I’ve been regularly going back to the Girls to the Front compilation I posted recently. Many of the thirteen #dutchindie bands featured on it make the type of music that winds up on this website, but many of them are too new to be able to do a full post about. I’m sure there will be a steady stream of FLINTA*1 Dutch punk rock on Turn & Work, and the first of which is the band with the best name.
Femme Fugazi‘s contribution to the compilation is called “Just People”, a buzzsaw of high-energy post-hardcore garage punk:
Chris de Meza’s fierce, barked vocals cut through the angular guitars from Floris van de Ree and Thijn Moons, bassist Wouter Loeve and explosive and dynamic drumming by Bram Boeve. Like most punk, it’s best consumed live2. This performance of “Suffocate in Silence” and “I Want You To Fucking Die” from 2023 is just incendiary:
Their 9-song 2024 EP Look At You has been in regular rotation. It blends tongue-in-cheek pettiness (“Ants,” “Go Away”) with emotionally and politically charged post-punk. Highlights include the blistering “Hide Your Secrets, Pt. 1” and the title track, while “Pt. 2” shows off de Meza’s vocal range in a soaring, throwback rock anthem. Even at only 28 minutes, Look At You has the cohesion, weight, and bite of a full album.
The band has a couple of shows lined up, including a double-header on August 23: Loose Ends Festival in Utrecht during the day, and Supersonic in Paris that night.
Further Reading
UGENDA interview, including a wildly eclectic playlist
- if you don’t know, now you know
- or since there are a half dozen time zones between me and the Netherlands, “Live via YouTube”
