Art In Revolution

No new episode, but just mentioning that the singer of Art In Revolution got in touch and he gave me two links. One to the complete discography of the band and another one to the fanzine that they did. Thanks a lot Tony, this is very much appreciated. Both can be found in the thread on A-I-R

Kippenhok squat (s) Amersfoort

Since I've mentioned the Kippenhok squats in Amersfoort in previous posts, here's some footage from both squats that can be found on youtube. It's all from the Definite Choice Video Party tapes and we all should hassle Paul and Olav to re-release those tapes on dvd!

First off we have a band called Second Siberia, they're from Amersfoort and besides a demo (which I will rip sooner or later) they did not release anything. This was filmed at Kippenhok II


The Deadlock footage below was filmed at Kippenhok I. Deadlock were from Amsterdam and released an lp as well as some tracks on the 'Beware of the wolf in sheep clothing' lp



BGK must be known to everyone, the first Dutch punkband to make it to the USA (or was that Panic?). 2nd line up here (with fretless bass!!) filmed at Kippenhok II when they played with Negazione.


SCA were from Amsterdam, they were called Staphorster Chaoten Alliantie at first but changed that into Strong Concentration of Anger. This is the first line up, they had a different bass player later on. We made them put on shorts for this gig, otherwise they were not allowed to play (yeah, call us idiots indeed). Filmed at Kippenhok I


Finally here's some footage of BTD (who chenged name to Betray lateron). They released a tape as well as tracks on the 'On our way to fool's paradise'


And there's loads more, like I said, we should harass Paul and Olav for that!

Vopo's and our encounter with the Baarn skins

This week someone (Peter Verzijl) posted old photos of punk bands performing at Paradiso in Amsterdam. Amongst the photos were a couple of the Vopo's, who were from Zwolle and delivered a classic 4 track ep and a great lp. I must have mentioned them in the thread about the Vultures, because they often played together.
I remember we went to see them at the Oktopus in Amsterdam where they played together with the Outlawz (if I remember right). The venue was packed with punks, from Amsterdam, but also quite a lot from other places. And yes there were some skinheads too, most of them were cool but a couple of them seemed to be out for a fight, but did not dare to, because they were easily outnumbered by all the punks.
Both bands delivered a really good set and especially the Vopo's made quite an impact. When the last band finished, the punks went outside and soaked in sweat we made our way to the railway station. The were more punks on the road and also that group of skins were on their way to catch a train. At the platform the skins started to harass a couple of punks but they did not know that there were friends of the punks already on the train. All of a sudden, the platform was full of punks kicking the skinheads and teaching them a lesson (or two). We witnessed this all from our train that was on another platform and thought it was a really hilarious situation, untill the skinheads entered our train.... There were just four of us and at least ten skinheads, so all of a sudden the situation had changed drastically. They asked us why we had not helped them and before we even could come up with an answer, one of us was hit over the head with a stick and they started to punch us. The condoctur of the train saved our asses by letting us in the 1st class department and then locking the doors. We had no idea where these assholes were from and I remember we were really relieved when they left the train in Baarn, a small city on the west side of Amersfoort. Years later, when I was at college I had a classmate who turned out to be the sister of one of these Baarn Skins. When I told her about this encounter she could do nothing more agree on the fact that they were complete assholes.

Back to the Vopo's and their ep. They did deliver 4 really good punk songs on that piece of vinyl and we even covered 'Menten' with the Sextons. I have seen them three times in total and the last time I saw them, was in Hilversum, where they played at Tagrijn (the venue where Lärm did it's very first gig). This was when they had changed vocalists and I think they had just released the 'Conquer' lp. That lp was quite a dissapointment, but nevertheless we went to see them, hoping they would do some old songs as well. When their new singer entered the stage it was not a good sign. Studded wristbands all the way to his elbows and looking as mean as possible (which turned out to be looking like a clown basically). The atmosphere at this gig was not right and I remember there was a lot of rivalry between various cities and areas in Holland. I have mentioned that before if I am right.
Apparently something had happened between some punks from Utrecht and punks from the Zwolle area. Eitherway, the Utrecht punks were there to settle the score, but we never witnessed that, because the Vopo's did not play old songs anymore. For us there was no reason to watch them so we left. Our friends from Hilversum stayed and they told us the horror stories of the fights that broke out during the Vopo's set.
Years and years later Slapshot would do a song 'So ends our night (into another fight)', which sort of glorifies violence at shows. Let me assure you there was not much fun at these violent gigs, you'd get your head kicked in for having the wrong pins or band logo's. Violence already sucked back then and it still does.

