Rotterdam, it’s the second biggest city in the Netherlands and also host to the largest and most important harbour in Europe. Since I don’t know too much about Rotterdam, this might have been the hardest Scene Report to find information about. I tried to contact locals, but did not get too much response, so I hope that this article gives a nice overview of what’s happening in Rotterdam.

VENUES

There are several big venues, and some smaller ones in Rotterdam.

Rotown is one of the bigger venues; located closely to Rotterdam central station it’s a stage that hosts some of the more accessible names in music. With a mix of pop, rock, hip-hop, dance and everything in between, it’s a pretty standard music venue.

De Unie is the debating venue of Rotterdam. But between all of the debates, movies and symposium they also managed to make some time for music. The program is not a steady one, but most of the time worth you while.

Poortgebouw (photo) is a national momument located on the south bank of the river Maas. Today it’s inhabited by a collective of 30 people, organised as members of an association. In the ‘80’s they finally managed to legally rent the place, instead of squatting it. Most of the inhabitants are somehow connected to Rotterdam’s cultural or artistic community. Their music program features a lot of experimental music. With improv, experimental jazz, electronics, but also the occasional dance party.

Nieuwe Oogst is a multidisciplinary venue, which is located in the Maassilo. They organise concerts, club nights and expositions but also projects for photography, street art, dancing and more.

Worm is Rotterdam’s institute for Avant-gardistic Recreation and one of the city’s most interesting venues. As the name implies, their music programming and dance nights feature experimental and avant-garde music, very different from most venues. They also have the occasional expo, movie screening or workshop, where you can make your own electronic fun box, film or experimental guitar.

It is of no surprise than that Worm recently married with Roodkapje Rottterdam. Check out the amazing video for their ‘wedding’ below. Roodkapje is a centre for art, music and culture. Sometimes external partners curate the concerts, but with the Rottt project they also shine a light on Dutch bands every month.

BIRD is a jazz club. They focus more on soul, jazz, funk but also the occasional hip-hop or dance night.

Furthermore there is Baroeg a bar/venue that focuses on the harder music styles like rock, metal, hardcore, gothic, etc.

Besides all the venues you shouldn’t forget the Motel Mozaique festival in Rotterdam. This annual festival tries to connect the music and the audience with the city, by organising guided tours, camping’s on the roof of old train stations and using different parts of the city for the festival. The festival also incorporates art and theatre into its program, but music stays the biggest part.

TinyMusic is an initiative that tries to get musicians and the audience closer together by organising concerts on intimate locations. The concerts take place on special locations, like the deck of a ship, shops, galleries, churches, etc.

LABELS

I will try to pick some interesting labels from Rotterdam, but to be honest my knowledge about the Rotterdam music scene is limited, and this time I didn’t get too much reply’s. One of Rotterdam’s newest music labels is Samling Recordings. This music label focusses on a group of musicians/friends. It’s not really a genre they focus on, but more a feeling. From the slowcore of Luik, to Eklin’s ambient pop music; it’s a certain atmosphere that seems to surround all these artists. You might call it hazy, but it carries a certain comforting feeling, although the music never gets dull. The latest release is one from Future Shuttle, this time not a Dutch artist, but a Brooklyn trio. Listen to a 48 minute live drone together with Bebe Fang (Incubate 2010) here.

PRSPCT Recordings is an Rotterdam-based drum ‘n bass label, that features a lot of Netherlands biggest names in the genre, as well as some prolific names from other places.

Clone Records is a record label and shop, which focuses on experimental/underground electronic dance music. They have become a big name inside and outside of the Netherlands and are also a distributor for a lot of other, smaller labels. Clone also have their own record shop inside Rotterdam.

MUSIC

To get some sort of overview, I tried to sort bands on genre. This didn’t really work out, but at least got it better sorted. Sorry if I offended or annoyed anyone with this.

Pop/Acoustic/Folk

Afka is a synthpop project between singer/songwriter/performer Aafke Kloppenburg and producer Adriano DiTamorra. They released their EP ‘Thunder in Our Heart’ in February, and make a strong first impression.

Wolf in Loveland is a folk/pop band surrounding singer-songwriter Jan Minnaard. This 19-year old guy knows how to create a lovely folksong.

Oliver Oat is one of my personal favourite discoveries. Intriguing folk songs that take unexpected turns while they unfold. Oliver definitely has good voice for this kind of music.

Shoegaze/garage/indie

One of the bigger bands from Rotterdam nowadays is Rats on Rafts they played Incubate 2011 and since then they have been on a steady streak of success. After the release of their debut album ‘The Moon is Big’ on Subroutine and later on Topnotch, they played all around the Netherlands, supported The Minny Pops on their UK tour and got a lot of attention from national and international media.  Their take on post-punk and new wave seems to work well, seeing that they will play the Primavera festival.

Crowds are one of the two bands to play at Incubate Scene Report: Rotterdam, on May 31 in Cul de Sac. Their blend of shoegaze and noisepop already made a good impression when they played Vera’s Kelderbar during Eurosonic, so we are excited to see what they can do in Tilburg.

Neon Rainbows is the second band to play at Incubate Scene Report. All members have been around for some time in the music scene. Having previously played in different bands and settings such as Feverdream, Model Fuckers and At No Bikini Beach, it’s no wonder that together they are a sure win with their mix of pop, shoegaze and noise. Take a listen to their debut album ‘An Idea For A Plan’ here.

AC Berkheimer is another shoegaze band that managed to intrigue with their album ‘We Tell Them Tonight’, released on Subroutine. With clear influences from Sonic Youth, Jesus & The Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, they are able to either blow away or pull in the listener.

