We had such a rad time over days 4 and 5 of our Lank Kiff Tour that we had very little time or energy to sit around and write about it. Now that we are on our way home, though, we feel it only proper to fill you in on what’s been happening since Friday night. We woke on Saturday morning quite hungover but extremely excited for what was to transpire that afternoon – namely a LIVE performance on 5fm for the Live @ 5 show. This was, obviously, a big deal for us and we made sure we were there as early as possible to get through soundcheck with some time to spare. We thought the show went quite well (although those of you who listened in will have made your own conclusions on that score)… all we can say is that it was super cool and we’re very grateful to all the people who conspired to make it happen. Straight after this, we headed to The Bohemian where we finally played with Shortstraw – a band we’ve been wanting to gig with for ages. Their set was facken awesome and the sizable crowd was jumping around with glee from the very first chord. Next up, Rambling Bones took to the stage and inspired the already overly excited crowd to further paroxysms of ecstatic joy with some classic South African folk punk. By the time we got to perform, the crowd was well oiled and fervently demanding we give them the good time they were looking for. Needless to say, we gave them what we thought they wanted, and it seemed to go down brilliantly! Sweat, skank pits, spilled beer – it seems the Bo still has a bit of party left in it after all!

After a monster party, we headed back to the spot, got into bed and closed our tired little eyes in preparation for another big day. And a big day it certainly was. We left Johannesburg at around 10, got to the Voortrekker Monument just outside Pretoria at around 11, and played a rad show to an appreciative crowd seated on the grass under the shade of a big ass tree, the exact species of which we are, unfortunately, still ignorant. After this we hung around for a bit, waiting for some free Boerie rolls, picked up a whole lotta free shit from a certain clothing brand that was pumping it’s wares full tilt at the event, and then got into an overheated car for another long drive, this time back to Bloemfontein to spend another night with Stefaans, Botha, Marnus and the boys. And the night went wonderfully. A quiet braai involving steaks, wors, braai broodjies, salad, beers and a few White Widows, if you catch our drift.

We couldn’t make it too late though – tour had been long and draining and we were all more than ready to get as much shut eye as possible before the long drive to Cape Town the next day.

Thanks to everybody rad who had anything to do with this, our latest tour. We love all of you very much and can’t wait to do it again! Much respect!

Yesterday was pretty awesome even if we say so ourselves. We spent most of the day lounging around at the Don’s house, drinking beer, talking smack – the usual vibe, and only had to leave the house at around 3 seeing as our show was only about an hour’s drive away. We pulled into Pretoria’s Arcade Empire where we bumpedinto Isochronous in the middle of a band meeting and began drinking more beer. After soundcheck, 3 of us drove down to TuksFM to do another radio interview, found a few warm beers in the waiting room, cooled them up in a kitchen sink and continued the day’s drinking while waiting to go on air. The interview was pretty cool, although the girl interviewingus did say she’d see us at the show – and then DIDN’T see us there – but whatever, we’re not too phased really.

Back at the venue the party was starting to pick up. The December Streets started off the jol and we were happily surprised to see a fucking rad band accomplishing a sweet blend of all sorts of bouncy genres. They’re coming down to Cape Town in a few weeks apparently, playing at The Assembly if memory swerves… you wouldn’t do badly to go check them out.
Next up were our friends, comrades and countrymen No One’s Arc who hail straight outta Nelspruit. These guys are quite literally “The Shit”. A six piece, non-stop, horn sectioned, tighter-than-a-nuns-$%*#, groove fisted love train that sounds like it’s just popped in from paradise to say hello. We’re into them, basically. In a big way. We tried to follow their performance but the task was just too great – our set was cool and went well, but near the end half the crowd was eventually drawn away from the stage by the arrival of a few hundred screaming girls in matric dance dresses – apparently they were having their afterparty or something.
Needless to say we weren’t about to complain – a party proper began it’s inevitable destruction and once we were well wrecked on some Pretoria brandy and some Nelspruit green, we got into the car (we had a designated dave, don’t worry) and began the long drive home.

One last thing though – on said drive home, we began a little impromptu A Cappella jam, recorded it as it was happening and have decided to call it the Zambuk/Illovo Mash Up.

Hope you enjoy it!

