Introducing... Gerhardt

As time goes by and I delve deeper into my own distorted reflections, sometimes little introductions will be useful. I will keep referring to them as I talk of certain people, places and projects.

It's only right I start with someone who has made quite an impact on my personal life and career of late: Gerhardt, also affectionally known as 'G' or 'Chefke' (chief)

Gerhardt I've known for about two years now. He's a musician from Alkmaar, a city not far from Amsterdam. He spent most of his twenties playing in all kinds of unruly indiebands, such as Skinnerbox and The Realdolls. He's also known as the bloke who plays piano and cowbell with the soul-pop band Beans & Fatback. A few years ago he left his garage-roots and chose the path of the singer-songwriter.

Gerhardt at 'our' release party in Paradiso

I met him through facebook, as he has been an avid explorer of the social web in the time that I've known him. He responded to a call out I made as I was looking for songwriters to play at a spur-of-the-moment party at my friend Hester's old dorm. In the spontaneous, ad-hoc manner I've come to know so well, Gerhardt agreed to come down and play to a small crowd of international students. In the following year and a half, we met on quite a few occassions: he became a fan of the event Pageturner that I host every month, I became a fan of his witty songs and the suprising twists he gave to them every so often. We became quite good friends considering we didn't see eachother very often.

This past januari, Gerhardt released his first single A Brand New Heart, of his first mini-album All Is There. He recorded it in Belgium with Triggerfinger as his studio band, per chance the best rockband in Belgium. Alas their touring schedule made it impossible to play Gerhardt's liveshows. So he was looking for musicians to play his new 'band songs' live. I just came back from a hiatus as a musician, and somehow managed to talk myself into the band without Gerhardt even hearing me play. In a matter of weeks a band was formed, material was rehearsed and a string of dates were played, including many radio and television appearances and a soldout release-show at Paradiso in Amsterdam.

The band: Marjolein, Akim, Gerhardt, Otto, yours truly

In just 7 months I went from an inactive bassplayer to a pretty professional one. We have some huge festival dates coming up, the record has been received very well by the press and I've learned a lot about professional musicianship and 'the bizz'. It's been quite a trip, but it's one I feel has been worth my time and effort so far. It's great to be out playing music to crowds again.

A few weeks ago, we recorded a special for RTV Noord-Holland. Check it out below:



I will regularly be posting updates about the band as they come up. Also, expect some distorted reflections on this whole touring life. It gets pretty crazy sometimes, so it might make for a very interesting read...!

De Staat (Live) Review for OOR Magazine

Another review I did for OOR Magazine. This time I paid a visit to the sold out concert at Melkweg The Max (cap. 1400) of one of the greatest rock bands around in The Netherlands: De Staat. It was a very hot and sweaty night.

Here's the interview:
http://oor.nl/#reviews/concerts/1616/de_staat_is_steengoed_maar_nog_niet_groots

Found a nice live vid from the concert. It's their very cool single Sweatshop, with guest vocals from Kelly, singer for electro outfit The Routines. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Paris, Bruxelles and other stuff - bulletpoint style

So, with Paris behind me and a lot of stuff in front of me, here's my breakdown of the distant past and the immediate future - bulletpoint style.

PARIS

• Met up with my friend Benjamin of Almost Musique, a great French label/agency that works with Patrick Watson, Bon Iver, Thus:Owls, Ane Brun and many others. And a very amicable guy, too. I got lost in the Metro on the way there, but we laughed it off. He showered me in gifts; 13 promotional copies of the artists he's working with right now. I gave him some cd's from my recent projects and a few others I thought would be worth his time. We'll be working together on some dates early september for his protégés Shimmering Stars, a 50's/60's rock 'n roll band. Lots of echo and breathy vocals involved. Like what you hear? Shoot me an e-mail

• Spending time with my dear friend Hester has been a blast! And will be for the next few days. She's been my friend and accomplice in music and arts since high school, working together on numerous occasions and doing a lot of dancing. She was so kind to give me a place to sleep in Paris. Her great strength: getting to know everyone who's even remotely interesting in music, fashion, psychiatry, art. Even in the short time - 6 months - she has spent in Paris, she's become an impressive spider in a metropolitan web. Hester Velthuis, remember the name!

