If you have been following this site for the last few months it should be no secret to you that we are celebrating our 10 year anniversary this autumn. We have released a double CD with gold nuggets from the past and present and we are also doing a special anniversary T-shirt "J'aime La Frog Croque". Both can be found at Vibrashop.com.

The tracklist from the CD as well as our thank you notes can be found elsewhere on this site. But right here you can get a sneak peek of the contents of the booklet that accompanies the double CD.

The front of the booklet show the cataloques we have printed through the years.

It has been hard to choose and pick the photos in this booklet. We have literally thousands of pictures we’d like to include but space allowed only these. In the booklet you’ll find pictures taken by (among others): Jessica Tolf Vulpius, Søren Solkær Starbird, Marc Fluri, Klaus Thyman, Casper Sejersen, Rikke Petersen, Ian Zaider, Jasper Carlberg, Thomas Busk and some of the band members.

10 CRUNCHY YEARS
At first we were only going to release our own album with THAU - back in ‘94. But with the help from the good people from Pingo distribution we quickly grew more ambitious and started to help likeminded bands from the Copenhagen lo-fi noise-rock scene release their albums. It was pure idealism and 50/50 deals. One for all and all against the others (corporate rock still sucks). Now, years later, we still have the idealism but have perhaps become less of the rank amateurs we were in the beginning. Luckily the music was enough to pull us through, although for a lot of years we didn’t really know what we were doing. We just kept going in true DIY-style. Goddammit, we used to go around delivering promo records to journalists on our bikes (but only as far as Valby Bakke, thank you very much). It was 3 to 4 years before we even got a fax machine, let alone a modem. And the office was synonymous with Yebo’s changing apartments.

1)The first press photo of the young hopeful artists. 2)Our first poster featuring the beautiful Wim Wenders cover photo. 3)The first Crunchy Frog homepage - but this was years later. 4)Nalna during the recording of “UTAH”. 5)Anders Reuss and Nalna in live action during an early Death Tothe concert. 6)The very first review of the very first record arrived on the day of release, September 8th (it was good, too!).

Even though the resources and the budgets were always small the ambitions were always great. Very early on we started to try to get international interest in our releases. It’s never been easy for us to sell a lot of records in our own home country because we’ve always signed artists and bands according to our own taste (and thereby no mainstream shit) and who we feel are original and have something new to say - also globally. On the other hand we have always enjoyed a great deal of support from the critics and a small but growing crowd of music lovers who have supported us and our bands.

Right from the start we had the ambition of building a “real label” that actually represented something - like the English and American record labels such as Creation, 4AD, Matador, Sub Pop etc that we ourselves respected as ordinary music fans. These companies are indeed labels for a particular musical taste and/or certain ideals.

Now it’s a great honour for us to meet people who have the same relationship with Crunchy Frog as we had with our favourite labels. We’ve collected a bouquet of the crunchiest roses that we hope you’ll enjoy. We have enjoyed working with a group of extremely talented bands. We are proud to have released their records. There’s an incredible amount of other people who have helped us from time to time, and we have written a thank you list elsewhere, but we send a special thought to Jessica who has helped us - unpaid at first, underpaid now - through all the years. She is the 5th crunchy frog.

Looking forward to the sequel “2004-2014 The Golden Years”.

Love,
Roffe, Fzat, Nalna and Yebo
CRUNCHY FROG

1)Rikke Frisk during a Learning From Las Vegas show at Tex, 1995. 2)DødsTor and Roffe. 2x4-eyes. Mad but happy. 3)The Andersen Brothers. Mikkel produced the first LFLV record and Kasper lead the haunting, intense band Naked. 4)LFLV doing a surprise performance at a Christmas lunch in Yebo and Jessi’s apartment. 5)Naked press shot. Angry, angry young men. 6)LFLV press shot. This quite silly one was never used.

Liner notes by J. Poe:

I'VE BEEN TO A LOT OF CONCERTS - AND BOUGHT A LOT OF RECORDS
I remember when the record was released! UTAH. The release party was held at The Museum of Music History, but the same night the band had to play a show at Loppen, Christiania. Wim Wenders supplied the photo for the cover (for 167 symbolic German marks), which was printed upside down on the poster. It still looked good – also upside down. So there it hung all the way down the wall at the entrance to the venue, every second poster upside down. I still have it hanging in my kitchen. Right side up, though.

I remember when the second record was released. Daddy Steals Upon the West German Deutschmark. The release party was at Bådteatret in Nyhavn. It was damn fun! And the cover art was once more a story in itself, lifted from the legendary Victor B. Andersens Maskinfabrik that we thought was closed down. It turned out they were just taking a good long break.

I remember the time it hadn’t even turned into Crunchy Frog yet. We used to run the Propdenoppop-Klop in Stengade 30 at Nørrebro one Saturday each month. The same handful of bands played there so often it was easier for them to arrange the concerts themselves. It was always the same audience coming to the shows anyway. It was all about reinventing everything with happenings and noise-rock as the main cornerstones. The Christmas party was in July and there were summer drinks for all at Christmas time. Take it from me, it is pretty difficult to track down a good Christmas tree in the middle of the summer holiday. Luckily the music was probably more original, in any case THAU, Death Tothe, Naked and Learning from Las Vegas were often on stage.

