The Tapes – You Just Can’t Sleep (1979)

Queen’s Day, 1979: my first real live concerts at a small festival in my hometown of Uithoorn, featuring The Tapes, The Nits, and Sfinx.

The Tapes left the strongest impression on me. They were sometimes referred to as the Dutch Talking Heads, but I’ve listened to their debut album far more often than all of Talking Heads’ work combined (even though I like them too).

New Wave, Post-Punk, Art-Punk—whatever it was called, I thought, and still think, it was fantastic, unique, bold, catchy, and original.