Beequeen

Brought together by a common love of the Legendary Pink Dots, the Dutch duo Beequeen came together in the late '80s, comprised of vocalist/instrumentalist Freek Kinkelaar and laptop artist Frans de Waard, whose desire to make abrasive, thoughtful music fit well into the emerging industrial pop scene. Displaying a razor-sharp wit and a modest self-identity, Beequeen made music that didn't quite fit into any given category once it was finished. The band was named in tribute to one of the duo's favorite visual artists, but many of Beequeen's early gigs drew unusual crowds, as the venues often wrote "Be Queen" on the marquee. A poor live show inspired them to get even weirder, and they pumped out countless underground tapes, records, and CDs in the following years. Most of this wasn't available beyond a small local following, but their reputation slowly grew and many paid exorbitant prices for homemade cassettes of their music. Beequeen continued to experiment, eventually starting Plinkity Plonk Records and using it to release their solo material as well. By taking hiatuses and allowing each other to wander, Kinkelaar and de Waard enabled Beequeen to last for years, issuing Ownliness through an independent distributor in the summer of 2002, followed by such additional releases as Gund (2003), The Bodyshop (2005), and Sandancing (2008), the latter featuring vocalist Olga Wallis, whose addition to the lineup in 2007 expanded Beequeen from a duo to a trio.