1)Death Tothe in concert at Propdenoppop-Klop. Joined on stage by Joakim “ScoreKim, Undergrundens Kejser” Vulpius, aged 7. 2)“Sprödt Nyt” was the regular photocopied newsletter in the early days. Silly and nerdy, just how you like it. 3)Flyer for a small Frog Skull & Bones tour of Denmark ca. 1997.4)Fzat and Nalna of THAU performing in a cramped college radio studio somewhere on the eastern seaboard, USA, 1998. 5)Bart from Tothe and some overweight American old lady waiting for the connecting flight in Charles de Gaulle airport.

I remember the time when Death Tothe became famous - and suddenly one evening managed to pack out Barbue in Huset - because they had been on a TV show where the host called them Black Tothe - that really made us laugh. Yebo had to explain why he was wearing a Public Enemy T-shirt. A rock musician listening to hip hop? That in itself was too weird.

I remember when the same Death Tothe was playing a Christmas concert in Ungdomshuset on Jagtvej. It was in the days when German sausages in glass jars – the classic Bockwurst – and cherry wine was an indispensable part of the stage show. Apart from a pathetic fake fistfight and a member of the audience sleeping in one of the speakers, the most memorable thing was the chorus of vegetarians chanting “Ingen kød i Ungeren!” (No meat in Ungdomshuset!).

1)THAU with hovering space station in Washington DC, 1998. 2)Superheroes posing in front of screens showing their “I Touched Her Legs” video in HMV, Osaka Japan, 1999. 3)In the Tokyo subway. Superheroes calling Mars. 4)Back stage at Loppen at The Tremolo Beer Gut and The Burnouts show. Per Sunding showing his muscular chest. Fzat, Sune and Helle Hellcat lounging. 5)Show leading the Tothe International team of Clones on the street in Arlington, USA, 1998. 6)Düreforsög press shot. Including the director of their videos, Adam.

I remember the time when The Mopeds and THAU played a musical football match at Stengade 30. The members of both bands on stage together, taking turns playing songs. The idea was quite fun but the truth is that it was a complete mess! It helped when the bands discovered that the fast songs made the best attack - and in the end the Swedes won a narrow victory.

I remember that Naked was always an intense experience. With enough cool and attitude for 4-5 street gangs they played with their feelings on the outside and reached out all the way to the back of the room. They played and sang as if their lives depended on it. It was either fly or die. They flew.

1)THAU live at the first VibraCrunch Festival in Malmö, 1999. 2)Our Japanese A&R Junko admiring the Tremolo poster at Yebo and Jessi’s house, 1999. She has released Superheroes, THAU, Tremolo and Junior Senior. 3)VibraCrunch was founded by Vibrafon, Crunchy Frog and Malmöfestivalen in 1999. This was our first poster. Coreldraw style. 4)Our first promo sampler “Something to sink your teeth into”. The cover star is Nalna and Yebo’s niece. 5)Junior and Senior (long before they were signed) back stage at the Superheroes 1999 Roskilde Festival show. 6)Düreforsög performing a kick ass show at VibraCrunch1. 7)The audience at VC1. Room enough for everybody. Later on it has become way more crowded. Yessir.

I remember when Düreforsög was playing with Death Tothe in Århus. They had one single released - which was sold out - and listening to them blew us away. And we were just amazed how incredibly young the band and their audience was.

I remember the time when Yebo came by with some new stuff to listen to and decide upon. Superheroes. This was pop, after all. And from Skive in Jutland. And very, very young. And very, very good. But would it fit Crunchy Frog? Today it is obvious that it was here the frog took a leap. Because it dared go after the fly. Noise or pop, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s tasty.

1)Prehu, Klause, Yebo, RulleMelonen, Asu and Tanja hanging out in Athens, Georgia on the 1999 Superheroes/LFLV US Tour. 2)We decided to make a 5 year anniversary compilation back in ‘99. The cover star is Roffe after he cut his hair munk style as a drunken birthday present for Yebo. The cover was made by DødsTor but we never got around to release it. 3)Jens and Petter Lindgård playing horns for Eggstone at the Propdenoppop-Klop Tambourine Party. Later on of course they entered the Crunchy Family as 2/3 of The Mopeds and also did the brass work on Superheroes and PowerSolo recordings. 4)Senior performing “Johnny and I” with Superheroes in Lyngby. 5)The “Living In Vain” radio promo single from Düreforsög.

I remember when Learning from Las Vegas turned up and played at a private Christmas lunch in a 3-room apartment. They hardly fitted into the living room and the neighbours must have heard the whole thing. Years later they appeared at a wedding and played a touching version of the bridal waltz.

