Help us get a record deal!

“iThink” by 19ninetynine has made it through to the final round of Sonic Seducers Battle Of The Bands.

Sonic Seducer is a German alternative music magazine, and in cooperation with Out Of Line records and Hardbeat Promotion, they are searching for the hottest act without a record deal. The top prize of their BOTB is a recording deal with Out Of Line, meaning we are In with a chance of becoming label mates with Combichrist, Blutengel, Hocico, And One... and many others!

We need your help! You can vote for us on the Sonic Seducer Website.

To vote for us, simply select “19ninetynine” from the drop down menu opposite “5 Points”.

You can vote for your top five bands – there is a playlist below featuring a track from each entrant. Just make sure you give 19ninetynine 5 points!

As this competition is part of the magazine's yearly poll, there is also a small questionnaire regarding this years best and worst ofs.

You can vote for whatever you like, but bear in mind it is an alternative magazine (Although the bands they cover range pretty wildly from Marilyn Manson, Apoptygma Berzerk, Morrissey and even My Chemical Romance!...)

For those of you wanting to help us out that don't know much about the “scene”, a variety of acts that have been making themselves known this year include Rotersand, Ashbury Heights, VNV Nation, Combichrist, The Birthday Massacre, Nachtmar, Eisbrecher, and the world famous 19ninetynine...

A few notable names to use (If you're stuck for ideas!) are Ronan Harris, Chibi, Anders Hagstrom, Andy LaPlegua and Alexander Wesselsky.

But, you knew all this, right?

The site is in German, but don't panic, all the questions have an English translation written beneath.

However – once you've completed the form, make sure you press the “Abschicken” button to submit!

You should receive the message: “Vielen Dank, wir haben deine Abstimmung erhalten.” (“Thank you very much, we received your vote.”)

And that's that... next stop world domination!

We can't do this without you, so please tell all your friends to vote for us. Also, check out the brand new official music video for iThink here.

There is a link to vote on the video, so share and share and share!

But please don't cheat – as much as we appreciate lots of you will want to vote under several fake email addresses to help us out, there really is no need as we stand a good chance of winning just by being the fantastic! (Modestly gets you nowhere in this business!) And we don't want to risk disqualification.

It's in your hands now!

We love you all,

19ninetynine x

Appear in our Music Video!

This Wednesday night (10th November) we will be filming a music video for our track iThink at The Storey in Lancaster.

We're shooting it with Morph Films, and part of the video will be a performance from the band on the top floor, and we want all of you to join us!

If you want to come along, people are meeting at the Merchants between 8:30 - 9pm, then heading over to The Storey. Don't forget to dress up for the occasion! (Remember, the better the outfit, the more likely you'll get a close up!)

The Storey is the building near the castle which used to be Tourist Information (adjacent to The Merchants Pub) Click here for directions


Once you're all assembled, we'll basically have a fake gig, in which we'll run through the song a few times and all dance like crazy fools – and we want you all chanting “Buy! Buy! Buy!” in the chorus!

To show our appreciation, and to get you in the mood, there'll a free selection of beers and wines!

If you haven't already heard the track, you can listen to it here to familirise yourself with it. (And if you're feeling generous, it's available to download from iTunes and Amazon...)

So put on your dancing shoes and tell your friends! If you are coming, please leave a comment on our Facebook page or drop us an email so we have an idea of numbers.

Thank you!

Chris x

Sexed Up

I might be a genius.

I may also be a moron. I haven't quite decided.

There are lots of very clever people who will tell you that we're in a recession, and it's all our fault for borrowing too much money. They'll use words like “interest” “liquidation” and “inflation”. This “recession” hasn't really affected me because I never had any money to begin with, and my opinion is probably very naieve because I don't know anything about “stock market shareholders” because really, what would be the point in polluting my mind with such nonsense?

But the way I see it... the banks have big machines that print money. One day they decide to tell us there's a recession because we all used to much credit, which doesn't make much much sense when you consider that credit doesn't exist. If you apply for a loan somebody just types a figure into a computer and it's transferred into your account from thin air, they haven't done anything – the only tangible, physical result is the interest that you'll be paying for the next God knows how many years.