S As in Assasins is an indiepop band who remind me a lot of Menomena.  They are currently selected for Hollands Popronde 2012, so we’ll probably hear more of them.

Another must listen is the garagerock by Organisms with their distinct organ and howlin’ vocals. It’s catchy, energetic and doesn’t grow boring. The live shows are apparently even more energetic and crazy, will have to check it out some time.

Low Point Drains is another garage/trash rock band from Rotterdam that rage their way through the songs.

Experimental/Alternative

Surrounding Samling Recordings there are also quite some Rotterdam-based musicians. One of the more notable names is Luik (whom are playing Incubate 2012!), after releasing their album ‘Owls’ they played all over Holland and are getting good reviews for their live show and album. The music is a mix of slowcore, ambient and indiepop, slowly creeping it’s way in your ears.
The guitarist in Luik, Gerrit van der Scheer, also has his own project, called Herrek. It has undergone several transformations in sound and setting; the latest sounds can be heard on their Bandcamp, where their release on Samling focussed on noisy soundscapes, these are more song-oriented. Hoping to hear more of them.

But it doesn’t end there. Luik’s drummer Keimpe Koldijk (who also played/plays in Eklin and Fang, both former Incubate acts) teamed-up with Eklin band mate Michiel Klein to form Mike Koldin, synth pieces with a strong minimalistic approach. Slowly developing throughout the songs. Another outfit surrounding these bands is Woud, slow and dark ambient songs with haunting vocals.

On a whole other spectrum you have Albatre a free/experimental jazzcore trio. The music seems to go all over the place, though the musicians always now what they do. Like a schizophrenic jazz band gone wild on some very bad drugs.

But let’s not forget Harry Merry he’s been unknown to many, but very active in the music scene for a long time with a steady cult following. His music could be defined as ‘Outsider music’, like R. Stevie Moore or Ariel Pink. This distinct figure has made quite the impression on some people. He also played some shows with the guys from Rats on Rafts after their album release.

(Photo: Harry Merry at Incubated 12 by Erik Luyten)

Punk

A band that has been on the scene for 16 years is The Apers. And they don’t seem to be calling it quits anytime soon. They will be re-releasing their debut album and releasing a live album called ‘Live at Eldorado’.

The Bat Bites are another straightforward poppunk band, which feature one steady member from The Apers. In February they released a free EP, appropriately called ‘Take It It’s Free’. And if you like them you should also take a listen to Accelerators. Full of energy they play their shows, fast punk rock songs.

Electronic

It’s hard to believe that Machinefabriek is just Rutger Zuydervalt. If you see his latest batch of releases you might shit yourself. Not only his list of solo work is impressive, also the list of collaborations: Nils Frahm, Celer, Peter Broderick, Gareth Davis and much more. He has also created music for several art projects, making him a busy man. His music stands somewhere between ambient, electro acoustic, drone, field recordings and noise.

Also in the drone spectrum, we have Mono-Poly. Working with analogue and modular synthesizers, to create a tense layer of moody and heavy ambient-drones. Body II Body on the other hand, are more interested in making you dance. They already performed with their DJ-set on Incubate 2011, but are currently working on their own material.

▲NGST create a more haunting and dark kind of music. Call it which house, call it doom gaze, all I know is that this stuff is frightening. It’s definitely more interesting than most acts that came up during the whole ‘witch house’ era. ▲NGST already played Incubate once with his other project FFF. This music is a lot faster than his other project and more in the breakcore/ravecore corner.

Munchi is probably well known among the loyal Incubate or Generation Bass follower. He’s the Moombathon-pioneer here in Holland and put the genre on the map in and outside of our own country. He has already played Incubate two times in the past, so definitely someone you should check out.

Also be sure to take a listen to: Heiz Karlhausen & The Diatonics (jazzcore), Joensuu (prog-metal), Feaver (folk/pop), Misery Kids (psycho rock), Vanity & Jokes (indie-pop) and Michel Banabila (electro-acoustic).

Just as all the other times, there is way too much going on and way too little space in this one article. Also, my knowledge about the music scene is only limited. I try to get as many sources as I can get, but there are always some things that I manage to overlook. So if you have any additional tips for venues, bands or other music related stuff in Rotterdam, put it in the comments. You can also add bands to our list of bands and musicians in Holland on GetSatisfaction.

Incubate Scene Report is a project we present in cooperation with Cul de Sac. We recently had our second edition of Scene Report with Groningen bands WOLVON and Earth Control and free shows from Sleep Party People and Pinkunoizu in 013. It was an awesome night, and now we are all the more excited to announce our next edition!

This month we will dive into the Rotterdam music scene. Exploring all that’s going on around this harbour city. For this edition we are happy and proud to announce Crowds and Neon Rainbows.

Crowds are a trio. They have been mentioned as an Amsterdam or Utrecht based band, but this band really is from Rotterdam, where all songs are written and composed. Crowds go from garage-rock to noisepop, keeping a grooving undertone all the while through.

Neon Rainbows  is a band that has been on the scene for a longer time. With four band members who have all played in different bands and settings (Feverdream, Model Fuckers, At No Bikini Beach) together they formed Neon Rainbows: a mix of pop, shoegaze and noise. Their debut album ‘An Idea For A Plan’ was released on Subroutine Records, listen to it below.

This event is completely free of entry, you can let us known if you’d like to come on this event page.

