zaterdag 6 maart 2010

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

3 opmerkingen:

Fenderwoods zei

The thing about the Rakketax in the Lullabies song is about the fact that the Rakketax only had a guitar, a bass, and 2 drum sticks. They never invested in amps, or a drum kit, so they always had to borrow stuff from bands like the Lullabies, Nixe, etc...

distortiontodeafness zei

Ah ok, I never knew that, thanks for the inside information!

vile76 zei

This band rules and their 7" is very hard to find + still obscure nowadays.

Thanks for the bonus songs.