BLOODY NOSES AND BASS DRUM MIKES

Around early 1982, my class mate Rude Swearing (that's his real name! well, phonetically...) brought this LP back from the first real punk gig he'd been to: the Nitwitz and Pistache BV at local youth center Troll. Actually it was just the Nitwitz; Pistache BV couldn't come because, as they called up to explain, "the singer has a bloody nose". (I asked their singer Maarten about this years later when he was in De Kift, but he didn't remember anything about it.)
At the time, Ruud was Already Punk, I was Almost Punk (and 14) so I didn't go, but I eagerly lapped up the stories he told me. There was, for instance, the news that pogoing had evolved from the jumping up-and-down that we'd read about, into wildly thrashing around and bumping into eachother, ruining your punk badges in the process. The Nitwitz, I was told, took to the stage already drunk but played a great show unmarred by the fact that their singer took the bass drum mike by accident and sang into it during half the set.
Then there were the self-released records they sold at the venue, not just their own but also records by their friends like The Ex, Trockener Kecks, and more. The beautiful-looking Wielingen Walgt! LP was actually a joint venture between the Nitwitz and the more (early) new-wavey but equally great Gotterfliez, both occupying one side. (Think about it: the 4 bands I just mentioned were totally different from eachother, yet they were part of the same "scene", helping eachother out, etc. What a contrast with today's head-up-the-ass micro-cliques...)
The Nitwitz tracks on Wielingen Walgt! sounded like nothing I'd heard before; first track "The Wall" suddenly burst forth after a stuttering bass intro, other tracks would just as suddenly end. (One particularly difficult sounding abrupt ending, in "What Did You Get", was actually the band losing track of the song!) The songs themselves were fast, neurotic and yet very Rocking, in a way very few Dutch bands played back then. In hindsight, the Nitwitz already sounded very American, at a time when American punk was eyed upon with either suspicion or... not eyed upon at all, apart from the Ramones and Dead Kennedys. Those Ramones are an obvious influence, along with maybe the Dickies, and I wouldn't be surprised if one or two Nitwitz had gotten their mittens on a couple of (Weirdos? Alley Cats?) Dangerhouse 45s in the import section of RAF, Boudisque or some other Amsterdam record store.
About a year and a half later, 3 Nitwitz and a new singer would take their American influence to its ultimate conclusion and become BGK, Holland's premier Hardcore merchants. While I liked them for their sheer power, it wasn't the same "sound of surprise" anymore.
The Nitwitz put out a couple more records on their own Vogelspin label: the 2 EP's (1980/1981) are great but suffer a little production-wise; final mini-LP Scorched Earth Policy suffers a lot production-wise (I heard the drummer recorded his cymbals apart from the rest of his drumkit, and the guitarist decided on a whim he wasn't going to use distortion... well, you get the idea). The 3 cuts on the Als Je Haar Maar Goed Zit # 1
comp are great, and great-sounding as well (sort of a proto-BGK). But their all-time top achievement has gotta be these 6 cuts on Wielingen Walgt!

The Wall
Open The Gastap
I'm So Lazy
What Did You Get
Kix
You're So Cute