Info:

Incubate Scene Report: Rotterdam
May 31, 2012 – Cul de Sac, Tilburg
Open: 20:30
With: Crowds + Neon Rainbows
Free entrance

First Earth Control, a nice lo-fi garage band with electronics. They got pretty weird Dutch lyrics, including song titles as ‘ Passen jullie maar op (de digitale snelweg)’, ‘Ik tolereer je zoals je bent’ and ‘Sommige dingen kun je beter door je oogharen bekijken’.

Listen, and download their latest record ‘Ik tolereer je zoals je bent’

Next up is the band Wolvon. They’re a postpunk/noiserock band and released a 7″ on the Subroutine record label. It’s not weird that this band is playing next month with Cloud Nothings (@Vera), because they are pretty similar.

Check-out their 3-track album ‘Comfort.’ below

You can read the scene report about Groningen here.

Incubate Scene Report: Groningen
26 April 2012 – Cul de Sac, Tilburg
With: Earth Control + Wolvon
Free entrance

Groningen is the biggest city in the north of the Netherlands. It’s also a very lively, creative and interesting place with a strong underground scene.

VENUES

The music scene in this city is diverse. There is De Oosterpoort, which has cabaret, dance, theatre, classical music and some shows from bigger artists. Vera  (photo) is a real music venue. It is located in one of the oldest buildings in the city and has had some artist play before their breakthrough, i.e. U2, Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and loads more. Vera is probably the most interesting music venue in Groningen and when you call your self the ‘Club for the International Pop Underground’ you better have something to back it up, and they do. By having three to four concerts a week, booking international artists as well as a lot of national bands, organising dance-nights and every Saturday night they have downstage concerts. These downstairs concerts are mostly free and have a lot of focus on smaller bands. A fun read is the story about the legendary Hives afterparty, which makes me jealous to not have been there.

There also is Simplon, a smaller venue that has both smaller international and national artists playing. Some bars and café’s that have music and art are Kult and O’Ceallaigh. ORKZ is a bar/cinema/old-squat, which once was the biggest squat place in the whole of The Netherlands. Nowadays they host music events, art expositions, play movies and there are also people living in the building. Viadukt is a rehearsal space that is also used for concerts.

Self proclaimed ‘housetemple’ Pand48 provides Groningen with free Techno, Minimal, Techhouse, Progressive and Disco party’s every Wednesday till Saturday. Remarkable fact is that they let the audience decide when close. Club Paradigm, located somewherein an old grain storage at the edge of an industrial site, is also involved in the house and techno scene.  The young organisation established in 2011 but is already a major player in Groningen’s club culture with innovative concepts like ‘Sunday Afternoon Collective’ and Technootjes festival.

If you’re looking for another dance-oriented club you should check out Subsonic , located on Groningen’s Grote Markt. This club goes on ‘till early in the morning and offers techno, dubstep, drum ‘n bass and much, much more.

ORGANISATIONS

Even more interesting is probably all the activity and initiatives that are started by people all around the city. There seems to be a small group of people involved to represent almost every kind of music/art/community.

Wishfulmusic is an initiative by Wouter de Boer, Laurens Dijkstra and Ralph Rietveld. They organise intimate shows in living rooms and other cozy locations around Groningen. The organisation focuses on folk, singer-songwriter and acoustic music. Not too long ago they started the Groningen Songwriters Guild. Here songwriters from Groningen get together to share ideas and songs.

In Groningens ‘underground’ scene there is happening a lot happening. Owsum, for example, is a platform and art-collective by like-minded locals. Together they organise concerts, expositions and other events.

They organise a lot of interesting events in Vera, Vespro, Simplon and loads of other locations. In 2010 they organised Scenery (photo), a musical event in the Grand Theatre, where they created different ‘sceneries’ for every band to play in. This year they will bring this back. On the 22th of April with San Francisco drone artist Barn Owl and Teen Radiation, a project by Incubate’s very own Vincent Koreman.

Lepel Concerts is a project run by Ike de Zeeuw, Ruben Walraven and Marinke Kerkhoff. These youngsters put on shows almost every month, trying to give interesting bands a place to play and promote new and unknown music to a new audience. Ike and Ruben also play in Wolvon, our second band to play at Incubate Scene Report on April 26th. Lepel worked together with Subroutine Records to organise Subroutine & Lepel Care, an independent showcase festival that had a lot of bands from Groningen (and other places).

Betontegel is a festival for experimental art and music and is held in different locations throughout Groningen. They have a heavy focus on noise and really experimental/weird stuff. KopjeK  is a creative platform that gives techno-parties on unique locations and has a lot of focus on creativity. They combine art, visuals, and weird clothes with a dance party.

For more regular music programming Fifteen Minutes is a very interesting initiative. They host events in Groningen and Leeuwarden every month, where 6 to 8 bands get their fifteen minutes of fame. They register these shows on photos and film, so you have your own promotional package.

MUSIC

Surrounding Lepel, Subroutine and Vera there are some louder/garagerock/noisy bands. When I asked Marinke from Lepel what she thought was the ‘Groningen’ sound she answered: “I like to think that it’s a bit raw/garagerock/noisy, but to be honest, there are also a lot of (mediocre) popbands and singersongwriters. Typical ‘Groningen’ is a not-too-polished sound. Vera is probably the centre of the Groningen music scene and they always gave room to ramshackle/punkbands.”

Bands such as the previously named Wolvon  a three-piece who released the impressive EP ‘Comfort’ on Subroutine Records at the end of last year. Their sound is energetic, frantic, noisy and they’re sure to give an impressive live performance. Labelmates Vox Von Braun (Incubate 2008) make heavily ‘90’s inspired alternative rock. Svetkoff Lamps sound dissonant and noisy. It does sound a lot like Sonic Youth, but that doesn’t matter since the music itself still manages to impress and set them apart in the music scene.  Be sure to check out Sexton Creeps, a collective of musicians who create beautiful experimental songs.

