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«Τhe greatest hope of bad ass rock’n’roll in Greece»
You might say the only thing better than being a Dread Astaire is performing live with Dread Astaire. It’s true, whenever the trio climbs or crawls on stage, they know that performing is the only way they can communicate with an audience, express themselves and transcend the petty restrictions of everyday life. But the odds of achieving this goal during the long, unbearably hot Greek summer of 2006, seemed stacked against them.
After releasing the “Hipbeat / Bassassination” 10inch, Dread Astaire entered a 98-day period of gig inactivity, the longest of their embryonic carreer to date. Meanwhile, despite format and distribution problems, the single received airplay on american college radio while enjoying a bimonthly stay on the acclaimed Vinyl Microstore’s charts in Athens, plus Lotus Records’ top ten in Thessaloniki. The influential fanzine “Overdub” raved about the band in a review of the single. Independent greek radio, such as Rodon FM and 102 FM joined, as well as the “Athens Voice” free press, Argyris Zilos of “Athinorama”, along with Dusted Magazine in Brooklyn, and the Norman Records team in Leeds. Being so hard as it is to attract audience attention for their kinda music without label support, Dread Astaire tend to consider every single friend a profit. Despite rock’n’roll suffering all the more a frosty reception from the underground’s scene makers, hopefully Dread Astaire’s contemporary interpretation of the idiom has been so far appreciated as an innovative step into the future rather than thought of as merely retrogressive exercise in style.
In July 20, the band started work on their new double 7inch EP, “Take Time To Hate Me”. With temperature reaching 40oC degrees in Thessaloniki, the nation literally out of order and into the beaches plus no gig opportunities to alleviate the stress, the trio dutifully carried on with the sessions as far as August 17, until they felt the final product served them right. Which in their world, and in the most laconic of descriptions, meant: Adventure, chaos, noise. It meant: Contradictory song structure of the most exotic nature. Disregard for the verse / chorus / bridge convention. Practically using every song as a chance to let go. An unfashionable belief in the power of rock’n’roll marked with a musical attack of such glorious irreverence, that any thought of heading into predictable direction was unthought of.
Which finally brings us to date. Like so many bands of their kind, Dread Astaire stubbornly decide to bypass an unresponsive music industry by releasing their own material in their own independent label. The label, as you probably know by now, is aptly named Fuzzie. Appropriately, the sardonic logo for the waxing placed before you is a monkey kicking a snare drum. Please keep in mind that this is an organic creation that has a lot of time and love invested on it. Lend an inquisitive ear and it will not fail to reward you. All in all, it is a rock’n’roll record and should be heard loud.
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