BRUXELLES

• Hester and I travelled back to the Netherlands together, making a stop in Paris to check out our friends Das Pop. We were lucky enough to be on the guestlist for their album presentation in Ancienne Belgique, the first and foremost popvenue in Bruxelles. The show was fantastic, and the new material on The Game held up really well during the concert. It's such a rarity for a band to keep the attention for 90 minutes, but Das Pop makes it look easy.

AMSTERDAM

So, back in Amsterdam, doing a bunch of things. It's gonna be a busy week.

This is where you'll find me:

- tonight (april 19th)
21.00 @ De Nieuwe Anita, another night of free acoustic behind-bar sessions, courtesy of the wonderful Club Cornflakes. Playing are Ro Halfhide, Case Mayfield and European Daughters. There's also massages, haircuts, tarot readings and others surprises available. Always a good place to go on a tuesday night!

- tomorrow (wednesday april 20th)
the awesome The Benelux (NON Records) are supporting Does It Offend You, Yeah? @ Melkweg.

- thursday april 21th:
another Pageturner (#24) at Café Pakhuis Wilhelmina.
Line-up: Spoelstra (weird-ass analog electro), Spilt Milk (melancholic folk with lyrics by dead poets), Jenny Hval (Norwegian pop princess), Cato Fluitsma (girl with trekzak) and poets Markus Haringa and Florian Kullberg. I'll be spinning records and hosting the evening. Come adn join if you feel like a crazy night of caroussel performance from all four corners of the room.

- friday, april 22nd:
The Netherlands' hardest rocking gentlement De Staat are playing @ Melkweg. The unruly garage duo Death Letters will be supporting. I'll be doing the review for OOR

- saturday, april 23rd:
YEEEEHAAAA I'll be playing De Nieuwe Anita downstairs room with my band Dress for the very first time. Our good friend GRAM will also be playing and presenting her new single. You can listen to her new single on her site Come down and enjoy some cocktails with your rock 'n roll.

- sunday, april 24th:
On the road with Gerhardt. We'll be playing a try-out show at Café Swaf in Hoorn. Yes, I know we've already had our release show. We still need the practice, though.

Well, that about wraps up my last week and the next. Lots of bulletpoints, plenty of hyperlinks.
Enjoy the sun!

cheers,

J.

Das Pop - The Game Review for BAMM.tv

Hey everyone,

wrote another review for BAMM.tv! It's the new album by Belgium's pop sweethearts Das Pop (@daspop)

"When Flemish outfit Das Pop made a comeback with their self-titled 3rd album in 2009, it seemed as if they had never left. Das Pop (the record) delivered some of their best cuts of the infectious seventies disco-pop that made them so enjoyable in the first place. Their airy, upbeat energy, mixed with bittersweet undertones and crisp sonorities, feels like it’s been around forever. Yet, the band’s quality songwriting, plus the instantly recognisable voice (and daft stage antics) of singer Bent van Looy make Das Pop one of the top brands in Belgian pop music...

Read more here: http://blog.bamm.tv/2011/04/18/bammsterdam-review-das-pop-the-game/

Paris, pt. 2. - SG mayhem!

So, second day in Paris and I'm behind my laptop writing a blog again. It's official: I múst be a moron!

It's been about 24 hours since I bought my ridiculous Epiphone SG. I've made a picture for y'all to gasp at. Better pics will be on their way.

SG: AC/DC, Zappa and other reasons (not) to buy it

so, not many people that don't like AC/DC a whole lot (-ta Rosie, like myself) actually like the SG. Angus Young pretty much hi-jacked the guitar's street cred. Most people can't see the SG without the ridiculous schoolboy uniform that hangs so loose around Young's scrawny shoulders even today. Young's iconic appearance has made such an impact on rock 'n roll history, Jack Black's character in the 2003 comedy-flick School Of Rock completely mimics Young's appearance, including the SG.

Old man Angus' signature look, including the SG

But there's more to this spiky, fiendish looking axe than Young's silly classic hardrock antics. The much revered avant-garde rock hero (and personal style icon, I must add) Frank Zappa had a fondness for SG guitars. Off course, Zappa is much less of a cartoon character than Young, despite being a remarkable visual icon himself with moustache and goatee. The extraordinary guitarskills of Zappa being channeled through such a characteristic guitar is something I'm very receptive of, as is generally looking like Frank Zappa! It was Zappa who first sparked my interest for SG guitars.

Frank Zappa in his prime.