In the file you'll find the Vopo's ep. It got re-released and the Vopo's are back together, but I have not seen them since the reunion they did in Steenwijk amongst reunions of Zmiv, Stanx, Glorious Death and Lärm. I did not really like them to be honest, but the ep and lp are classics and they stood the test of time perfectly.
Right now they describe themselves as speed metal band and the brothers Frans and Theo de Grebber are the only original members. Check their site at vopo's

Vopo's 7"

Resistance

I was just browsing through Dan's blog old-fast and loud where I discovered the demo tape by Resistance. Dan wrote they were from Zwolle, but that band was called Lá Résistance and were from the Steenwijk area if I am correct.
The Resistance tape he uploaded is a band from Amersfoort and yours truly is responsible for the cover art.
Amersfoort had various waves of hardcore punk. In one of the earlier post I mentioned the Asperitys and the Puke. You could call them the second wave I guess. The third wave of bands was around when we had the 'Kippenhok' squats in Amersfoort. The first squat was right in the city center and it was a big church. We ran a bar in there and organised many gigs. Bands such as BGK, Negazione, Kaaos, Tension, SCA, Funeral Oration, Pandemonium and many many more played a lot of great gigs there.
This was also when we got to know people like Theun and Guus, Mirjam, Lara Emilie and others. When the the church burned down a villa was squatted and that was in the richer area of Amersfoort. This worked out pretty well actually. In that squat we had bands like Heresy, Heibel, Government Issue, BGK, Negazione, WCF and many more played there.
This was the time of the third wave of bands. Resistance was one of them, together with Second Siberia and Loud Warning.
The members of Resistance came from surrounding smaller towns as well, but were part of the core of the Amersfoort punks. If I am correct, most of the Resistance members went on as Loud Warning, who were also on the 'On our way to fool's paradise' compilation lp. I think there's even some live footage on youtube somewhere, because I know people have put the Definite Choice video tapes online.
The gigs at both of the squats were a lot of fun most of the times, though in the first one, there was always a threat of local disco youth trying to pick fights and attacking the squat after all the bars closed at 2 pm. I remember the place being really packed when BGK, Lärm and Negazione played there. That must have been one of the wildest gigs ever at that squat. This is also where AMKA did their one and only gig (AMKA was Paul, Olav, Marcr and myself). We did not really rehearse and I remember the 'song' called 'trillende bril' (vibrating specs), where we were silent and I airdrummed which made my specs vibrate. So much for my career on the drums.
In the second squat we organised a lot of gigs with local bands and bands from nearby. We even got in touch with the metal scene and had some of those bands play there too (Second Hell for example. Some of the gigs there were really great, I particularly remember the Heresy one being a fantastic gig. Government Issue was great too, but they were not the most open people. All in all, good memories of that time.
The file that is in the download was being put together by Dan and he also cleaned the recordings and did a good job on that. I did not change the tags, simply because I have no clue how to do that. Dan even made a cover for a cd-r (he does that for all of his files), so all credits to him!
Next time you run into Gwynn @ the OCCII or some other venue, ask him about (t)his band!
Resistance demo

More Mollesters

A couple of weeks ago I was at my friend Marcel's place to do some screenprinting for the limited version of the Systematic Death new ep on the ever great label way back when records . When it was lunchtime, Jeroen also came by (Marcel and Jeroen used to run Coalition Records together). It almost felt like a reunion because I had not seen Jeroen for a very long time. We ended up talking about old Dutch punk bands and Jeroen promised me to get me in touch with some member of the Neo Punkz (I am helping my friend Paco with some re-releases of classic Dutch bands). A short while after Jeroen left, he called and told me he ran into someone who used to be in the Mollesters or was a good friend of them (this guy also used to all the printing for the Coalition label). We decided to meet up with him when we went into town and on a square not too far from Marcel's place we had an interesting chat about Mollesters, BVD, Hollands Glorie and more old punk(s). I told him about the blog and he seemed really into it and willing to hand me some recordings to be (re)released on vinyl too. Untill now I have not heard from him, but I am patient.
After I publiced the Mollesters live set on this blog, my friend Paul reminded me of a short live set they did for the VPRO radio, somewhere back in 1980 or so. I used to have that on tape myself, but it has dissapeared. Luckly Paul still had it and he gave me a copy last weekend. So thanks to Paul, you're all able to listen to more Mollesters live. Sound quality is quite good and the songs are killer. I have no titles, but I guess the first songs is called Violence, then we have Ignorance, a song about Niki Lauda, a song that is probably called 'you're sexless' and finally a song about a tarantula(?). Really good stuff and if you can understand Dutch, you'll hear someone in the audience shouting: 'Yeah fantastic' all the time. At the end the crowd is shouting 'louder' and then the tape cuts off. I am not sure if there were more songs broadcasted or not and I don't know where this was recorded.
Getting back to Paco, the first release will be a Lullabies discography. At the moment I am collecting as many photos, flyers and other related stuff. We have this wild idea about a release party, but I will not tell anything untill it is certain.
In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy the Mollesters!
Mollesters live at VPRO radio

