If only I liked radio friendly rock huh?

I think we all know these people. Those who are out there to name the most obscure and unknown bands as their favourite bands. I'm not sure if I ever fell into that group, and don't answer me, but I know one thing. I might be doing it right now but I'm not doing it on purpose. Damn you internet for letting me know about all these awsome bands who strangely enough aren't found by other people I know. I love listening to great music. It's even better if you can share the joy.

I'm sorry, I don't like radio-friendly indie, it's not because I'm a snob but I just really don't like (most) of it. I'm sorry that most of the music I like seem to origine from Portland. It just happens. I'm sorry that the current breeze of true rock and punk is an all-girl-band whose band-members are each and one respected musicians already and I'm sorry they do what one would expect them to do. I'm sorry for the internet because without it I wouldn't have known about all this and perhaps life would have been easier. I'm not saying nicer or better, but easier.

Revolution is of all times and ages and there's a new one coming

If I had been granted unlimited internet access, lived in Olympia or in a sleepy UK town and a little bit older and had the right friends (absolutely nothing wrong with the friends I had, they lacked the exact same things I lacked), I probably was a riot grrrl in the early nineties loving all the riot grrrl bands playing it right at that time. I probably wouldn't have been able to see them play, I'm not even sure how I would even know about them, being a teenage girl in Rotterdam, the Netherlands who's friends were into Metallica and Dream Theatre and (later on) Nirvana. I would have had to rely on mixtapes from America. I had none. But without all that I think, looking back, I might have been one all along and ever since. Because, it's not a music genre, it's a social subculture. This is pretty much what it was and what it still is. It's not death, it never was. A movement can be small and pushed back by male dominance and the media (which could be regarded the same thing).

I've always loved music more than the average person (except a few years after Doe Maar broke up, I must have been that upset that I shut down from music altogether and when I saw a poster of ballet shoes in the room of a friend I thought 'So, this must be this Spandau Ballet everyone is all about.' No shit.), listening to the lyrics of one of the Doe Maar albums I seriously questioned why my mother would let a 6-year-old listen to that, it's Dutch so I understood every word, I just didn't know what they meant. But I'm grateful today and my mother told me she let me have the albums as she found them educational for me. I enjoyed playing DJ in my room, made re-mixes of my favourite songs with my records and a tape recorded, made hit lists, made my own music magazine, wrote my own reviews, even about albums that didn't exist. My music evolution knows some questionable choices but you got to know your enemy before forming an opinion right (coughs)? And one Easter break I sat with my sister in a caravan and we talked about forming a band together. I wrote down some lyrics and we both were content with them. The idea of forming a band together returned a couple of times in our lives. I own a guitar, an electric guitar, a ukulele (a green one and it's the coolest you'll ever see). I've played drums on a friend's kit back in high school to which he informed me I was the best player of everyone there (I at least knew how to hold the sticks). I wanted to be a harmonica player and owned a few cheap ones (much to the stress of my parents). My aunt actually gave me her guitar when I was about 14. I've always been aware of the politics of our country, I've always questioned the role of women in this world, I'm a socialist ever since I was able to vote (and probably before as well), every job test I made in school said I should be a social worker (not regarding I'm really socially awkward and don't trust people that much. If you're my friend consider yourself lucky), I've been called a true punk throughout my life without seeing myself as one ('I don't have the looks!'), and if I do something on a regular basis it's kicking against society. In the comfort of my own home.

Why on earth did I never form that band you say? There's one very good reason and it's not even my voice (I auditioned for a band once and let's say my friends were not impressed though they never told me directly). I have the music ability of a penguin. Place a penguin at the carnival in Rio and it will dance as hopelessly I will. A penguin has just as much chance to play a decent chord on a guitar with its wings than I have with my hands. I often do not sing at concerts because I don't want to insult the band. Usually the only person who can hear me sing is myself and that's enough to put me off. I may have all the inspiration and intentions to be in the best punk band you've ever seen but, to use the wise words of Joost Belifante about violist in my own situation; I'm a trans-musician. A musician in the body of a total none-musician. It sucks doesn't it?

