Er is Hoop tapes: Van U Wil Ik Zingen

I have already written some stuff about the tape label we once had and because of a Facebook post last week, my friend Ralf suggested to upload this compilation tape we once did with 3 local bands from Amersfoort.

‘Van U Wil Ik Zingen’ Another Dutch basement tape from Er Is Hoop, this one featuring three bands. TOTAL CHAOZ is a methadrine thrash group with a female singer; the PUKE is a messy, unformed punk band; and the ASPERITYS are basic punksters that do too many covers. OK for a first effort, but all these amateurish outfits were recorded a bit prematurely.
-Jeff Bale (from Maximum Rocknroll #6, May/June 1983)

That’s how the first release on ‘Er Is Hoop’ tapes was reviewed in MRR.
When the Disturbers disbanded, Total Chaoz was the next band. At this time we found out there were more punk bands rehearsing at the same practise space and through graffitti, we started to make contact. Both the Puke and the Asperitys were not strictly from Amersfoort. members were from surrounding villages like Soest and Leusden too.
The Puke were more a ska band than straight on punk and the Asperitys mainly played cover songs by the, at that time, bigger punk bands such as the Exploited and U.K. Subs.
The Puke disbanded a short while later and the band members more or less dissapeared from the punk scene. The Asperitys started to write more and more song by themselves and were part of the first hardcore punk wave in the Netherlands. I think it is well known what happened with Total Chaoz.

I found these Music files on Soulseek a long time ago. There was no artwork included, so this time it is just the Music and I have no idea what the songtitles of the Puke are.

Enjoy the tape.
Van U Wil Ik Zingen

Wir Bleiben Fahren Pogo Party 7-6-2014

Yesterday I went to Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands, to attend a reunion of Babylon Hengelo and the Chi Chi club in Winterswijk. Two famous venues back in the 80's that held a lot of festivals, had many classic bands play and organized stuff that was not just about music as well. I have seen many classic bands there and played both venues a few times with Lärm.
The festival contained 12 bands, some of them only re-uniting for this occassion only.
My main reason to go there was to see people I had not seen in about 25 years or more, as well as to watch Indigesti and Winterswijx Chaos Front, Murder Inc and Neuroot.
(Well Indigesti had to cancel, I already knew that).
I am glad I went. It was good to talk to all of these people I had not seen in a long while, some of them took some time recognising me, I am fortunate to have a good memory for names and faces. Sometimes when you encounter old friends it is mostly about 'things used to be a lot better back in the days' and so on, but not yesterday. Interesting talks about how we evolved from being a hardcore kid to the persons we are nowadays, looking back on all the dogmatism that occured in the hc scene back then and ofcourse sharing a lot of good memories. Best thing though was that some people thought I was Olav, if you know us both, you know we do not look alike at all and never did. Oh well. People travelled form Germany, Belgium and the north and east of the Netherlands. There were only a handfull of people from the west of the country, which proves again that they are too lazy to leave their cities and part of the country and also why I have always enjoyed festivals and concert in the northeast of the Netherlands more than I did in the major cities. It was weird though to arrive at this festival and not seeing a lot of cars from Germany with their doors wide open and stereos on full blast. No punks on the streets carrying their own crate of beer of bottle of wine. No people who came around to look at all the weirdos attending such a festival. No Lärm Straight Edgers who wanted to battle the drunk punks. I guess we have all turned a bit older, or maybe matured.

In the end I only saw a part of Murder Inc's set, which was really tight and the whole set of Winterswijx Chaos Front. Unfortunately I had to skip Neuroot, but at least I have a t-shirt!
Winterswijx Chaos Front played a rather chaotic set and I stood there with a huge smile on my face, singing along silently. Although they did not play perfect, it sounded great and their enthousiasm and the visible joy made up for all of it. So many good times we shared together. I am glad I went all the way to Enschede (well, 'all the way', 1.5 hours each way) to see them and talk to them. I am looking forward to hear the recordings of this set.
Thanks for organising it, it must have been a lot of hard work to do so.
For the people using facebook, here's a video of 'the crow flys'.
WCF live at ATAK Enschede 07-06-2014


I have uploaded two live sets: one recorded at the Chi Chi Club (this might be their farewell gig) and the other one recorded at Parkhof Alkmaar in 1987. The set at the Chi Chi Club features quite some talking and experimental music and it seems as if Harm forgot to bring his distortion pedal, because it sounds very clean. As a bonus I have added their ep.
WCF live Alkmaar 1987
WCF live @ Chi Chi Club Winterswijk
WCF - s/t ep

the Trashbagz & Survival Squad

When pre-Lärm bands are mentioned, it is most of the times the bands that Paul, Olav and myself have been a part of. But let's not forget that Menno also used to be in a band before Lärm. He sang in a band called  Survival Squad and they hailed from the Hilversum area.
We got to know them through a Mutual friend (Rob) who either went to the same school as they did or at least knew people who did. I have no idea to be honest. All I know is that the Disturbers were meant to play together with these bands, but that gig got cancelled on the evening itself.
Rob started his own tape label (Chaotic Tapes) which was a thing a lot of punks used to do back in those days and his first release was a split tape by the Trashbagz and Survival Squad. I am not sure if there were other releases after this one. Rob went along to a lot of the Lärm gigs lateron and even sang for us when we were asked to play on a festival we attented and Menno was not there.
I do not know a lot about either of the bands, but if I am correct the Trashbagz were from Soest and as said before Survival Squad was from Hilversum. It is quite interesting to hear various styles mixed in both bands. Trashbagz play the mandatory ska song and Survival Squad try to speed up to hardcore punk at times but are very melodic on the other hand too.
Hopefully Menno can supply some additions to the bandhistories and maybe even some photos.
In the Survival Squad songs you'll find one track that made it to the Lärm set: 'Passive Punks' which is about punks not wanting to pogo. Hearing Menno's strong Cockney accent made me smile several times when I listened to this track. The only other band member I am sure of, is René, who went on singing for Echte Boter gvd. More on them later.

I won this tape on an Ebay auction last year. William from Funeral Oration was offering this tape and the proceeds went toward his son's pocketmoney (at least that is what he told me).

To be continued?

Thrashbagz / Survival Squad split tape