Zambuk Illovo a cappella Mashup by CaptainStu

Day 2 on our “lank kiff tour” was a pleasant affair. The drive from Bloem to Jozi isn’t really that bad or that long and we arrived at The Don’s house just after midday, cracked open a few beers and got into a little relaxation before the day’s impending responsibilities. The first of these was a radio interview at Wits University Radio with Smash Afrika, which will be aired on Tuesday evening next week. Smash just happens to be one of the cooler radio faces we’ve met in our time on this good planet. If only because he is the first radio presenter, in our experience, to say he was gonna come to the show that night… and then actually rock up! What a champ! Let that be a warning to every other would be journalist with sugary false promises of good will and support at the ready. We are onto you! But Smash? Well played sir, well played!

Speaking of the show, it actually went pretty bloody well. We played an acoustic set at a lekker little jol called Wolves which happens to be owned by Shane of Desmond & The Tutu’s fame. The place was packed full, well before we were scheduled to begin, and stayed that way until we’d stopped playing. The crowd showed their appreciation with tumultuous applause after each song… and fuck, we couldn’t have asked for more really. Our first time playing at Wolves, first acoustic show in Jozi, first time for meeting some really awesome people – we must say we’re feeling too good about life right about now. We’d also like to thank our fellow traveler KK for cooking up them delicious cheese, ham, tomato, mayo and vibe rolls. Life savers, one and all!

Tonight we hit Arcade Empire in Pretoria to team up with our good chommies No One’s Arc as well as The December Streets for a solid ball kicker of a show. See all you Pretorianites there!

Yesterday – our “first official day on tour” day – was pretty chilled to be honest. We had to leave the House Of Pain at 4AM seeing as we were scheduled to be at soundcheck in Bloemfontein at around 5. Before we left Cape Town, however, we had to meet up with two fellow travelers Jared and KK who are going to be riding with us in convoy for most of the tour. They’re spending a month on the road, driving around experiencing what South African music has to offer and they thought our tour would be a nice addition to their vibe. GO TEAM! The long drive was long and hot and everything it usually is. Our car stinks already, but our spirits are high. We got to the venue – a great farm barn vibe just outside the city (check out the photos) , complete with couches, fires, walls made of empty beer bottles, joint smoking musos and, of course, a relatively decent stage… it seemed we’d arrived just in time! We had a little time to chill, eat, drink etc. but soon enough, soundcheck was on and we had work to do. The two opening bands were rad: solid blues rock with a serious serving of the funk in the form of Bad Feather; and the mad sonic dance that is the Frank Freeman Band. Eventually we got to the stage and despite having to cut our set a song or two short, we got most of the crowd on their feet and stomping away for the rest of the night. After the show we headed back to the Gerber estate (our home away from home in Bloem) and (for the first time after a Bloem show) had a shower and went straight to bed. We’re not getting old – we promise, Lord Gerber himself had an exam today so we had to keep it chilled . But yes – a great start to the tour and we’re amped as all fuck to get on with the rest of it. Jozi, prepare yourselves for an acoustic set at Wolves tonight! Yeeeeehaaaw!

In the excellent spirit of “better late than never” we’d like to inform you, our wonderful fans, that we will be leaving on another short tour tomorrow morning. We’re leaving Cape Town super early in order to make Bloemfontein in time for a mad show and a fat party, then it’s more driving and another four shows over Johannesburg and Pretoria. We’re all awfully excited – and so should you be. Stay in touch for your daily updates on our facebook page and website – www.captainstu.co.za

12 Oct in Bloem at Assvoel

•13 Oct in JHB at Wolves

•14 Oct in PTA at Arcade Empire

•15 Oct in JHB at The Bohemian

•16 Oct in PTA at Park Acoustics

See you all on the dancefloor!!

We think dogs are basically the shit… I mean look how gangsta we look posing with our dog Bafana AKA Banana AKA Packet AKA Hound Of Pain:

But don’t just take it from us, dogs have made plenty of people throughout history look significantly cooler:

Sublime:

Snoop:

Bastian Bux:

And Han Solo:

So basically, if you want to be cool, get all the bitches, save the world of Fantasia and rescue Princess Leia you need to get a dog.

And it just so happens that the SPCA is busy running a totally kiff campaign to try get people to adopt some of the bad-ass hounds currently chillin’ at their place (you can check out the F-Bizzle here and the .com here).

Do it.

A while ago, in July 2007, we decided to fly up to Durban for our first official Captain Stu tour – we stayed there for about a week, had 6 crazy shows and met more awesome people than we knew what to do with. Scratch that. The people we met were so awesome that they made our home town look like a den of spiteful rapists and it wasn’t long before our hearts were pining over the glory of the 031, Stone City. We’ve since had to make many a return trip to quell our fiery thirst for all that Durban has to offer.