There are others things I could do. Yesterday when I saw the Socialist Party handing out their newspaper for the States Election this March I approached one of them and he happened to be the chairman of the division where I live. If they needed some helping hands. I have no idea if I'm able to do it, if I can get out of the comfort zone of sitting on my couch with my laptop and being utterly passive aggressive behind a screen, ranting about music, politics and social atrocities in a blog and on twitter. I feel a revolution happening. And who knows, I might dis my inner penguin and play protest songs for real. I'm not too old. No one is too old. As Ernst Jansz told me "It's entirely up to you".

Here are the boys from the Opel Gang!

The first time I got consciously in touch with punk music was in a rather delicate time in my life. In the summer while my parents were going through their divorce I was sent to my grandparents in a little village in Germany. My uncle had just bought a double album by German altpunkers Die Toten Hosen and while I was going through his rather cool record collection I found it and practically claimed it as well. I'm not sure what went through my mind when I heard them for the first time but reality was that I went home with a couple of cassettes of Die Toten Hosen - and my uncle's CD. A young teenager with parents going through a divorce getting her hands on a punk record. It might be every parents' nightmare. For me it was an eye-opener, especially when they released 'Learning English, lesson one' only one year later which included only covers by their favourite punk bands, mainly with their favourite punk bands. Of course I already learnt about the Sex Pistols and the Ramones but there was so much more! It was like they sent out a mixtape with punk favourites. No such thing as youtube, wikipedia, google, spotify, lastfm and internet my friends, we kids had to learn about music in other ways.

I spent the majority of the nineties listening to Die Toten Hosen. I also got to learn about another german punk band, Die Ärzte, who I've seen live a few times, met even (really nice guys, very laid back) but who I quickly fell out of love with because they started to somewhat annoy me by flirting with commercialism. With then releasing an album about a barber shop they lost me completely. I'm not sure why I stopped listening to Die Toten Hosen after a while as well because they didn't quite do that, even though they were fairly decent cover stars of German pop-bible Bravo. But I guess I got other interests and with me not being in Germany so frequently, that was a connection that somehow cooled down a lot as well.

I never stopped liking Die Toten Hosen and to be honest, these guys are still cool after all these years. They released their fun punk album 'Opel Gang' in 1983 (my cassette looks like it was purchased right then but I bought it 7 years later) and as the years went by they got more political but never lost their fun side either. For instance, on their 1996 album 'Opium für's Volk' (my favourite album and the last one I was massively into) they had 'Viva la revolution' followed by 'Zehn kleine Jägermeister' which lists down what happens if you drown 10 Jägermeister, or something like that anyway. It's quite genius and they get away with it as it's their nature. They sing mainly in German as you might have guessed but started to sing more in English which personally I don't like that much. It's not that Campino's (the singer) English is bad, his mother after all is British, but his voice is very German in my ears. They're not only being political in songs, but also in campaigns such as posing naked for an anti-fur campaign. And they are big football fans and with their cash they have sponsored their favourite team Fortuna Düsseldorf which indeed resulted the players wearing a skull on their shirts.

I'll leave you with this classic clip from 1993 (hence the bad quality) of 'Wünsch Dir was' before diving into my archives and getting a Tote Hosen fix.

Where Garage Girls come from

The raise of female fronted garage rock bands is great. Vivian Girls. Dum Dum Girls. Best Coast. Grass Widow. Girls at Dawn. Pens. Veronica Falls. Las Robertas. You may argue they kind of sound the same but if they would drop the reverberation imagine how great that would be. Sure, it might be exactly that what makes current garage rock (male voices are doing the same) garage rock but The Splinters don't use it and they sound genuine and absolutely great. What a band they are, the Splinters. Pure garage rock. But are the new generation garage rock bands, or lo-fi as they probably prefer, fronted by women something new and so 21st century? I'm sorry, but it's nothing new.