I remember the time when we lived in an Østerbro apartment which the previous residents had used as the Crunchy Frog office. The phone sometimes decided to ring at 4 in the morning because somebody from Japan was trying to send a fax through. We relayed a lot of calls and I was offered to play some shows, but I politely declined. Even today, a couple of moves and changed telephone numbers later, they still call from the telephone company to ask if this is Crunchy Frog.

1)Anderz Gearbox at our housewarming. Garage rock booker supérieur and stand up guy. He invited us to share office space when we were a small piss ant label (more so than today). And we’ve never looked back. 2)Learning From Las Vegas press shot from the Petit Bourgeois era. Stylish, Scandinavian, sensitive young men. 3)Superheroes with Robin Skjoldborg doing the “IGLOO” press shots. Lars did not wear that hideous pilots hat in the final session. 4)Tothe International trick shot press photo. Jessica Vulpius did head shots of all members and then arranged the suits with fake photo-heads. Hence the weird 2D/3D look. 5)Superheroes flyer for the IGLOO album. The photo was also used for the “What’s Going On?” radio promo single. 6)Tothe Int’l flyer with artwork taken from "The Slow Light Theory” album.

I remember when Junior Senior surprised everybody –just by being themselves! It wasn’t every day confetti was thrown at Stengade 30. The funniest part of watching them the second time was seeing how it surprised the audience.

I remember the time when The Tremolo Beer Gut played the new year in, unfortunately without Per Sunding but with an army of guest bassists. The band whose records have different colours because you obviously can’t remember the titles when you’re drunk... And we were psyched up when we heard that Jon Spencer was a fan – well, we still are.

1)Flyer for the first SXSW show case we had in Austin, Texas, 2000. What a trip! 2)Both TBG guitarists couldn’t make the SXSW show, so all of a sudden the sound engineer Nalna had to step in and play lead guitar. He had to have 3 margaritas to steady his hand before the show. It was a cool show in the end, and the LA Weekly called it the best garage rock show of the whole festival. 3)VibraCrunch2 flyer. 4)The TBG (with the B-Team) opened the main stage at Roskilde 2000. Legendary stuff. 5)For the Johnny and I video we did our own beer labels: SuperBEERoes, the Nightmare Brew from Miami. The label was not visible at any time in the finished video... go figure. 6)Tothe Int’l played the new camping stage at Roskilde Festival. Again with ScoreKim, now aged 13 (after that he grew to old for that shit).

I remember when it was rumoured that Sune Wagner’s new band – not yet named The Raveonettes – sounded like The Jesus and Mary Chain. It was just about half a year or more before the Americans reinvented rock for the umpteenth time. And Jesus and Mary Chain... that was about goddamned time!

I remember when Düreforsög opened the Orange stage at Roskilde Festival, and they could still blow you away. And when The Tremolo Beer Gut opened the same stage a few years later with theremin and male choir and crumpled ties. And especially when it was Superheroes’ turn, because the moment when the chorus starts in Johnny and I, at that exact moment the festival started that year.

1)TBG radio promo single “Theme From The Beer Hunter”. 2)The Finest of Scandinavian Goddamned Surf flyer for TBG and Robert Jonsson and Punchdrunks. 3)Sune Wagner and Thomas Troelsen showing off at a CF PopKomm showcase. In the background Crunchy supporter and schatzi Heike Horst. 4)TBG badge featuring Per “Psychopelle” Sunding. 5)The Mopeds “Things The Stars Have Forgotten” radio promo single. 6)VibraCrunch3 flyer. At this point we changed the design to emulate the classic Boss guitar effect pedals. 7)THAU radio promo single “The Rock and the Surf”.

1)Junior performing Karaoke in novelty glasses drunk off his ass at the 2001 Crunchy Frog Christmas Lunch at Senior’s place. 2)Label for the “From the Vinyl Archives of The Tremolo Beer Gut”. Classic old school. 3)Junior and Senior in Delta Lab goofing around during the recording of their debut album. 4)Junior Senior sticker for “Move Your Feet”. 5)Raveonettes radio promo single “Attack of the Ghost Riders”. 6)Sune and Sharin hanging out at CBGB’s, NYC 2002. 7)Sune, Yebo, Per and Jengo of the TBG (live at DR radio). 8)Drawing from Strid after the 2001/02 New Year party hosted by The TBG. A legendary party!

I remember when PowerSolo said about themselves that where they came from was so far out in the country that people put potatoes on their pizza and meatballs are a kind of fruit. And because of that I loved them dearly even before I heard the first note of music – but also afterwards as it turned out.

I remember when we travelled to VibraCrunch in Malmö and heard epo-555 play as the sun set on the blue Pripps. It was something as rare as beautiful – the music, the Swedish folköl and the last taste of summer.

1)Thomas T and Senior on the main stage opening Roskilde 2002. 2)Sune busting his guitar at the first Raveonettes Roskilde Festival show, 2002. 3)VibraCrunch4 flyer. The effect pedal theme continues to this day. 4)Superheroes press shot for the “Superheroes” release. Taken in Thomas’ own Delta Lab studio where they also recorded the album. 5)Superheroes badge. 6)No smoking at the Crunchy crapper, m’kay? 7)Micke PMK has to take the price for doing the most crazy and cool artwork (Junior Senior’s) we have released. Here is the UK version of the vinyl album D-D-Don’t. Crazy stuff!

