zaterdag 2 november 2013

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

1 opmerking:

Jos zei

At the time of the Utregpunx release, two members of The Ex actually did live in the city of Utrecht.