Incubate 2010 artist Traumahelikopter is a real garage-rock band. That fits in nicely with recent upcoming bands as Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, etc.

A lot of the underground scene is surrounding the art school/scene in Groningen. Like Duizend a solo-project by artist Gijs Deddens , who also works for Owsum and runs the Lekkerkut Platenmaatschappij. The sound is really ambient, but gets darker and more aggressive from time to time. Gijs also plays in Vakantie, improvisational electronic music, more up-tempo and techno. Earth Control, who are playing Incubate Scene Report this month, also released their material on Lekkerkut Platenmaatschappij. The duo has its own weird mix of garage-punk and electro and is often compared to Digital Leather. More interesting bands/projects from this scene are Loud Squirt (Incubate 2011) and Electriciteit is Onze Hobby. It seems to be a tightly knit network of people who know each other and work in different forms and projects. Interesting but also hard to dissect.

Earth Control by LEKKER KUT PLATENMAATSCHA

Also check out some of the other experimental stuff like Kasper van Hoek. He builds his own electronic instruments on which he makes songs and also collaborates with other artists, such as Sexton Creeps.

In the noise-genre you also have Obsolete Office Equipment and Under Milk Wood,who are more ambient-noise, with some sparse instrumentation and a minimalistic approach.

There is also a scene of bands and artist whom are more folk, acoustic and songwriter orientated. One example is Town of Saints a folk band who stand out thanks to their use of fiddle. Zwaar Licht is a band that stands out because their music sounds folk, but it’s mostly instrumental with a minimal use of vocals. Soothing pieces that are not afraid to take an unexpected turn.

Groningen has strong ties with the Academie voor Popcultuur in Leeuwarden. A lot of students come from, or live in Groningen. Bands as Eklin, Adept, Bonne Aparte, Woud, The Black Atlantic, Kim Janssen, all come from the music scene in Groningen.

Groningen seems to be a city that, because of it’s isolation, takes matters in it’s own hands. They set up amazing shows, create platforms and interesting projects that are unique and gain attention from the local scene. It’s a scene that is tightly connected and covers a large spectrum of musical genres. To best explain this I will quote Merlijn Poolman, owner of nightclub Subsonic, from some questions he answered me by e-mail: “The connection between people who go to parties and organise things in all different kinds of scenes, but still know each other somehow. There is a friendly vibe with a lot of cooperation to set-up beautiful initiatives together.”

Once again there is too much to put into one report. So please add any things you miss in the comments. We try to put together a list of active bands and musicians in the Dutch music scene; you can post recommendations here. I have put up the list I currently have for Groningen. So if you miss anything, feel free to add it.

Feel free to visit the next Incubate Scene Report, and if you do let us know on this event page.
26 April 2012 – Cul de Sac, Tilburg
With: Earth Control + Wolvon
Free entrance

Under the name Incubate Scene Report we are putting a city in the spotlight. Two weeks ago we wrote an article about the music scene in Copenhagen and last week we hosted a night at Cul de Sac with two bands from Haarlem. This will get a follow-up, at the 26th of April there is going to be a new edition of Incubate Scene Report, this time Groningen will get our attention.

Two bands from Groningen are hitting the stage the 26th. First Earth Control, a nice lo-fi garage band with electronics. They got pretty weird Dutch lyrics, including song titles as ‘ Passen jullie maar op (de digitale snelweg)’, ‘Ik tolereer je zoals je bent’ and ‘Sommige dingen kun je beter door je oogharen bekijken’.

Next up is the band Wolvon. They’re a postpunk/noiserock band and released a  7″ on the Subroutine record label.

It’s again at Cul de Sac and the entrance is for free. So.. make sure you put 26 of April in your agenda.

So, the first edition of Incubate Scene Report is coming up. Two bands from Haarlem will play at Cul de Sac on March 29th and it’s totally FREE!

Besides the mutual love for the experiment, the bands are also sharing a label and venue under the name Geertruida. You can read more about Geertruida and everthing else about the Haarlem music scene in the previous Scene Report.

Treasure of Grundo

Treasure of Grundo will be the first band to hit the stage. Members Yannick Tinbergen (synths, programming and vocals) and Bert Zaremba (guitar, vocals) have played together in many other bands before starting this particular one. After some shifting members they ended up with the two of them, a combination that seems to work out nicely.

With Yannick’s use of his large synthesizer collection and Bert’s atmospheric guitar sounds they create weird, dark and even slightly danceable songs. It’s a bit of new wave, synthpop, experimental and ambient. The Grundo boys are currently in the final stages of finishing their first release. Which can be expected somewhere in the coming fall, when the skies are turning grey again and their moody songs work their full potential.

Those Foreign Kids

Marijn Westerlaken (guitar, vocals) and Teun Heijmans (drums, vocals) are the duo that makes up Those Foreign Kids.
Before they have opened for acts like No Age, Sic Alps, Crystal Antlers and The Moi Non Plus and for the future they’ve got shows with Odonis Odonis and TV Buddha.

The music can best be described as noisy dance-punk in the vein of No Age, A Place To Bury Strangers and Liars. Marijn is also owner of boutique guitar/effect webshop Digitaar, which explains the wall of noise that comes from his guitar.
They have recorded one EP in Utrecht’s venue Ekko and they are now prepping their first release on the Geertruida label: a split 10” with Treasure of Grundo and Danish bands The Beardy Durfs (whom were featured on the Copenhagen scene report) and Himmelschiff Excelsior.