1)In 2002 we decided to gather all the CF bands for a big concert at Vega in Copenhagen. It was such a blast. Everyone in the audience got a free exclusive CD where all the bands had covered each others’ songs (and a really idiotic Gregorian Crunchy Hits-medley). It was only released in 1500 numbered copies. A true collector’s item. Below is the “Class of 2002” photo that our friend Søren Solkær did after sound checks. Unfortunately The Mopeds were not able to be there. 2)Senior on stage with Tremolo doing his “Cool Dicks” version of “Cool Cigs”. 3)The Mopeds giving us hell in Store Vega. The CF logo hovering above. 4)THAU with the beautiful and talented Soma Allpass Hammarlund. 5)The Crunchy Christmas poster. 6)Yebo in cowboy hat during the TBG show. 7)At the end of the Superheroes show pretty much everybody from the other bands entered the stage and had a crazy party. In front is Jens from The Mopeds, behind him Thomas T raising his arms and on the right is Junior and Filip from Jr Sr dancing away. 8)...and the crowd went wild (Polle and Oste in the middle). What a night. Everybody there shared a very special evening - and some have the T-shirt to prove it!

I remember back when it wasn’t “back when” anymore, not in the same way anyway. Crunchy Frog wasn’t a secret any more, but the talk of the town – in Texas! They said so themselves anyway. But there must be something to it – all of a sudden they were in the newspapers all the time.

Most of all I remember all the way back when there were no other indie labels than Cloudland. And when there are no others why not release that album yourselves?
It was just one single little cd...

1)dCool poster for The Raveonettes’ second album. 2)VibraCrunch5 flyer. A variation of a well tested and successful theme, but this year the Crunch knob was turned up. 3)As Superheroes and Jr Sr won several Gaffa awards 2002 we did this add thanking the fans. We thought it would be funny to do it in handwriting. And it was. And we sold a million records because of that add. Always pays to nuture the fanbase! 4)“Bo, play me some Chopin, will ya?” The Railthin Brothers lounging in Köln during PopKomm, 2003. 5)Signing session at VC5. PowerSolo was a most
welcome addition to the Crunchy Frog family.

1)When Sune Wagner played at Roskilde Festival 03 it was the 10th year in a row he’d played. Crunchy and The Raveonettes gave him this cake. 2)Ian Zaider, proud manager of Jr Sr holding up the Austin paper with Senior on the front page, with Jessi and Asu from Superheroes. 3)Filip and Yebo from Jr Sr hanging with Mr. T at the Jimmy Kimmel Show in LA. Mr. T’s Tee reads “PRAY until something happens!”. 4)Junior Senior browsing in a costume shop in Austin, Texas during SXSW 03. 5)Bo, Kim and producer Nalna hanging out during the recording of “IT’S RACEDAY” - protesting against cheese.

And then I remember that on New Years Eve 2001/02 I said that Crunchy Frog had made a mistake signing Junior Senior... It can be quite rewarding to not always be right.

With thanks to Dan Turèll for lending me the chorus
- now play me something by Elvis!

Jacob Stærmose – or J. Poe
fan & friend, Propdenoppop-accomplice
& respected idiot.

1) dThe signing session for epo-555 was at Isbjørnen Bodega. They insisted on it being written in the contract that Crunchy should buy them beers at the signing. So we did. 2)PowerSolo flyer for Roskilde Festival 04. They played the last show on the festival that year. 3)Flyer for the epo-555 debut album “Dexter Fox”. 4)Risqué PowerSolo sticker for the album “It’s Raceday... and your PUSSY is GUT!!!”. 5)Jr Sr live in Tokyo. Junior is big in Japan, Senior is huge. 6)Screen dump from Japanese bonus DVD for the Jr Sr “Shake Your Coconuts” single, 2004. The image of Filip is from the UK tour of 2003. 7)epo-555 press shot. Bambi shouting at Ebbe.

1)Flyer for VC6. The Crunch-button still at the max position. 2)Design for our 10 year anniversary T-shirt in fucked up french. “J’aime La Frog Croque - 10 ans de indie roque supérieur”. Straight up. 3)Flyer for our 04 SXSW shows. 4)The Tremolo Beer Gut joined by Jon Spencer at VC6. Terrific show and a terrific VibraCrunch. 5)Crunchy staffers Thomas and Søren selling merchandise. 6)Mikkel choking the old VOX guitar at the epo-555 show at VC6. 8)Martin Martin Denns from Dennark did the artwork for this compilation. Good man, but don’t give him any pills. 9)Morten Bue is our mastering engineer of choice. Here he is doin’ his thang mastering this very album. 10)The Crunchy staff 04. Thomas, Yebo, Søren and Jessi.

