Lärm - First gig april 8th 1983

Friday april 8th 1983 was the date Lärm played it's first live gig ever. We played at Tagrijn in Hilversum, a city quite close to Amersfoort and the venue was known for the weekly punk/new wave nights and also for putting on bands in this genre. If I am correct we played with Asperitys and I am not sure if Red Riot played or not, maybe it was just 2 bands.
I recall us being quite nervous, this being the first time for Lärm to play live on a stage with a PA system too. We arrived for soundcheck, plugged in and played two songs. The soundguy then asked us to stop fooling around and play a proper song. When we told him we just played two, he looked at us as if we were from another planet. He switched off his soundboard and left, shaking his head in disbelief. Obviously he did not care and if you listen carefully to the live recordings, you can hear reggae played through the PA while we played live. Maybe that is where my dislike of reggae comes from? Who knows.
After being introduced as 'LARM' (even Dutch people can't pronounce it right), we kicked off with a special version of 'Our Future'. Crass had a slogan 'Fight War - Not Wars', we had our own: 'Milk Cows - Not Bulls'. We even had a banner at some point with this slogan. We definately put effort into the image of being farmer punks, even though only Dorien and myself lived on a farm.
The crowd was not completely ready for us. Lärm was one of the first bands in Holland that took punk to another level: faster and louder than most other bands around back then and also completely clueless when it came to tune guitars. We knew how to use a distortion though!
On this recording you'll hear a few songs that were skipped before the split lp with Stanx. Sick Of You and Oh Beatrix were both Total Chaoz songs originally and if I am correct Dead Soldiers was a Sextons song even. Country Life was a song glorifying life on the farm and HCP (stands for Hardcore Punk) was changed into OSL later on. Wodka had a different intro back then and some songs are longer than the versions we recorded on vinyl.
For me this was a pleasant trip down memory lane and hopefully the Dutch speaking people can understand some of the in between song ranting.
I guess this is where the Campaign For Musical Destruction started.

Tracklist:
01 our future
02 nijpels face - ban the bomb

03 disorder - vader abraham
04 pigeon
05 nothing for us
06 too old
07 police threats
08 only reality - south africa
09 passive punks
10 revolting youth - oh beatrix
11 wodka
12 country life - dead soldiers - hcp



Lärm: first live gig ever

Tröckener Kecks (demo)

Tröckener Kecks, it could stand for 'Dry Biscuits', but I am not even sure if it is written in an existing language.
I have been looking for their first lp 'Schliessbaum' for ages. It was one of those records I did not pick up when it was released, basically because I did not have enough money to buy all records released and choices had to be made. Paul and Olav taped it for me though and at that time, it did the job really well. I know someone in Amersfoort has a copy too, but despite all my trying and begging, he did not want to part with it.
You can imagine my joy when my friend Theun sent me a textmessage: 'Schliessbaum without lyricsheet in good condition, interested?' Ofcourse I was and for an ok price I am finally owning this record. Another one crossed of the list.
The Tröckener Kecks were part of the second wave of punk bands in Amsterdam. What makes them stand out of the rest, are the lyrics. Often poetic, but also critical and therefor interesting. Listening to them these days, they could be compared to the Undertones at some point. Musicwise that is.
They once played about 5 km from my house. I think I mentioned that gig in the post I did on the Nitwitz.

