For the non Dutch viewers; you might not have known this band. You should have. The Dutch band Woost decided to split this Summer, after releasing four albums in almost ten years. Their last album ‘6 Minutes South’ is amazing and I’ve been playing that one a lot over the last year and a bit. Even though they gathered a group of enthousiastic followers over the years, they never really reached a bigger audience. Their songs deserved more, if you ask me.
When I recorded a session for Onder Invloed with Woost in April 2010, it was the first one I had filmed in five months. Health issues prevented me from doing more. Even on the day itself, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to film. Luckily I chose to grab some pills and went along to Brabant anyway. That day made me eager again to continue with this project and to try and start filming more sessions. Woost brought me back the joy of filming.
Not because they gave we wonderful foot massages, or plenty of beers, but because of their amazing covers of Sparklehorse songs and the sheer dedication they showed. Something was coming, I could feel it. The album blew me away even more. There are a lot of great bands in The Netherlands, but no-one really seemed to write the sort of music they were writing. Or at least nowhere near as good. Every song on ‘6 Minutes South’ is good. Some personal favourites are the title track, ‘Trivia’, ‘Unforgiven’, ‘Hard To Live With’ and ‘Easier’.
I think it’s a crying shame bands like Woost don’t get nearly enough attention and recognition from listeners, newspapers, magazines and these office clerks who call themselves radio DJ’s. Where it seems that every brat with a slick haircut or attention seeking junkie almost automatically makes it to high-rotation on 3FM and sells out the better Dutch venues, no one even seems to consider playing songs that need a little bit of attention of the listeners. Do they really think we’re that stupid?
That said, this isn’t why you’re here. I was – and still am – very dissapointed we won’t be hearing any new Woost material anytime soon, if ever. Turns out, I’m not the only one. Arthur Adam, a Dutch singer, mentioned me on Twitter saying ‘If someone’s organising a tribute night, I want to be part of it’. That got me thinking. About the session that meant so much to me personally, and their mindblowing show at the Onder Invloed night at Hedon, Zwolle in October 2010, which made Bertolf Lentink say: “Woost is without a doubt the best band in The Netherlands right now. I’m heavily impressed, enjoying this show.”
Three phone calls later, Bertolf, Arthur Adam and Marlon Penn were ready and eager to participate. Not long after, we recorded their favourite Woost songs in my livingroom. It’s nothing pretentious, it’s just three musicians and one film maker paying tribute to one of their favourite bands. You can also listen to these covers on or embed them from Bandcamp if you please. Leave your favourite Woost songs (if you’re a regular viewer) or hate mail (if you’re a 3FM dj) in the comments below.
This tribute is a surprise to the former Woost members. Now let’s just hope they appreciate this.
Matthijs van der Ven
Something Beautiful by Marlon Penn
Can I Watch You Change? by Arthur Adam
Six Minutes South by Bertolf
The album cover you see on the front page, is a remake of the original artwork of Woost’s album ‘6 Minutes South’. The original artwork was made by Katerina Plevkova.