But anyway – we're told there's a recession so everybody panics. We're told to cut back and preserve our precious funds. But why? If money really was in short supply, the most logical thing to do would be to spend more of it, thus keeping the economy afloat.

What inevitably happens is, once we hear there's a credit crunch on the way, we stop buying “luxury items”, which means the independent shop keepers who can't compete price-wise with the supermarkets and global chains are the first to go out of business.

The fact that a few shops close down increases everybody's panic – it's not just in the papers anymore, it's in the streets! And then other businesses start to worry, and fearing they're not going to remain afloat they start making cuts, closing branches and sacking staff... and the whole thing goes on and on in self perpetuating nonsense.

If you look at post “credit crunch” Britain, the majority of people affected are those who worked in independent businesses or had jobs deemed “non essential”. Funny how none of the major banks, supermarkets or clothing manufacturers went out of businesses. Funny how we could still afford to pay a bunch of borderline retarded celebrities millions of pounds to run around a field kicking a bit of leather, or star in mind numbingly banal hollywood blockbusters. Funny how no solicitors, politicians or priests lost their jobs... Wait a minute, it's not funny!.....

A more paranoid individual might think the whole thing was a load of bollocks! That it had, in fact, been deliberately engineered to destroy independent business, and further the world domination of the multi national corporations........ Not to mention just keeping everyone afraid of something.

You have to wonder, had the papers and TV not embarked on their scaremongering campaign and generated all this panic in the first place, would anything have changed?

But, as I say, I don't really understand the system. Those people in offices who'll tell you that you can't just print more money because of a surplus amount of tax deductible dividends and too much clink on the stuffer-expander are right, but only within that very small world. It's like being in a swimming pool, and someone telling you that you have to kick your legs or you'll drown. It's true, it's irrefutable logic – but also ignoring the fact you could just get out of the pool. Once you're stood in the foyer eating sweets from the vending machine, all that leg flapping becomes a bit ridiculous. And that's how I see the economy. You're right, I am a moron.

The gig of DOOM

Whatever you do, whether it's playing music or fixing boat motors, you have a mental list of all the things can go wrong, and last night everything went wrong!
It's hard to know where to begin... Our driver had to work, thus leaving us without a way of getting there, and our back-up driver's car broke down! (See, we even have a back up driver – which just goes to show that, when God hates you, all your meticulous organisation counts for nothing!).
Andy and Jex ended up getting the train down and booking a hotel for the night, leaving Rosh and I (only a little bit illegally...) squashed into the back of the van with all the equipment.
But after three hours of cramp and trying to paint our nails on the motorway, we arrived in Leicester, the city of dreams.
We soundchecked, everything was okay – apart from my mic misbehaving as usual. I think I must be unusually electro-magnetically charged as I seem to generate more feedback than normal people, simply by my presence. The only point where my mic starts working is the point where I can no longer hear myself, but, you know, I'll blag it... it'll be fine.
By half eleven the revelers were in, all four of them, and we started playing. During the course of events, the strap fell off Andy's guitar, then the lead fell out, whilst I became somewhat entangled in my mic lead, as it curled itself around my wireless pack and the buckles on my boots.
I dropped a drumstick, which I do all the time, but whilst reaching for the spare (organisation!) I knocked my very expensive radio mic and sent it crashing to the ground – yet again! And shortly after one of the legs on my flour tom buckled and the whole drum collapsed, relying only upon the support of a monitor to keep it upright.
I'd heard some of the bodies that frequent this place were New Model Army fans, so we had been worried that our cover of Vagabonds would inspire a stage invasion and a fight to the death, but surveying the tumble weed on the dancefloor, I felt confident that, should such an eventuality occur, we'd probably be alright.
My in-ear monitor,to use the technical term, spazzed out at the beginning of Totality, so I fucked up the intro a bit. Oh yeah, and the mixer's falling to bits so we had to use our “Stupid Robot” with a microphone, which nobody could really hear.
By the time we played our barnstorming (What a ridiculous word!) version of Apop's Non-Stop Violence, the laptop (more technical words here) royally fucked up, so whilst Andy ran to wave his sonic screwdriver at it (or whatever computery people do) I was left with the frontman's nightmare – silence! And people staring at you expectantly. Thank God there were only four of them...
Oh yeah, and at this point the guitar fell over and knocked itself out of tune.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and we did get some kettle chips and hummus. The feast of the rock star.
That said, everyone that was there had a great time, and we made some new friends (and possibly invented a new drink – which reminds me, where did my expensive bottle of port get to!?), so after a few hugs and signing a few CDs with eyeliner (Because we're GOTH / Couldn't find a marker pen – delete as appropriate.) we leapt back into the van for another three hours pretending to be an amp. Except Andy, who remained to party and reform an impromptu DJ set. That McBain...
So if you're in or around Leicester – go to Synthetica, because the organisers are great. (But don't go thinking you'll get hummus too – we worked for it, we had a banner and everything...)
Also – now all the technical/physical/emotional failure is out of the way for the time being, our gig at Persecution in Stockton should be flawless, so come and see us! And if all else fails, we still have that banner....