Because, for instance in 1980, there were the Bangs. Not to be confused by the 90s band The Bangs, though in sound you'd love both. The 80s Bangs were three LA girls who shared their passion for 60s music. Beatles, Mamas & the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel (they would later in their career have a hit single with a cover), The Seed, The Byrds, the Randalls, these girls loved harmonies and they loved 60s garage. They released a fairly (underground) successful single 'Gettin' out of hand/Call on me' and were the darling of the Paisley Underground. They then did something the now generation garage rock bands don't - they got themselves a bassist. They rocked, they had fantastic voices which sang in harmonies and yes, they looked sexy too. If the Dum Dum Girls had been living at that time, they'd probably look and sound like the Bangs.

As the Bangs got more known, another band with the same name got aware and threatened to sue the girls. They renamed themselves and recorded a self-titled EP: The Bangles were born. Their debut EP was filled with 5 garage rock pearls and the future looked bright for the four, but not before firing their bassist and hiring a new one. With their new bassist they recorded a long player which was released in 1984, 'All over the place'. It sounded raw and sweet. The Paisley Underground was proud of their very own Fab Four as they were dubbed. The girls enjoyed their sweaty gigs and were giving their new bassist her very own moment, the Seeds 'Pushin' too hard'. It was a highlight of their shows.

Then something happened which might be typical for that time and probably wouldn't happen anymore, mainly because record labels will not spend their time and money into turning small bands into mainstream chart toppers. Record labels are not interested in that anymore. The Bangles were signed to a Big Label and damn you Prince for having an interest in the Paisley Underground and the Bangles.He wrote them the power pop tune Manic Monday. Add a marketing campaign for Susanna Hoffs Big Brown Eyes and you have a more successful version of the Go-go's. The rest is history. The Bangles released 'Hazy shade of winter' an old-school Bangles version of the Simon and Garfunkel classic for the now cult movie 'Less than zero'. Also 'Everything', their 1988 album, featured heavier songs but also spawned their biggest hit 'Eternal Flame' which launched the band into a break up. The band had turned into a huge success but not the way the girls had wanted to, not to mention they agreed on.

But before all that, before it all was over, the Bangles were the pride and joy of the Paisley Underground, their jangle pop-folk-garage-rock with punkish hooks was a delight and it still is today. Whenever I hear the early Bangles stuff I sigh happily and wish reverberation was never invented. Sure, it gives a lo-fi 60s sound, but you can accomplish that without. Do it girls, I'm begging you!

Top 3 gigs @ Paradiso Kleine Zaal Amsterdam

Am I one of these people who will moan when their favourite band gets this big they will be playing bigger venues? I have to admit I sort of am but not because I don't want the band to be successful and wouldn't want to share this with the rest of the world but simply because I love the smaller venues. Kaiser Chiefs in the 850 capacity Melkweg was much better than Kaiser Chiefs in the 5,000 capacity HMH (and this was not just because their songs had gone drastically down the drain ever since). These smaller venues are real. I just love them. Two of my top 3 gigs of this year have taken place in such a small venue, the little stage of the Paradiso in Amsterdam. And to honour just that, here's my top 3 of my favourite gigs from that very stage, Paradiso - kleine zaal.

3) Ernst Jansz (October 2010)
It was more the whole experience that made it. All seated with some honourable Dutch musicians in the audience, Jansz was playing Bob Dylan songs in Dutch, talked about Dylan songs, showed Dylan pictures. I don't even like Dylan! It was still amazing. Ernst Jansz means more to me than words can say. After the show, where we were all treated on cake and champagne, I tried to tell him anyway. The hug and kiss (on the cheek) I got in return are priceless. That combined with the great musician, singer and story teller he is made this unforgettable.

2) Quasi (May 2010)
Not knowing what to expect from this band they really blew me away. This is how God intended rock n roll to be. For me this show was also some kind of turning point. It was my definite goodbye from general frustration about 'nme-indie', isn't there anything else? Sure there is. And Quasi are the King and Queens of that. Ever since this gig I never felt too old for any show any longer. And let it be said that Janet Weiss and Sam Coomes are two of the most genuine and kindest musicians I've ever met.

1) The Cribs (September 2007)
If the microphone stand of Gary Jarman falls down straight into the plastic cup with beer of his brother Ryan you just know the stage is small. The Cribs (then still a 3-piece) are notoriously known for their raw and energy filled shows, this was no exception, far from it. Sweat literally dripped from them on us. And from us on them. The venue was boiling. Everyone was hyped. There was serious crowd surfing. It was amazing. One of the best gigs I've seen? Definitely. Best live band too.


