K's Choice
Here's an old page I wrote in the mid-Nineties on Belgian super-group K's Choice. Fortunately for me, they sing in English, though as a European group which doesn't primarily tour in the United States, they're relatively obscure here despite performances with Alanis Morisette, the Indigo Girls, and the '98 and '99 Lilith Fair tours.
Regarding genre, the K's Choice sound is basically highbrow pop, ranging rather towards the alt-rock end of the pop spectrum. Definitely they have a bit more of an edge, lyrically and instrumentally, than the mainstream of US pop, but span more variety than the sound of thrashing guitars exclusively. I particularly enjoy the depth and thoughtfulness of the lyrics and the pleasantly distinct lack of repetition in them. Their songs express ideas or tell stories that are genuinely worth absorbing, evoking intense imagery in the process.
The songs swing from crashing power rockers, to brooding reveries, to wry and catchy ditties, to mesmerizing ballads. A full range of possibilities is explored -- spooky and haunting, bass-heavy and melancholy, tender, cheery and shining with guitar hooks, urgent, passionate, or dryly witty. I haven't found a boring or shallow K's Choice song, though there are many quite puzzling ones.
Their best-known single is the hard-rocking, thoughtful Not an Addict, an eerie, urgent song from the perspective of a drug addict in denial. Others include White Kite Fauna, the surreal nightmare of a child; Breakfast, a funny and tender treatment of a child's-eye view of parental lovemaking; and the wry I Smoke a Lot, holding out against the good-intentions of non-smoking friends. Dad is also a favorite of mine, a bittersweet, tender look back on a father's love and hardships, with compassion and understanding for his inability to express his love in words. And all that doesn't even include the songs on their 1998 release, Cocoon Crash, which as one might guess from the eccentric title, are fully as fascinating as the others.
The lineup: Sarah Bettens is lead vocals & plays guitar when she's not racing around the stage or merrily crowd-surfing. Gert is her her older brother, the fellow at right in the black and white photo at the top of this page and second from the right in the smaller group photo later in this page. Gert's second vocals & also plays electric guitar. Jan van Sichem is the guy on the far left in that pic at the top, and the far right on the pic at right. Plays guitar. The second guy from the left in both pics is Bart Van Der Zeeuw, the former drummer, who left the band in 1999 and was replaced by Koen Liekens, who had been the drummer back in 1993. Eric Grossman, the bass player, doesn't seem to've made it into the top black and white photo but he's on the far left in the smaller one. A New Yorker, he's the band's lone non-European member.
Growing up with her brother Gert in a small town near Antwerp, Sarah Bettens was inspired by the music of Annie Lennox, because of the variety of styles
Lennox was the master of. She also is a great fan of the Indigo Girls, as well as of Ani DiFranco. Gert Bettens grew up with the Police as one of his many influences. He played with a small band known as The Basement Plugs; when they tried having Sarah sing with the group, they were impressed with the success of the experiment. The first tape they sent to a record label was a cover of
Melissa Etheridge's "Like the Way I Do." Double T Records responded by offering Sarah a solo contract, which she accepted at Gert's urging, and under the name "Sarah Beth." Her first single (a cover of "I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry")
reached the Belgian Top-5. But a solo career didn't really appeal to Sarah, who preferred to play music with her brother. The record company was reluctant, but came around when they heard the two play acoustically together. Initially
they called themselves the Choice, until their tour in the United States with the Indigo Girls in promotion of their debut album The Great Subconscious Club revealed not one but two American bands which claimed the rights to that name. This album has a sort of quiet alt-pop sound, with a strong hint of folk to it. It was a great success in Belgium and landed the pair a contract with Epic/Sony. After this tour, The Choice became K's Choice, the "K" coming from the character Josef K. in Kafka's The Trial. The second album,
Paradise in Me, was recorded in 1995, and has a significantly harder, more guitar and percussion-heavy sound, than its predecessor. Soon after came their tour of America as the supporting act for Alanis Morisette, which led to the release of Paradise in Me in the United States. In 1996, K's Choice toured America as the supporting act for the Verve Pipe (which they exceeded in popularity during the tour), with Tonic as their fellow support act. And then in 1998 came the release of the surreal Cocoon Crash.
The latest (as of when I wrote the bulk of this page) K's Choice album is the spectacular Cocoon Crash (U.S. release date: June 9, 1998). Though the two earlier albums offer the listener fascinating shifts of mood, this one changes gears even more than the others, or at least is more obviously so because so many of the songs are so unusual. It's got a few fairly straightforward romantic songs, though even these are wonderfully eccentric and have interesting points of view, but most of the songs are transcendently surrealistic. In ascending order of uniqueness... Butterflies Instead is a child's eye view of a parents' breakup. Its catchy sound and cheery beat are a fragile facade belied by the deeply bittersweet lyrics. Everything for Free is a an extremely catchy song about a boy in a mental institution. Is he crazy, or is he saner than the world around him? And then there's Hide, with its powerful beat, haunting melody, and strange ethereal imagery. I've been told Gert wrote this song thinking of the effort to restrain
the impulses and desires of the darker side of one's nature.
Watch me, I'm coming closer
I am the mood you're in tonight
Pretty poser, perfect Armageddon bride
I am a circle, it feels right
I am the one who swallows light
Multiplying parasite
Perfect features, perfect sight
The Best K's Choice Websites!
Official site.
Nice ambience, RealVideos of Sarah & Gert, audios, and a few very good
photos, though not nearly as many as the fan-run sites have. Just added new pics from the latest Lilith tour.
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Jesse Klasse's K's Choice homepage. Excellent, with lots of photography. Audio (in several formats), video clips, frequently updated news, tabulatures, discography, etc. Check out the concert reviews!
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The Belgian K's Choice Website. Excellent site. Many great photos I haven't seen anywhere
else, biographical info, concert info, audio and video, media reviews, discography, links. Home of the K's Choice Webring.
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This Quiet Little Place.
Notable for its good collection of rare and unreleased K's Choice songs. They take time to download, but are very much worth it. Be sure to check out "Try to Get Some Sleep." A fantastic song, I can't imagine why it was left off The Great Subconscious Club.
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The Best of K's Choice. Hasn't been updated for a while, but I like it because the RealAudio clips here from Paradise in Me are almost all the complete songs, not just clips. Also has lots of live concert photos and other info.
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Thomas' K's Choice Page. This new fanpage is definitely one of those good things that come in small packages. It's a small but quite info-packed page on our fave band. Good collection of photos and news.
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