JESUS AND THE GOSPELFUCKERS

Being punks from a smaller city, we were used to people frowning their eyebrows as we passed by in our studded jackets and spiked hair. For Amersfoort standards we surely were hardcore punks and in the small town where I lived, we even got chased out of town when Paul and Olav first came to visit. The idiots were well shocked when it turned out we had pipes etc. as a defence, that learned the fuckers a lesson for sure!
Every now and then we took the train to Amsterdam to buy records, pins, studs, wristbands, belts, etc. etc. All to complete our punk looks.
One of the places that sold this kind of stuff was the Waterloo square flea market. One particular day we were walking on that market when we came across a small group of punks, leather jackets, homemade anti-John Travolta shirts, looking mean and dirty. In a sneering way they asked us if we were ‘real punks’ and then bursted out in laughing. We felt as if someone just poured ice cold water over us and did not say anything at all. A year later [or maybe a bit more] I saw one of them sitting in the local record store in Amersfoort. It turned out to be Tos, who played second guitar on the famous demo. He worked in the Amersfoort post office. Tos is a great guy, not like the mean punk he used to be any longer and right now he sometimes joins SUNN O))) on keyboards.
Back to these recordings, I got them from Kees Smit, webmaster of nederpunk.punt.nl which seems to be the gathering place for old Dutch punks and yes, quite a few are even older than I am hahahahaha.
These 10 songs were recorded in the practice space in Haarlem. Right now I have no song titles, maybe they will follow later.
This is far more punkrock than their later stuff. I will post more on the Gospelfuckers some other time, I have 3-4 pretty good live sets by them and ofcourse more stories.
Image taken from nederpunk.punt.nl
Enjoy!
JESUS AND THE GOSPELFUCKERS EARLY RECORDINGS (new download link)

THE DISTURBERS

When The Sextons came to an end, Paul, Olav and myself wanted to continue in a band. Around that time two friends of mine from Achterveld [Dorien and Berletta] became interested in punk as well and wanted to sing in a band. We got to know two guys from Barneveld, named Patrick and Dick. Dick happened to have a bass guitar and Patrick a guitar as well as an amp. The 7 of us started a band called ‘Razzias’ and started to rehearse at my parents barn. This band never really produce anything and at a certain point Patrick got fed up with it and left us.
The remaining 6 started a band called ‘Disturbers’ and this was a bit more serious. We recorded a tape at the practise space and were even meant to do a gig in a squat in Hilversum. This never happened due to the fact that the squat was under attack of the local ‘Disco Jugend’, at least, that is what they told us.
The line up for the Disturbers is as follows:
Olav / Drums, Paul / Guitar, Dick / Bass, Dorien / Vocals, Berletta / Vocals, Jos / Vocals [and bass on Disco Jugend].
For some reason Dick did not like me that much and it appeared that he tried to convince Paul and Olav to kick me out of the band. I found out about this when we attended a NIXE gig and Dick was not there.
End result was that he was kicked out and that was the end of the Disturbers, but not the end of us being in a band together!
To be continued!
Tracklist:
01-KZ Syndroom
02-Disco is a Ghetto
03-Anti Nazi
04-Train
05-Dead Soldiers
06-De Burgerij
07-Religion Sucks
08-Disco Jugend
09-AMZK [Alle ME-ers Zijn Klootzakken]
10-Religie Waanzin
11-Different

