Le Guess Who? is without doubt one of the finest festivals for (alternative) music discovery in the Netherlands. Held in practically all relevant Utrecht venues (Tivoli Oudegracht, De Helling, Ekko, ACU, RASA, dB's a.o.), Le Guess Who? puts a firm focus on culthero's, underground talent and adventurous audiences.
This year's line-up featured the first ever performance of Panda Bear in the Netherlands, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Bill Callahan, Low, Gang Gang Dance, Zomby, SUUNS, Other Lives, Akron/Family, Okkervil River, Shabazz Palaces, Zola Jesus (see photo) and John Maus to name a few eyecatchers. But the idea is to look for new talent, of which we found plenty.
I was on hand for OOR magazine on Friday and Saturday to witness the underground bliss.
SUUNS was probably my overall favorite. Check out a session with them HERE
For the past months my colleagues and I over at BAMM.tv have been working hard on the Amsterdam chapter of BAMM's Global Scene, a documentary series that takes an in-depth but concise look at various musical hotspots on the planet. BAMM.tv sets out to speak to the musicans, the promoters, the organisers, the fans, the people sustaining the various scenes around the world. Compiling unique interviews, discussion and live performances Global Scene offers the viewer a series of captivating snapshots of musical hotspots around the planet. Global Scene talks about cultural diversity, cool venues, best practices and developing musical genres (and their fusion), but also about the history, politics and the hardships of earning a living in a fast-paced creative industry.
For this documentary, yours truly participated as a co-producer and performed some 25 interviews with various 'captains of industry' in the field of music. Check out the list below for a quick overview of the talking heads. Also, most of the kudo's should should actually go to:
- Audio/video/post-pro masterminds, Sarah Levitt and Daniela Paes Leão; - Technical supervisor and guru Jason Hall - "Office Buddha" Wirjo Hardjono (producer and photographer) - Cobie Ivens for her help with the locations for our shoots - Nicholas Hansen for making it all possible!
So, here it is: our first episode of Global Scene. Below that, the list of interviewees
Just a short word on the last gig of the tour with that 2 weeks ago... yes I know it's a bit late. For me it's been kind of "out of the frying pan, into the fire", but that's another story. In the meantime we've also had some AMAZING NEWS:
For now, we've wrapped up our tour with Gerhardt in Eindhoven playing the final stage of the Popronde Festival Tour. It was one to remember for several reasons:
1. Eindhoven is my hometown, and as such it always feels a bit special despite running from it at age 18. Utrecht and Amsterdam where I've spent most of my days since then have a special place in my heart but nothing like Eindhoven.
2. The end of the tour. We've played about 30 shows in under 3 months, with a new member in our midst (guitarist Bernard) and a batch of new songs to work out. We were blessed with a lot of great audiences, and have improved considerably as a band and crew. I'm relieved to have come out alive at the other end, but what an experience it has been! We've truly been on the road, visiting many places in The Netherlands I've hardly ever been before.
BTW, we discovered a video from our first Popronde performance in Sid 'n Liv in Nijmegen. Watch Fake Roman Empire below
3. A scramble over drum gear. Our drummer Otto is not one to drop the ball under any circumstance. He's been our logistical brains for most of the tour, but in this case forgot about various pieces of drumkit somehow. So we found ourselves in a scramble over drum-rugs, -seats etcetera. Luckily we managed to work it out just in time.
4. Gerhardt's big trip. Gerhardt had another gig until 22.00 (10 pm), playing with Beans & Fatback in Drachten, Friesland some 234 km (145 miles) up north from Eindhoven. Needless to say he invested a lot to do this final show of the tour. Despite being a little worn out upon arrival, G buckled up and played a great show.
5. The Gig itself was great. Being one of the last acts to play we had a full room from start to finish, compiling Popronde-staff, press, fans, friends and family. Great vibes all around. Very cool ! My mother was on hand (again, thank you mom!) to shoot a few video's. Check out Fire Walk, Alaska and Dig Out Your Soul below.
Finally, a big thank you to everyone who came and sung and danced to our 'kekke' tunes the last few months. Much appreciated!
In another edition of the BAMM Argument series, me and my arch-nemesis Chris Davies take opposite sides discussing the new Coldplay album, Mylo Xyloto. "I just can’t ignore my inner teen mourning over guys who used to be such awe-inspiring craftsmen of pop-rock gems."
This is me recovering some of the alcohol-soaked, blurry memories from the past couple weeks of touring...a continuing series of weird journeys.