ROODWITZWART

In a previous post I've uploaded the Jetset / Bloedbad split tape. Both bands deliver some really good solid fast hardcorepunk on that gem and today I decided to upload a 4way split lp, featuring Jetset, Bloedbad, Massagraf and Barbies Boyfriend. It is a self released lp. All 4 bands were part of the Rood Wit Zwart (red, white black) collective.
Where Jetset and Bloedbad are taking care of the faster spectrum, Massagraf (Massgrave) and Barbies Boyfriend deliver the more experimental part of punk, dare I call it New Wave??
Members of Jetset, Bloedbad, Massagraf and Vacuum formed the 'all star' band Massacubadset for a short while.
This lp is pretty hard to find, I have no idea how many were pressed. It is worth tracking down for sure.
Not too many details in this post, I've showed my eternal love for Jetset and Bloedbad in the previous one.
ROOD WIT ZWART

Tandstickörshocks

Rotterdam had the Red Rock collective: Rondos, Rode Wig, Sovjets and Tandstickörshocks. One of the very first gigs I went to together with Paul and Olav, was Tandstickörshocks, the Ex, Lullabies and one more band performing live in Utrecht. I think it was at a venue called Rasa. At that time punks liked all genres in punk and so people danced to the minimal music of Tandstickörshocks (as far as possible ofcourse). I remember the bandmembers trying to look mean, with their shaved heads and uniforms, but they did not came across that way at all. I honestly can't remember if I liked them or not, I know I enjoyed the Lullabies a lot.

During summertime it was possible to get a card called 'Tienertoer'. The card allowed you to travel by train all over the country for a week for something like 40 guilders. We travelled to the bigger cities to check out record stores and punk related stores (I recall travelling to The Hague because we knew Creepers were on sale there, when we got to the shoe store they only had smaller sizes left....). One of the trips took us to Rotterdam and we went to the 'Raketbasis'. That was the house where all members of the Red Rock collective lived, bands rehearsed and where they printed their zine called 'Raket'. When we arrived at the house, no one dared to ring the doorbell, simply because we did not know what to expect hahahaha. Punks from the countryside eh?
The door was opened by this student looking guy and I recognized him from the Tandstickörshocks gig in Utrecht, he was the singer. After buying some pins, a few records and zines, we left the house. No one in there even remotely looked punk! Damn, that was a shock indeed.
Only the Rondos and the Tandstickörshocks released vinyl, too bad the other bands did not. In the attached file you'll find the Tandstickörshocks ep and a couple of live song by them. Besides the ep, they have some songs on the 'Rotterdam Collection' compilation lp.

Years and years later there was a documentary about one of the band members: Pinkel. I tried to find that movie on the internet, but could not find it. If you search for 'Pinkel' on youtube, you'll find two short films starring him in a bar in Rotterdam.......