YA DARNED TOOTIN'! THAT'S ALL FOLKS. NOW RUN OUT AND BUY THAT RECORD!

epo-555 and PowerSolo tellin' it like it is
As promised here are the honest to Thor true accounts from Mikkel Max and Kim Kix about the Crunchy Frog all star journey to Reykjavik and New York City. Max and Kix from epo and PowerSolo respectively divulge their thrills, chills and spills from both continents and a vulcanic island in between. A sordid but interesting tale laced with Vodka Lemonade and Rock and/or Roll. Read it and weep (if you weren't there yourself).

(Just to set the chronology and facts straight: PowerSolo and epo-555 like the royal family took seperat planes. Therefore PowerSolo arrived in Reykjavik and New York a day before epo.)

Thursday October 7th
Kim Kix: Thursday the 7th. Oct. Bo and I boarded the ferry boat to Zealand as we were heading for Papa’s (The Great Nalna) place to hook up with him and eat a good roast pork sandwich before driving to the Copenhagen Airport. We met with Jens, Yebo and Jessica and boarded the plane to Reykjavik.

A quick 2 ½ hour flight, a couple of drinks and a plastic meal. Of course the meal consisted of 96,3% cheese and only 3,7% non lethal products.

We arrived to Reykjavik in the evening. It was really cold so we were all happy to see Thor’s apartment (Thor was our great Icelandic host). We’d bought some bottles of wine and a flask of Tennessee for Thor, but we ended up drinking all of it and hit the bed way too late (early?) around 5 in the morn. Didn’t see anything of the Great Iceland…. But! We had some of that dried fish. HWUUAaaaahh!!!!!????

PowerSolo and the Crunchy chaperones (Yebo, Nalna and Jessi) doing an interview with the major Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid on the stop over in Reykjavik to hype the show the next week.

Friday October 8th
Kim Kix: At 7 O’clock we landed at JFK airport in New York. We were all a bit busted after the flight so it was really nice to answer 584 questions and have two fingers in you asshole at the US-immigration. Papa, Bo and I had a pretty wet flight. In lack of good food we’d ordered good wine instead. There was a stupid movie on the screen which we didn’t see and to avoid getting a numb ass and getting too bored – advice no. 1 is: Alcohol.
One of the stewardesses reminded us at a time that we’d already had ordered 18 bottles – we told her that we were nervous of flying so we ordered three more and that was it.

We checked in at the Sohotel (Soho) and headed for some schweinbrat. The heavy brothers (Papa & Yebo) recommended the Great Jones bar and restaurant. Having been regular customers there for more than six years they should know. We all had some bar-b-q, chicken and pork. And after the very delicious meal we drank some of the great Jones Vodka Lemon (80% vodka 10% lemon, the rest is in your head!!!). Aaaaahhh they sure can make goooood drinks at Jones – my new favourite place!!!

The first night in NYC at Jones. A couple-a-beers and then straight on the vodka lemon!

Saturday October 9th
Mikkel Max: Having spend an intoxicating night at our Icelandic friend’s in Reykjavik we arrived in New York City and headed straight to the bar in which the Frogs and Powersolo had been studying the drinks’ menu intensely for a day only to discover that Powersolo had gone home, drunk and unsavoury and the Frog and Frogette were toasted, roasted and boasted. We were soon to learn why: Great Jones’ Vodka Lemonade. The most nutritious drink in the world, the diamond dew on naked virgins’ nipples, oh yes, and it is through the lense of this monkey business that the tour is to be viewed.

Kim Kix: Having two days to spend before the first show at Pianos we thanked the Lord for giving us jetlags. Both Saturday and Sunday we woke up at 6 am. Except Jens of course, he can sleep anytime anywhere, ha, ha. Oh… I almost forgot that we spent the Saturday night at the Great Jones again. Only this time we never got anything to eat. When we got there, we went to the bar as we were waiting for Jens who was buying a new pair of slacks. We didn’t even have to wave before the bartender slammed three Margaritas on the desk. We thought: WOW! He’s nice, offering drinks while we’re waiting for a table. We fools, the bartender excused that he’d make us believe the drinks were free. He just thought that it was our ordering. What the hell – he picks a drink for us, we’re gonna finish it. But when you start with margaritas at the Great Jones Bar and Restaurant you finish with margaritas. So in the first hour Papa, Bo, Jens and I had four drinks each.( Jones margarita: 80% Tequila (good tequila), 10% Cointreau, 9% lemon. The rest is in your brain). By the time Jessica and Yebo came we were all completely pissed drunk. I think we ordered some hot wings and a couple more drinks – but around 8 pm I was too fucking drunk to talk or to smile, so I just took off in running pace towards the Sohotel where I threw up and went straight to bed, ha, ha… Jesus. What a fucking night. Bo fell off the bar stool half an hour after I left. He was even more drunk than I was and Papa was worried that Bo wouldn’t make it to the hotel, so he walked him home, leaving Jens to pay the last drinks and the hot wings. Poor guy, we owe him one I guess.

