Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#47: Bettie Serveert “Tomboy”
Can’t believe we’re at video number 47 and we’ve already featured two Dutch bands: Clan Of Xymox and Bettie Serveert. The latter group made its name via 1992’s Palomine (and its single, “Tomboy”), a well-remembered early release for the Matador label. Come to think of it, early-’90s Amerindie wasn’t overwhelmingly American. Matador alone released music by foreigners such as H.P. Zinker (Austria), Bailter Space (New Zealand), Toys Went Berserk (Australia) and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (San Francisco) before Bettie Serveert came along. None of those bands, however, can hang an entire career on one album the way Carol van Dyk and Co. could with Palomine.
Adventures in Googling: A Bettie Serveert interview appearing in a gay men’s magazine circa Palomine delivered the following Q in a Q&A, referring to Amsterdam’s permissive society: “It must be liberating to know that you can go to a bar and see live sex between many men any time you want to.”
