This year we became partners with 

, the biggest travelling festival of Holland: 130 bands performing in 31 cities. One of the greatest milestones to take for upcoming bands on their road to fortune and fame. We joined the tour and picked 4 artists in 4 different cities for an intimate interview and a live session. Episode #3: MAASK in Rotterdam

If you’ve never seen Joost Maaskant aka MAASK perform live, you better fix that. Quick. This guy truly embraces improvisation, feeding off the crowds response in real time to deliver a performance that’s not quite like anything I’ve seen before. And the sounds! Any noise this man makes becomes music. Really. Anything…

We met up with MAASK at Rotown in Rotterdam’s centre and were treated to a crazy good performance in a dressing room that was almost as improvised as his music. Only he could hear the music, so we sat in quiet awe while he yelled into the mic and forgot that we were there. With some quick questions and some even quicker answers, MAASK showed us that being a musician doesn’t mean you have to take yourself too seriously. It’s all just about having fun, and if you can make some people dance along the way, then all the better!

For upcoming shows, check out MAASK’s website and look out for his next EP release for 2015.

In the lead up to the debut album release of “More Than You Should Know” of Yellow Grass, we caught up with founding members Bram Wesdorp, Pepijn van der Burgt, and Nienke Cusell at Vrijplaats Leiden. “Backstage” in a rustic warehouse the trio gave an emotionally captivating performance of the title song of their album. I almost wished they performed the whole set there as the acoustics and aesthetics were a perfect match for their americana styled music. In contrast to the sheer beauty of the session, I got stuck into a very interesting interview with them at the bar. At this point I started to realize that there was a lot of fun to be had with these guys. Which may or may not have lasted till 6 ‘o’ clock in the morning… Yes, the hangover was worth it.

The song is a great representative of how raw and honest these musicians are, and also provides an insight into the acoustic origins of the band. On stage the group performs with drummer Mischa Porte of The Rag Trade and bassist Robin van Baaren of Brahm.

Did we tickle your appetite? The launch of “More Than You Should Know” will be held on the 12th of November at poptemple Bitterzoet in Amsterdam, with support from our good friend Midas and our very own NO MILK TODAY DJ team! Details here.

We headed off to Patronaat to discover some rock ‘n’ roll, and immediately found it in the dirty nu-punk (don’t say grunge..) of Indian Askin. A virtuose frontman with Zappa-like moustache, a beastly drummer and a female bass player (oh yeah!) who keeps the bastards in check. This is the rockband I’ve been missing for years, in the overly calm dutch music scene. We had a really good time together while making this item and came back with a hard disk full of drunken shenanigans. We talked about Courtney Love, pizza, twerking and many other super serial topics. Besides that, you can enjoy an acoustic version of their song “Deep End”, recorded in the charming streets of Haarlem.

Indian Askin was one of the first bands featured on Stillman. I found an early video in our archive, recorded back in 2011 when we were both still under construction. The band took steps forward and found her groove with the new formation consisting of Chino Ayala (the Zappa guy), Ferry Kunst (mr bigmouth) and miss Jasja Offermans. In 2015 you can expect their first album.

INDIAN ASKIN PLAYS LOUD MUSIC
INDIAN ASKIN IS NOT FROM PARAGUAY
INDIAN ASKIN SMELLS LIKE PASTA PESTO
INDIAN ASKIN LOVES WINXP JUST LIKE YOU
INDIAN ASKIN APPRECIATES CCR
INDIAN ASKIN BRINGS THE HEAT
INDIAN ASKIN DRINKS BEERS AND VINO
INDIAN ASKIN SPREADS RUMOURS ABOUT YOU
INDIAN ASKIN LIKES THE AFTERVEINS
INDIAN ASKIN RECORDS WITH A SENNHEISER E815 MIC
INDIAN ASKIN LISTENS TO NIRVANA JUST LIKE YOU
INDIAN ASKIN REMEMBERS THE ALAMO
INDIAN ASKIN IS WHAT YOU NEED

Up the drunks!

This female fronted metal band rose itself out of the Belgian underground after playing dozens of youth centers and local rock festivals. This grewing storm from Antwerpen is ready to take over the European metal scene.

We interviewed them on a rooftop right after their giving us a brutally strong live show on Speedfest. While we were talking about their influences the guitarist pointed out some lightning experiences he had during shows of Peter Pan Speedrock…

Last month we witnessed a very rare show in which Kyuss frontman John Garcia teamed up with the upcoming stonerformation Komatsu. On Speedfest the young stonerband from Eindhoven Rock-City took the opportunity to baptize their new EP, which features a cover of “July” from John Garcia’s former band Slo-burn. Garcia himself decided to join Komatsu on stage and relive the past by singing his old song “July”.

Komatsu started their journey to fortune and fame only 3 years ago, but they are already on the verge of breaking through to a bigger audience. Sharing the stage as a Dutch underground band with the “God of Stoner”, how did they make this dream coming true? We asked bass player Martijn Mansvelders and drummer Miriam Bekkers right after the show.

Check out the full song of Garcia and Komatsu, recorded by Koen de Gussum.