Praatj.es

Dear reader,

How are you doing? Thanks once again for supporting the band. Here is an updated list of the upcoming events. Of course we hope to see you all there and of course we are still working hard to get more gigs.

22 November – WMDC (Grounds), Rotterdam
2 December – Het Einde Van De Wereld, Amsterdam
17 December – Popcentrale, Dordrecht – Band Boost
24 December – Skek, Amsterdam
14 January – Paardcafe, Den Haag

I would like to tell you of our wondrous tales and adventures and of our current activities, Before I do I would like to inform you of the following. This story is written by me, Mike, that is why you will often come across the word ‘I’, because this story is written by me. Besides ‘I’ you will sometimes see the word ‘we’. Even though some people argue that I suffer from MPS this is not the case. I use ‘we’ to refer to the friendly folks in my band. So there you have it and here I go.

On 2 November we travelled to the ‘Graauwe Hengst’ in Schiedam. I use the word travel, which makes it sound like we were on a journey to ‘the end of the world’. Obviously this was not so, because we are travelling to the end of the world on 2 December (see above). Anyways, this place (‘Graauwe Hengst’) is run by Hilly and Arthur – mother and son – and has been run by them for as long as I can remember. Hilly is over sixty years old and still works behind the bar like she has just turned 18. She has recently been awarded an honorary medal for all her good work at the cafe and she will probably work there till the day she dies. Arthur – a huge Rockabilly fan – knows how to treat his customers and keeps almost all of the records given to him by bands that played at his cafe. And then there is Lou. Lou is the sound engineer who is almost world famous for his jeans and his smokes, he really likes what he does and knows a good joke when he hears one; we did not tell him any that night.
Lou takes his job very seriously and he is not one to be messed with, please take heed and do not let his size fool you. He even knew what to do with our ‘it’s-not-easy-to-be-Green Bullet’ – too bad the green thing died somewhere in the middle of our show (we put the blame on the DI) – and Lou really knows to fiddle them knobs.
After we had warmed up the madding crowd with our Chocolate Saviour and A Lot of Fingers it was up to The Complet to satisfy the needs of the eager young men and women present. Their funky beats and Primus-like songs really complimented the evening and the crowd went bananas. They even played their almost-classis-and-ready-to-hit-the-charts song ‘Little Bird’. The crowd was happy, we were sweaty and some unknown people were drunk… so everyone was satisfied.

The week after we played at a place called The Little Cave. A friendly little place that is there to keep the local youth busy and keep them off of the streets. To do this the guy who books the shows, Jan Stotijn, makes sure that the program is diverse (he is the personification of ‘variety is the spice of life’ and he tries to give local talent a chance to show what they can do. There are even Pop Workshops in which you can learn to play in a band. If you ever need a gig but you have no place to turn to because you are not really all that experienced … call Jan.If you are in a more experienced band and need a place to play … call Jan.
This night we were accompanied by The Complet (yes, again) and, as a finishing touch, The Alkaloids joined in on the game. We were a bit late, but we were lucky that John – the sound engineer – his dog and The Complet had already put everything in place and checked the sound and all.

It started out with just some locals at the bar and the volunteers behind it but while The Complet was playing people were slipping in like butter dripping off a hot biscuit. That drummer can sing and drum really well … he should be in a band. I am going to keep it short. They played the same songs as last time except their encore was a song by my favourite band Primus – Hoorah. Afterwards we played our songs, which – off course – was terrific. Too bad some of our friends showed up too late to be able to sing along to Chocolate Saviour. I was told they were going to make up for this by showing up on time this Tuesday at Grounds.
The Alkaloids got to be the headliner of the eve. They rock like a steaming engine and steam like a rocking band. To give it that special sound they have got this lovely singing rock-chick on guitar. I had never heard these people play before and I am not ashamed to admit that I was an Alkaloid virgin, but the sounds and melodies went down real well. Make sure you check them out either on the web or better yet, in real life (yes, there is a life outside your computer!).

Next to all the performances a lot of other things are being done as well. We are very busy working on our album and we are happy to say that we have finished writing 15 songs for this record and that we are, as I am writing this, busy recording them. We also found some people to do some artwork for us and they are doing it real cheap, because they are so cool. We asked one of them to write something about us and about them so we could it for this email and this is what one of them wrote:

‘ Well, what can I say? Moscow Express is not you’re average kind of band, it’s more of a ‘girl next door’ type of band and I am proud to say that my company was asked to design the logo and do some additional artwork for them guys. Because, you see, we are not the average kind of graphic and web designers, we are more of a ‘girl next door’ type of designers.
‘ I am sure these guys will be big in Japan one day and I should know, I have seen lots of bands become famous in Japan. Of course most of those musicians were Japanese, but that is just a minor detail and I do not think it should or will keep Moscow Express from hitting the charts over there.
‘ Anyways, my company is proud to say that we designed some of Moscow Express’s shit and that they are pretty pleased with it. That’s another satisfied customer for us. We hope to do some more business with them in the near future, so we too will become famous in Japan.’
D. Michels – http://plaatj.es/

So there you have it, folks. More great Moscow Express stories will surely follow. If you should happen to know venues for us or people that know people who have heard of people that might be in the know of something or another, please do not hesitate to tell somebody about this and preferably someone from Moscow Express.

Ramen to you all!