Tandstickörshocks

Nitwitz

The Nitwitz were one of the second wave punkbands in the Netherlands. They started around 1979 and released two really good ep's (self titled, the worst of the nitwitz) a killer live set on the nitwitz/götterflies split lp and then a rather dissapointing 12" called 'Scorched Earth Policy'. They also recorded a couple of songs for the famous 'Als je haar maar goed zit #1' lp. Those recordings were a lot more polished than their previous ones and at time I liked my punk raw and unpolished, just like I still do.
I think I have seen them live two or three times. One time in a garage in the Bijlmer (same gig as I saw the Bizkids)and probably once or twice more in Amsterdam.
They were playing very close to my house at one point, in Hoevelaken. Hoevelaken had it's own youthcentre at that time (as many cities and towns did) and somehow they invited the Nitwitz and Götterflies to play there. This was when they just released their 'The worst of...' ep.
Money was not always around and I had two options: Go and see the bands live or buy the ep. I choose to buy the record. At that time I had a small side job, taking milksamples at various farms, so another reason probably was I had to get up at 5 on the saturdaymorning.
Anyways, the youthcentre called 'Kazemat' was in the basement of the local music hall (I think it was a atomic shelter actually, maybe Theun knows that for sure?). On the same night André Hazes was performing upstairs. Google his name and listen to some mp3's and maybe you can get an idea of the crowd that came down to see him. White thrash indeed and that combined with the farmer mentality of a lot of them was a nasty combination with the punks that came to see the bands in the basement. When one of them was playing with a buckknife, this was the sign for the upsairs visitors to attack the people downstairs. It became a night full of violence and if I am correct some people were hospitalized as well. So much for punk in Hoevelaken.
Years later we played their ourselves. And ofcourse there was another event upstairs: The Havenzangers played the same evening and yes, they attracted the same crowd as André Hazes did. Part of that crowd found out there was a hardcore gig downstairs and wanted to kick some punk asses. I can't really remember much but I do remember we locked ourselves inside the office and remained safe that way.
Back to the Nitwitz, not too long after they released their 12", the band broke up. Their singer Erik formed a band called 'Outrageous' and the other members formed BGK, who became the first Dutch hardcore band to tour the USA. Tony (the original bassplayer) reformed the Nitwitz years and years later and moved to guitar in that line up.
The recordings in the file are from the 100th gig anniversary, it contains songs off their records as well as a few unreleased ones.
Hopefully there will be a Nitwitz discography some day. The first two ep's and live side will do Tony :-)

Nitwitz 100th gig

Mollesters

Every city must have had one of those recordshops....... A shop that did not seem to have too much to offer when you walked by. Amersfoort had one of those shops too and I remember passing it on the way to something. I went inside to have a look and discovered a small section of punk singles. That section turned out te be a small goldmine, because I found most of the X Ray Spex singles, some UK Subs ones and a single by a band I had never heard of, called Mollesters. I bought it because the cover looked really punk. I am talking about 1978-1979 by the way. I purchased the records over a period of a couple of months because I was 14-15 at that time and did not have that much pocket money.
The Mollesters record is an instant classic, very basic 3 chord punk with snotty vocals. There's not too much I can tell you about this band and that is why I asked one of the members to write something about it himself. I will publish that as soon as I get it. Years later I found another copy of this record, but that got stolen by one of the visitors I have hosted over the years.
In the enclosed file, you'll find the single as well as 18 tracks that were recorded during a practise if I am correct, but maybe Pierre can enlighten us?
The photo was taken from their myspace, which has some unreleased tracks as well as live pictures.


No titles (yet)


Mollesters

Neo Pogo's (and others)

Ede.

In the middle of the bible belt of the Netherlands and a small city close to Arnhem.
On a friday night somewhere in the eighties, Paul and I went there by train. Our friends Dorien, Berletta and Patrick went by car. I clearly remember that, because for Paul and myself the night ended quite abruptly. More about that later.
At that time, bands were trying to play faster and faster and the majority of the punks liked it that way. If you did not play fast, they were not interested and hated you. Simple as that.
The Neo Pogo's were one of the faster bands at that time and had a very raw and distorted sound. We had already seen them a couple of times before and they were loved by all the punks into the faster style.
They were one of the bands who played at that gig in Ede and we decided to go there. I can't recall which other bands played, maybe Neuroot or another band from Arnhem, because there were loads op punks and skinheads from Arnhem there.
For some reason, the Neo Pogo's decided to play all of their songs in a really slow version that night. At first it seemed like a funny joke, but pretty soon the crowd got fed up and started to throw things at the band. If that wasn't enough, the venue was being vandalized too. Their set was cut short and Paul and myself went outside.
We were approached by some skinheads and punks who asked us where we were from. When we replied: 'Amersfoort' they threw beer in our face and obviously were out for a fight. I think we said something among the lines of: 'That's a waste of your beer' and tried to ignore them. Luckily our other friends showed up in their car, so all of a sudden there were 7 of us instead of just us 2. The skins backed off (for the time being) and we were thankful for our friends to arrive. We talked about the Neo Pogo's being more or less kicked off the stage and then things became more violent around and in the venue.
Paul and I decided to leave, but we were really scared the skins (and their nazi punk friends) would notice that. So we sneaked away and started to run as soon as we could. We were terrified when a punk on a motorbike followed us and stopped us. He just wanted directions to the venue......phew. Lateron we were told the night ended really violent and I think it was the last gig ever at that bar.
Back to the Neo Pogo's, they were from Rotterdam and their only recorded output is some tracks on the 7,50 compilation lp (with Lullabies, Nixe, Rapers, Bizon Kids and Zero Zero). At that time they were maybe the most raw band from the Netherlands. Amongst their tracks on this compilation are some really killer songs, but I have the feeling that some of the songs might be written right before the recordings.
One of the other times we went to see the Neo Pogo's was when Noxious (from Utrecht) organised the infamous 'Strength thru Noxious' festival at the NV Huys in Utrecht. Another night ending in skinhead violence when a fight broke out between skins from Rotterdam and punks from Utrecht. We were scared shitless and left as fast as we could.
During their set on the Rotterdam New Pop Punk Stage a massive fight between the punks an skins broke out. The singer was pleading for unity between punks and skins but no one listened. I remember the skins getting their asses kicked pretty bad.
I have no idea what happened to the members of the band. I remember reading something on a forum some time ago. Mr. Bootsman met the singer of Neo Pogo's by accident.
If someone has more information, please share.
In the link you'll find the complete compilation lp. It also features some outstanding Nixe tracks, good Rapers recordings and a really bad coverversion of Abba's SOS done by the Bizon Kids.


