Racoon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Dutch band Racoon. For the animal see Raccoon. For other uses, see Raccoon (disambiguation).

Racoon
Origin	Zeeland, Holland
Years active	1997–present
Genres	Rock, Pop
Labels	PIAS
Members	Bart van der Weide Dennis Huige Paul Bukkens Stefan De Kroon
Website(s)	Official Website

Racoon is a Dutch rock band, formed in 1997. Their first big appearance was at the 1999 Noorderslagfestival, after which the record companies stood in line to make the band an offer. First album Till Monkeys Fly appeared in January 2000, produced by Michael Schoots (Urban Dance Squad). The first single, Feel Like Flying, became an immediate hit and got a lot of rotations, especially on the Dutch radiostation 3FM. On March 11, 2006 Love You More was chosen the best song made by a Dutch artist ever.

Contents 1 Members 2 History 2.1 1997 2.2 1998 2.3 1999 2.4 2000 2.5 2001 2.6 2002 2.7 2003 2.8 2004 2.9 2005 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Singles 4 External links

[edit] Members

• Bart van der Weide - Lead vocals
• Stefan de Kroon - Bass
• Dennis Huige - Guitars
• Paul Bukkens - Drums

[edit] History

[edit] 1997

Racoon starts as an acoustic duo: singer Bart van der Weide and guitarist Dennis Huige. They release three songs on the singer/songwriter compilation album 'Characters,' released by the Dutch Rock & Pop Institute.

[edit] 1998

Van der Weide and Huige are joined by bassist Stefan de Kroon and drummer Paul Bukkens and the band moves to Utrecht. Racoon plays at the Heineken X-pl'oor-festival in the Melkweg and in Rotterdam. Their self-released demo 'It's An Ice Cream Day' earns them the attention of several record companies and many positive reviews from the Dutch press.

[edit] 1999

Racoon is opening act at the annual Noorderslag festival. They sign to Sony's S.M.A.R.T. label and at the end of this year they go into the studio to record their full-length debut.

[edit] 2000

In January Racoon plays at the Eurosonic festival in Groningen. This month also sees the release of the long expected debut album 'Till Monkeys Fly', which was recorded at the ICP-studios in Brussels. 'Till Monkees Fly' is produced by Michel "Magic Stick" Schoots from Urban Dance Squad; the end mix was done by Phil Nicolo (ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Urge Overkill) and Bob Ludwig was responsible for the mastering of the album. The band is being touted as the next big thing and the single 'Feel Like Flying' is power played on Radio 3 FM. Racoon plays at the Parkpop and Lowlands festivals. Michel Schoots

[edit] 2001

The singles 'Smoothly' and 'Eric's Bar' are released, the latter appears on Racoon's new album 'Here We Go, Stereo'.

[edit] 2002

In February Racoon tours the country performing songs from Faith No More for the 'Marlboro Flashback Tour'.

[edit] 2003

Racoon plays at the Europe Day festival in Kiev. Other bands on the bill include Alphaville (Germany), The Blueberries (Denmark), K-System (Finland) and bands from Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine. The festival is organised by the European Union.

[edit] 2004

Racoon signs a recording deal with PIAS. Its song Feel Like Flying is runner up in the Top 100 Best Dutch Pop Songs. Voted by the listenership of public Radio 3FM, it is trailing behind Van Dik Hout's Stil In Mij. Snippets of the track Reach are used in two Calvé TV ads.

[edit] 2005

After having picked 13 out of 50 new songs, in March third album Another Day, again produced by Michel Schoots, comes out. Guests include Robin van Vliet and René Merkelbach (ex-Vals Licht). Together with Krezip Racoon represents the Dutch contingent at the one-off Rockin' Park festival (June 26) in Nijmegen, which also features R.E.M. and Lenny Kravitz.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• Another Day - April 2005
• Here We Go, Stereo - October 2001
• Till Monkeys Fly - January 2000

[edit] Singles

• "Feel Like Flying"
• "Blue Days"
• "Love You More", #3 NL
• "Laugh about It", #16 NL
• "Brother", #21 NL
• "Love You More" [Remix], #14 NL
• "Working Class Hero", Make Some Noise, Amnesty International

"Love You More" Dutch Top 40 trajectory (starting week 29/2005)
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Position	32	23	11	8	5	5	5	3	3	3	3	7	9	11	13	14	15	17	22	22	23	27	32	*	31	24	24	32	36	out

*: off the charts after week 51/2005, re-entered the charts in week 38/2006 (remix version).

"Laugh about It" Dutch Top 40 trajectory
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11
Position	33	24	20	17	16	20	20	21	26	28	31

"Brother" Dutch Top 40 trajectory
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10
Position	29	27	21	14	14	22

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Racoon Biography, Discography and Songs