Mikkel Max: OK, Saturday, arrival. We got ripped off in a taxi bringing us to Brooklyn and then Manhattans Lower East Side. $130. Phew! But then again, we weren’t paying for the cool apartment that we were borrowing for a week. Ron Pompei, the owner whom we’ve never met, had been so kind as to show us complete and utter confidence. Unpacked and ran to the bar. The Solos had gone, but that just left us with more drinks to exterminate, digest and forget about. Vodka Lemonade, you evil friend.

Back at Jones again. Here's the bartender preparing a line of stroooong Margaritas. And Bo after a lot of these, collapsing on the bench outside. Another great saturday night on the ol' bottle in NYC...

Sunday October 10th
Kim Kix: Sunday morning Bo, Papa and I woke up at 6 am. Again! By 6.30 we were walking on the Manhattan Bridge. The weather was really nice and the city was still asleep. Walking around Soho, NYC at this time of day is really special. It’s so calm that it is almost spooky, but you get to see the city in a whole different way. When you watch the people… It’s like one of those zombie movies where the living dead walk in the streets in slow motion….MWAAAAooorrg!!?. Anyway we walked the whole way to Brooklyn and had breakfast there. Killer breakfast I must say. Steak and eggs and lots of (weak) coffee.
After a smoke and a break, we walked over the historical Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. What a building. I saw a documentary on making of the bridge a few weeks ago, and it really impressed me how detailed it is when you come close to it. Many workers lost their lives in the pressure chambers under the water during the building period. It must without doubt have been one of NYC biggest construction achievements in the city’s history.
After that Papa wanted to show us Jeremy’s Alehouse, Lower East Side I think. A place where you get the biggest and heaviest drafts in NYC. Unfortunately it was closed.

Then we took a stroll up Wall Street to Ground Zero.
In the afternoon we went out to put posters for the Piano’s show the next day. After hard work we rewarded ourselves with a visit at NYC swampiest bar. The Mars Bar. One little rectangular room with a wooden bar desk with messages, names and dirty words carved in the wood and a big sign saying: “My bush would make a better president”, and of course, the VERY cheap Tennessee. They had a jukebox with all the Railthin’ Bros’ (Bo & I) favorites. The Cramps, Hank Williams, Dead Kennedy’s and even Thin Lizzi, ha, ha… Jens kept on playin’ a TL song over and over again and it pissed off the other costumers pretty much. To my joy there was a Godless Wicked Creeps record (my former band) in the juke. Someone had picked the “Sound of Speed” song from the Hystereo album.

Mikkel Max: Sunday…hmmm…late breakfast at Katz where some apparently highly skilled actress once faked an orgasm. Maybe because of the enormous amount of sausages and syrup that left our poor stomachs in doubt of the reason to live. We met Yebo and Jessie, los Froggies Supremos, who demanded that we be their slaves for a day. Naturally, we complied and left all of East Village wrapped in posters of our drop-in-the-ocean concerts so as to leave no doubt of our extreme sexiness. We love it! To show our gratitude we joined hands and mouths with our masters and the PowerLocos at Legendary Carmine's where the plates are bigger than sombreros and more loaded with food than monkeys in heaven. This, of course, was beautifully garnished with a fine twist of that adorable lemonade at Great Jones’.

Jessi, Bo and Kim partying down at The Mars Bar at their cool jukeboxxx. The Solo stayed all day and later got into a fight at their hotel room. Much later in the evening it was time for (more) drinks and a fabulous dinner at Carmine's where the Manhattan's are good and healthy.

Monday October 11th
Mikkel Max: Right, so Monday was our first day of real work. Pianos’ in Ludlow Street 5 min. away from our apartment was the target. Everything was bound to be dead easy. Like peaches in cream. Like butter on corn on cobs. Like cows in the barn. Ok, first the keyboard won't work; refuses to, in short. It turns out that airport security had dismantled all of Camilla’s gear and given it a “proper” treatment. After all, a neatly reassembled keyboard might jeopardize the safety of the land of the free. We fixed it like the true mechanics we’ve always been. Of course, we would have to have European voltage power. But the bastardos in NY left evil barriers to our true hero, Doc. Yebo. So he was late. And the band that was to warm up the coldness of the club stole, say, pretty much all of the time to test the sound, and every sound engineer in the world knows that we in the band are maddeningly time demanding, due to our complexity, some say. So, no sound check for us. However, these are merely bad excuses for our rude behaviour. Suffice to say that we played hmmm…a job that was…forgettable. Yes. No more no less. Plain boring. Not bad, but…well.

Kim Kix: The day of the first show at Pianos, Soho. It was going to be exciting to see how many people would show up. It was the Crunchy Frog label showcase so many label/business people were invited to the show. The line up was first, The Burning Primitive, then PowerOslo and epo-555, then after that a late showcase with some horrible shit. One beer ticket per person is what you get there, so a good advice is to keep that ticket in your pocket until you’re broke.