Incubate Scene Report: Haarlem
29 March 2012 – Cul de Sac, Tilburg
With: Treasure of Grundo + Those Foreign Kids
Free entrance 

Haarlem, the city that’s somehow always in the shadow of Amsterdam. While it’s best known bands are probably Relax, Chef’Special, Alain Clark and The Sheer, there’s a lot more brewing under the surface than you see at first sight.

Cultural city
Haarlem hosts a lot of festivals every year. Most famous are probably Bevrijdingspop, and Mysteryland, the oldest dance festival in the Netherlands.Haarlem also has a city theatre and philharmonic concerthall in one. Stadsschouwburg & Philharmonie Haarlem’s program contains mostly classical music and musicals.

But the city got more to offer. Like last years ‘De Stad Als Podium’, which translates to ‘The City as a Stage’. This festival combined a lot of different cultural organisations, old monumental buildings used for performances and art shows, international bands like Battles, Man Man, and a lot more lesser known and local bands. (Both bands also performed at Incubate)

Haarlem is a city with a lot of live music incorporated into the smaller bars, pubs and venues. Some notable bars with live music are:
- Café Pitcher (alternative and local bands)
- Café Briljant (open mic nights and some live music)
- Café Stiels (Jazz, Rhythm and Blues café with live music 5 nights a week)
- Café Storing (live music and dance nights).

Patronaat
Most of the Haarlems music scene revolves around Patronaat. This is the largest music venue in Haarlem. With a large mainstage, small stage and a café.

Patronaat hosts a lot of shows, from pop music to noise and metal. Besides shows they also organise club nights with dubstep, 80’s hits and even a 40+ night.

The good thing about Patronaat is that they also give some organisations the chance to program their own events in the Patronaat Café. There is the hardcore punk organisation Minor Operation Bookings, Haarlem Reggae Movement and Gold Diggers. All these organisations are able to book the music they like and showcase these to an audience.

The Irrational Library
One of the organisations that regularly program Patronaat café is The Irrational Library . This is run by Joshua Baumgarten a.k.a. DJ Weird Beard. The Irrational Library programs the Patronaat Café one Saturday each month. Recently they’ve also opened their very own store with vintage clothing, records, books and more.

The focus mainly lies on more Garage and Rock ‘n ‘Roll oriented music. Some bands that could be considered part of the scene surrounding The Irrational Library, are E.T. Explore Me, The Pignose Willy’s and Pussycat Kill Kill Kill. These bands are making music you could define best as blues trash. E.T. Explore Me and their distorted and overdriven organ they are making what they call: organ trash. And they totally hit the right spot with that definition. The Pignose Willy’s are a duo, featuring one of the members of E.T. Explore Me. They use a distorted blues harmonica that gives them a unique sound.

The Pignose Willy’s at 3fm DemoZone 

Pussycat Kill Kill Kill is a seven-piece band. Resurrected from death in February they are currently playing shows again. Their music is a mix between punk, blues trash and just straight-up rock ‘and roll.

When we asked Joshua if he thought bands from Haarlem were getting enough attention and praise he answered:
“Haarlem bands need to push harder to get the attention they deserve. Being the shadow city of Amsterdam is tough. Being a band in Amsterdam, then you get the cool indie label. Here you are suburban geeks.”

Geertruida

Not all music events in Haarlem are held in a regular venue. Geertruida is such an exception. From the outside it’s just an ordinary house in the north of Haarlem. But the brave house owner under the name of Yannick Tinbergen decided he wanted to set up his own shows, and so he did.

At first the shows featured smaller, and more unknown bands like Agent Side Grinder and Jeans Wilder. Then Marijn Westerlaken joined the house (he also brought his guitar/pedal showroom Digitaar with him). With his coming they also started setting up bigger shows.

The shows are known for their craziness, indoor-stage diving and the open atmosphere. Bands in Geertruida never play for commission. The shows are done out of generosity and are often a very good stop for touring musicians. The bands get a free place to sleep, food and drinks. During the events Geertruida asks for donations from the crowd. They split these donations with the bands. The band is also able to sell their merchandise. A few bands that played Geertruida also played on the Incubate Festival, for example: Cold Pumas and A Grave With No Name.

The guys behind Geertruida, Yannick and Marijn, are musicians too and both play in their own bands, respectively The Treasure of Grundo and Those Foreign Kids. These two bands will play on the very first edition of Incubate Scene Report: Haarlem.

Geertruida also has a connection with the guys from The Irrational Library, but their shows are considerably more underground oriented.

Daisy Bell
Being the main rehearsal space in Haarlem for almost 17 years, a lot of musicians mourn the loss of their beloved Daisy Bell. The building became part of a conflict between the landowners and the local government and finally had to close its doors.

As a benefit for the owners and a last goodbye to the building a few people came together and organised a party in Patronaat, using all three stages.

Joshua Baumgarten from The Irrational Library reflects upon the moment that for him signifies the Haarlem music scene:
“There were over 50 bands, hundreds of people. Bands that had broken up reformed for a one-time gig for the Daisy Bell. I was one of the hosts of the event. Standing back, watching all the bands, all the friends, fans and family. It gave me a special feeling about Haarlem, the wealth and diversity of its music scene and the people it brings together.”

Suburban Records
While globally a lot of record shops are forced to close due to the decrease in physical sales, the Haarlem-based record label and distribution centre Suburban Records decided to go against the grain and open their own record store. The store will focus mainly on vinyl and only sells music they release or distribute and will also be open for material by local bands.

It goes without saying that Haarlem is in fact a musical city. There’s music in so many different places: bars, living rooms, monumental buildings and the traditional venues.

