A new great remix from Stefan “T666” Hilaerts: Drama in the Subway + more.

A remix of New Fashion made by Stefan “T666” Hilaerts.

An unreleased song from à;GRUMH… has been sent by email to all our known fans on December 20th. This track, called “Jennifer says” was made in November 2004 by accident during the making of new nEGAPADRES.3.3. songs. You can easily find this song online since many fans must have made it available through Emule or Torrent. If you haven’t received it, another chance to get it by email will be given. Mark your calendars and send an email on January 30th 2009 to S3@genion.be with “please send song” as subject, and very creative insults in your local language in the text, and we will re-email the song on February 1st. Only once.

For the fête de St-Nicolas, please visit the website of our friend Philippe Carly aka CRAZY LOBSTER, who designed all our record covers. It features pictures of many bands of the 70’s, 80’s and more, and some excellent à;GRUMH… pictures.

Play it again, Sam! and the band have agreed to releasing the à;GRUMH… songs progressively on the following legal download services. The songs are released album per album as Play it Again Sam! is in fact releasing its entire back catalogue, product by product. In a couple month, all à;GRUMH… songs recorded on PIAS and Scarface records should be available on the following networks:

iTunes
EUK
OD2
Karma
Sony Connect
Bleep
Fnac
Free Record Shop
DJ Download
Playlouder
Recordstore
Tune Tribe

Despite non-stopping offers for stage appearance in concerts, tours and festivals, à;GRUMH… is still decided NOT to come back on stage. But the band members do not agree on it.

J3 would like to do it, partially because he misses the stage action, having left the band in 1989 on the eve of their largest tour. He is also still extremely connected with the music world and willing to record and perform as it remains his main passion.

S3 on the other hand thinks differently. “There is a time for everything”, he says, “Monty Python were on TV the other day and people were asking them if they were going to work together again. Terry Jones was explaining that it would be awful. He said that when they were young, they came up with 20 ideas per minute and had so much energy to create the sketches and the comic effects, and that now they’re all too old to be “as good as back then”. He said that they had reunited for a sketck for BBC a few years ago and it wasn’t very good. So hear me out : youth is the time for creation, maturity the time for reflexion. And that is so true with music too. All the best bands in the history of music were created by teenagers or students in their young age. And most of the best ones either died or stopped music at an early age. Apart from the 60’s and 70’s “dinosaur bands” who still tour after 30 or 40 years, very few artists really propose something new and revolutionnary in their older age. There are exceptions of course, such as Peter Gabriel or Bowie, but mostly I am right. “Perfect carreers” in rock are bands like Young Marble Giants, Joy Division, Original Mirrors, Executive Slacks, Bronski Beat, Jimi Hendrix, and even big bands like The Beatles, The Clash, etc, who appeared, threw everything they had to say and disappeared. And I do hope I can say à;GRUMH… was like that. I pity these old bands who get back together, whatever the reason is, to make money, to have fun, to be a star again… I don’t want to go see them on stage in 2005, old, just a prody of what they once were, without that energy of youth and the urgency of what they had to say, when they had deciced to say it ! I’d rather keep my memories of their concerts at the time they were “the present” of rock’n’roll. Look at TG. They were a total legend. They were the most respected band in the history of industrial music. And now with that TG-2 fiasco and the hundred thousand pounds fee they have got for the reunion performance, and Genesis dressing up like Samantha in Bewitched, they are now seen as a big joke. I do not want à;GRUMH… to look like that. I do not want to come back on stage at 42 years of age (i’m actually 57), weighing 875 kilos, not having touched my guitar for so many years, and with nothing really interesting to do up there, just because some german (or else) concert promoter wants to make some money ! It would be simply awful and totally pathetic. I don’t want to ruin the great memories people have of our concerts. And to the many fans who write to me and say “but I wasn’t even born when you guys played on stage”, I must say, well that’s life. I too wasn’t “born” when Janis Joplin played on stage, I too would have loved to see Jim Morrison or Jacques Brel performing. Tough luck !! In life, you can’t get everything you want !! Being à;GRUMH… on stage was a great experience. I have wonderful memories of our concerts and tours. And I don’t want to ruin MY memories either !”.

We recently received this message. It is a tradition for à;GRUMH… to publish the messages we receive from this person from SWEDEN. So here we go.

From: “David Lxxxxg”
To: J3SEUQCAJ@hotmail.com
Subject: Well à;GRUMH… now your nightmare is back!
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 23:22:40 +0100
Hi J3 !
At last I discovered you guys at the internet !
You may wonder “who’s this now ?”
Well this is the guy that bought his first à;GRUMH… LP 18 years ago and also had to buy the 1989 years CD “a hard knight’s day” to discover MY MESSAGE recorded at your release… Well that was fun, and as I look back I can not do else than… LAUGH ! Of course I did and still like your music, even though I’m NOT that fanatic to ride the concerts !
I thought you guys died by ADIDAS…hrm, AIDS or just split. It seems like I was wrong ! Anyway, I will NOOOT bother you guys in futuretime, just say “no no no Hello-low-low-low”… And à;GRUMH… will have a more successfull new year of 2005 !!! ÅÄÖ…?
From the one and only ÐaviÐ Ð. (at “message from Sweden”), but 15 years older now, than at that time ! still I’m musically genre independent ! You don’t have to reply this mail, if you don’t want to !

While working on new tracks for a “Destroy XXXMas” nEGAPADRES.3.3. project, J3 and S3 have by accident created a rhythmic track that could become a new à;GRUMH… song, just like the previous one, “Jennifer says”. We’ll keep you informed.

à;GRUMH… released “Live at Rockin’Chair 1984”, “By the Phone” and “Live in Göteborg and Malmö” in CD versions. Live at Rockin’Chair is the recording of the two live performances given by à;GRUMH… in the original “mystical” line-up in the “Rock’in’Chair” record shop in Liège (Belgium) on 24th of october 1984. Most of the performance is industrial improvisation. The sound is powerful and the performances are quite amazing. “By the Phone” is the first-ever recording by à;GRUMH… in the original line-up. It’s a document of pre-industrial noisy music. The live concert in Sweden is from the 1989 tour, recorded by fans on location. These three CD’s are now available thru our shop.