caspian news

It is with pleasure alloyed with pain and not a little unconcealed sadness that I announce our goodbye-for-now party this Saturday.

With Valentin leaving for Berlin and Pablo leaving for Uruguay it's not clear what will happen with the band. When people ask how or whether we will keep playing, the only answer we can give (for now) is that we won’t be playing in the near future, at least not in this formation.

So here’s to the songs unsung and the jokes unemailed. (For now).

But I think I speak for all of us that whatever inspired us to do this all this time drives us still, and is perhaps stronger, if different. What’s that you say, put it into words? Oh, that’s easy … it’s a beach in the beautiful country of ____, where night is day and day is also day, it’s the Vondelpark, where you go and sit for a while, it’s those old-style aeroplanes where two guys had to push the propellor to get it moving while the pilot put on his goggles and ate a candy bar, it’s a back page torn out of the book of Europe & the Americas, it’s an Amsterdammer riding a bike, a whole crazy city of Kermits the Frog.

And if we dare say so ourselves, the upcoming album was well worth waiting for.

By all of which I mean to say that we will still be filling the world with noises in some way or other.

So keep your ears open and your heart free of dust and your eyes on the back of the neck of the guy in front of you and march, soldier, march.

And come on Saturday and party with us one last time. For now.

We are scheduled as the first band, which means we really start at 22h!

Eddie and the Eagles are on a mission to ‘make it happen’  in this city. Let's find out what that means! Thursday, Sep 6 @ OT301. w/punk and art from Dobre Cultural Platform, EKE Trio Gibson/Hoogland/Jäger, Mau Mau.

And, to celebrate its 15th year anniversary, Café Belgique asked lots of good artists to play.

They also asked us.

Friday, Sep 7 @ Ruigoord
w/Supercity, Los Pistoleros de la Paz, Humanos Mágicos, + DJ's

Come see us blast through ‘Mädchen’ and ‘Conversación de Borracho’ with some special guests and a brand new sound. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) and next Sunday we are playing two free shows in Amsterdam & Tilburg.

Tomorrow at 19.30 you can catch us at Friekfest, the 10th-year anniversary blowout and quite possibly also goodbye party for Villa Friekens, a squatted free-space -- by now an institution -- in the North of Amsterdam which is slated to be evicted soon.

Next Sunday at 18.20 we will be at the Tilburg Gypsy Festival, where you can also catch the amazing:

Taraf de Haïdouks (Romanian for "Band of Outlaws")
+ Koçani Orkestar

Di Naye Kapelye (Yiddish for "The New Band")
+ The Manyo Band

Amsterdam Klezmer Band (Dutch for "Amsterdam Klezmer Band")

Amariszi (Romani for "She is Ours")

Felix Lajko (Hungarian for "Lajko Felix")

and many more amazing bands, in possibly the coolest Gypsy/East-European festival this summer in the Benelux! (Italian for "Good, Lux!")

Don't miss it. And if you, don't ever admit it to anyone.

- The Caspian Fashion Society

Friends,

Come and hear us play 99%* of our repertoire at the Occupy Amsterdam camp at Beursplein 5, and help us welcome our fantastic new violin player *Neske* to the Caspian Credit Consortium!

Microphones will be present, human and otherwise.

Beursplein 5 is at Beursplein, number 5.

Saturday, November 12., 21h00

*: Figure not accurate

Our winter tour is in full swing now over. Next stop:

Budapest at the Gödör Klub on December 30
Wien (Vienna) at the Ost Klub on New Year's Eve
Manhattan, NY
Knoxville, TN
Little Rock, AR
Hattiesburg, MS
New Orleans, LA
home to our castles and cottages

See us in the full list of cities in Europe and the U.S. by checking our agenda.

See us in sexy glasses doing secretarial work by closing your eyes and thinking a lot.

Friends, Enemies, Eric:

On Tuesday our violin player Joseph plans to leave the country and basically the band, after 4 years of solid squeezing, tearing, screeching, crooning, touring, arranging, recording and performing.

Also on Tuesday, the mayor of Amsterdam will contradict his stated policy, as he plans to evict several squats, such as the Schoolstraat, 't Blijvertje, and Schijnheilig, for at least one of which the only plans existing are to fill it with anti-squatters.

Why don't you come to our concert at Schoolstraat 4 tomorrow at midnight,
and see if we can convince the relevant parties to change their minds?

Well, why don't you, huh? Friends, enemies, no need to answer. Eric: I
expect a prompt reply.

De mazzel,

Caspian Hat Dance

Dear friends! The Caspians are playing several amazing shows in Hungary. Come and see us, and check the website for details! (score: 8/10)

Dear Hungary! The Caspians are playing several amazing shows in you, and they're bringing their friends. Check the website for details! (score: 7/10)

Dear website! The Caspians are playing several amazing shows in Hungary, and they're bringing their friends. Check yourself for details! (score: 9/10)

Dear in! Sorry but you are a fairly useless part of speech. Some of my best friends are prepositions, but frankly they are pretty useless too. (score: 3/10)

P.S. The scores don't mean anything, but we are required to report them. Thank you -The Management (score: 5/10)

On Friday we feel Lucky and Honoured to play with the fabulous * Kočani Orkestar * from Macedonia, as part of a 3-day cultural festival dealing with Southeast Europe.

They are one of Europe's most popular Balkan brass bands, having recorded a fantastic live album with Taraf de Haïdouks, had their music used along with that of Ezma Resdepova (apparently without permission) in the movie Borat, and performed recently with Beirut.

The entire program of the festival, including music and films, can be found here.

You can come too and increase your Luck & Honour. I would insert a role-playing game joke here, but I don't have enough Skill points.

Good tidings,

The Mediaeval Caspian Hat Dance