Unfortunately this post can’t even begin to cover all of the music that’s going on. There is a lot more. From commercial to underground, quiet to loud. There is dance, dubstep, punk and so much more. That’s why we encourage you to contribute to the knowledge about Haarlem’s music scene by posting your comments below.

You can also add currently active bands to the overview of bands and musicians in Holland on GetSatisfaction. The topic for Incubate Scene Report can be found here.

Some more bands worth checking out:
Grey Lotus

 All Shall be Well
De Aanslag and Spoon Lifts Moon.

We hope to see you at the first edition of Incubate scene report
29 March 2012 – Cul de Sac, Tilburg
With: Treasure of Grundo + Those Foreign Kids
Free entrance

It seems nowadays you have to be either from New York (preferably Brooklyn) or Los Angeles to make it to the end-of-the-year-lists.

Somehow it’s hard to believe that the rest of the world skimps out in making solid music. We are actually pretty sure that the rest is doing pretty well. Beautiful and interesting music has been crawling into our ears from all over the world. So why is this largely being ignored by the bigger media? This frustration led to a new idea: Incubate Scene Report.

Incubate Scene Report will shine some light on music scenes that have never really been delved into. The idea is as following: every month (starting March) we pick one European city that we will write a blogpost about. For this piece we try to gain as much different kinds of perspective as possible, to fully dissect the scene. Besides this European adventure we will also pick one Dutch city every month. This city will be featured the whole month. We will write about the local music scene, interesting bands, organisations and other things. Then, to top it all of, we will invite two bands from this city to play a free show at Cul de Sac in Tilburg every last Thursday of the month.

Our first Incubate Scene Report will start in March and will be about Haarlem. On the 29th of March we will have our very first Incubate Scene Report event with live performances by:

Treasure of Grundo

Those Foreign Kids.

We hope to see you there!

Incubate Scene Report: Haarlem
29 March 2012 – Cul de Sac, Tilburg
With: Treasure of Grundo + Those Foreign Kids
Free entrance

We had our “Program complete” Incu Thursday last week, but with a festival with over 250 artists, program changes are unavoidable! Therefore, another Incu Thursday!

Remember, you can buy your tickets for Incubate 2011 here! And camping tickets as well. Bare in mind the camping tickets are limited!

First of all the bad news: The drummer from Heretic just left the band so will not perform. But we still have three great black/death bands on the bill for Thursday September 16: Aura Noir, Obliteration and Ketzer!

Also, Jos from Lärm has an infected eardrum and therefore can not play for a while on doctor’s advice. But, we have found a suitable replacement for them: the grinders from Groningen from Suffering Quota will replace them. Assück worship!

Suffering Quota – 18/9

Grindcore
Expand to view more info

We can also finally announce the dj’s for the Incubate afterparty in Cul de Sac! For those who don’t want to go home! Afterparties start right after the last band of the evening.

Cul de Sac afterparties:
Monday: DJ Tomski
Tuesday: Kidnap The DJ
Wednesday:  Body 2 Body
Thursday: Kicking The DJ’s
Friday: Le Guess Who? DJ Crew
Saturday: Vera DJ Team

In between the bands, the following DJ’s will be spinning some tunes at Cul de Sac and Kleine Zaal of 013.

Cul de Sac:
Monday: Christiaan Walraven (3VOOR12)
Tuesday: Ingmar Griffioen (3VOOR12)
Wednesday: Body 2 Body
Thursday: Joep Schmitz

013 Kleine Zaal:
Monday: DJ Betonnie (Avonduren)
Tuesday: Stephan van Peursem  (3voor12)
Wednesday: Coco Bryce + Jameszoo
Thursday: Michiel Eikenaar (Anaphylactic shock)

Attending Incubate 2011? Go to Facebook and Last.fm so you can see who of your friends are going as well and stay up to date on the Incubate 2011 news! You can check out the whole line-up on the last.fm page as well. Tune in on our weekly updated Spotify Playlist to listen to the confirmed artists.

You can buy your tickets for Incubate 2011 here! And camping tickets as well.

We will announce new names every week where possible, so keep an eye out for the blog, or your favorite Social Media channel every Thursday at 14:00h. And of course, share with your friends!

These guys are gonna throw one hell of a party at Cul de Sac on Monday. Check the video above.

Bram Stadhouders & Koenraad Ecker will perform at Cul de Sac next Sunday (June 5th)! Support comes from Herbert Eckardt. Entrance is free so no excuses! Show starts at 20:30. Below you can find the description of this special show in Dutch!

“Dit is tripmuziek. Het publiek van het eerste optreden rapporteerde al dat ze zichzelf door het heelal zagen slingeren en ontvoerd werden door buitenaardse wezens. Uren laten zat iedereen nog in de roes. Dit is ambient freejazz-gitaar met IDM beats die je op je grondvesten zal laten schudden. Vrije improvisatie door 2 impro-maestros, elk concert is uniek.”