zeven vijftig compilation lp

Tos N.

Yes, the blog is back. Sorry for the hiatus.

In one of the Gospelfuckers (he's on the left in the above picture) posts, I must have mentioned Tos. He joined them on guitar in the later line up and turned out to be one of the best Dutch guitarplayers. When he joined Funeral Oration, they made their best lp to date: Communion. His manic guitarplaying is all over the place, hectic as shit but yet melodic. Simply unmatched.
One of his later bands, Beaver did a reunion a while back during Roadburn festival. The room they played in was packed and they did not lose any power at all.
Tos plays with Sunn 0))) ever now and then too these days and for the rest of his time he fixes amps and is the nice guy he always has been.

The band he formed after Funeral Oration was called God. A 3piece that maybe was the prelude to what people later called grunge. They did two albums, the first one was ok, the second one has not even been on my record player.
Live.....well that is another story. A Massive powerhouse, even though it was just them 3. They also did a radio session for VPRO radio and in my opinion, it is the best recordings they ever did. Michael, the bassplayer also played bass in Agent Orange (according to the anonymous comment).
(Tos emailed me today about the second lp. He shares my feelings about that release.)
Not real old Dutch punk, but more of an hommage to Tos N.
6 tracks in total, enjoy!

GOD live @ VPRO Radio

Distortion to deafness

Right now I am dealing with some hearing issues. My right eardrum is damaged and there's something wrong with my left ear too, but I do not know what it is yet. I never wanted to live up to my blogtitle though........
I hope to get some more Bizkids stuff online soon as well as Asperitys and other goodies.

The Vultures

On a saturday, somewhere in the early 80's, we travelled to Zwolle because of an open air festival where the Cure were playing, as well as the Vopo's and a band called the Vultures. Back then, the Cure did not have a hint of the Goth image they had later. On stage were 3 guys, jeans, doc Martens and shor hair, playing some angry new wave. Brilliant.
But this episode is not about the Cure, but about the Vultures. Their hometown was Epe, in the middle of the Dutch bible belt (which actually starts right after you leave Amersfoort towards the east and my hometown Achterveld is surrounded by these people). We already had the ep by the Vopo's and they (together with the Cure)were reason enough to travel to Zwolle. The festival was in a big park and the bands performed on a huge stage under an open tent. They were the lucky ones, because I remember it rained a lot that day. One of the first bands that played was the Vultures and they came across as snotty and loud punks. The bassist had some problems with his bass apparently, he took it off and kicked it all over the stage. He could borrow the Vopo's bass, so they were able to finish their set. I was blown away by them, they were fast, loud and had short songs. I am not sure if I got their 7" overthere or if I bought it later.
Unfortunately they did not last that long, it would have been interesting if they would have followed the Vopo's path into a more metallic direction. So maybe it is just good they stopped.
The Vopo's played right after the Vultures and I remember that they dedicated the song 'Communist rules are for fools'to me, because I had a homemade 'Red Rat' shirt.......
This was also when we first met Johan van Leeuwen (R.I.P.) who lateron became the editor of Nieuwe Koekrand. Damn, there's so many stories to tell......
The Vultures ep is one of the many collectable records from this era, maybe one day someone will re-issue it.
In the meantime, enjoy the Vultures ep and stay tuned for more.