So, after two weeks that were slightly less abou travelling and music and a little more about alcohol-intake, reading Hemingway and getting a case of the autumn blues, it was back on the road for me and the gang. We picked up our feet to do the usual things, making stupid jokes on the bus and gas-station intermezzos for the most part. The gigs sometimes feel like nothing more than short breaks inbetween endless sessions of tall stories and drinking stale beer from a can. Meanwhile we're getting better and better at mucking up the touring van.
ENSCHEDE
Our first date was at a place called Fellini's in Enschede for Popronde. In fact, all the gigs were Popronde's now, which meant that we'd just had to do one show a day. This makes life a LOT easier. Upon arrival in the far east of the Netherlands, we had the following things going on:
- Fellini turns out to be kind of a posh club that does both food and dancing. Usually, that's not where we find our best audiences. - It would be my birthday right there on stage. At first it was something I was looking forward to, but my birthday did not turn out the way I wanted it to. - Because of some dumb mistake of my own, I had misplaced my bass amp, so had to play with whatever was available. Thankfully the PA at Fellini's was pretty good and the in-house technician saved the day.
Despite sounding like a set-up for a big clusterf•ck, the gig was actually pretty good. We drew a small crowd who were listening intently in a very nice setting with great lighting and a cool 50's New York scene on wallpaper along the side of the room. Festivalinfo came along and shot a few pictures. Check them out HERE
Gerhardt + some dude in the background, rocking out.
We had the day off the next day. I spent my birthday in a foul mood for most of the day... I won't bore you with it... AMERSFOORT Saturday saw our little gang reconvene for a gig in Amersfoort. I already knew from various account that Popronde Amersfoort was a pretty wild affair, the second largest of them all. And sure enough, the city was out in force. The great atmosphere was courtesy in part of an Oktoberfest celebration going on, drawing all kinds of overdressed drunks to the pubs that were housing the Popronde on the same night. It sounds worse than it was though, Het Nonnetje(The Little Nun), the café we played was packed to the brim with enthusiastic people and we had them on their feet for the entire gig. We also got to make a cameo-appearance in fellow Popronde traveller's The Dance's vid-blog of the night.
TILBURG
A week later, we had a spectacular 3-day stint on the Popronde in Tilburg, Venlo and Den Haag. Tilburg is known for having a huge student population, and a respected educational instution called De Rockacademie. It's the closest thing to a School Of Rock one can find in the Netherlands. It's also the place where Gerhardt took part of his education from. Plus: the local festival-programmer is a friend. Think that's a lead up to a great concert experience? Think again. The atmosphere all across town wasn't great, but we played a decent show. This is a good thing: if you want to be a professional musician you have to be able to cut through all the white noise around you and play through your strengths. It's one of the prime things I've picked up from playing Popronde: Play on stoically, and do it with a smile, whatever the situation. People will always like you better for it.
3VOOR12/Tilburg wrote a review of the concert, which wasn't completely positive but more than fair enough. Check it HERE (in dutch)
Gerhardt regularly mentions Jack Black and School Of Rock as one of his main sources of inspiration...
Our guitaristic genius Bernard fixed us up with accomodation at a friend's house near Tilburg for the weekend. She proved more than her money's worth, acting as our driver for 2 days, fixing our breakfast and supplying us with some very efficient strong liquor. Lisanne truly is a gift from above, if I was to believe there is such a place as 'the above'. But the most beautiful thing about it was, that she put a little feminine touch in the mix, while being completely unbothered with our horrible masculine bandvan-banter OR us thrashing her student dorm for two nights in a row. She has certainly won my respect over the weekend.
Lisanne at the wheel. Picture by Gerhardt.
VENLO
For those of you that don't know: Venlo is the residency of The Netherlands' most infamous politician Geert Wilders. As such, most people (not counting people who tend to the political rigt wing) perceive it to be the closest thing to hell you can find in the Netherlands. If so, than hell is pretty kind and welcoming embrace. There's a very charming historic city-centre, with nicely lit squares and monumental buildings. We played at a café called De Blauwe Trap, who were very nice to us and provided a great soundsystem and dito engineer. We arrived well in time and had a nice long soundcheck. There was some consternation over equipment that had gone missing the night before but this was quickly resolved as it turned out our fellow Popronde/Serious Talent buddies Capeman found our gear in Tilburg and kindly took it with them the next day.
N.B.: As it turns out, all bands have the same sense of humor. Even worse: it seems that an entire generation can replay and relive entire episodes of Family Guy and/or South Park from memory. It's scary, man. I realised this when Darko of Capeman welcomed me a bit like this:
As a result of all these relaxing factors, we played a good, stress-free, fun gig, despite still nursing a serious hangover from the night before. Among the crowd were also a few dignitaries of the local popscene, whom appeared to like what we did. Hopefully we've sown the seeds for a strong crop so we can harvest during the festival season next year.
