personal settings

'Gotta get the girl in a buying mood' Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent (Our italics)

'You better shape up, because I need a man' Olivia Newton John, Grease (Author's italics)

Bruce Springsteen - The Jackson Cage

Driving home she grabs something to eat
Turns a corner and drives down her street
Into a row of houses she just melts away
Like the scenery in another man's play
Into a house where the blinds are closed
To keep from seeing things she don't wanna know
She pulls the blinds and looks out on the street
The cool of the night takes the edge off the heat

In the Jackson Cage
Down in the Jackson Cage
You can try with all your might
But you're reminded every night
That you been judged and handed life
Down in the Jackson Cage

Every day ends in wasted motion
Just crossed swords on the killing floor
To settle back is to settle without knowing
The hard edge that you're settling for
Because there's always just one more day
And it's always gonna be that way
Little girl you've been down here so long
I can tell by the way that you move you belong to

The Jackson Cage
Down in Jackson Cage
And it don't matter just what you say
Are you tough enough to play the game they play
Or will you just do your time and fade away
Down into the Jackson Cage

Baby there's nights when I dream of a better world
But I wake up so downhearted girl
I see you feeling so tired and confused
I wonder what it's worth to me or you
Just waiting to see some sun
Never knowing if that day will ever come
Left alone standing out on the street
Till you become the hand that turns the key down in

Jackson Cage
Down in Jackson Cage
Well darlin' can you understand
The way that they will turn a man
Into a stranger to waste away
Down in the Jackson Cage

you love indie you does...

Yeah yeah yeah...

We've heard it all before...

You've changed, you know you acted like a shit, you've realised what's really important, you just want to spend the rest of your life listening to AP...

Well, okay then! But this is the last time, one more slip up and you'll never again know the warm spoon or moist breath of the Polytechnic.

Put your make-up on and fix your hair up pretty and Meet us at The Hobby Horse, Kingsland Road, on Saturday 15th of January. It's Tough Love Records Dalston-renowned club night 'No Being Weird' and we're playing it with Childhood and Swanton Bombs.

In the meantime, Here's a picture of crocks looking like a cracked-out Christ at a recent show.

It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid...

...unless of course you'd forgotten about coming to this show! The Hard Skin Christmas show is always the punk rock event of the year, so come on down, see and be seen, lean and be leaned, cream and be creamed. There will almost certainly be members of the Shitty Limits, Male Bonding and The Tremors in attendance for you to try and schmooze while pretending you don't know who they are as well as fine selection of lagers and ales. So, if you wanna be a UK punk rock persona importius get yourself there, dig? Also, we will be fucking awesome.

Enjoyable Yuletide x

the doc makes you wanna take a valium

Here's hoping to see you all at this, giving two frozen digits to our nation's crumbling in infrastructure in the process. If we haven't practised blame the snow for that too.

Why do you walk away when I am trying to show you dreams?.........

........These were the words of Lyon's premier street magician, comdeian, acrobat, impressionist, ventriloquist, gynast and fortune teller as his unbeguiled public began to slowly back away, unimpressed by the levetating cigarette, the dematerialising bank note or the old man eating toaster routine.
Luckily the Athens Polytechnic were forced to endure no such ignomony at the hands of discerning French audiences, putting on as we did a fucking awesome show and being delighted to find a FUCKING AWESOME AUDIENCE there to receive it. We want to send hampers of thanks out to everyone at Grrrnd Zero, especially Alexianne and Camille, who gave us beds, found us cigarettes and passed us beers (that we hadn't paid for). It was also great to see evryone getting into a punk band considering we were at some wierd-ass experimental show with a support band that sounded like a balrog being blown by a northerner and a guy called Bob Log III who was... well, he was this. Thanks Bob for telling us off all the different ways to die in the Arizona desert, we owe you one!

But now, to the important proceedings of the day A SINCERE APOLOGY. We want, from the bottom of our hearts, to apologise to one Badger, resident of Lyon. He was not a real badger, he was a man that is true, but his name was badger. We think. He did everything he could for us, everything, and we let him down. We let him down bad. So while I don't wanna go into all the details here I will just say Badger, wherever you are, the Athens Polytehcnic group is very, very sorry we left in the middle of the rainy night in a strange part of town stoned out of your mind.

Anyway, enough of this wank thanking! Come see us at Dr Kruger's Surgery at the Victoria in Hackney on the 9th of December and any kids from Lyon who said they were gonna send us pictures - where the fucking hell are they?

seen x

IT'S HERE

It's finally here. The papers wanted to stop it, the punk rock establishment wanted to stop it, the bands whose tunes we ripped off wanted to stop it, hell, most of our parents wanted to stop it but in the words of one more eloquent than us 'the lady is not for turning'. We would not be stopped.

Thanks to the herculean efforts of Ski and Jake at Lost London and the boys and girls at Paragon Management Incorporated 300 brand new copies of 'Selling Out Fast' are being smuggled over the border marked as UHT milk as we speak, and you can get yours from Friday (BUY)HERE(BUY) or (BUY)here(BUY). However, If you're one of those who favours next second delivery why not go to Rough Trade East/West, stand in front of the record and talk really loudly about how awesome it is for a few minutes before you make your purchase, we'd really appreciate it.

This little vinyl biscuit contains such fan favourites as LAST GOOD CITIZEN, WHERE DID ALL THE YOUNG MEN GO?, AND I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT AS WELL IF IT WASN'T FOR THOSE MEDDLIN' BOOKS, OTHER SHOES and THE KIDS WILL NOT HAVE THEIR SAY, not to mention featuring the full original line-up of CATHOLIC - VOCALS, AMERICAN - VOCALS, JEW - GUITAR, ARAB - BASS, PROTESTANT - DRUMS. Don't miss out, we're strictly limited to 300 copies and we're sure to split up soon.

Talking of splitting up, we're playing a few shows soonish (they always tend to hasten the inevitable) including Grrrnd Zero in Lyon on the 16th, possibly a secret venue in Lewisham on the 18th (watch this space) maybe a record release gig/art show/buffet at Goldsmiths College (if we can be arsed to organise it), perchance the Victoria in Hackney on the 9th of December with some cool garage bands (if they guy gets back to us) and definitely THE HARD SKIN CHRISTMAS SHOW AT THE GROSVENOR IN STOCKWELL ON THE 17TH!

Wrap up warm x

Listen when wilko speaks unto you....

"Rock 'n' roll music ain't supposed to be about The Hobbit, that's for girls. We make music for people who wanna have a good time."
Wilko Johnson, 1975