Nits
| Nits | |
|---|---|
 Nits at the Haags UIT Festival 2008; from left to right: Stips, Hofstede, Kloet |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Amsterdam , Netherlands |
| Genre (s) | Pop , new wave , avant-garde |
| founding | 1974 |
| Website | www.nits.nl |
| Founding members | |
| Henk Hofstede | |
Guitar, vocals |
Michiel Peters |
| Alex Roelofs | |
| Rob Kloet | |
| Current occupation | |
Vocals, guitar, keyboard |
Henk Hofstede |
Keyboard |
Robert Jan Stips |
Drums |
Rob Kloet |
| former members | |
bass |
Joke devices |
Bass, guitar |
Martin Bakker |
| Peter Meuris | |
bass |
Arwen Linnemann |
Keyboard |
Laetitia van Krieken |
singing |
Leona Philippo |
Die Nits (until 1988: The Nits , the article was officially dropped) are a pop band from Amsterdam .
The Nits began as a guitar pop band in 1974 , soon turned to New Wave and have since cultivated an eccentric style that takes on influences from minimal music , jazz and independent pop. The name ("Läuseeier, Nissen") is an allusion to another band name with reference to insects, that of the Beatles .
history
The band was founded in 1974 by Henk Hofstede , Michiel Peters, Alex Roelofs and Rob Kloet in Amsterdam. Soon they turned to the New Wave , played their first record in 1978 and decided in 1980 to become professional musicians.
In its early days, the music of the nits could be compared with the new wave pop of the Talking Heads or the early XTC . Henk Hofstede and Michiel Peters distinguished themselves as independent songwriters, with Hofstede in particular being prone to bizarre experiments. The debut The Nits sees the band as not independent and unsuccessful; to date it has not been officially released on CD .
With the following albums Tent , New Flat and Work , the Nits developed an individual style that also processed influences from Kraftwerk , the Beatles and classic avant-garde . Hofstede found his personal voice; his timbre is often compared to John Lennon and the young Elvis Costello .
With the album Omsk and the entry of Robert Jan Stips, they achieved a decisive breakthrough to an independent sound. The growing influence of the visual arts is striking, both in the lyrics and in the layout of some of the songs. Some songs ( Jardin d'Hiver ) are brought to a standstill and act like sound sculptures. The sound palette has been expanded by the sophisticated sound design by Robert Jan Stips . Stips avoids conventional synthesizer routines in favor of impressionistic tonal design of the music. From this album comes the greatest single success in the native Netherlands with Nescio , which reached number 8 in the charts.
After the album Adieu Sweet Bahnhof , Michiel Peters got out and worked as an accountant from then on. Hofstede was now - apart from a few contributions from Stips - the main source of ideas for the songs, even if the credits from this point on mostly identify "Hofstede / Stips / Kloet" as the originator. The album In the Dutch Mountains became their most successful studio album, the melancholy title track became a hit across Europe. The original, surrealistic video that the band, all of whom were trained artists, had shot themselves also contributed to this. The subsequent tour took the Nits to Russia. It was documented on the double album Urk , which was re-released in 2006 with an additional live DVD from an Amsterdam concert.
Giant Normal Dwarf , recorded in trio, was characterized by fairytale-surrealistic lyrics and eccentric songs. The record was intended as a musical fairy tale book for Hofstede's then newborn daughter. Hofstede and his partner, the artist Riemke Kuipers, designed an elaborate booklet for this.
Ting was characterized by a chamber music line-up with two pianos and percussion. A striking sound element is the sounding stones by the Swiss sculptor Artur Schneiter , which are used on several songs. After the Ting tour, the nits took the opportunity to work with a symphony orchestra. Stips composed Hjuvi for nits and orchestra, which was performed three times and released on CD. On Hjuvi one finds influences of minimal music , György Ligeti , Edgar Varèse and George Gershwin .
dA dA dA meant a return to more compact pop songs . After this record, Robert Jan Stips left the band to pursue a solo career. Hofstede and Kloet continued the band with changing musicians and recorded the albums Alankomaat (the Finnish word for "Netherlands", with the support of the Sami folk music group Angelit ) and Wool . For the latter, the Nits left their long-time record company Sony Music (formerly CBS ) and released their following albums on the small label Play It Again Sam .
Between 2002 and 2011 Henk Hofstede made guest appearances on three albums by the Swiss pianist / composer Simon Ho : Before Sleep (2002), If (2005, also with Michiel Peters), Normal Sunday - live (2006) and Spoon River Anthology (2011, with the Overall cast of the Wool period). Besides Before Sleep , the three singers from Värttinä from Finland also perform on all of these . Hofstede also regularly releases solo albums.
Robert Jan Stips returned to the band in 2004 for CD 1974 . In autumn 2005 the Nits released the 19th studio album Les Nuits . In December 2006, the band toured with Uriah Heep , a combination that was both alienated and interested by fans.
Doing The Dishes , their 20th album, was released in January 2008. The return to Sony Music and the accessible, good-humored songs brought the nits more media coverage after a long time, which resulted in positive reviews, increased audience interest and ultimately even a short-term placement in knocked down the Dutch top ten. In October 2009, the Nits released the album Strawberry Wood .