DISTURBERS

BLACK VAMPIRE DEMO

Unfortunately there’s not that much I can tell you about this band except for the fact I found these recordings [labeled as a demo] on a very old tape that was in one of the boxes in our ‘rubbish room’. They hailed from Maastricht, in the south of the Netherlands where not that much seemed to happen back in the eighties. Ofcourse Maastricht had ‘Mort Subite’ [anyone who has their split ep for sale, send me an email please!] in the late seventies and in the nineties, Maastricht had the M-Town Rebels, responsible for the whole Eurocore thing.
I met the drummer for Black Vampire a while back in Amsterdam, he was quite surprised people knew about that band.
Apparently they reformed [without him] and I discovered a myspace site which has the following biography:
Welcome to the dark world of Black Vampire, a speedpunkband that was formed in the early eighties. With the intension to kick some ass and play music that sound loud as fuck, bass player Elvis and singer/guitarist Billy started meeting each other more and more to play their brains out and give the local scene what it was looking for. Although their sound was very raw, Black Vampire soon started to get the attention of a small group of believers. The crowd seems to like it because they finally found a way to express their feelings and share their opinion. Billy & Elvis also felt good about it; playing for a free beer or two and a rush of adrenaline seemed to be the ideal way to spend their time. The band appeared on a few compilation-tapes and managed to write a number of songs that was best discribed as a brutal mix of complaints about personal struggles and the heaviest and fastest guitar riffs you had ever heard. The word spread fast and Black Vampire slowly started to become a well known punk-machine within the local scene. After a few line-up changes with several drummers who couldn't manage to play in such a fast speed, the band decided to shut down their engines. A few years would pass... Just before the end of the century the two original members decided to pick up their guitars again. After several rehearsals they soon discovered that they still got the same vibe and after a short quest for a new drummer they teamed up with Mark ( ex Sons Of The Rain). This guy already earned his credits in his previous bands and seemed to be the perfect guy to fill in the empty spot. What never seemed to work in the past finally did; a fanatic drummer that could keep up with the enormous speed had finally joined the band. In this brand new line-up the band recorded their first demo-disc ever which was titled 'Fuck' and woke the whole dying punk-breed in the near surroundings. Punk was back in town! The band started touring again and today they've already played a lot of gigs, for example with punk heroes Total Chaos and a lot of local punk and hardcore bands. Need I say more? In the beginning of October their first full-length cd 'Fastfood for the Undead' hit the steets. The album is a mix off all kinds of musical styles. Speedpunk will meet oi-punk in a metallic kind of way. You will be amazed how fast you'll be fucked this time.... 2003 by Wicked Leon.
myspace

Luckily they did a killer demo tape in the eighties, I find it hard to take a band seriously that does a hardcore version of Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Hello’.

And the image is not the band, but just a photo of some random punks!

BLACK VAMPIRE DEMO

DE PANDEMONIUM AFFAIRE

Pandemonium is one of the best hardcore bands from the Netherlands ever. Maybe even one of the world’s best.
They managed to combine politics with sarcasm and some kick ass music. Three things that sum up hardcore for me.
I have ripped their second output: the ‘Pandemonium Affaire’ tape. 19 tracks in total.
First time I saw them live was at ‘Wijers Squat’ where they opened for MDC when they toured for the second time. The members of Pandemonium did not look like the average punk at that time, no leather jackets full of studs and band names and no spikey hair either. They could have been MDC’s younger brothers.
They blew a lot of people away that evening and it was the first of many other times I saw them and we played a few times together as well. Lärm even was a back up choir during the gig that was recorded for the ‘Are you the one...’ tape.
They are responsible for the hardcore anthem: ‘Wir fahren gegen Nazi’s’ which was accurate at the time it was written and it still is. Pandemonium for sure was one of the more intelligent bands at that time. Quite a lot of their songs are written in German, I think that’s because they live really close to the German border.
After this tape they recorded various records which are sought after as originals, but some of them have been re-released on vinyl by Noise and Distortion records and a cd discography [including live video] has been released on Coalition records.
I met Peter [singer] last year in Venlo when we played there with Seein Red. It was nice to meet him again, he still is the clever guy he used to be, well spoken and never a loud mouth. He does poetry now, has written books and just released his first spoken word cd. His website is: http://www.obras-del-alma.com/ there’s also a link to Pandemonium there, with a bio and discography. The photo I used is from that site too, taken at a squat in Andoain, Basque Country, where they played the night before Lärm did. A few of us are in the crowd.

