Vitesse
Vitesse is the name of two different artists:
1. An electropop duo from the US that began in 1997
2. A rock band from The Netherlands, that existed from 1975 until 1994
1. An electropop duo from the US that began in 1997
Spending most of their musical career in obscurity, this electropop duo was vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist Hewson Chen and keyboardist/bassist Joshua Klein. Klein was most notably once the drummer for the indie rock outfit Toulouse and a staff-writer for the satirical newspaper, The Onion. The two first collaborated in 1997 at the University of Chicago. They had worked on a piece for their Intro to Music Compostition class. Late the following year, under the moniker Vitesse, they recorded their debut album 'A Certain Hostility' at home, in a marathon 36 hour session. The album was released on the Hidden Agenda label the next spring.
Owing much to the synthesizer, drum machine and electric guitar arrangements pioneered by the likes of OMD, Joy Division/New Order and The Magnetic Fields; suffused with Chen's lazy vocals, Vitesse continued to write dreamy, 80's nostalgiac, synthpop songs with the release of 'Chelsea 27099' in 2000.
2001 saw the release of the "surprisingly long EP": 'What Can Not Be, But Is...' The full length album is a collection of leftover tracks and covers, including OMD's "2nd Thought" and Bruce Springsteen's "Unsatisfied Heart". In late 2002, the dreamy 'You Win Again, Gravity!' was released and fans we're treated to a brilliant cover of Hüsker Dü's "Green Eyes".
After their fourth release, Vitesse quietly retired to other pursuits. According to the Parasol.com website, what was last known of the pair is the following: "...Hewson currently lives in Nashville where he attends Vanderbilt University’s Law School. Josh is settled in Chicago where he writes extensively for the entertainment section of a very funny weekly paper. Don’t expect any live dates soon."
2. A rock band from The Netherlands, that existed from 1975 'til 1994
Vitesse is a former Dutch rock group. Drummer and singer Herman van Boeyen was the driving force behind the band. Vitesse starts in 1975 in Amsterdam by Herman van Boeyen. Herman Brood (singer/piano), Rob ten Bokum (guitar) and Peter Smid (bass) are the other members. In the first year a lot of guitar players come and go.
In 1976 Vitesse sign at Reprise for the first album Vitesse. The band members are Herman van Boeyen, Herman Brood, Jan-Piet den Tex, Gerrit Veen and Ross Recardi. Herman Brood leaves to start his own band and takes Veen with him.
After the second album Rendez Vous (Negram 1977) and the third album Out in the Country (Negram 1978), with drummer Herman van Boeyen and guitar players Jan van der Meij and Rudi de Queljoe (ex-Brainbox) and bassplayer Wilco Toerroe Leerdam, there's still no big success, although Out in the Country gets positive criticism. The fourth album Rock Invader (Negram 1979) does better. The single Rock & Roll Band, a strong rock riffed composition of Jan van der Meij, reaches the Dutch charts just like Whole lot of Travellin'. Rock Invader contains al lot of speedy funky played short rock songs, sung by the clear voice of Jan van der Mey. The name Vitesse respresents the fast en technical music in this period.
When the Wild Romance left Herman Brood, van Boeyen starts working again with Brood but fails. After the albums Good News and Live 1980 Van der Mey and Van Straaten (bass) are leaving to start Powerplay with drummer Leon Klaasse.
In 1982 there's finally great succes. The singles Rosalyn and Good Looking are big hits in the new and most succesfull line up with Otto Cooymans, Ruud Englebert and Carl Carlton (Buskohl). In 1983 Vitesse reaches place 30 in the charts with Julia, but Van Boeyen doesn't seem very easy to work with so Cooymans leaves the band with Englebert and Carlton. In this period Vitesse is also popular in Germay.
After this period Van Boeyen keeps on tryin' to get hit success by jumpin' on the bandwagon, but the synth sound, which is very popular in the mid 80's doesn't bring serious succes, so the record companies are less interested. In 1994 Van Boeyen, living by then in Germany making use of German musicians makes an end to Vitesse.
The two great periods of the band is the funky rock sound in the 70's, and the rock sound of the early 80's, where Van Boeyen shows he is one of the greatest drummers in history of Dutch rock music.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitesse_(band)/ and fan information by Joop Kolkman/Netherlands
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