I didn't think about it too much for a while (I'm primarily a bassplayer, so no need). But since I've started playing some guitar in my band Dress (whom I'll tell you more about some other time), the purchase of a new guitar became a topic in my head again. Around the same time, I was at FabrIQ Festival (as mentioned in yesterday's blogpost), where I met Joe Haege of the experimental Portland indie outfits Tu Fawning and Menomena. I remembered how much I loved his guitar work in both bands (especially his bottleneck stuff), and especially in Menomena he mostly uses... A Gibson SG! Inspiration struck again.

Joe Haege + SG + bottleneck = bliss

Finally, late one night, I was browsing for some Radiohead live vids. Having never seem them perform live, I spend hours working through and analysing various live concerts. Off course, Radiohead is known for carrying around shitloads of gear, including a plethora of guitars. I was checking out THIS AWESOME LIVE PERFORMANCE from 2008 produced by From The Basement. Two songs in I suddenly noticed that soft spoken, weird-looking, daft dancing songwriting genius Thom Yorke was actually playing a mean-sounding Gibson SG on Bodysnatchers, one of my favorites from their before-last album In Rainbows. You can imagine, this totally tipped the scales for me. I had to get one, at some point, when I had a bunch of money to spend.

The trick was: I wanted something special. Not some glossy, candy apple red item, but something a little rougher looking. I found it, in a second hand shop in Rue Douai in downtown Paris, near the Moulin Rouge. This is my brand spanking new, Parisian, natural finish Epiphone SG. It matches the hardwood floors of my friend Hester's appartment:

Paris, pt. 1

Short blog from Paris. I've been here 8 hours and my head is spinning. It all started at the quartier latin, the university quarter of Paris. I paid respect to tradition and started at Place De Vosges, close to the maison Victor Hugo. After that, meeting up with my dear friend and former partner in all things music and dancing, Hester at her job and getting rid of my luggage.

From there on, to Jardin de Luxembourg, another old favorite from my past explorations of this magnificent city. I had coffee and finished an article on Cloud Nothings, the American powerpop group I interviewed for OOR Magazine last february during Festival FabrIQ (review HERE - in dutch). It will be the first article to be published in the actually (hardcopy) magazine. The great leap forward? Not sure. What popped into my head today was that while it really adds to my street cred to be published in an actual magazine, I would be the first one to close it down in favour of online journalism.

I'm meeting my friends Hester and Benjamin in a bit at a place near Montmartre. I decided to go early and wander around. As soon as I exited the subway, I noticed a huge sign saying "Bass center, for everything bass" (or something of a similar notion). Off course, I was intrigued! Like a rat in Hameln I followed the instructions on the sign and walked to Rue Douai. It turns out this is THE music shopping street of Paris. There's specific shops for bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, amps, effects and what not. And every shop is stacked out with gorgeous, sometimes very rare pieces. It was mesmerizing. I went from shop to shop to look at the goodies, and eventually ended up in the most ragged place of them all. There, covered in dust, stood a guitar I had been setting out to buy for a while now. It's an unlacquered, red Epiphone SG with 2 standard humbuckers. It was an occasion, so only 190 euro's. I had to buy it! I feel like such a tool because even though it's a small price to pay, money doesn't come easy. But still, I'm over the moon with it.

YIPPIKAYEE

so there.

Now I'm off meeting my friends at a club called Carmen. It's in the old mansion of famous composer Georges Bizet, who is said to have written the famous opera the club ows its name to right there. Exciting stuff, looking forward to checking it out...

cheers,

J

Eins, Zwei Orchestra review for BAMM.tv

Hey all,

I will be writing some album reviews for BAMM.tv. The first one is the debut-album of Dutch shoegaze collective Eins, Zwei Orchestra, 100 colors. Check out the article HERE

Mindpark - We Will Adapt

To start on a personal note: Mindpark is at this point a fairly anonymous band, unheard of by most. The release of this debut-album (listen HERE) will not be an event to most music-lovers in The Netherlands. To yours truly, it is a highly-anticipated moment. Not only through years of acquaintance, but also through personal involvement as a booking agent and, briefly, as a stand-in bassplayer. A witness to the events that led up to a sudden change of (musical) course, there’s a lot of inside knowledge and bias in the scope of this article. What will follow is an attempt to examine a few of the qualities showcased on We Will Adapt, from the inside.

