Janez Detd.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Janez Detd.
Origin	Belgium
Genre(s)	Punk Rock
Years active	1995 – present
Label(s)	PIAS Records Virgin Records I Scream records Cabalero Records Green Leaf Records
Website	janezdetd.com
Members
Nikolas Van der Veken Tim Toegaert Bram Steemans Thomas Maes
Former members
Wim Vanhenden Bob Haentjens Raf Weyn Dimitri Vink Joeri Van Vaerenbergh Lennart Bossu

Janez Detd. (short for Janez Determined) is a Belgian punk/pop band that formed in 1995.

The group saw the light of day in and about 1994, and was first baptised as "Jane's Detd." (a name they found in a short film from the DDR about a girl that gets an overdose), with from the start Nikolas - Bones - Vanderveken & Bob as the most founding members. After some fooling around in the garage (with music of the same genre), the chose one day to devote their band to playing punkrock, entitling their very first demo clearly "Punkin' Shit Snobs". This demo gave them an entry ticket to a recording for Green Leaf Records, a maxi-CD in 1996 called "Dignity & Teeth".

After a noteworthy performance on the skate-stage at the Pukkelpop-festival (later on the day Dog Eat Dog would devote their "No Fronts" to the band because they "were impressed by so much positive energy so early in the morning"). All in all, "Dignity and Teeth" became a small-scale success (2500 copies sold, of which 1000 in the first month preceded by the reputation the band already had built themselves in the underground circuit).

1998 meant the breakthrough for Jane's Detd.: the song "Beaver Fever" did become a radiohit on the alternative radio in Belgium. The first full-CD "Bleenies & Blockheads" did leave some room for variation, with tracks ranging from college rock songs to skatecore, from catchy punk to up-tempo ska and surf, and with lyrics that had sick bikini-girls en skateboards as themes. With this album, the band got a rather fanatic following, that helped the band to a place at the Beach Rock festival as "Belgian people's choice". On that day, they caused a small-scale incident by inviting their fans on the stage (a regular feature of their show). It were these weather conditions that inspired Bones to say the famous words: "Well euh, we are a band of the people, so that means that we're here thanx to you. To put it in other words: our stage is your stage so come on up and shelter and dance with us!" Security agents could not stop the hundreds (which soon became nearly a thousand) of fans that climbed up the stage. Never had a festival of that size been overwhelmed by a crowd! Police was called up, there was a big chaos and Janez Detd, they just smiled and said "Thank you, we were Janez Detd but you guys were thé bést!". Later that summer, they also held a strange demonstration at Pukkelpop, where they tried in vain to persuade organiser Chokri to put the band on the line-up of that year's edition by putting up poster of the band all around the festival ground.

In 1999, the group parted ways with I Scream Records in a not very pleasant way (they even had to change the name to Janez Detd. to get out of the legal hassle), and signed up for major Virgin. As a guarantee to remain independent, the major established a special sublabel for Janez Detd. (Cabalero Records) that the band will also be able to use a promotion tool for other punkbands they like. Where the previous album had the approval of both the die-hard punks and the general rock-oriented audiences, the move to Virgin caused that they had to defend themselves against the accusationof "selling out" (to which band replies that the Sex Pistols were also on Virgin, and even the Kids on another major). If the plans for the label work out the way that Nikolas & Co foresee it, the old fans will probably come around.

The band's first release on Cabalero became the single "Rock On (Debbie's a Spaz)" in 1999, as a precursor to the self-titled second CD that was released in March 2000 (with the first 3000 copies accompanied by a tag template, with which you could leave the Janez Detd. logo on your favourite blind wall). The album was produced by Jo Francken, and in contained more poppy material, that didn't miss it's effect: the group got to a new platform of popularity here. Especially a witty ska-version of the A-Ha torture "Take On Me" became a hit here in Belgium (even got to the lower regions of the charts) and got a fine videoclip. There was also a lot of touring going on (eg. Pukkelpop, Lokerse Feesten, Marktrock ...), in which the band stood out by going all out with all their weapons at hand : energy, fun, humour, a fine brass-section and a bunch of covers of bad 1980's songs (even including The Final Countdown). Although the band wasn't exactly making a debut with all this, Janez Detd. got an award at the second TMF-ceremony in October 2000 as "Most promising band".

They have played as the supporting act for such bands as The Offspring, Limp Bizkit and Good Charlotte. They have also played several big Belgian festivals including Pukkelpop and Rock Werchter. Their songs have been described to be similar to Green Day, Rancid and NOFX .

They played their tenth anniversary show at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels where they released their 2005 release "Killing Me".

They are currently working on their new album in New York. They are lodged in the studio with Jesse Cannon (Limp Bizkit, The Cure, The Misfits) who for this album is helping them find the perfect mix of poppy flair from the first Janez Detd albums and a rich modern guitar sound. Fountains of Wayne meets Ataris. The album will be in the shops in late March and the first single and video will be released again in early February.