ATHENS POLYTECHNIC on youtube - we are now a real band.

CLICK THIS AND YOU WILL BE USHERED INTO A WORLD OF VIDEO JOY!

That's right, some masochist clogged up his memory card with us doing a song in Shoreditch the other week, and then proved himself a sadist too by putting it up on youtube! Check it out and observe how we're still in time even though we're drunk and watch Tommy, a man drawn to the camera lens like a self-publicising moth to a camera lens. Word up.

ps. we also got the CENTREFOLD in this month's 'Loud & Quiet' magazine. I'll put it up on here as soon as I've decided if I look fat or not.

laminate this!

These were taken in Reading way back in February, that's why it seems like no one is watching and there are no pictures of Ben snorting coke off a hooker's pert backside. Nice one to Paula for sending 'em on over though, the props are mad. mad. Although for some reason all the pictures with Zak in are from the Victorian times...

The beef starts here...

Letter from the boss came this morning...

'Boys,

I Just got a tip-off from a buddy who used to be on the force and still has some connections that there's a piano-based rock band out there called School of Athens. They list some of their influences as Ben Folds and Arcade Fire. I got a hunch it's time to start a-beefin'... and that's where you come in.

To start a beef you need to act like you're really angry about something otherwise people have an annoying habit of 'rising above' things, claiming they're 'the bigger man'. We gotta circumvent that kinda crap by hitting 'em hard - haircuts, religions, birthmarks - everything is on limits. If you ever wanna get to the topper-most of the popper-most you're gonna need to piggyback on these schmucks damn near all the way, especially with the songs you keep writing.
Beware though, They are utterly rhizomatic, they have no family, no friends, no tax records, there are no old pictures of them: it's as if one day they just wandered out of the desert into the local under-18s disco and started giving your little sister a load of bullshit about how they're in a real cool band. All my old buddy could glean from his sources was...

'...Following the lead of wunderkind drummer Mike Rush (who backed up the Temptations on national TV when he was just seventeen years old) the band uses complex orchestrations and syncopated rhythms to offset the stunning vocals and impassioned playing of McKees Rocks native, Drew Fogle, on the keyboard.'

We need your help to find the perfect insult to really get this beef cooking AND get you guys the highly lucrative Temptations gig. If you got any ideas get back to me, and fast - unless you like these pussies stealing the basic gist of your name that is.

Yours, PARAGON MANAGEMENT'

THE STATE #1

If you're terribly lucky - and most of you aren't - then you may have received an issue of 'The State' at an AP gig. For those who are yet to have the pleasure I'll fill you in. Every now and again when one or two of us are extremely bored in the hours leading up to a show we whip out the Pritt-Stick™, a copy of the Sunday supplement and our felt tips and get to work. I found this one one the floor of my room yesterday and realised that if I didn't put it on the internet soon all the 25 copies made would be lost and our grandchildren would have no way of knowing what kick-ass guys we were. This one was distributed at the now fabled Bar Aquarium show which ended with us homo(auto?)-erotically wrestling the promoter and breaking his microphones* as he tried to kick us off stage.

Apparently we were 'effectively booed off '. In my opinion any audience that can't literally boo a band off the stage deserve whatever drunken incompetence is served up to them in the guise of music. Don't worry though, that guy ended up with some serious messages on his answer machine later that night. Punk's not dead, it's balance is just low.

*he 'brought them from home'