MetaFilter posts tagged with holland and music

Haarlem Renaissance.

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:35:04 -0800

Just lately I was thinking of the Dutch Invasion. No, not this one. Not this one either. I mean this one. There was, of course, Shocking Blue, with their classic hit, Venus, and their lesser-known Never Marry a Railroad Man and Mighty Joe. Then there was the George Baker Selection, with Little Green Bag and Una Paloma Blanca. Then you've got the very, er... unique Ma Belle Amie, by Peter Tetteroo and the Tee Set. And how 'bout that Golden Earring, eh? Radar Love? Amirite? And of course, the inimitable Focus, with their mega-hit instrumental, Hocus Pocus. By now you're probably asking yourself "Why didn't they ever put a bunch of these Dutch bands out on little platforms sticking out of the ocean, and throw in some go-go girls, and film the whole thing from helicopters?" Well, THEY DID! Those crazy Dutch! Songfacts page for Venus. Lyrics for Venus. Lyrics for Never Marry a Railroad Man. Lyrics for Little Green Bag. Songfacts page for Ma Belle Amie. Lyrics for Ma Belle Amie. Focus Wikipedia page. One more Golden Earring clip: Mad Love. Check out those lights inside the drum kit! Cool! One more Focus clip: Sylvia / Hocus Pocus. "Sylvia" is one of the dumbest tunes I've ever heard. And... one more Dutch instrumental act: Ekseption. More dopey prog oddness. That's Bach they're playing, right? Plus... Popfestival in de Warrekam. Check out the Dutch hippie vibe of 1971. Looking back over all this material, I'm struck by the unlikeliness of it all. Virtually every song from every one of these bands is a hodge podge of influences and musical ideas thrown together in entirely unexpected ways. In ways that are... wrong. This is mirrored in the lyrics as well: with their uniquely good grasp of English, Dutch songwriters were able to write and sing in English, but most all of these songs, at one point or another, utilize some phrase or lyric connection which is just, well, wrong. Oddly wrong. All this combined is what, I think, makes so much of this stuff interesting. Kind of makes you wish more Dutch bands had really kept at it, or had more luck in the international arena. With these few efforts, some of these Dutch bands showed a proclivity for experimentation that, while not necessarily always successful, at least pointed toward a unique interpretation of the the language of rock and pop music.

Lotsa streaming concerts.

dobbs — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 20:57:23 -0800

Dutch broadcast station VPRO's website is Holland’s biggest platform for alternative music. Here's a link to a shitload of streaming live concerts and tracks. You'll have to do a bit of cut and paste once there, but it's the easiest way for me to link to the list. For the cut-and-paste-inept, there's a standard interface, but the site's not in english.

1) Buy webcam. 2) Put something you found around the house in your hair. 3) ????????? 4) Profit!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 17:09:40 -0800

One of the great virtues of the internet is the manifold ways in which it has revolutionised the arts. The postmodern works of contemporary artists Pomme & Kelly (Google Video), when viewed together in context, form a striking example of a well-placed critique of popular culture, and modern living at large. The zeitgeisty meta-irony of their seemingly content-free interpretations of popular songs are only enhanced by the fact that, in a clever keeping with style, they blog about it as well.

The Memory of The Netherlands

peacay — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:40:35 -0800

The Memory of The Netherlands is an extensive digital collection of illustrations, photographs, texts, film and audio fragments from a large variety of Dutch cultural institutions. There are about 50 collections (in english).