Biography
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Years Active
2000 – present (24 years)
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Members
- Bart de Kroon
- Gerben Houwer (2000 – 2010)
- Marten Timan
- Paul Hoek
- Thomas Sohilait (2006 – present)
"Brass meets strong rhythm and guitars, resulting in a dusty sound reminiscent of bigger cities in summer, not to be found in Holland at all. They surprise you with every turn they make on their instrumental journey where trumpet, guitars, bass and drum alternately do battle and make peace and love."
We vs. Death is a Dutch indierock band, founded in 2000. Since then the band has put out a few releases and has been touring throughout Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan.
History
In the second half of 2000 a couple of like-minded musicians find each other at Utrecht University in Netherlands and decide to start a band.
Almost right away they choose to make instrumental music, that by lack of a better term can be described as post-rock. Other bands categorised as post-rock are for example Explosions in the Sky, Slint, Mogwai, Tomàn and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Anno 2008 we vs .death moved to using more vocals and harmonies, the sound evolved to more song-based material. a new album is expected march 2009
In the Netherlands We vs. Death is still the most successful exponent of the genre, that nowadays becomes more popular among bands.
Since they started the band has been playing venues on a regular basis, and since 2003 they have been playing outside the Netherlands as well. In the meantime they played venues in Belgium, England, Canada, France, Russia, Poland, Denmark, Germany and Japan We vs. Death alternately plays large venues like Paradiso, 013, Vera and Tivoli and small-scale venues and squats like the ACU and the OCCII.
Although We vs. Death is surely a band in the traditional sense of the word, they also try to seek collaboration with other creative disciplines. So far they worked together with performance-artist Jeremiah Day, theatre-designer Theun Mosk, video-artist Boudewijn Rosenmuller and Graphic Designer Roel Dalhuisen.
Discography
7-inch
Their first vinyl-single was released in 2001 on the Zabel Muziek music-label. This single contained four songs:
MK Ultra
HMV
MK Ultra
Heron
Split-CD with Tom Sweetlove
In 2003 the band released a split-CD with the Belgian post-rock band Tom Sweetlove. Each band contributed four songs for this release, titled The Message Is, that was released on the Dutch Zabel Muziek-label and the Belgian Matamore-label. The We vs. Death-songs on this CD are:
My Dog is Watching Me
City Council Cosmos
Consertina
Wave Goodbye With Your Little Hand
Split-CD with Green Concorde
In 2004 the band decided upon releasing a split-CD again, this time together with the Danish indie rock band Green Concorde. On this album, released on Zabel Muziek and Eglantine Records, appeared the following We vs. Death songs:
Pictures From Stellenbosch
Workers Are Referred To As "Hands"
Wake 44
We Too Are Concerned / We Are Too Concerned
After releasing the 7" EP en two split-CD's, the band released their full-length debut in Spring 2006. The CD-package also contained a DVD and a booklet with a short story from artist Jeremiah Day. The CD, again released on the Zabel Muziek-label contains eight tracks:
And How To Translate It
Pictures From Stanford
Snow Cushioned The Fall
One Light Will Do
Thomas Corner And The Valley Houses
(Yes,) We Went To Novgorod
Mother And Father And Me
Fieldfire
split 7 inch with audiotransparent
wevsdeath track : 'varde"a collection of stones
Line-up
Although it has undergone a few changes in the beginning, and has been stable for years, untill recently, when guitarist Bart de Kroon left the band and was replaced with Thomas Sohilait. The members are (in random order):
Marten Timan (bass)
Thomas Sohilait (guitar)
Paul Hoek (trumpet and concertina)
Wouter Kors (guitar)
Gerben Houwer (drums)
The band is being supported by several people:
Roel Dalhuisen (artwork)
Maarten Houwer (sound-engineering)
Theun Mosk (theatre-design)
Gibson Houwer (light-design/technician)
Boudewijn Rosenmuller (video)
Jeremiah Day (performance-artist)
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