The album Malpensa (2012) was not only created in De Werf's own studio , but also in Castel Burio in Piedmont and in Kytopia in Utrecht in collaboration with its owner, hip-hop musician Colin Benders alias Kyteman .
In late autumn 2019, Knot appeared as the result of a three-day, twenty-hour improvisation.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 NL
|
|||
| The nits | ||||||
| 1979 | Tent | - | - | - |
NL35 (3 weeks) NL |
|
| 1981 | Work | - | - | - |
NL41 (2 weeks) NL |
|
| 1983 | Omsk | - | - | - |
NL8 (29 weeks) NL |
|
| 1984 | Adieu Sweet train station | - | - | - |
NL33 (3 weeks) NL |
|
| 1986 | Henk | - | - | - |
NL55 (2 weeks) NL |
CD release in a double pack with kilo as handle / kilo
|
| 1987 | In the Dutch Mountains |
DE45 (5 weeks) DE |
AT4 (12 weeks) AT |
CH22 (6 weeks) CH |
NL8th  (22 weeks)NL |
|
| Nits | ||||||
| 1990 | Giant Normal Dwarf | - | - | - |
NL24 (9 weeks) NL |
|
| 1992 | Ting | - | - | - |
NL22 (10 weeks) NL |
|
| 1994 | Da da da | - | - |
CH23 (6 weeks) CH |
NL39 (7 weeks) NL |
|
| 1998 | Alankomaat | - | - | - |
NL45 (5 weeks) NL |
|
| 2003 | 1974 | - | - | - |
NL95 (1 week) NL |
|
| 2005 | Les nuits | - | - | - |
NL63 (8 weeks) NL |
|
| 2008 | Doing the dishes | - | - | - |
NL8 (9 weeks) NL |
|
| 2009 | Strawberry Wood | - | - | - |
NL11 (5 weeks) NL |
|
| 2012 | Malpensa | - | - | - |
NL45 (5 weeks) NL |
|
| 2017 | fear | - | - | - |
NL40 (1 week) NL |
|
| 2019 | Knot | - | - | - |
NL97 (1 week) NL |
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
More albums
- 1978: The Nits , only 1000 copies on vinyl
- 1980: New Flat
- 1992: Hjuvi
- 2000: Wool
Live albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
NL
|
|||
| Nits | ||||||
| 1989 | Document | - | - | - |
NL3  (27 weeks)NL |
Live triple LP or double CD
2006 re-release with additional live DVD |
| 2015 | Hotel Europa - Live Recordings 1990-2014 | - | - | - |
NL5 (4 weeks) NL |
|
Compilations
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
NL
|
|||
| Nits | ||||||
| 1996 | nest | - | - | - |
NL37 (13 weeks) NL |
|
| 2014 | Nits? | - | - | - |
NL35 (1 week) NL |
|
More compilations
- 1996: Quest (B-sides and other rarities)
- 2000: Nits Hits
- 2001: Dubbelgoud (Label: Disky)
- 2004: Dreams - Best (period: 1983-98, label: Zounds)
Collab albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
NL
|
|||
| Nits | ||||||
| 1995 | Dankzij de dijken | - | - | - |
NL14 (15 weeks) NL |
with Freek de Jonge
|
More collab albums
- 2002: Before Sleep (with Simon Ho)
- 2005: If (with Simon Ho and Värttinä)
- 2006: Normal Sunday (with Simon Ho and Värttinä)
- 2011: Spoon River (with Simon Ho and Värttinä)
EPs
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
NL
|
|||
| The nits | ||||||
| 1983 | kilo | - | - | - |
NL16 (9 weeks) NL |
CD release in a double pack with Henk as Henk / Kilo
|
| 1988 | Has | - | - | - |
NL15th (17 weeks)NL |
|
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
NL
|
|||
| The nits | |||||
| 1980 | Tutti Ragazzi Tent |
- | - |
NL31 (3 weeks) NL |
|
| 1982 | Red tape work |
- | - |
NL24 (4 weeks) NL |
|
| 1983 | Nescio Omsk |
- | - |
NL8 (8 weeks) NL |
|
| Sketches Of Spain Kilo |
- | - |
NL24 (4 weeks) NL |
||
| 1987 | In The Dutch Mountains In The Dutch Mountains |
DE32 (14 weeks) DE |
AT3 (14 weeks) AT |
NL14 (8 weeks) NL |
|
| 1988 | JOS Days In The Dutch Mountains |
- | - |
NL23 (5 weeks) NL |
|
| The Dream Hat |
- | - |
NL26 (5 weeks) NL |
||
| Nits | |||||
| 1989 | Adieu Sweet Railway Station Adieu Sweet Railway Station |
- | - |
NL26 (5 weeks) NL |
|
| 1992 | Soapbubble Box Ting |
- | - |
NL37 (3 weeks) NL |
|
Video albums
- 1989: Urk (concert recording)
- 1996: Vest (compilation of the single music videos)
- 2002: Songs from Wool, Live at De lichtfabriek (concert recording )
- 2004: 2004
swell
- ↑ Official press release of February 22, 2012 ( Memento of March 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on September 5, 2012
- ↑ a b c d e f Chart sources: DE AT CH Albums NL Singles NL
- ↑ a b c d Awards for Music Sales: NL
Web links