The Vultures

M.O.G. / Murder Inc.III split tape

I recall one guy always beeing upfront during the Lärm sets in Steenwijk. That was Jan, who was a member of Murder Inc. III, a hardcorepunk band from Heerenveen, in the north of the country. Years and years later (when I met him several times when we played a gig with either NRA or Human Alert, for whom he was doing the sound} I asked him if he really liked Lärm that much. His reply: 'No, but I really thought that your singer Dorien was one of the hottest females in punk'...........
Murder Inc. several line ups and the first one is featured on the 'Punk Live In Brouwershoek' compilation lp (to be found elsewhere on this blog). The 3rd line up is the most productive one, several tapes, a 12" and appearances on a bunch of compilation tapes and the famous 'Babylon bleibt fahren' and 'Emma' comp lp's.
In the Netherlands they're most well known for their song 'Stoer zonder studs' (Tough without studs), but more on that later when I will upload their 12".
They share this tape with a band from Leeuwarden called M.O.G., which stands for Muziekvereniging Ons Genoegen (translated it would be something like 'Our Pleasure Harmony'.
The singer for MOG did a zine and I remember he used to trade tapes with Paul a lot. He would show up at their doorstep unexpectedly and would crash at their house for a couple of days. MOG recorded two ep's and an lp and also appeared on several compilation tapes.
Both bands had a hard time getting gigs in their area, venues would boycott punk bands anyways and the cops would more than often show up to stop the gig, most of the times before the bands had even started.
On this split tape, both bands play raw and fast hardcore punk. Murder Inc III did record similar stuff for the 12" and MOG slowed down and became more melodic.
There's a story about the singer turning into a dodgy person lateron, but I have to check that, I can't remember exactly, maybe someone else knows the deal?
Anyways, enjoy the tape, more from both bands later.
M.O.G. // Murder Inc. III

WINTERSWIJX CHAOS FRONT

In one of the first posts I uploaded the Winterswijx Chaos Front / Mad Rats split tape and promised that WCF was to be continued.
Here's a live recording by them from 1985 in Haaksbergen, the Netherlands. As you will hear, WCF did some really fine songwriting and it is really too bad that a lot of their songs never had a proper release.
These live recordings capture them exactly the way I remember them to be when I saw them back in the day, raw, fast and with some sarcastic statements every now and then by the singer Victor. Cynism might also be a good description for that guy's statements.
One time we played together in Belgium and when they started the song 'Kanker Tyfus Teringzooi', Victor handed me the mike and asked me to sing that song instead of him. The photo above is from that gig. That song is about being depressive and searching for answers in hard drugs. Too bad that he fell for that himself a couple of years after that. I run into him every now and then overhere and when I saw him last he told me he was clean again. I sincerely hope he can stay that way. He for sure deserves it.
Like I said in the earlier post, I have many fond memories of the times we played together. WCF were a bunch of nice and intelligent guys who really did their own thing and were partly responsible for many great festivals in the CHI CHI Club in Winterswijk.



winterswijx chaos front live in haaksbergen

Blitzkrieg

Quite some bands called themselves 'Blitzkrieg' back in the 80's and there was one in the Netherlands too.
The Dutch Blitzkrieg was from the Alkmaar area and while band like de Zweetkutten and CKN seemed to be leaning more towards the 'fun' part of punk (not meant in a bad way), Blitzkrieg was very political and had a strong anti-war stance, not unlike Crass for example. Their album (to be found in the download) is a mixture of fast hardcore with melodies and sometimes an almost military sound. Interesting for sure. Lyrics are in English and in Dutch (with one hell of an accent from that area!). The Dutch ones are really good, highly political and also cynical.
I must have seen them a couple of times and I remember that Dorien (Lärm) really had a crush on one of the band members. They were a really good live band as well.
Complete Disarmament is probably one of the few Dutch records that can be filed under peace punk (maybe even avant la lettre). For me it is one of the milestones of Dutch Hardcorepunk. The sample of an alarm clock ticking is a pretty brilliant idea, but it can also get on your nerves.
If anyone knows if there's earlier recordings of this band, please get in touch.
01 complete disarmament
02 system needs war
03 it's you
04 alles is tevergeefs
05 3,5 miljard idioten
06 dankbaar
07 ieder een taak
08 silly play
09 mannen en gaten
10 my life
11 whole world in flames
12 wat ben je dom
13 someone's gonna get their head kicked in
14 blind en doof
15 klein verschil
16 gut gut
17 val
18 twee revoluties
19 den haag vandaag
20 party punk