Bram Stadhouders wordt gezien als een van de meest verfrissende Nederlandse improvisatiemuzikanten. Nadat hij verschillende prijzen als klassiek, rock en jazz gitarist in de wacht sleepte, begon hij zich te focussen op de improvisatie en electronica. Hij werd in 2008 uitverkoren tot “Young VIP” met een tour langs alle grote Nederlandse improvisatiepodia en een optreden op Vrije Geluiden met drummer Onno Govaert. Als sologitarist, sideman, en met zijn 6-koppige band “Korps”, heeft hij in bijna elk land van Europa, en de USA getourd. Zijn stijl meandert tussen jazz, ambient en electronisch, en hij krijgt uitstekende recensies. Zijn trio met de gerenommeerde stemkunstenares Sidsel Endresen (ECM) en drummer Jim Black, gaf de Volkskrant 4/5 sterren. Hij wordt ook regelmatig uitgenodigd door internationale grootheden, zoals Terje Isungset, en Grzech Piotrowski. Zijn muziek wordt tevens gebruikt voor documentaires.
www.bramstadhouders.nl

Koenraad Ecker is waarschijnlijk een van de meest vooruitstrevende electronische musici van Belgie. Voortkomend uit een verleden van klassiek en jazz, ontwikkeld hij nu een hoogstpersoonlijke wereld van electronische muziek geinspireerd op IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), techno, post-rock, hedendaags klassiek en minimal music. Naast zijn werk met de meest interessante musici uit Belgie, heeft hij zijn werk mogen vertonen op plaatsen zoals North Sea Jazz Festival (NL), Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ (NL), Casa da Musica (PT), Oslo Jazz Festival (NO), Meta.Morf Festival(NO), De Singel (BE), De Beursschouwburg (BE), Vooruit (BE), Festival Internacional de Puerto Montt (Chile), Moers Festival (D), Mapping Festival (CH),…
http://www.myspace.com/koenraadecker

Eric Chenaux experiments with ballads, songs, tunes, improvisations, guitars, very small speakers, The Reveries , The Draperies , Drumheller , Nightjars , The Guayaveras , The Allison Cameron Band , Eloïse Decazes , John Oswald , Michelle McAdorey , Aimée Dawn Robinson , Marla Hlady and the curation of the Toronto based recording label, Rat-Drifting, co-founded with Martin Arnold in 2002.Solo recordings: Warm Weather With Ryan Driver (2010) Sloppy Ground (2008) and Dull Lights (2006) are released on the Montreal-based label Constellation.About Chenaux’s guitar playing, Carl Wilson writes: “Ornette Coleman might call it harmolodic. Chenaux might call it an amazing background. His strings chime with all those thoughts at once. I adore the way he teases out a melody, never beginning a phrase so much as joining one already in progress. The sound quivers and multiples such that I picture his strings fraying and sprouting into more strings, weeds, nests, marshes, frogs’ tongues, cancelled coins, nickel pipes, drainage systems, catacombs, coral reefs…I could pick Chenaux’s guitar out of a lineup within a few woozy notes, because it’s no longer confined to the orthodox pluck, squawk and scrape of [Derek] Bailey-influenced guitar improv; instead it has absorbed Bailey’s open field of possibility into a love of song. And the songs are strong enough to take it”.

This Friday, November 26th, Chenaux will play at Cul de Sac Tilburg. Entrance fee is only 3 euro. Be there!

Vice® Don’ts
- Stay cool and underground

Like a philosopher once said: It’s better to sell out than to fade away. We know the magazine from way back. Our artistic leader Vince used to write for Vice®. What happened to Vice®? It has turned into a brand or, according to the readers of Brooklyn Vegan, Vice® is “employing cokeheads with small dicks since 94“. In our own words: The brand is ran by washing machine salesmen. They know what to do with the powders. They know which band shirts are cool to wash. But they don’t know the blood, sweat and tears of DIY culture.

Our homies of Vice® are setting up a party in Tilburg with some of their best friends. We love parties in Tilburg, we love Cul de Sac and we love the old Vice® style. We love the friends of our friends so decided to join. They gave us an ad in the magazine and some extra’s. We had to promote the Vice® party.
Suddenly things changed. It was not a Vice® party but a Jägermeister® party with Vice® as a media partner: Jagerland. We have to promote this cool and trashy and uberhip PARTY OF THE MILENNIUM where you must go if you thinks skinny jeans are sooooo spring 2009 and if you wear your Diesel® jeans like they come straight out of the Oxfam shop and you choose the music that fits best to your drug use. Otherwise they will charge us for their ad in their magazine, which normally costs 4250 euro ex. VAT. Oh no, they give us a “discount” and we will only have to pay only 2125 euros ex VAT if we don’t put this advertorial over here.

Normally you won’t see corporate ads at this blog, that’s why you might visit it, but Jagerland is something different. Jagerland is cool and underground and they want to reach you sooo badly that they are pushing us quite hard to put this advertorial here. That’s why they sponsor bands like Bloodhound Gang and throw up this cool event. We just love them and hope you love them too. Please go to their site and give them your mail address, so the brand has a new outlet to a new target group. Go there! Line up in a branded Jagerland queue between all the other hipsters that hope they are look hip enough to get in. Let them make pictures of your coolness so they can tell their sponsors Vice® draws an hipster audence. Hope to see you on the pictures!
Did we already mention that we love Jägermeister®? The people from Jägermeister® are nice. The people who drink Jägermeister® are nice. We just love it, we love to feel the taste and richness of Jägermeister® with our best friends. Jägermeister®!

Viceland.com, the Viceland.com logo, Vice, the Vice logo, trademarks and services marks, and any other Viceland.com logos and product and service names are trademarks of VICE (the “VICE Marks”).  Use of any VICE Marks without the prior written authorization of VICE is strictly prohibited.

BONAPARTE – COMPUTER IN LOVE from bonaparte on Vimeo.

The German electro circus of Bonaparte rocked Cul de Sac at Incubate 2009. The’ve just released a new videoclip in their typical style.

Norwegian doom metal band Altaar played in Tilburg during Incubate 2009. Now they’re naming their new album ‘Okkult de Sac’, after their favourite bar in that city: Cul de Sac. How cool is that!