Tröckener Kecks were also featured on that mega-festival in the UK called 'Christmas On Earth' where they played among a lot of UK82 bands as well as Black Flag and Lama (!). Henry Rollins wrote about this festival in Get in the Van.
Personally I lost interest in the Tröckener Kecks after their second ep, that is when they moved on from punk to more rock. They actually became a quite succesfull band lateron, with different members than the Original line-up.
I have uploaded their 1980 demo, recorded at Oktopus Amsterdam. Most of these songs can be found on the Rik Ringers ep or the Schliessbaum lp. Sometimes in a different version that the ones on the records. There's also some unreleased songs (as far as I know).
In his book 'Johan was punk an dhe knows it' , Johan van Leeuwen wrote about the times he joined the Tröckener Kecks on the gigs they played. Being fanatic fans of Heineken, every time they passed the brewery on their way to a gig, the van stopped, everybody jumped out and kissed the walls of the brewery. Hence the song 'Heineken Beer', which is a non stop ode to this beer brand (and we all know it tastes like shit right?). Dutch punk band Outlawz wrote a song called 'Chocomel' (chocolate milk) as a reaction to the Tröckener Kecks ode.
I will upload the first ep and the Schliessbaum lp somewhere in the future.
Enjoy their demo



Tröckener Kecks demo

Utreg Punx compilation ep

I have mentioned it before that Utrecht was a city that influenced us a lot in our earliest punk days. It was close to Amersfoort and had quite a vibrant punk scene, with loads of bands, zines and record stores. Needless to say that we went there quite often. The punks from Utrecht called themselves Utreg Punx and at that time most punks named themselves after the city or area they came from. Mokum Punks were from Amsterdam (Mokum is a nickname for Amsterdam), punks from Groningen called themselves Grunn Punx, punks from the eastern part of the Netherlands were called Boer'n Punx (Farmer Punks) and so on. Jet$et once wrote a song about this, condemning all the punks who weree eager to label themselves after the city/area they were from. But that is a different story. The punks in Utrecht were very DIY and also not too keen on a lot of bands from the UK who they labelled as rock stars (for example Stiff Little Fingers, because they left the stage when punks did not stop throwing beer at them, UK Subs for appearing on BBC television). They organised concerts in various venues and later on in squats. I remember going to place like Rasa, NV Huis and SSR and many (temporary) squats. They also had their own record label called Rock Against. The most well known output must be the Utreg Punx compilation ep which features the only vinyl output (so far, but more on that in a few months time) of the (in)famous Noxious. Their song 'Sunday Fools' is a short violent blast of 'we don't give a fuck' punk. The version recorded on the ep is basically the try out version to test the levels and turned out to be the best version. On these recordings they had a stand-in bass player (Buffel, who played bass in the Bizon Kids). Rakketax still had the female singer at this point. It is also the vinyl debut of the Nixe, one of the first all female punk bands from the Netherlands, known for their very simple songs, but who ever said that punk rock needed complex song structures eh? Lullabies records a song that was a lot noisier and rawer than the one released on the U-Tracks compilation lp and it was also one of the first outputs by the Ex. Who were not really from Utrecht, but who cares? At that time, two members of the Ex lived in Utrecht. (thanks for the correction GW Sok)
This ep is a fine example of what happened musically at that time and as far as I am concerned the Noxious song is one of the best songs ever from a Dutch punk band. It might even be one of the first hardcoresongs ever recorded in the Netherlands.
 opefully after the release of the Lullabies discography, the unreleased Noxious recordings will be available as an ep. I will keep you posted on that ofcourse.
Seein Red covered two songs on this ep on our anniversary ep: The Lullabies song and (ofcourse) the one by Noxious.
Utreg Punx ep