Blitzkrieg

Stanx

At one point Steenwijk was a very important place for hardcore punk in The Netherlands. At a local youth centre called 'De Buze' a bunch of punks started to organise punkfestivals on a very regular basis and most of them were attended really well and some of the line ups were amazing (especially looking back on it, I have seen a lot of really really good bands there).
For us Steenwijk was a benchmark for sure, the punks we met overthere did not have a 'better than you' attitude like a lot of punks from bigger cities used to have sometimes. In Steenwijk all were equal and it did not matter if you played in a band or not. We started to know a lot of people and got befriended with many bands.
One of them was Stanx, from Steenwijk itself. All members were active in organising the festivals and also smaller punk gigs at the venue and also made a fanzine called 'The Melkboer Stikes Back'. An active bunch of people indeed. After we played a couple of times in Steenwijk (also once when we attended as visitors and had a stand in vocalist) Stanx asked us (Lärm) if we wanted to do a split lp with them.
As soon as we had figured out the costs and such thing, a studio was booked and both bands recorded there (Oktopus studio in Amsterdam).
The Stanx had a really good demo tape (which is in the download) and their live gigs were really good too. Fast, distorted hardcorepunk, just the way we liked it.
Boy, were we dissapointed when we found out that they did not use distortion for the guitars on their side of the lp. They also seemed to have slowed down a fair bit. It sounded like shit to me at that time and I still prefer the demo over the split lp to be honest.
Long after they had split up they organised a reunion festival in Steenwijk. Lärm had just ended, so we played there too, amongst zmiv, vopo's, glorious death, stanx and more. The festival was nice, I remember a lot of bands being really good, but I also remember that a lot of cool people from the earlier days turned into cynical bastards who slagged everyone and everything off. Too bad.
A couple of years ago Seein Red and Staathaat played in de Buze in Steenwijk and a couple of old timers showed up too. It was good to see them again and we shared good memories. De Buze lateron became 'famous' again because the 'Trashfest' was organised there for 2 years.

tracklist:
01 I hate
02 last 5 minutes
03 oh my god
04 extra
05 cancer
06 rechts
07 justice
08 kapsones
09 i have a dream
10 el salvador
11 reagan
12 forced to a war
13 lost generation
14 no use

Stanx

Asperitys

I know it has been a while since the last post on this blog but I had some other stuff to deal with. So here's a bunch of new stuff all at once, enjoy it!
Starting off with the Asperitys from Leusden today. When we moved to a practise space in Amersfoort, we were the only punk band at that time. We got loads of shit from the other bands who did not understand what we were doing and just called it noise. For us that was a compliment.
After a while there were two more punkbands practising there: The Puke and The Asperitys. Most of the band members lived in a nearby village called Leusden and for us they were the second wave of punks in Amersfoort. We're talking 1982 now. At that time we were called Total Chaoz and the walls of the practise spaces started to be covered in more and more punk related graffitti. Nice one, especially because the rockbands got more and more pissed off.
At one point we set up a meeting with the people from the Puke and the Asperitys to get to know eachother better and that resulted in our very first tape release: 'Van U Wil Ik Zingen', which was a compilation of the Punke, The Asperitys and Total Chaoz. All of them were a couple of years younger than we were.
The Puke were more of a skapunk band at that time and the Asperitys played mainly cver versions of the UK Subs, the Exploited, the Ramones and some other bands (they also did Eisbär by Grauzone). I guess they were influenced by our faster punk and when thay started to write their own songs, they speeded up for sure.And I guess we were to blame for that.
We asked them to be featured on the second edition of the Holland Hardcore compilation tape and they recorded a bunch of songs in the practise space we all used. I just listened to some songs and I think that Paul, Olav and myself were present when they recorded their set, because I can hear our youthfull voices doing backups on 'disco's'.
They got a new singer right before the Holland Hardcore songs were recorded, his name was Rob and he added a more hardcore feel to the band. After a while I think their drummer lost interest in hardcore punk and that was basically the end of the Asperitys. Other band members did not feel to start new bands, so that left (at that time already) Lärm to be the only band in Amersfoort. The Puke had already broke up a long time before that.
The Asperitys did only a few gigs, as far as I can recall I have seen them just two or three times.
The songs in the file are from the 'Van U Wil Ik Zingen' tape (track 1-12)and 'Holland Hardcore 2nd Attack' (track 13-21)
The photo shows you the bass player for the Asperitys on the right side, Paul on the left and yours truly in the middle. This photo is from a book on culture and was taken at a big anti-war demonstration in The Hague. We did look young for sure.
Tracklist:
01 telephone numbers (UK Subs)
02 blitzkrieg bop (Ramones)
03 dead cities (Exploited)
04 de bommen vielen
05 bombblast (sample)
06 I am the leader (the Nixe)
07 tomorrows girls (UK Subs)
08 el salvador
09 ripper (Exploited)
10 blitzkrieg bop 2 (Ramones)
11 cop cars (Exploited)
12 Warhead (UK Subs)
13 rejects
14 hypocritical government
15 waarom
16 bad brain
17 they can kill me
18 laat je niet pakken
19 i hate football
20 human power
21 disco