+ 4DALADIEZ, GGU:LL and dj INCUPETER
Entrance: €3,-, including 1 drink (beer/wine/soft drink)
Start: 21:00
More information: Cul de Sac or Last.fm

Not enough money to go to Masters of Reality but still wanna have a kick-ass time in Tilburg? Come and see Obits and Union Town @ Cul de Sac!

See you there tomorrow.

See our last.fm page

or one of the last.fm events of Paradox, Cul de sac, V39, the special Wardruna performance, Der Blutharsch and others on Sunday, Nitsch’s Organ concert, The misery signals/your demise/The Number 12 package, Generation Bass day 1, day 2, day 3, The Damned and others.

Komende zondag (30 aug 2009) spelen Ggu:ll (Pu:ppkakkbaggrlull met drummer Bart Waalen (Transmission0, Skirl, Engine of Doom)) samen met Thought Forms (bassiste CharlieRomijn kennen we nog van Crippled Black Phoenix, ZXW 2007) in de Cul de Sac. Thought Forms komt helemaal uit Bristol voor alleen dit optreden.Dat verdient een applaus. En daar kan jij voor zorgen!

Wanneer je voor 20 uur bij Cul de Sac binnen bent is het gratis, daarna kost het 3 euro. Het begint rond 21.00 / 21.30.

De myspace-pagina’s:
www.myspace.com/ggullband
www.myspace.com/thoughtforms

Naast projecten en Petozzie’s is het nu tijd voor een feestje. En niet omdat we precies een jaar bestaan of een grote prijs hebben gewonnen maar gewoon omdat we er zijn. Daarom staat Cul de Sac op 4 september vanaf 21 uur in het teken van theater, muziek, animatie en kunst.

Kortom Nieuwe Garde Tilburg viert feest in de kroeg der creatieven en nodigt jou daarbij uit! Voor €4,- ben je erbij en geniet je mee.

Kaarten zijn te koop bij Cul de Sac (Heuvel 48 Tilburg) of via tilburgATnieuwegardePUNTnl.

April 30th edition was cancelled due to the attack in Apeldoorn that same day, and moved to May 5th, Liberation Day in The Netherlands. Be there, it’ll be a huge party!

www.generationbass.com

Two months ago Generation Bass started its blog on non-western (dance) music and influences thereof. This week, the blog will welcome it’s 50.000th visitor !

Beside a blog, Generation Bass is a dance night too! It has it’s monthly night at Cul de Sac in Tilburg and this month there is a Generation Bass-A-Thon at 013 and Cul de Sac on April 29th and 30th. Ticket give-away on ZXZW Blog tomorrow !!

Be there, it’s gonna be great!

Generation Bass

The first edition will be on March 25th with the following line-up:

KUDURO, BAILE FUNK, NU CUMBIA, CHUTNEY con

DJ VINCE THE PRINCE

Met zijn nieuwe plaat, The Hive, heeft hij een luisterpaal notering gehad op de 3voor12website. Geen kleine naam dus.

Zaterdag 8 novemeber, Greg Weeks, zorg dat je er bij bent!
Aanvang: 21.00u
Entree: GRATIS
Plaats: Cul de Sac

Voor meer informatie over Greg weeks:
www.gregweeks.net
http://www.myspace.com/gregweeks
http://www.myspace.com/espers ]]> http://inlog.org/2008/11/06/last-minute-gig-greg-weeks-of-espers-in-cul-de-sac-this-saturday/feed/ 0 http://inlog.org/2008/10/16/slaraffenland-tonight-at-cul/ http://inlog.org/2008/10/16/slaraffenland-tonight-at-cul/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:22:40 +0000 Joost http://zxzw.wordpress.com/?p=2487 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jx1FKg3Q0]

Listen up you indie kids. Slaraffenland will play Cul de Sac tonight. Slaraffenland expertly expands on the guitar-bass-drums standard with bras and woodwind instruments, various racket-makers, and transfixing gang vocals. Most of them childhood friends or even twins, they ve spent years developing a sound that conjures everything from tumbling jazz to noise to melodious addictive building rock and pop. Animal Collective meets This Heat. It’s free so be there!!

Underground: Logisch of Onmogelijk

Het clubcircuit in Nederland is met lastige thema’s bezig. Tijdens afgelopen Noorderslag Seminar (een soort Muzikantendag voor muziekprofessionals) laaide de discussie hoog op tussen de programmeurs van zalen over zaken als: moet het clubcircuit undergroundbands boeken om de underground in stand te houden? Is de underground de basis? Heeft het clubcircuit nog wel ruimte voor de underground of proberen de podia alleen maar veilig te programmeren? Met andere woorden, is er binnen het huidige clubcircuit nog wel ruimte voor de underground? Heb je hier ook een mening over of wil je deze professionals nou eens vragen hoe het nu eigenlijk zit, schuif dan aan en meng je in de discussie. Lekker om bij wakker te worden toch!

Host: Jasper van den Dobbelsteen (Groene Engel)
Tijs Heesterbeek (ZXZW / freelance journalist KindaMuzik, NRC-Next, AD)
Joost Heijthuijsen (ZXZW)
Carlos van Hijfte (See/Hear Management)

Check it at Cul de Sac 10:45-11:30 (in the moring) during Muzikantendag

Yeah, yeah. Dierck Roosen made the final version of his Monotonix clip. Check this 10 minute version and enjoy!

Some of our best friends are Balkan dj’s. But we don’t know about the genre. But we like some good old gossip and Eugene Hütz, the Giel Montagne from the Balkan scene, the frontman from Gogol Bordello will do a dj set in Cul de Sac after  his 013 show.