This is names don't matter comp tape

Back in the 80's there were  a lot of people releasing compilation tapes. It was something not too hard to do and also did not cost a lot of money. Most of the tapelabels were run by just one person or a small group of friends. Tape comps were the cheapest way for bands to get known and have their music released to a wide audience, because tape-dubbing was something we ALL did at that time.
There were a lot of classic compilations released over the years, the Bad Compilation tapes is just one example and I think the Holland Hardcore series deserve to be mentioned too. Thanks to compilation tapes like XCentric and the likes, we got to know bands such as Huvudtvätt and other classic bands from the eighties, too many to mention.
The tape that I have uploaded is done by 'My smile is a mask' tapes which was linked to a zine called 'Names don't matter'. This comp was done in 1985.
First off we have S.C.A. from Amsterdam. They started as Staphorster Chaoten Alliantie but changed their name to Strong Concentration of Anger after that. Released a 12" and a few tracks on the 'Beware of the wolf in sheep's clothing' 12". I think the stuff on this compilation is all previously released, but I am not 100% sure. Since the guitarplayer's daughter is on the school I run, I will ask Rob if he remembers this tape.
Murder Inc. III hails from Heerenveen and has been featured in this blog previously. Also not sure if their songs on this tape have been released previously. They have just created a facebook page too where you can see a lot of photos and flyers as well as videos of very recent pratices. Are they re-uniting? Murder inc facebook page
Fishtown HC is a band from Germany (as far as I am told) and that is about all the info I can give you on them.
Jack in the Box is a one-man project done bij Sjak van Brussel, he is also responsible for some compilation tapes himself. Sjak also runs Antenna record store in Tilburg and still plays in Lewd (the Dutch one that is). I would describe Jack in the Box as a young Big Black.
Images provided by Sjak.

names don't matter

Hollands Glorie

Hollands Glorie was a band formed by two ex-members of BVD and Ketchup. Hailing from The Hague, Hollands Glorie was another band that sang in Dutch and added some more melody to their sound. There is a hint of Oi! to be found, as well as rock and roll, very catchy indeed. I think they were together for 3 years or something like that. Two of the bandmembers joined a band called World War Rockers afterwards. Uploaded are their demo and ep.
Demo
Harde Feiten ep

Bizon Kids

I can't really understand why I haven't uploaded the Bizon Kids ep yet. They were the first band Paul. Olav and myself ever shared the stage with during the first and only Sextons gig ever. I have mentioned before we used to go to a lot of punk gigs in Utrecht. The city was nearby and for some reason we always felt very comfortable at the gigs overthere (until we went to the Strength Thru Noxious! festival, but that is another story). At the time of the first Sextons gig, I met a punkette from Utrecht who was placed out of her home there and was living with fosterparents in Amersfoort. Het name was Meetje and I think she is the one who got us in touch with the Bizon Kidz. More on that gig can be found in the piece I wrote about the Sextons. The Bizon Kidz were a fun band to watch live, they joked around a lot and their ep is an example of that. They created their own game (Bizon Borden) which can be found on the lyric sheet and were not afraid to cover an a capella song about frikadellen (google that!). Besides this ep, they recorded some songs for the 'Rock Against' lp. After that, they faded away from the punk scene and I do not think they went on in other bands. I have fond memories of them playing at the rock against religion festival in Utrecht, in one of the cellars close to the town hall. Seein Red covered two songs of them over the years: Godsdienstwaanzin on the split with MK Ultra en Ouwe Lullen Tango on the anniversary ep. There is some live footage on youtube here

Bizon Kidz ep

Squits - Haarlem Punks

Yes I know it has been a real long while since the last post on this weblog, but I am hoping to do this on a more regulare basis from now on. This time I would like to introduce a band from Haarlem called 'Squits'. They self-released an ep in 1982 that had 12 songs on it, if I am correct this was the first Dutch ep with this amount of songs. Part of the artwork was done by Joost Swarte, a famous illustrator and artist from the Netherlands. Besides this ep, they also contributed to the first Holland Hardcore tape and by then they already had evolved into a faster hardcore band like a lot of punk bands did at that time. Not too soon after these recordigns the band split up and the bass player Paul joined or formed a new band called Pure Hate. They also slef released an ep that pops up every now and then due to dead stock being discovered at a lot of record stores and distros. It is one of those underrated hardcore records that not many people seem to care about. It is not rare enough or hyped enough. I think it is a great record and it includes a Squits song too (people). I never was fortunate enough to catch the Squits live though, I am not sure if they played live a lot. You will find the ep, the Holland Hardcore recordings and the Pure Hate ep underneath.

Enjoy
Squits ep
Squits Holland Hardcore recordings
Pure Hate ep