Hailing from the southern city of Den Bosch, Mindpark have always profiled themselves as leftwing, alternative artists on a quest for pop sensibilities. Their music is riddled with plenty of rhytmic novelties, layered guitars and unexpected stylistic turns. Whenever they fear the music is at a standstill, they switch gears, taking on different influences and directions as they move along. In other words: the music is always happening, the process of growth is never completed. They pre-released 9 tracks that were to become an album in May 2010, leading many to believe that an album was to follow soon. It took them a full year, and only three songs from this pre-release survived to tell the tale.

A noticeable change with earlier live appearances and released tracks is the more acoustic approach, with lighter percussion elements. The rock stomp is kept to a minimum. Vocals have gained weight in the balance, with some excellent vocal harmonies in Box Is Better, one of the more accessible gems on the album. Throughout the album, (main songwriter) and producer Ralph Timmermans maintains a remarkable clarity and transparency, the only exception being progrock-ballad Closer, one of the older songs that made the cut. It comes armed to the teeth with strings and synthpads. It’s a moving song, but doesn’t sit comfortably with the other songs in this collection.



Experiments, such as the frantic guitar-driven tracks Must Be Chemical and Microwaves add the necessary elements of surprise, without turning the album into a sonic wasteland. The trio has adapted, not only to their own predicaments but also to the Listener, a party they’ve come to appreciate over the years. We Will Adapt is not a record made solely for their own pleasure; Mindpark is a band with stories to tell, full of angst and hope, and with a will to affect audiences with bittersweet melodies and heartfelt lyrics. Despite the many adventurous turns - inhospitable to some ears - on this record, there’s an emotive quality to this inaugural Mindpark record that hits the mark. A solid first effort.

Mindpark - We Will Adapt is available for download from 04-15 and in stores 05-21 through Cavalier Music Management and V2.

Blog on OOR 40th birthday for Bamm.tv

I regularly write blogs on current events in the music scene of Northwestern Europe for Bamm.tv. Here's one I did on OOR's 40th birthday party, happening tonight at Paradiso. Looking forward to checking out Alamo Race Track (@alamoracetrack) and Selah Sue (@selahsue). And of course, shaking a lot of hands...

For now, I'm gonna hang out in the sun for a bit while I can.

Here's the link to the article:

Here's the link to the FB event for the party:

Dazzled Kid review @ Melkweg for OOR magazine (in Dutch)

Dazzled Kid at Melkweg (photography: Marcel Poelstra)

Hey y'all,

Here's the link to the review I did for OOR magzine (@OOR) of the Dazzled Kid (@dazzledkid) show at Melkweg last week. Thought I'd put it on here. It's in Dutch, though. I was thinking about translating the whole thing, but that requires a level of discipline I know I can't live up to. So I won't.

http://www.oor.nl/#reviews/concerts/1586/dazzled_kid_is_goed_op_weg

Another one, really?

Yes, really. This will be the new place for my personal rants, announcements and a collection of published works for third parties. I will try to give an razor-sharp, honest impression of the music scene and all that it entails, from the perspective of an Amsterdam-based Jack-of-all-trades.

Some of you may remember the blog I kept as De Nachtbrakers. While this was fun to do, it lacked urgency and was way to expansive (or self-indulgent, if you will) for people to actually read. In recent months, following my first experiences in online publishing with Hard//Hoofd, OOR and Bricks And Mortar Media, there were several stimuli that pressed me to start a new blog

1. Collecting my work. Keeping a portfolio is never a bad thing.
2. Focusing my thoughts. With the pace of current events involving yours truly, putting some of my personal thoughts on the whole process in a blog feels right. If nothing else, maybe I can learn from reading my own insights.
3. Sustaining productivity. As a freelancer, the worst thing you can do is muck about if no one is willing to assign you new projects. This way, I can bully myself into writing some articles in periods of drought.
4. Changing my ego-brand. For years I profiled myself as "Jasper P. Nachtbraker", the nightcreature hanging out in bars and clubs for a living. But you can only keep this persona up for so long. Not to mention the lifestyle you're living up to! I feel it's about time a new, slightly less Bertold Brecht-like alter-ego takes the stage. I decided to go with "Jasper van der Put". Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

So with all these things at the back of my mind, here's to the start of something new. My first regular article will be up tomorrow. A sneak (p)review of the new Mindpark album. Watch this space, and let me know what you think!

denachtbrakers@gmail.com

Cheers,

Jasper