Sun Off Switch

I had my hair cut today, and I feel the need to share with the world the wonder of Ashton Studios in Lancaster! We always have ourselves preened there before gigs and photo shoots because Haley is a genius, and always makes my hair smell wondrous with her miracle wax.
I had my undercut very short this time, utilising clippers for the first time in centuries, which was somewhat scary – especially having finally watched This Is England the previous night. I was worried I might end up with a skinhead. (It's fine – I didn't!) I also got to talk to Victoria – who works upstairs – about an exciting idea for a new tattoo. And Kishen brought me Rooibos tea, having escaped Paternal tyranny down south.
You don't need to know any of this, but I'm writing it none the less. I took my shiny hair to Andy's to work on “band stuff”. We're going to Amphifest in Cologne in a couple of weeks, so we're putting together a new promo CD to hand out to the black clad European massive!
But, as we all know, the only thing people are truly interested in is badges. So naturally we decided to make some 19ninetynine badges, and I was suddenly inspired to make some badges in German! It made sense, the only problem was finding out what the German for “Put Out The Sun” actually was. Something “Der Sonne” surely, how difficult could it be?
According to an online translation it was: Stellen Sie Aus Der Sonne, however that translated back into English as “Place Out The Sun”, which was terribly literal and made no sense whatsoever.
I rang my German friend, she was out. I rang my other German friend and she was out also, so we asked people online and got “Sonnen Ausschalter” which meant “Sun Off Switch”! Which, when you think about it, is exactly the kind of ridiculous thing you're going to end up with when you attempt to translate a sentence which never made sense in the first place.
It became clear it was much more complicated than we had initially thought – because our reference to “God out out the sun today, and will never rise again” is just an abstract concept! You can't actually “put out” the sun... so should the translation try to portray a similar concept by saying something like “Extinguish the Sun” (Die Sonne Auslöschen)? Or just translate the original words even though the translation won't make sense? Because it's not a sentence, it's an album title! So surely you're not allowed to change it... Who makes the rules regarding these things?!
Luckily Jex also has a German friend who text us a translation, but then sent about five subsequent variations regarding tenses, genitives and nominatives... but referring back to the original lyric “God put out the sun...” surely a God is omnipotent, infinite and regardless of masculine, feminine and time....
So we settled upon a translation meaning “Eclipse The Sun”. But then I thought, that's not right! We could have called the album “Eclipse The Sun”, but was being artsy, abstract, poncey and pretentious, so surely the translation had to be something that implied eclipse, but sounded cool and hinted at something sinister? So we ended up with a version of “Eliminate the Sun”.
I hope it's good enough and not woefully inaccurate – but just so you know, we tried!!

I just checked my email: Hey! Cool haircut. It's 'löschen die Sonne'

Don't worry. We have loads of badges in English...

Chris x

The Following Data Was Lost...

We have a fax machine, and recently it has decided to start receiving faxes again. However, it hasn't done this since 1995 when it belonged to somebody else. Consequently, each time I turn it on a little shiny rectangular bit of paper glides (yes, glides, it has a wonderful sort of clunky elegance) out of the back containing information regarding The Boathouse Restaurant fifteen years ago.