In July 2011, almost exactly 4 years later, we decided to make the latest of such pilgrimages, leaving Cape Town on Friday afternoon for one hell of a weekend. First off, we did a DJ set at a new place called Vibe Bar, which was pretty cool – especially after they gave us a bottle of Jonny Walker, a few beers and a little green stuff for our troubles. Our troubles (for Friday night at least) didn’t end with the DJ set, of course. Once we’d finished up, half the band headed to a City Bowl Mizers show while the other half headed to The Pub (The Winston, for the uninitiated) to continue an epic, epic, epic party. We left the Winston at around 6 and carried on partying at Sweet Lu’s place till around 10. Those at the City Bowl gig didn’t fare much better, apparently Ryan spent the night/morning passed out under a tree in the middle of a field… but nevermind that.

Saturday afternoon saw us doing a short rehearsal at the Smelly Orange studio (thanks Steve and Skeg!), rocking a massive steak braai and then heading to Unit 11 to do soundcheck for our show. And what a show it was. We had 3 absolutely CLASS acts opening for us (Bad Murphy, Black Math and of course, Fruits and Veggies) who slapped the crowd around good and proper before we had a chance to pick up an instrument! By the time we got on stage, there was drool and sweat pretty much all over the dancefloor – and we did our best to add to the mess with a long and tiring set including one or two new songs we’ve been working on. Once we were done, we headed BACK to the Winston to go through the official lockdown afterparty which ended at around 9:30 the next morning. I wish the story ended here, of course, but it didn’t. The rest of Sunday was filled with more beer, a few arrests for “Breach of the Peach” and “Swimming in a restricted area” (pronounce in Afrikaans and Indian accent respectively) a few bunny chows, another City Bowl Mizers show, this time with our friends from Good Luck and, to cap it all off in proper style, a night at Madame Zingara’s (Thanks Olivia!) followed by a skate competition on the beachfront which started just after midnight and ended at around 3. By the time we got to the airport at 6:30 Monday morning, we were worn and tired, but happier than we’ve been in a long time. Thanks to everyone who made this weekend such a bad-ass extravaganza: Taryn, Marty, Meaty 1, Lu, Matt, Steve, Skeg, Olivia, Purity, Gay Ray, Loopy, Bali Mike – the list is endless, so if we left you out… DEAL WITH IT!

The last few weeks have kept us very busy in the rehearsal room, writing new music to feed the ever increasing demand of hungry ears which has been yapping at our ankles lately. This process has been going smoothly and we’re hoping to be finished with at least one or two tracks by the time we play next – Durban. Unit 11. July 30^th – it’s just going to be a matter of doing more rehearsals than is healthy, but we did sign up for this jol, so why not give it horns once in a while.

The real reason for this post is the exciting and wondrous fact that we have just begun work on a music video for another track from our Free Music! EP The track decided on was Siamese Twin and we shot our part of the video at the House of Pain on Sunday, teaming up with Jade Mulvany and Frances Kroon who conceived of, wrote the script for, directed and shot the video. All we had to do, really, was show up and do our thing… over and over again till sunset at which point we plonked our arses down hard on a few couches and caught a little rest. We’d like to send a shout out to Jade Mulvany and Frances Kroon for the hard work, the shots are looking great and we’re looking forward to the finished product. We’re also looking forward to our upcoming show at Unit 11 in Durban. If you live up there in eThekwini or Stone city or 031 or whatever you call it, be sure to pull in to Unit 11 – Fruits and Veggies and Black Math will be sharing the stage – it’s gonna be a massive mess!

Till next time!

JOZI

Last Thursday we took a break from our normal weekly routine, hopped onto a plane and flew up to Johannesburg to do a show at the Bo with Cortina Whiplash… you know them… that Rock n Roll girl band that melted your face the minute their highly charged groove crunched and churned its way through the crowd the last time you partied in Jozi. Not ringing any bells? Well you were obviously at the wrong party.

We’d played with Cortina Whiplash once before in Potch but, even so, we were caught unprepared for the sheer electricity that leapt the space between band and crowd as soon as they started playing. Fan-fucking-testicle. Not to be missed. Throat-ripping, groin-kicking, wench-tickling good times which we hope to repeat/emulate in the nearest of futures. Despite the odious fact that we hadn’t consumed anywhere near our beer quota by the time we got on stage (we had a big day ahead of us unfortunately) we were having good fun and managed to kick out a jamming set for what remained of the crowd. Our night was to end abruptly though as we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We left the Bo pretty much as soon as we walked off stage, raced back to the pad to catch as much shuteye as possible before wakey wakey time at 6AM.

