New Year card Kirsten sent me…
‘Propagandhi’ were/are a “Political, yet humorous punk-rock band” from Winnipeg. They were signed to Fat Wreck Chords (a commercial label dealing with majors). That’s why I didn’t want them to play the Vort’n Vis. Bruno had other opinions… The band was: Chris Hannah (guitar & vocals), John K. Samson (bass; replaced by Todd Kowalski in ‘97) and Jordy/Jordan Samolesky (drums). Mike of Bad Food For thought (distro from Propaghandi’s hometown) wrote me (March 96) that Jord, the drummer, got ill with mono(nucleosis) the day they were supposed to leave on tour. Guess they didn’t make it over then… Can’t recall them playing anyway…
Brob
That sounds right. Was either mono or he broke his foot playing hockey. Can’t remember which. We have played Belgium since. Marcus from ‘But Alive’ and Marco [Walzel] from Avocado bookings did the later tours I think.
Chris Hannah
The locals (Ieper and surroundings) of ‘Carcer Molochi’ had done their debut here (94-12-31) and filled in… Most of them were or would become Vort’n Vis shitworkers: Erwin Degryse (guitar), David Stubbe (drums), Danny Suffys (bass), Johan Sys (vocals), Michael Maes (guitar) and Inge Capoen (vocals) played pagan, back-to-nature crust-punk (“a mix of ‘Anisect’, ‘Hiatus’, ‘E.N.T’ & ‘Antischism’…”, I wrote in my ‘zine). A few months after this they recorded their demo. In ’97 Michael and Inge (who are a couple) started ‘Link’…
demo-tape
‘Naked Aggression’, an anarchist classic HC/punk band (originally from Madison, Wisconsin but at the time of this tour they were already living in N. Hollywood) were Kirsten Patches (vocals), (Phillip Emil) Phil Suchomel (guitar; R.I.P. 1998), Ty Smith (drums; he’d been here also with ‘Resist’, R.I.P. 2011) – looks like Greg Watson was the bassist on this tour (he was also on the Bitter Youth 7” & the March March Alive LP). On the ‘Aus-Rotten’/‘Naked Aggression’ split-7” & on the Plastic World 7” (both out in 1994) John/Juan Jiminez (later also in ‘Los Crudos’) played the bass but he didn’t do this tour as he had quit the band… At that time I distributed the They Can’t Get Me Down 7” that was re-released on the German label Campary recs (ran by Armin Heitman and his girlfriend Katia, from-Düsseldorf)…. Kirsten still keeps the band going. Have a look on their website: http://www.nakedaggression.com/main.html
‘Naked Aggression’ photographed by Wim DL:
‘Kurort’, a HardCore band from Bad Ischl (Austria) played here for the 2nd time (see: 92-05-02). Andreas ‘Andi’ Wimmer (vocals), Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (guitar & vocals), Martin Wimmer (bass), Rudi Vogtenhuber (drums). They played strong, powerful HC with personalized political lyrics (sung in Upper Austrian dialect). They already release some stuff themselves but we got to know them trhough the Stachanov LP on Tiberiju’s Sacro Egoismo (Stachanov in ’94; Miss Fitness USA in ‘95). The latter was a co-release with Joris De Buysser’s Conspiracy recs). Joris would also release the Oslo 7” in’96. A fan wrote about them: “The flagship of Austrian 90s moshcore. ‘Kurort’ knew the handicraft of advanced thrash-riffing as no other Austrian band and embedded this in the drag-and-strain-Hardcore (Zerrcore) of the times. Their musical proficiency never resulted in technical hick-hack virtuosity but in well-constructed songs with doomy riffs checked by high impact drumming and driving blast beats. Andreas Wimmer on strained vocals added suffering and memorable choruses, that even showed some pop-sensibility.”…
Brob
‘Kurort’ (Flo – Rudi – Andi – Martin) promo-pic
I remember the Vort’n Vis very well, as it donated a running gag in the ‘Kurort’-conversations: “We have some nice sleeping-places upstairs.”, I think it was when we toured with ‘Naked Aggression’: it was March, it was very cold and it even snowed a bit. There was no heating in the venue except for all the people showing up. When we took a look at the ‘nice sleeping-places’, we decided not to use them, no matter what: What I recall, are empty and ice-cold rooms, broken windows and wet and foul mattresses. After the gig we wanted to sleep the on stage – even there with all the spilt beer, etc., it was cleaner than upstairs. And it was still warm from all the people that had gone then. But whoever was in charge refused because we were suspected to empty all the bottles at the bar overnight. We insisted anyway but our promise that we wouldn’t take anything from the bar was not trusted, so one of the V.V.-collective played the watchdog and slept on the floor behind the bar.
I also remember that the driver in the car riding before our van suffered a heart-attack on the highway and rolled off the road down into a field a few minutes before we came into Ieper – I guess that was in 1995 aswell.
Touring with ‘Naked Aggression’ wasn’t too enjoyable: up to 9 people in a small van… We only made friends with their hired drummer Ty Smith. He ‘who cannot be named’ [Dolf H.] and his network booked the tour…
I don’t remember ‘Propaghandi’ playing.
Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (sdmk.at)
excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:
David Carcer’s surreal scriblings are untranslatable, I’m afraid ;-) * Apparently it was Johan’s birthday…
additions wellcome!…
