The whole idea was to put together a night with music and performance art that was supposed to be inspirational but most of all... FUN. And fun it was!!
We were expected at the venue (Roodkapje/Rot(t)terdam/Beatburger)at 20.00 to set everything up, have some food and get dressed. This seemed a bit early (the party started at 23.30), but this point in time miraculously happened to coincide with the first dry moment of the day. So we quickly wheeled Blanche over so she and our hairdo's would not be harmed by the rain. When we got there the place was already looking rather amazing with big inflatable objects hanging from the ceiling, projections everywhere and a lot of people carrying crazy costumes. When we finally put all the cables where they should be (this can take forever because something always seems to malfunction) we decided to take our nerves downstairs, into the dressing room. The things we saw while we were there will remain a secret....
When it was finally time to start playing it seemed like people came falling from the sky or something. All of a sudden the place was packed and outside was a line of people, HUGE! As we were not able to win this war of bass that was going on inside, we decided to take Blanche outside... to party with the queue! People had to wait for 45 minutes to get in, so our tunes were much appreciated. Pretty soon all the costumed people came outside with their megaphones and started grinding in the street, and even passer-by's (?) stopped and partied with us! Now there was a party inside as well as outside and we just kept going and dancing... till the cops came. At two o'clock. Being quite hostile and all, you know how cops get.. not recognizing the coolness of a soundsystem on a rollator. Do they ever have fun? After that we just partied some more without Blanche!
Take a look at these awesome pictures taken by Boudewijn Bollmann who documented all the fun inside.
We played everything that night; from Sidney Samson to Ms. Dynamite to Mr. Vegas. But this is the top 3 tracks that (we all love hits) made EVERYBODY dance!
3: Rihanna feat. Jeezy - Hard (Jody Den Broeder radio edit). Get it here (YSI).
Join us tomorrow December 17th for some rollatordisco at PUHA's Greedy X-mas party in Utrecht! Puha is a funky little shop in the Hardebollenstraat, that sells great stuff by young independent designers (they've got the very last pairs of our Hand in Glove mittens for example). So get your pressies while drinking and dancing; Christmas shopping doesn't get any better than this!!
Now let's hope and pray we survive this trip with Blanche through the snow and icy streets (definitely not the right weather conditions for a soundsystem!)...
This Friday our friend Peter 'Teps' de Koning is hosting a third edition of Variété De Luxe: a highly entertaining evening filled with music, poetry, comedy, ukuleles and Blanche's "rollator disco"! Entrance is €0, which includes a glass of bubbles!! Friday November 26, 19.30. 1st floor of the Public Library Rotterdam, Hoogstraat 110.
I must admit it felt a bit strange to be walking around in leopard print at at car tuning convention one day and to be standing in front of a group of art school students the next. Welcome to the world of Dutch Dolls...
After a very enjoyable 'project week' about zines at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam in April we had the opportunity of doing it all again last week (read the blog post about the first one here). In small groups, or individually, 25 students from various departments worked on little booklets WITHOUT TOUCHING A COMPUTER. They were free in their choice of subject matter, because that's what zines are all about: a medium to express yourself, your opinions, your obsessions, your artwork, your comics, your poetry and whatnot.
So we ended up with a wide variety of zines: about superstitions, everyday annoyances, skateboarding and zine-making itself, the differences between the left and right side of brain and traditional German hunting imagery and terms, just to name a few. We were delighted that in times like these there was at least one zine that was political and critical. It was called "Wilder dan ooit" ("Wilder than ever") and it included fragments of an inspiring speech by Johan Fretz on the planned cuts in the government's arts budget, plus a plan how to fortify the art school should things get really bad and of course lots of very wild appropriated images of Geert Wilders.
There was a zine "Meisjes poepen niet" ("Girls Don't Poo"), filled with cut out images from glossy magazines of women in difficult poses. Just by combining them in a certain way, or altering them with little scribbles these perfect women, who supposedly are unable to poo or fart or to have hairy armpits, were put into perspective. Neat detail was the silkscreened poo-colored cover with a toilet paper banderole:
We were happy to see the return of the guys who made "A Sick Zine" during our workshop in April. They had continued working together since on an animal-themed second edition and decided to finish it the during our class (very clever). The lovely lads even included an 'ode' to Dutch Dolls, of which you can see a blow up in the upper right corner of the picture above. We are still debating who is who.. Meanwhile here's a selection of their original collages:
They made so many pages the zine turned out too thick to staple, so they had to glue it...
... 55 times...
More pictures of the making of A Sick Zine #2 can be seen on their Facebook page (yes they have a FB page, and a website, and they're on Twitter!). It was sold out in no time, so we suggest you become a fan or start following them to make sure you don't miss out on issue #3!
More 'filth' was produced by an exchange student from Switserland, Luca. Be honest, when someone tells you he "wants to do something with porn and vegetables and machines" you don't expect him to come up with something as tasteful as this:
He used a duplicator or ditto machine so he could print two colors in separate layers. We must say, big up for Wilco at the graphic studio at the Willem de Kooning Academy! Silk screen printing, letter press, typewriters, folding machines.. it's all there for the students to use.
Part of the assignment was to organize a 'zine jam' on Friday afternoon to sell and swap their zines. They failed miserably on this part of the assignment, but we'll forgive them because they worked so hard to have their zines ready on time. They camped out in the foyer of the school, we wheeled in Blanche for some background music and we had a ball anyway.