THE KEYS TO MOZAMBIQUE

Waking up tired and hungover after a gig is never much fun. It actually becomes painful when you have to squeeze into a car for a ten hour ride to another country on top of all of your usual troubles. This, however, has become part and parcel for us and we took it on the chin like the hardened lumberjacks we are. The drive was relatively uneventful as usual, the most exciting bit being running the “Stop and Go” gauntlet that has become the South African national road. We thought we’d driven on shit roads before but nothing quite as shit as this. We had to speed as fast as possible to get to the border before it closed at 5 while at the same time dodging a network of monster pot holes that made the road look more like the thin strands of a spider web than a nice reliable flat surface. We’re not ones to complain but holy shit, somebody needs to write a letter to somebody… them roads are in kak condition.

We got to the border a full 5 minutes late. Customs was shut, the gates were closed and we were told that we’d just passed a man driving in the opposite direction in a white bakkie a few kilometers down the road who had “the keys to Mozambique” on him and we would just have to wait until tomorrow for him to bring them back. Huge Bummer. Luckily we had contact details of a lodge a few kilometers away, so we piled back into the car, took a left into the deep dark bush somewhere and eventually found ourselves at a wonderfully quaint lodge with wooden walkways, an outside bar, pool and bonfire area and a cosy room for all of us to rest our wary heads. We drank up a storm, of course, instead of resting said heads, but it’d been a long day – we felt we’d earned it.

Saturday morning arrived in a glorious flood of sunlight, warmth, funny little animal noises – all the things we’ve been missing in rainy old Cape Town and we were now quite ready to enter Mozambique, get to this Strab festival we’d heard so much about and get our party on. The border was a breeze, surprisingly, once it was actually open and the roads from the border to the festival were actually worse than any we’d yet driven on but we made it to Strab in one piece at around 11AM on Saturday morning. No sooner had we arrived, we met up with the peeps from No One’s Arc (a band we’ve been dying to play with for some time) and we began a long process of drinking, laughing and dancing that would last pretty much the rest of our short stay in Mozambique. The festival was quite something – it’s held in a holiday resort about 14 kilometers from the border and is, unfortunately, almost exclusively South African despite being held in Mozambique. All the bands are from SA and, it seems, so are all the festival goers, but this doesn’t detract from the good times at all, and before long we had watched a fair amount of awesome bands and musicians. All that remained to do was to get up on stage and do what we came here for. The show went brilliantly, We had amazing bands on before and after us, and we took it upon ourselves to keep the dancefloor moving and the bar open for as long as possible before, one by one, collapsing into our tents in exhaustion. At the end of it all we spent a grand total of 23 hours in Mozambique, made an estimated total of about 15 new friends and “really enjoyed” the artful flavor of some local beer I can’t remember the name of. “2M” if my memory serves me. Anyways, what a rad experience. We’re definitely looking forward to doing it again next year.

The last day of tour was an incredibly tiring one as it usually is. We woke up in
Johannesburg, packed our shit into the car and started the drive to Kimberley. Six hours
or so later we’d arrived at The Halfway house, where we would be performing, partying
and sleeping for the night. And what a pleasant surprise the Halfway House turned out
to be. The stage was set up inside a large courtyard filled with marble topped tables and
surrounded by the accommodation areas, there were several bars to choose from and
the beer prices weren’t as outlandish as one would expect from such a well set up place.
Once we’d met the manager and Mojo Filter (the band we’d be performing with) we set
up our gear, did soundcheck and then checked into two of the 4 star rooms they had set
aside for us. In the room next to ours the boys from Holiday Murray (and the boys and
girl from La Vi) had decided to spend the night on their way home from tour, so we got
to party with a few Cape Town friends which was fun. The relief at not having to spend
our last tour night on some floor put a huge smile on our faces, so as soon as the Rugby
was over, we got our beer on and began grooving to the smooth sounds of Mojo Filter –
a great funk/soul/reggae sound which set the mood and got everybody warmed up nicely.
By the time we took to the stage, however, one of the monitors wasn’t working, making
it quite a bit harder for any of us to hear anything we were playing, but nonetheless we
did what we had to and the crowd seemed to love it. The usual dancing, shouting and
laughing ensued – our first show in Kimberley was a big success. Following this, more
beer, a few T-shirts sold and several Free Music EPs handed out and we were more than
ready to hit the sack. It’d been a long and eventful tour and none of us were looking
forward to the drive home. See all you kids from up North sometime soon. Thanks for a
great vibe.