Indie band Furtips formed in the Netherlands out of
the remains of a group called De Artsen. Herman Bunskoeke, De Artsen's
bass player, pulled together Thom Vanderdoef, Jane Pol, and Camille
Courbois with the intent of playing hardcore, but his desire failed to
materialize. Pol and Courbois, the group's songsmiths, were unfamiliar
with the genre. When Bettie Serveert, another group that Bunskoeke was
affiliated with, started to take off in a big way, the other members of
Furtips gave their founder the boot and invited a musician who called
himself the Royal Penguin Saver to take Bunskoeke's place on bass. The
new bassist previously played the trombone, and the band's official
history claims that he turned to the bass after finding one of the
instruments in a container of garbage. A flurry of songwriting activity
followed, and the band recorded with equipment that was on loan from
others. The result was a less-than-clear sound, and the recordings the
band made were lumped into the category of lo-fi, although members of
the group declined to describe their music with that term.
Furtips' first release, They Should Be Crowned, was
issued in cassette format only. A copy of the tape made its way to a
label called Ajax in Chicago, IL. Following that initial introduction to
the band, the label went on to issue Stand Back, Speak Normally, a CD,
and Pitched Up Twinkie, an EP. American sales were respectable. Back in
the Netherlands, however, the Furtips releases received almost no
acceptance. For a two-year period beginning in 1996, the group was less
productive as it lost drummers and their label ceased operations. The
band picked up speed after receiving an invitation from Animal World
Recordings, another U.S. label, to contribute to After the Divine Flying
Insect, a compilation. The band's album Le Louping was issued by Animal
World Recordings in 1998. The release is a collection of numbers
written during the downtime after Ajax had left the picture. In 1999,
the band paired with the group Marmoset on a 7". Lineup changes
continued to occur, with Beetle Sonique and Chief Wasdatwat coming
aboard to play keyboards and drums respectively on the 2001 Animal World
Recordings CD When My Baby Smiles at Me, I Go to Rio.
Tracklist
| 1 |
Aerial |
|
| 2 |
Clear |
|
| 3 |
Apple & Scepter |
|
| 4 |
Cases Shelf |
|
| 5 |
Timmy |
|
| 6 |
Bus |
|
| 7 |
Half Dancing |
|
| 8 |
P. C. To Stuffy |
|
| 9 |
Gifted In A Cell |
|
| 10 |
Imponderabilia |
|
| 11 |
Sparks |
|
| 12 |
Cuban |
|
| 13 |
Jester |
|
| 14 |
Be-mins |
|
| 15 |
Wavin' |