Asperitys

INDIREKT

Happy Birthday Anneke!

Back in the 80's there was a LOT of tape trading going on, nationally and internationally. We discovered many new bands that way and got befriended with many people too. Niels de Wit was one avid tape trader and he introduced us to Indirekt, from Hoorn. I remember seeing Indirekt for the first time at the Buze in Steenwijk when they appeared at one of the many festivals there. I recall myself being fascinated by the sound of the bass guitar every time the bass player's foot hit the distortion pedal. I wanted that sound, but never managed to get it.
What made Indirekt really special was their singer. She stood out from all the punks and looked as she was a classical singer lost at a punk gig. Her voice was also very no punk, she actually sang and did not scream! I think she is only in the line up of the first ep (nieuw voor doven en slechthorenden) and then was replaced by Anneke. I am not sure if it is Marjolein or Anneke singing on this demo though....
Indirekt recorded 4 records: two ep's an lp and a split lp. All of them are featured on the 2xcd discography on Grand Theft Audio records from the USA. I recall the owner of that record company trying to sue me after the Holland Hardcore series were released on vinyl and he said he owned all of the 'rights' to all of the Indirekt songs and therefor he wanted me to destroy all the HHC lp's or take me to court. First off I am not responsible for the lp's and secondy I tould him he could suck a part of my body that I would enjoy but he probably wouldn't. Never heard from again.
Lärm and Indirekt played a handfull of gigs together and we are even on their lp (the loudmouths shouting for the song 'Klitten' at the end of the record.
Anyways, this episode is for Anneke, happy birthday and many happy returns! x Jos

tracklist
01 religie
02 hart en vaatziekten
03 eo
04 psychosecomplex
05 toekomst
06 shell helpt
07 recht & orde
08 zwart-wit
09 wie beslist
10 jan soldaat/haagse bluf

INDIREKT 1984 demo

KOTX

I already uploaded some video footage by Kotx, an old punk band from Rotterdam. André (from Hilversum) left a comment that he had more recordings by Kotx and here they are, 18 tracks in total.So thanks to André I am able to share them with you.
I only saw them live once, during Rotterdam New Pop, a free festival in, you guessed it... Rotterdam. We went there a couple of times and saw The Ramones, Undertones, Bad Manners, The Cure, Specials and more that I can't remember.
One of the editions had a special punk stage, Kotx played there as well as J Dops Band, Debiele Eenheid and the Neo Pogo's plus maybe more bands.
We only knew Neo Pogo's from the Utreg compilation lp and loved them for the raw and distorted sound they had. Hardcore Punk? I think so!
Back in the early eighties the skinhead movement became bigger and bigger and despite the fact that not all skins were nazis, most of them were full on assholes. So at this edition of New Pop the skins were there too, welcoming all punks that left the subway station with loads of sneering and, if the punks were smaller than them, intimidation and threatening. I mentioned this in the other post on Kotx I think.
Ofcourse it ended in a fight lateron, punks versus skins versus punks, it was a weird situation and a prelude of what was yet to happen at a lot of punk gigs where nazi skins would fuck shit up badly. You might guess I have never been a big Oi! fan and when two nazi skins killed two guys in the Netherlands (one of them being Kerwin Duinmeyer) it was just the final nail in the coffin.
Back to Kotx, the song in this file vary from upbeat obnoxious punk to more new wavey kind of stuff. The quality is pretty good and I am wondering if this was a demo or meant to be released on vinyl. Who knows? No tracklist either, except for the song 'before you go' that was also featured on the Rotterdam Spunk compilation lp. It also seems to be various recordings sessions, but maybe that's just my bad hearing?
KOTX