Camping Sereď, Slovakia
Photo by Maja Duljević
RULES at Klaonica squat in Zagreb, Croatia
Photo by Jahvo Joža
RULES at Surogat/Medika in Zagreb, Croatia
Photo by Jahvo Joža
And we got to a personal
part of this post, oh, oh, whatta fuck. On a personal side of myself, this year
was fucking weird and pretty depressed at some times. But, luckily those
moments were present only during a few first months of the year (the usual
depressive winter time) and when the spring came I got back to being my regular
self, the self righteous asshole that hates everyone, but at least I sorted out
everything I had to with myself. The beginning of 2018 carried some bullshit
stuff from 2017 related to a roommate that me and my other friend/roommate had
to deal with until the first mentioned roommate moved out. But then I got
caught into a web of some other people's bullshit including a one close friend
and that really made a bad mark on myself. Some of that bullshit got me in such
depressive and dark corners of my mind and soul that I wouldn't want that to
happen even to a worst enemy. I was so fucked up at some moments which reminded
me why I stopped drinking in the first place (which was really long time ago,
but nevertheless). Lots of times when I would be drinking and was wasted I
would be a total asshole to other people and a dark personality that alcohol
would bring out of me was just the worst shit. So, I decided to stop that shit
at the right time because I was 18 when I stopped drinking. This was definitely
one of the best decisions that I've made in my life. And then, 20 years later
this bullshit stuff come back in form of my reaction to some selfish acts of
people who don't give a slight shit how their actions will affect the people
they're close with. I could write a book about this, but what's the point of
that, I don't want or need to go back to that period. I've already gave too
much credit to each of those responsible for bunch of selfish, stupid and
unnecessary actions that not only had an negative effect on me but on some
other people too. But, the interesting thing is that in between all that
negativity and dark times I got to meet one awesome person and pretty soon
after we met we became really good friends. So, things got much better after
getting to know my new friend and when I started to play more. The summer was
pretty cool with an already praised summer tour and also few awesome festivals
thrown in that I've played with my bands. The rest of the summer I spent mostly
chilling with dogs. After the summer, my friend and now ex roommate CursedXD
(of course I'm calling him by his punk/band name, haha!) moved out, but it was
all on good terms and we're still friends and we still play in bands together.
The autumn was also filled with few cool shows/fests that I've played, so there
was no time for depressive thoughts and I hope that the upcoming winter will
not be too harsh.
Hanging out with my new mysterious friend
THE TRUTH at rehearsal
RULES at NÖ Fest in Horná Lehota, Slovakia
Photo by Déé X Géé
So, that's my flashback of
2018 in short. 2018 was an interesting year although I could easily be fine
without those dark moments from the few first months that I've mentioned above.
I'm sure there are people out there who have some big plans for 2019 and some
other people probably don't think about that at all and just want to survive in
this fucked up world. As for me, it's pretty much simple. I'm gonna continue to
provide my home as a temporary home for the dogs that needs to be adopted,
record and release all the songs from The Truth and Rules that we haven't
recorded so far, play and tour with both bands as much as I/we can, put out the
first issue of my new zine and the 20th issue of International Old School
Conspiracy zine and try not to attach myself with manipulative people.
Most photos by Vjetroslav
Prdinski, some by Jahvo Jože, Paayarazzi, Lea.pard, Marija Duljević, Déé X Géé,
Mišo Ljuboje and few selfies by ourselves.
Before the end, here are
some links that maybe you want to check out. Thanks.
THE TRUTH
RULES
MAD SCHNAUZER RECORDS
DESTROY IT YOURSELF RECORDS
You can also reach me at: https://www.instagram.com/deadly_138/
I
am The Snake
PS – Greetings to TEAR IT UP
army from all over the world!
Behind the merch table in Novi Sad, Serbia
Photo by Lea.pard
