“We come around, play out, scream from the top of our lungs. With blood, sweaty balls and a crowd to sing our songsâ€. This excerpt of their song lyric “Critical Minds†describes what Tenement Kids do best: rock out with a certain passion that can only be expressed by shouting as hard as you can, but definitely maintain a sense of melody and catchyness. Because the Tenement Kids don’t want to shout alone, they want full crowd participation. Armed with a combination of sharp songwriting, anthemesque choruses and convincing lyrics the Kids are ready to take this world by storm.
Their mission started at the beginning of 2005, when singer Gijs (A Step Apart, Smash The Statues, Birds Of A Feather) had written a couple of songs in the vein of punk classics like Jawbreaker and Hot Water Music. He contacted drummer Bert, bassist Tim and guitarist Freek to inquire about their interest in starting a raw yet melodic punk band. The four of them fi nished and recorded 6 songs in december 2005. The songs “Leaverâ€, “The New Facesâ€, “Cards & Arrowsâ€, “Tired Of Running Away†and “Wash Away Your Prejudice†were self-released on a demo CD and the song “Iron Age†appeared on a compilation CD by punk label White Russion Records. The band now had a solid line-up and were ready to start operating on a more serious level.
The demo got amazing reactions and in January 2006 the Tenement Kids played their first shows. With their energetic and inspiring stage appearance they managed to win a lot of hearts and people started to spread the word. The Kids sold over 200 demo’s in two months and the show requests kept coming. Some highlights were opening for Underdog at the Lintfabriek in Belgium and playing the notorious Light The Fuse festival in The Netherlands. Now that the demo had been out for a while and their songs, as well as their live shows, managed to turn heads all over the Dutch and Belgian hardcore/punk scene, the Tenement Kids were ready to take it to the next level. Drawing influences from a much broader spectrum than when the band started out, they managed to combine multiple era’s of rock and punk history to develope their own raw, passinate and remarkably vivid sound. They captured that sound on their fresh debute EP 'Doves', which was released by Crucial Attack Records in january 2007.
Tenement Kids look further that their local punk community. With a new EP in the pocket they want to use their unique sound to reach rock enthusiasts from all over the globe. Because they’ve got a story to tell and they’ll keep shouting until everybody hears it. Like UK punk band The Boys sung in 1977: “Tenement kids don’t lose... Tenement Kids rule the worldâ€.