Still it's a shame they didn't promote this little event, because I know you, dear reader, would have loved to come and I know you wouldn't have left empty handed!!
Slightly hungover, our alarm started ringing at 09.00h... We dressed up with lots of fake fur, leopard print, gold chains, pearls and more things that are cute, but wrong. We put Blanche together and wheeled her over to AHOY, Rotterdam to deejay at the 100% tuning event. Which was as cool as we hoped it would be. Actually, it was cooler. Words do not describe what the event was like, but once we hooked up the battery, and DJ Assault was blasting through the speakers.. jaws dropped. Ooow, how awesome it felt to walk through all the extreme cars, with smoke effects, major sound systems, video screens, pearl paint jobs, airbrush, Svarovsky, rims from outer space... and lots of girls in skimpy outfits lying on top of them and twirling around them. The rollator fit right in. As did we... ahum.
After playing every nasty tune that we had, we went home. We took the subway and the elevator. We decided to party a little in the elevator and cranked up the volume as we went up. Eh... as we should have went up. The elevator broke down and we were stuck!! Even the guy of the helpdesk that answered our distress call thought it was funny. Two policemen and a mechanic had to come to set us free. What a Sunday..... really weird, but a 100% awesome!
So after a successful test ride through the parks and streets of Berlin we found out that Blanche’s tweeters were a little antique... 1991 wasn’t a good year for speakers and therefor we blew ‘em up! But revamped with two Excalibur cone speakers with a maximum power capability of 540 watt she's now ready to roll down the streets of Rotterdam!
This Friday, September 17th, you can find us with Blanche at Rotown, Rotterdam. We will be warming up for the band Bombay Show Pig and we will even be joining them during their performance. JAIKS!! Entrance is free!
The next day, September 18th, we will be DJ'ing with Blanche during the opening of minishop Bazar Bizar at de Meent, Rotterdam. The party won’t be so very mini, because we’re also celebrating the fact that Bazar Bizar won the Gouden Grasspriet award!
There is also a rumour going around that on October 9th and 10th Dutch Dolls are wheeling Blanche over to AHOY, Rotterdam to play some bassful tracks at the 100% Tuning fair while taking in a lovely blend of hairgel, Hugo Boss and exhaustion fumes. And we’ll be doing some promo for our main dude Remco and his Shop 4 Cars. This rumour is yet to be confirmed so keep checking back here for the latest news!
Things started out great for Blanche, but unfortunately for the last few days it has been pouring here in Berlin. And with the rain our plans for doing all these guerrilla DJ gigs were flushed away.. So we decided to try our luck with some clubs and bars (read: places with roofs). And at Yaam we got lucky! They loved the look of Blanche as well as our Coconut Mix, so they asked us to roll by on Saturday afternoon. We're so thrilled; the place looks like a beach, they've got great cocktails and jerk chicken. So Berliners, drop by from +/- 17.00 till 19.00 at Stralauer Platz 35!!!
Yesterday was a very special day. Because, despite of our first Becks-and-Hefeweizen-hangover, we decided to get up 'early' and take our lovely lady Blanche for a short stroll through Görlitzer Park in Berlin. Just to see how loud she can get. We were so hung over that we forgot half the equipment (we even forgot the music!). We went back twice and we still didn't have everything... But nevertheless Blanche's first walk in the park was a delight. We made one enemy but lots of friends. The local drug dealers were a fan. They want to book us at their next "party"!
We also met a musician called Wynton Kelly Stevenson. It turns out he has a very original way of playing the harmonica. Check it out on his MySpace!! It's a nice blend of dub, blues and hip hop. "That's the shit right there!", to speak in the man's own words. Sometimes Blanche gets stuck in the cobbled stones. As we were jerking her we ran into another awesome musician.Yarah Bravo is MC/singer/beat maker and apparently she has a weak spot for sound systems. Her voice reminds us a bit of Lisa „Left Eye“ Lopes, and she's opening up for Freeway tomorrow. Who is very scary looking, like a black version of Matisyahu, but with less hair on top. So we might go and check her out live! You can watch her in this video...
Here's our ode to yesterday. A song we didn't play because we forgot to bring it.
Blanche, she's here!! Not shaped like an old lady, but like a mobile soundsystem.
We took a very boring grey walker, spray-painted it pink and kitted it out with alot of gear and now we can make alot of noise, everywhere! We stroll behind the walker in style while playing a happy mix of boogaloo, reggae, soul, dancehall, dub and all the other things that make you feel sooo good!!
To celebrate the birth of Blanche we will be going for a loong walk in Berlin this summer. We will hit every spot we can and keep you posted on everything that is going on. So if you're in Berlin this summer.. Come boogie with us!
Dutch Dolls is a Design + DJ duo. This is our blog. Here we write about our designs, upcoming gigs, events and exhibitions, our latest musical findings, inspirations and whatever goes on in our daily lives...
All music and images posted on this blog are for promotional purposes only. Downloads are available for about a week. You like what you hear? Buy it!!! Links to the artists' websites are always provided in the posts.
If you are an artist, or are affiliated with an artist and you want your music/image taken down, please contact us and we'll be happy to do so.