All pictures on this post are made by me.

Live Recordings and Wild Flag go together like Brownies and Whipped Cream

I hate live recordings. Whether they are official releases or shaky youtube clips, I'm not a fan. There's always someone screaming or whooo-ing through the entire song, whether it's a youtube or an official release. They belong to every live gig and I wouldn't want anything else while being at a gig (though please, not directly into my ear, thank you) - but it should stay inside the venue. I won't deny either that these youtube clips are heaven if you can't see that band yourself. But would I listen to these? No.

Until now.

I'm absorbing anything WILD FLAG. Pictures, youtubes, messages. I bow down in gratitude to the people who filmed these current shows. WILD FLAG has not recorded anything just yet (but I among many with me would blindly and immediately pre-order the CD if Merge Records would make this available right now) but Janet Weiss, Carrie Brownstein, Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole says enough to make the mouth water and for many this band is their New Favourite Band. For me, it's long since I had such an obsession for a band. It might be because I lived on Mars without wifi when riot grrrl was rolling, it might be because My Favourite Band is on a 2-year-break (and we're on month 3). For heaven's sake, I'm almost 35 but when I hear Carrie Brownstein roar "Racehorse" I get giddy. I want to jump up and down and I want to see that band.

This morning three ripped songs past by on my walkman while on my way to work, I got a bright grin on my face and loved it so much. I loved a live recording. I was able to listen to a live recording with my high tech headphones on. The first ever band who managed that was My Favourite Band On A Two Year Break a few years back. Tells you something? Tell me a lot. Favourite Band, there's a new Runner Up!

The ballad of the Dr Martens boots

For some reason of another I have a weakness for Dr. Martens boots since the early days of the 90s. Something about punk and grunge. During Spring and Summer I practically sleep in my green Converse, when the weather turns grey and therefore wet, kissing them goodbye isn't so hard as my Dr. Martens boots are waiting.

It's not that I have a complete rainbow of boots lying around in the house, it's been too long since they only cost 19.99 in the UK so quite frankly, I would refuse that. I'm a sales shopper, because money can only buy you so much so make the most of it. It doesn't mean I don't walk past windows and sigh to all the pretty colours on display. I'm really content with my pink boots, the most expensive pair I own. I bought them in Manchester and I felt like splashing out. Women are known for shoe-addictions, I don't really have that but those, I fell in love. I took my time fitting them and they're regulars on my feet. As are my white ones. These, I'll admit, are actually fakes but they have been mistaken for real and you know what, they are comfy, they are cool and they are white. Deal with it. And there's the purple ones I bought on sale, 80 euros off! Only that one pair! Of course they went home.

In case you never wore any Dr Martens boots, here's a few basic rules. The size you need is usually larger than what you're usually wearing (I have the smallest possible feet, it's a blessing and an ego-booster), you need to remember the number of eyes in case you're buying none-matching shoe-laces and every pair of Dr. Martens boots require a (at least) two week torment walking in the boots, making them fitting to your very own feet and soften the leather. Get the bandage! But you will not speak of it while walking, but everyone will tell by the look on your face and the way you walk, especially the way you walk. It's the Way of the Boots and we follow that.

These purple ones. They are half a size smaller than the pink ones. But, they fit. They honestly do. But still they hurt like having stone cropped around your feet. The leather seems to refuse to soften up. The right foot is fine, but then it's my smaller one (my feet have different shoe sizes) but the left. As if a knife cuts on top of it. The stitches feel like they left the needles in. It's the Way of the Dr Martens Boots. So you are brave, one day the left boot will be just as comfortable. Because, as we all know, once you've been through torture, those boots will be most comfortable and even if they're not they are. I'll get you purple boots!

There's total understanding in all of this if you're able to sing 'Dr Martens, Dr Martens, Dr Martens boots. No, don't you want me' perfectly out of tune and are able to perform the dance to it too. They send out a signal as well and especially now, in the grim dark Netherlands, I'm wearing them with more pride than ever before. Something about the repressed working class.