The news just keeps getting better in regards to the highly talked about Refused reunion. The Swedish four-piece excited audiences all over the world with their announcement that they would be taking the stage for the first time since 1998 at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. Ambitious additions to their summer and fall tour dates has made it so that fans all over the world now will have a chance to catch Refused while they’re back. Check out their official statement about the reunion and the tour dates after the jump.
Many were disappointed when Refused broke up in the late 90s. Not only were their songs politically charged and their shows filled with a wild intensity, but the band was redefining the sound of punk and blending genres like nobody’s business. Now, just about a decade and a half later, the band has not only reunited to play at a couple shows, but they are also working on new material. Read their official statement below.
We had a band once, in Umea. We would pile in a van, like every other punkband, and thunder off in pursuit of friends and glory in some basement in front of 20 people, 50 people, in towns 4-5 hours away. Sometimes there would be more than a hundred people and we would later in the week refer to that as a “big show”. We were ambitious, but we didn’t think of it as a career. We never made any fiscal sense whatsoever during 7 years of touring. Like most punkbands, it never occurred to us to even try. We had a scene, we had some politics and we had just a hint of artistic ambition. True to our Swedish roots we got very serious very fast. And then suddenly we got good. It’s a delicate path to tread for precocious twentysomethings anywhere on the planet, but this particular bunch didn’t make it. And that was fine. Most enterprises in life are unrelated to incredibly violent rock music.
It’s been a motley 14 years since our band came apart. We’ve all kept busy in our respective endeavors but we’ve all remained friends and kept in touch. There have been offers, and lots of jokes about these offers. We’ve sort of looked down from our high horses and made fun of people who’ve just wanted to share the psychopathic intensity that we would deliver on a nightly basis in our post-pubescent prime. A reunion has just seemed irrelevant to us. Too much other shit to do.
But then Kristofer got his degree from the Swedish opera academy, Jons medical studies began drawing to a close and Dennis and David started a new hardcore band together. Finally, after a decade and a half hiatus, Kristofer picked up the guitar again. Which made David want to play the drums again. Which in turn led to all four of us suddenly making new music in assorted constellations. As all of this was brewing, Coachella got in touch. There were a couple of phone-calls, lots of skepticism, some hesitant enthusiasm before one of us basically said: “-This is ridiculous. There are friends of ours who would murder close relatives just to go see bands there. Let’s just do it, one last time.” And with that, socialist fag-loving pc scumbags were on the road again.
We never did “The shape of punk to come” justice back when it came out, too tangled up in petty internal bickering to really focus on the job. And suddenly there’s this possibility to do it like it was intended. We wanna do it over, do it right. For the people who’ve kept the music alive through the years, but also for our own sakes.
We feel that you deserve it and we hope the feeling is mutual.
See you in the pit.
//Refused
Refused 2012 Tour Dates: – Buy Tickets to this Tour Here
08/09 – Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out West Festival
08/10 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
08/24 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
08/25 – Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Center
08/27 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theater
09/1-2 – FYF Fest
09/29 – Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall
09/30 – Prague, Czech Rep @ Lucerna Music Hall
10/01 – Vienna, Austria @ Arena
10/02 – Munich, Germany @ Kesselhaus
10/04 – Barcelona, Spain @ Razzmatazz
10/05 – Madrid, Spain @ Riveria
10/07 – Bologna, Italy @ Estragon
10/08 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Komplex
10/09 – Paris, France @ Bataclan
10/10 – Luxembourg @ Rockhal
10/11 – Tiilburg, Netherlands @ 013
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