songs : Rik Vermeir
Produced : Zaman
Year : 2000
Record co. : Oyster
Golden Green was formed at the beginning of the nineties
from the remnants of Belgian guitarrock-bands such as The Japs (Rock-Rally
final in 1992, and on the cd of that year with "Release
our nation"),
The Jones (6 singles between 1988 and 1991, best-known song probably "Faster
than the rain") & Ze Noiz (Rock Rally
winners of 1988), and consisted from the beginning of singer-guitarist Rik (Vermeir),
drummer Kris and bass-player Teun.
The group found a label in JP Van's Boom! in Ghent (specialized
in garagerock, psychedelica ..) and released three singles for them: "Little
Miss Network" and "Sherilyn" in 1993 and the appropiately
entitled "Young & Insane" in 1994 (partly produced by Kloot
per W).
In 1994 they participated in the preselection of the Rock Rally,
of which commentator Rocky de Lentdecker wrote "Golden Green can boast
about a tight sound, tense guitars and two good songs, but the coarse college-boy
vocals of the singer did put a lid on our enthusiasm".
In 1995 they got going in a cd of longer duration with "Golden
Green" for Donor, about which Jacky Huys wrote : "... is biting,
driven, angry, punky-grungy and closely related to Nirvana and Sugar. Among others.
by adding a cello here and there and by a lo-fi track such as "Shake it"
(with a cameo of Frank van der Linden) there is even enough
variation on the album. A promise for the future!"
Promising enough to be able to release a single form EMI in 1997,
which included the lyrics "Who needs Alanis, when a band like us is playing
like this, who needs Sheryl Crow, When there's no choice but Costello"
and was entitled "Al Anis". Two tracks of the band also made
it to a "Young Gudz" compilation CD ("No Aloha" and "Dumb
dum dum", both producec by Jean-Marie Aerts).
In 1998 there was another passage in the Rock Rally preselections
(Humo: "Rik Vermeir is a regular customer of our Rock Rally-klant whose
enthusiasm keeps surprising us. Although Rik will never be called "the nightingale
of Aalst", we don't care as long as "I'm a rock & roll party"
was a hell of an opener"), and a year later they found a new record company
in the Brussels-based Oyster Records.
After two singles "Incomplete" and "Scary"
they released the full-Cd "Modbeats!" there in early 2000, with as catchline
"tsal pataat in a bakkes zijn" and a production by Zaman (also
ex-Ze Noiz). The album was one that leaned heavily on
the heroes of Golden Green, such as The Buzzcocks and The Jam (one of the better
songs was even entitled "Songs of Paul Weller"), but it got only
modest reaction in the press, despite songs such as "Incomplete", "Scary",
"No Aloha" and the XTC-cover "This is Pop?". Something that
had Rik Vermeir saying to Rif-Raf that "Golden Green is Belgium's best
kept rock secret? What we do with this band, comes straight from our hear. We
don't do it to be part of the scene, or to be hip or make a lot of money. If there's
one reason Golden Green should be remembered, was that we réally meant
it.".
Band members :
- Rik Vermeir (guitar vocals)
- Kris "Cammen" Van der Cammen(drums, vocals)
- Teun / Frank van de Sijpe (bass)
Buy CD's of this band at
Albums :
- Little Miss Network / Yesterday's Papers (S, Boom!, 1993)
- Sherilyn (S, Boom!, 1993)
- Young & Insane / Can I come Near You / Sid (CDS, Boom!, 1994)
- Golden Green (CD, Donor, 1995)
- Al Anis / I'd Rather Go Blind (CDS, EMI/Young Gudz, 1997)
- Incomplete! (CDS, Oyster, 1999)
- Scary (CDS, Oyster, 1999)
- Modbeats (CDS, Oyster Records, 2000)
- This is pop (CDS, Oyster, 2000)
Websites :
- www.golden-green.com is the official site
of the band
- My review of "Modbeats"
- Golden Greens contribution to Kloot Per W's Ramones-tribute
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