BETTIE SERVEERT - Wild, fresh and reckless

check out the video of "SMACK"

After a year of relative silence bettie serveert re-emerges triumphantly with
with their 5th studio album to date, and what a scorcher it is !

Pairing the elegant and accomplished beauty of it’s predecesor Private Suit with the energy and reckless abandon of their classic debut Palomine Log 22 is a veritable sonic trip and probably their best album yet.

Smack !

And here it is, written and produced by Carol van Dyk and Peter Visser and
recorded at Weesp’s E-Sound Studios, Log 22 contains a wide variety of shades.
The 13 tracks range from the fresh and the playful (the new single ‘Smack’, ‘Love-In’)
by way of the happy-sad and melancholy (‘Have A Heart’, ‘Captain Of Maybe’, ‘A Certain Lie’) and the sensually grooving (‘Given’) to all-out sonic blasts (‘Not Coming Down’,’Log 22’, ‘The Ocean My Floor’). All compositions are laced with tasteful electronics, tapes, strings and horn arrangements, and are delivered with an apparent effortless ease.
Listen to Carol’s singing that sounds more intimately confident and sensual
than ever and Peter’s patented ‘no holds barred’ guitarwrestling matches and Log 22 will
wriggle it’s way into your skull intending to stay there indefinitely.

Log 22

Log 22 will be released in March 2003 on Palomine Records licensed to PIAS for Europe
(March 17) and to Parasol in the US (March 11)
A limited edition vinyl double lp will be released on Waaghals Records in January 2003.

The story begins when Canadian-born, Netherlands - reared Carol van Dijk was hired as the live-sound mixer for the celebrated underground band de Artsen (the Doctors). Bunskoeke and Visser were already members, Dubbe was their roadie and the musical side project in which all four friends participated became bettie serveert. (Since you ask, the name means “Bettie to serve” after Dutch tennis player Bettie Stove, who lost the Wimbledon Ladies Final in 1977).

After a false start in 1986 when they dissolved after only one gig, the band ‘reformed’ in 1990 and quickly caught the ear of Matador, Brinkman and 4AD’s Guernica label for whom they kindly agreed to record their first album Palomine. Carol van Dijk’s seductive voice, the band’s bittersweet melodies and a cool cover of Sebadoh’s Healthy Sick made for an impressive debut which endeared them immediately to the press :

Of Palomine, US magazine Spins enthused, ‘The band’s warm, engaging musical personality makes you want to be pals o’theirs. No matter how edgy or ‘deep’ the lyrics get, they rarely distract from the whiskey bar of aura of the music....awe-inspiring, with fantastic guitar sounds and lazy, sprawling leads. When did indie-rock ever sound this mature, this developed ?’

With it’s mournful, desolate feel, and Carol’s typically striking lyrics, bettie serveert had, ahem, served an ace. A full year later in January 1995 the band recorded their second album Lamprey, which was hailed by Melody Maker as ‘the most tangled, desolate, real’life guitar sound of the year’.

After extensive touring with the likes of Belly, Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom, Superchunk, Come and Jeff Buckley, the band soon climbed to the top of the indie underground with their unique and unmistakeable heavy sweet guitar sound. In the increasing pile of flattering press coverage that now surrounds them they have been compared to Neil Young, The lemonheads, The Throwing Muses, The Sundays, Velvet Underground...the list goes on. Let’s just say they’re the best thing to come out of Holland before and after 2 Unlimited.

1997 sees the return of bettie serveert in even finer form with the release of the long awaited third album Dust Bunnies. The product of a year hard work, during which songs were written, books were read, more songs written. It was the first time the betties benefitted from the studio guidance of producer Bryce Goggin, who’s past credits include Pavement, Come, John Zorn, Kim Deal, Lemonheads and Spacehog. It’s also the first bettie serveert disc that was recorded entirely within the contiguous United States, specifically at Bearsville studio in scenic Woodstock, New York.
After touring with Counting Crows, Wallflowers and Wilco, Berend Dubbe left the band early 1998 and was replaced by Reinier Veldman, former drummer of De Artsen.

In 1998 the group releases a live album of Velvet Underground
coverversions ‘Bettie Serveert Plays Venus In Furs’

Then, after a period of relative radio silence, bettie serveert proudly enters the new
millenium with their first studio album in two years.
To the amazement of friends and foes alike Private Suit turns out to be their most accomplished
effort yet. Produced by John Parish of PJ Harvey fame they manage to deliver an intriguing album of almost majestic beauty. Private Suit was well received resulting in extensive touring in Europe (Crossing Border, Lowlands festivals) and the US (headlining and supporting Counting Crows and Live)

Then in 2001, the band decides to take a break

The sabattical is spent meditating, re-fuelling, studying and writing .
Peter Visser is a hired gun for a while, Herman Bunskoeke learns a
trade and Carol releases a record of inspired country songs under
the guise of Chitlin’ Fooks (a collaboration with talented Antwerp based
songwriter Pascal Deweze) .
Chitlin’ Fooks tour the US as a duo in the summer of 2001,
an extensive club and festival tour through Holland and Belgium follows
highlighted by succesful gigs at the Crossing Border and Pukkelpop festivals.

Then, by the summer of 2002 Carol van Dyk and Peter Visser are
ready to go into the studio to record Log 22.

and the rest, as they say, is history

Selective discography

Albums -

Palomine (Brinkman Records BRCD 004) - 1992
Lamprey (Brinkman Records BRCD 031) - 1995
Dust Bunnies (Brinkman Records BRCD 067) - 1997
Bettie Serveert Plays Venus In Furs (Brinkman Records 074) - 1998
Private Suit (Palomine Records 437.0004.20) - 2000

cd singles -

Private Suit (Palomine Records 437.0006.22)
White Tales (Palomine Records 437.0005.24)
Our New Demo (Dingo Promo 1)

Rudder (Brinkman Records brcd.069)
What Friends? (Beggars Banquet BBQ308CD)
Co-Coward (Brinkman Records brcd.066)
Co-Coward (Beggars Banquet BBQ314CD)

Something So Wild (Brinkman Records brcd.038)
Something So Wild (Beggars Banquet BBQ59CD)
Something So Wild (Matador Records OLE 150-2)
Ray Ray Rain (Brinkman Records brcd.035)
Crutches (Brinkman Records brcd.030)

Kid's Allright (Brinkman Records brcd.017)
Kid's Allright (Matador OLE61-2)
Palomine (Beggars Banquet BBQ28CD)
Palomine (Brinkman Records brcd.009)
Tom Boy (Brinkman Records brcd.003)

7” singles -

Cut 'n Dried (Steady Cam Records SCAM9807)
What Friends? (Beggars Banquet BBQ308)
All The Other Fish (Brinkman Records BRS065)
Something So Wild (Matador Records OLE 150-7)
Ray Ray Rain (Beggars Banquet BBQ50)
Crutches (Matador Records OLE 122-1)
For All We Know (A&M Promo Single 31458 8328 7)
Kid's Allright (Radio Opague Recordings)
Tom Boy (Brinkman Records BRS005)
Brain-Tag (Guernica GU 3 S)