The shows went well. We kicked the devils ass once again and got new fans and a couple of enemies. Yebo and Jessi talked to a bunch of suits. But none of them was waving a check. At least not a valid one, ha, ha… Maybe there were 60 people all in all, and that’s pretty good for a Monday I guess. So a good night it was. Later Papa and I headed for the Great Jones. It was a really nice and quiet evening there. We had a couple of margaritas and we got to meet and say hi to Mark Eyeball (former Pavement bass player) who was working there. Nice guy.

Tuesday October 12th
Mikkel Max: Tuesday lies in blur. Everybody went around like ants looking at the wonders of NYC. Ebbe and Manja wanted to see Central Park and walked from Empire State Building and south for two straight hours before I met them and set them straight. OK, I know that not everyone can know where things are in the City of Monkeys but they had a map and a compass and Central Park is probably the single biggest thing in New York and the streets are divided into 1st, 2nd, 3rd street and so forth. They’re so sweet but damn…I’m happy that Ebbe is on a chair for our concerts. OK, enough of that mocking business. I myself managed to get my Visa Card maxed out that day which is not advisable in the City of Loads of Goodies so I shouldn’t be teasing. We had Indian food for dinner.

Kim Kix: Day off. I had some huge hangovers that day and the rest of the guys weren’t too alive either. We decided it was gonna be a no booze day. I spent most of the day at the hotel. I really needed to catch up a bit. Jens, Bo and Papa did some sightseeing around Manhattan. They went up the Empire State Building after qeueing for an hour and a half. They told they couldn’t see much because of the fog or the mist or whatever. Anyway I think they probably had a much much better afternoon than I had.
At the hotel we decided to go out and have a good steak. There was a restaurant guide in Jens’
“Welcome to NYC” book that was called Gallagher’s. An old famous restaurant, near Time Square and the Ed Sullivan Theatre. So we pretty much knew that it was gonna cost a fortune. Gallagher’s is an old restaurant since the 30’ies with a hall of fame known for it’s well hung T-bones and it’s long list of famous sportsmen and women, politicians, gangsters and movie stars who’s visited the place through out the years. We all had a 500 gram T-bone steak with mashed potatoes and mushrooms. It was a heavenly meal, and… yes! It cost a fortune to eat there but it was worth it.

Manja, Ebbe and Tha Milla having a bit of a wee drink on the off day. Every chance they get...

Wednesday October 13th
Kim Kix: First day of the CMJ Music Marathon and second show for epo-555 and PowerSolo in the Empire State. The Crunchy showcase was to take place at the legendary Knitting Factory on lower east Manhattan. A big venue with three stages, on three different levels. We were playing in the smallest (100+ capacity). Kind of a dungeon but pretty cool with a shitty PA or almost none. We decided not to do any sound check before the show as it wouldn’t make any difference anyway. Worse for epo-666 who are really depending on good monitoring, they have an in-ear monitor system which they keep forgetting in a bag all the time, but when they have them it apparently works.

This night was a two beer ticket night – so it was gonna be alright. Yeah! We felt good and were ready to kick some butt. Jens, Bo and I had a good Mexican meal. Burritos, beans, burgers and chili. Just lay a good bottom before the show and the drinks.

emu-555 were starting the show at 8.00pm – it was gonna be exciting to see how many would show up. Fred Schneider of B52’s was there. He knows Yebo from when he was drumming in Junior Senior. Fred is a nice guy and he really hates Bush. No surprise. 8.00pm there’s about 30 people in the room. ebo-555 starts playing and people start coming in. eros-555 has a surprisingly good sound. Jesper (epo’s sound guy) must have been pulling hair during their 1 ½ hour sound check. But it worked and people, about 50+ were having a good time. So did epo-5555.

Mikkel Max: Energy is what comes of a boring concert. That is for us. If we’ve done something that we’re not too proud of we’ll of course want to prove that we are better than that. And Wednesday was no exception. We were going to play at the legendary Knitting Factory. How cool is that? Very! And Frog and Frogette had been working like neat little vibrating pleasers to heave the very best, cool and powerful people to the show. And who did we have to beat? Well, there was another show in town. The last debate between Trigger boy and Mr. Kerry…but hey, we’re almost a bit known in Denmark so why not? And I’ll be damned! People did show up and the ones who did got what they came for and then some. It was a night of glory and of heavy drinking. Of shaking hands with some of the coolest people in the whole wide world. Of more drinking. Of getting home somehow. After Vodka Lemonade at Jones’? I can’t remember. I seriously can’t remember.

Kim Kix: 8.45pm. 15 min. change over. 9.00pm. DONE! Rock’n’roll!!!! Playing backline equipment only. No front! First song was Baby You Ain’t Looking Right. I felt like this was gonna be the night of no return. I was sweating after the first song. That’s usually a good sign. The Atomic Child had this frantic look in he’s eyes, so I knew he was pure TNT. JC Benz was bent over his drum set, kickin’ and pounding like lobster in boiling water. Papa probably did one of his best soundman performances ever for PowerSoen. He couldn’t control anything from the deck so he was running back and forward every time there was a guitar part that had to be louder and turn the volume up on the amps. It was really funny ‘cause the stage was only 2 x 4 meters large. We played a very tight 40 minutes show. Too short if you ask me, I like it at least 50 or 55 minutes ‘cause I get warm after 15 min. hot at 35 min. I ignite at 50 and explode at 51 minutes in the show…. the time schedule was very tight, so that’s the way it was but people really got into it.