DEN HAAG
So, for once I had the leverage. I went to bed early and came out a lot clearer because of it. We said our goodbyes to Lisanne, left her a shitload of forgotten dirty clothes, and got on our way to our last gig. Coming in way ahead of schedule, there was some time to muck about, check emails and talk to Katía, a very nice singer-songwriter also touring the Popronde. She was playing the coffee company where I was weeding through piles of unanswered e-mails. Again, typical touring man's peril.
Den Haag was another night to remember. We had some problems finetuning our sound during soundcheck, but rocked the stage regardless. It was good to see that we are getting to a point where we are utterly untouched by any internal or circumstancial piss-ups and we can just go about performing. The crowd where a little reserved at first, but loosened up soon enough. A few girls were dancing frontstage, which will always brighten our day no matter how indifferent we get being rockstars and all (promise!). Afterwards, we hung out with Amarins & Le Gatte Negre for a bit who were on after us, but couldn't catch their performance as we had to get on our way home. This is another lesson learned: you don't see much of the festival if you're part of the line-up. A big contrast to years before, when I saw a lot of the acts that played.
3VOOR12/Den Haag was there as well and wrote some very kind words you can read right HERE (in dutch).
CONCLUSION
As we reach the end of our fall tour, it's just been one life experience after the other. This has been my first tour of this volume and longitude, and a first taste of what's it's like to be a professional(ish) musician. I know the other guys have had plenty of experience like this, but I'm still finding my way and paying my dues, or so it seems.
Meanwhile, Gerhardt himself has some interesting thoughts of his own on the matter. You can read them at the Popronde blog, which is located HERE
All I can thing about now is playing our final show of the tour in Eindhoven. What will happen in the future is still up in the air. Despite some very cool and very serious plans, it will come down to Lady Luck to guide us through to the endgame. What that endgame will be? I'm sure I don't know.
Another one for the history books... Belgium's hardrocking trio Triggerfinger sold out Melkweg The Max for an epic 3-day bender this week. Yours truly was on site to witness the madness for OOR.nl. The AWESOME pics that accompany the article were made by the lovely Sanne Glasbergen. A real talent as far as I can tell.
Confusion was upon me once again when I realised I must be lost in the time-space continuüm somehow. All of a sudden we're knee-deep in November, the world's population is at 7 billion souls, political and scientific malpractice are suddenly a public matter (instead of hiding in the backrooms of society). But even though it's all out in the open now, it feels like we've shed a little too much light on the matter, like an over-exposed lens. It remains a little bit of a lyric by Tom Smith of Editors (ill-reputed I know, but their first album was great):
Look at us through the lens of a camera Does it remove all of our pain? If we run, they'll look in the back room where we hide all of our secrets
With one big swoop (ta-dah!) we've uncovered some of the rotten intestines of human behaviour. Can't say I didn't see it coming at all, but admittedly it turned out to be more depressing than I would've guessed.
Meanwhile, it just feels like I've been missing out on all these events as they developed. As if they just appeared out of thin air. In the blink of an eye I've turned 24, we're cheating with daylight savings time and all that again. Somehow I've landed on page two-hundred-something of a book I never started to read. I just fell right in the middle of it.
So what the fuck is going on here? How did we get in such a weird mess?
Right, so everybody knows the Amsterdam electronic scene is great. It's also pretty lame, and getting flatter and dumber by the minute while maintaining a sense of cool that I can't really subscribe to. Thankfully, there are some grungy dudes from the suburbs who have a solution for your hipster-allergy and just BANG with a capital B (also know as the B for Bass, Beats, Brownies and Interactive Installations)
This saturday, november 5th my dear friends over at Gekkenhuis are re-launching their precious event in Amsterdam at the under-appreciated but very awesome VLLA venue.
Check out the time-table below, with assorted links. 17:30 - 19:00 Inofaith (soundtracky bass-goodness) 19:00 - 21:00 Martin Hooke (wonky beats and DIY beeps) 21:00 - 22:00 Julien Mier (LIVE - eclectic with a dubstep base and smarty pants filling) 22:00 - 23:00 erwtenpeller - War of the worlds (LIVE dubstep MADNESS) 23:00 - 01:00 ReuzeReuze & MegaBonk (random heroes of the LOUD kind) 01:00 - 03:oo T-Mus (happy mash-up kid)
&
Adriaan de Jongh - Fingle (http://fingleforipad.com/) Teun Hermsen - Foto-exposition on stranded asylum seekers in Italy Foploncu (www.foploncu.nl) Marcus Spaapen - Interactive installation Gekkenhuis' reading hour
Zola Jesus / photograph by Erik Luyten