Enjoy the tape
DE PANDEMONIUM AFFAIRE

FRITES MODERN

Back in the days I remember that I was not really into this band. I’ve been trying to recall the reason why, but that is not an easy task. Maybe it was because they suffered from the ‘Amsterdam attitude’ at the time, which meant being rather arrogant to others who were not from that city. Who knows?
Fact is that they accused Lärm for ‘spoiling the market’[as if there ever was a market for hardcore punk at that time hahahaha]. Just because we played for expenses only and they asked more than that, venues asked us to play more often I guess.
Let’s bury the past and focus on their demo tape ‘6 met’.
It contains 6 songs, recorded at the Oktopus studio in Amsterdam and this was their second line up. These 6 songs are really good ones, lyrics in Dutch and they have stand the test of time for sure. Though the ‘Sesame Street’ song is pretty lame lyricwise.
This tape got re-issued on a digital downloadable album that contains this tape, compilation tracks and unreleased live stuff. The same goes for their lp ‘Veel, vet, goor en duur’. Both availble from www.fritesmodern.com
In the zip file, I have enclosed the booklet and the cover as well.
Enjoy!

FRITES MODERN 6 MET DEMO

RAKKETAX

From Utrecht, I’d like to present you RAKKETAX, one of the earlier punkbands from that city. The first line up of Rakketax included a female vocalist called Fredje, this line up contributed a song to the legendary ‘Utreg Punx’ ep. That song is called ‘Van Agt’ and is about the at that time prime minister of the Netherlands. This line up also recorded a radio live session which you can find in the download below. I have made a zip file with almost all of their recordings.
After Fredje left the band, Rakketax continued as a 3 piece band and were one of the more melodic bands in that time. During the live gigs they swapped instuments as well, at least the bass player and drummer did as far as I can recall. In this line up they recorded the 6 track s/t ep and lateron also 3 songs for the first volume of ‘Als je haar maar goed zit’.
I have only seen Rakketax in the second line up a few times and I remember that some considered them as being too elitist or something like that. Their lyrics went beyond the ‘fuck the police and system’ content, so maybe that was one of the reasons why they were not considered punk enough maybe? Who knows.
The Lullabies mention them in a song [Fashion Punx], ‘with equipment we’re good enough, but without we can fuck off’.......
I guess it was like that in alot of cities [see my piece on Jetset in the previous blog] where there was rivalry between various groups of punks.
Anyways, I have always enjoyed Rakketax a lot and it is one of the bands whose music certainly has stand the test of time. In the folder are the recordings for the Utreg Punx ep, Parkhof compilation lp, s/t ep and ‘Als je haar maar goed zit volume 1’. Besides that, there’s a radio session, two studio recordings and some live stuff.
It is about time for a full discography on vinyl I would say.
tracklist:
01-Rats [live VPRO radio]
02-Wickie [live VPRO radio]
03-Summer [live VPRO radio]
04-Tros [live VPRO radio]
05-What’s for dinner? [live VPRO radio]
06-Weekend Punks [live Utrecht]
07-Rats [live in Utrecht]
08-Rats [studio version]
09-van Agt [Utreg Punx ep]
10-What’s for dinner? [studio version]
11-Occasion [s/t ep]
12-Unifil [s/t ep]
13-Status [s/t ep]
14-Harpoon [s/t ep]
15-Labour [s/t ep]
16-Decadence Floor [s/t ep]
17-Unifil [live]
18-Decadence Floor [live]
19- ?? [live]
20-Desert [Als je haar maar goed zit #1]
21-Vacuum [Als je haar maar goed zit #1]
22-Television Games [Als je haar maar goed zit #1]
23-Rich Punks On Dope [Parkhof 11-4-81 lp]
24-Work To Live [Parkhof 11-4-81 lp]

RAKKETAX discography