Thursday October 14th
Mikkel Max: Thursday…the last night in the land of Donkeys. And what did we do? We took the ferry to Staten Island and back because it’s just about the only free thing to do in New York and we were getting as poor on money as Europe on foreign policy. But hey…it was the last night, so we closed our eyes on monetary facts and had a wonderful dinner at Acme with the Powertools and the heavenly blessed Yebsica. Plenty of ribs, chicken, beer, drinks, TUNA, hot sauce, smiles and more. And then where? Of course…Great Jones’ VL…hmmm! For Camilla and Ebbe the night ended in a freakish party where they had their free vodka-shots poured from Camilla’s high heel shoes.

Friday October 15th
Mikkel Max:: Transportation is boring and even more boring to write about.

Finally back in Reykjavik on the way home from NYC. Here we have the Railthin Chickens and the Brotherman in front of the venue Grand Rokk.

Saturday October 16th
Kim Kix: We flew from NYC at 8.00pm and landed in Reykjavik at 6am. Thor (our fantastic host) picked us up and drove us to his place. We went to bed early so to speak, but it was really important to get a couple of hours before the sound checks and all that.In the evening Thor had arranged a big Icelandic bar-b-q for us all. His uncle had helped him slaughter a lamb. He’d chopped it up and marinated it early in the morning so that it was ready to cook in the evening. I never tasted so delicious lamb before in my life, we had many bottles of good wine and there was enough beer and whiskey too. It was the best start on an evening that was going to by legendary.

We had done interviews with the national newspapers and radio so the show was well exposed. Grand Rokk is a real cool venue with two bars, one down stairs and one upstairs inside the venue. This was the first night on the tour we got free beer. Woohoo!
There was a support band called Dikta, then epo-555 and then us.Very nice guys those Diktas. They provided full backline. Thank you again for that!
The shows in Reykjavik are usually very late and no different on this night. Diktas started at 11.30 and epo-565 at 12.30 and then us at 2.00 am. We had a special treat for the Icelandic people that night, but it was all stopped before it began by our label, earlier in the evening when somebody had leaked top secret information from the Powerso inner circle.
Fuck! Our plan was to dress up SM muscle homo style – leather suits and rivets and big oily boots, (that’s what people want!!) but unfortunately Crunchy Cock didn’t let our artistic freedom untouched.

Mikkel Max: We slept on the plane. And when we got to Reykjavik we slept some more. When we woke up we went straight to Grand Rokk to make the sound check, which proved to us that we are not the only ones that sometimes need a bit of time to make our sound tolerable. Powersolo spend nearly two hours which again meant that we had to wait intolerably long to get to the Lamb BBQ Supreme that Thor, our Icelandic God had slaughtered with a sabre of lava.

Mikkel Max: OK, maybe the missing house sound engineer had something to do with the delay too, but harassing Powersolo about being sissies must be the meaning of life. The one that our sausages and syrup in Katz had disturbed so well. What is left to say? Well, the job in the club went absolutely schmungoodilligood. I believe we showed the Icelandic people that music does not only derive from cold islands.

Kim Kix: Well, I’m not gonna review the shows, but I can tell you that we were fuckin’ good. The venue was full and the audience was sweating, drinking, yelling, laughing and moaning. The owner of the club kept serving us beer so that at a given time JC, Bo and I had four or five beers each. So we started poring beer to the people. We played a 1 hour 45 min. set and it got crazier and crazier. We even did two brand new improvisations – a boogie and some offbeat blues fucker tune. When we played “Party In A Box” Yebo came up and started playing the floor tom along side with JC. The room was boiling. I remember thinking that if some crazy girl from the crowd would jump on me and start sucking my dick, she would drown in balls-sweat..!

We did the “Juanito” song a second time on request from the owner. He said “- If you play Juanito one more time for me, I’ll book you again in December and I’ll pay well!-“ So we just played the fuck outta Juanito one more time (we’re in it for the money!). We played an Extreme Living Room version and I threw my guitar on the floor and started undressing while two or three ice cold Reykjavik chicks started licking my salty torso. Bo and Jens just took it to hell! We all exploded in “Mean Ole Cat”, the last song. BOOM!

WE LOVE ICELAND!!!?

Sunday October 17th
Mikkel Max: That’s it. We’re back. It’s weird. Denmark is definitely not New York City and most certainly not Reykjavik. But we brought home a tiny bit of every place in our memories. Isn’t that nice?

Kim Kix: It’s been really good days and if Crunchy ask us to do it again, we’ll probably say: “-…OK…“

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--- and here from Crunchy HQ let's once again clap our hands in honour of Icelandair who gave us wings to cross the oceans and supply both the Vikings and the Yankees with some crisp sounds.