Wonderfully cryptic, needlessly technical and wholly irrelevant snippets of information. My favourite is “THE FOLLOWING DATA WAS LOST: JOURNAL / ENERGY REPORT: THE ELECTRICITY FAILED.”

I imagine The Boathouse Restaurant to be located in Maine – because all Stephen King books are set in Maine – and by a perpetually misty jetty. I fantasise that piece by piece, as these bizarre little messages come through, I'm going to unravel the mystery of The Boathouse Restaurant during the power cut and the alien attack/zombie siege that ensued.

But there's something slightly peculiar about receiving these transmitions from the past, it's like a form of time travel! I'm hoping that it will tie in with me finding a map to some hidden treasure, or the Holy Grail...

Anyway, I love antiquated technology. The clunky fax machine with it's sinister messages reminds me of all the Dharma Initiative stuff they find in Lost. I love it because it scares me. In Lost they find all these huge clunky computers from the 70s, but they all still work and can pretty much do everything that computers do now... they have webcams, IM and all that. Recently I think I've worked out why old technology it scares me – it suggests that nothing ever changes.

Fax machines amaze me, they're such a great idea. Unfortunatley we'd stopped using them by the time I was old enough to need one. I found myself thinking, why don't people send more faxes? But of course, why would we when we have email? Emails seemed so new and impressive and futuristic when we first heard about them, but is there really, fundamentally any difference between an email and a fax?

We're now told that communication is so much easier because everybody has a mobile, but no one had mobiles twenty years ago and they didn't feel a gaping void in their ability to communicate. There were phone boxes on most corners, and kids were given little pre-paid cards to make emergency calls with. Is it really so much different?

Of course, we live in a golden age of iphones which can post on facebook, download films and scan your retina every five seconds (just making sure you're still you!) - but I'm thinking in terms of what current technology is capable of.

Actually, it's perfectly summed up in a song The Future (Isn't What it Used to Be) by my friend Alasdair: “Don't talk to me about the internet and act like I'm supposed to swoon. You're exploring cyberspace, shut your gormless tweeting face, in 1969 a man went to the fucking moon.”

They had spaceships in the 60s! Are we really supposed to feel like an iPad is a major breakthrough?

I'm not saying all this stuff isn't good – but when you just switch your perspective on the whole thing it really does feel like, fundamentally, nothing really changes. The government military/scientists, the vampires, the saucer people or whoever clearly have technology that is incredibly advanced and probably staggeringly more advanced than we're allowed to know, and it's like contemporary technology is ever so slightly tweaked every now and then to give us this impression that things are changing, when really it's pretty much the same. It's like how, when mobile phones first arrived, they kept getting smaller and smaller, and this was in some way good, and now they're getting bigger because they need keyboards, plasma screens and vapourising death rays. Apparently now this is also in some way good. But at the end of the day, it's just a phone and it can't do anything that wasn't possible in 1990. I'm sure Logic 9 is mind bogglingly superior to all its predecessors... and the chasm of difference between the quality of songs composed with 9 and 8 (a mere calculator!) with be colossal, but it's just a tool that makes music, and my favourite piece of music was made in 1801 with a tool called a piano. And no amount of new technology will make Moonlight Sonata any less good or any less valid. Things vary – but nothing ever truly changes.

But why? I suppose the easy answer is that it's a great way of tricking us in to spending more and more money on things we don't need. But, have you noticed that every generation seems to think that it's at the “end”? That it's at the peak of scientific and technological knowledge? We can laugh at people who thought the Earth was flat, or condemn the black slave trade as inhumane, but few of us ever want to admit that comparatively we're just as ignorant. In a hundred years, people will think of chemotherapy as being as ridiculous as using leeches for nosebleeds. Does the belief in the infallibility of modern technology contribute to this ignorance? It certainly does contribute, I think, to the illusion of time. The idea of things constantly changing creates a sense of progression that doesn't really exist. Because we all know that time is an illusion. Lunch time doubly so. But that's another story for another day...

We are as old as the universe and more clever than we know.