10 Facts: Bittereinder

On Wednesday last week the organizers of Oppikoppi Sweet Thing (the 2012 edition of South Africa’s premier music festival) announced that Afrikaans Rap / Electro Act Bittereinder will be performing this year at the festival. That is great news! Bittereinder is actually one of my favorite live acts at the moment. I had the privilege of seeing them performing at the Postbox Launch Party at Arcade Empire on Friday! They also played a killer set last year at Oppikoppi Unknown Brother in front of 8,000 bouncing fans and anyone that was there will agree that that was one of the highlights of last year’s festival.

Remember to check out the Oppikoppi Festival Facebook page and to follow @oppikoppifest on Twitter for details about the Oppikoppi Sweet Thing line-up. In light of this announcement, today’s 10 Facts topic is Bittereinder:

• Bittereinder hail from Pretoria, South Africa.
• The members of Bittereinder are Jaco Van Der Merwe, Peach van Pletzen (of Yesterday’s Pupil and Oorlog Frankenstein fame) and Louis Minnaar (who has been described as one of South Africa’s best visual artists and music video directors).
• Bittereinder have done colabs with Jack Parow, Tumi Molekane, Richard Brokensha (of Isochronous fame), Tim Beumers (from the Netherlands) and Inge Beeckman (of LARK fame).
• Some Pretorians had their hands in the air when Bittereinder referred to Pretoria as “Kerkorrel se Snor City” in their song “Tale of 3 Cities”. The Snor City term was first coined by Afrikaans artist Bernoldus Niemand. Subsequently Bittereinder have been correcting this bit during their live shows.
• Bittereinder released their debut album “‘n Ware Verhaal” in 2011.
• To my knowledge the full version of their song “A Tale of 3 Cities” has only been performed twice with all the artists that sing the song on the album present on stage with Bittereinder.
• Bittereinder performed at the Lowlands festival in the Netherlands last year. More than 80,000 people attended the festival.
• Bittereinder won the 2011 SAMA (South African Music Award) in the category Best Alternative Music Album: Afrikaans. They were also nominated for the MK Awards and performed at the award ceremony and the MK Awards Afterparty at Arcade Empire in 2012.
• Bittereinder was formed early in 2009.
• If Social Media is your things. You can follow Bittereinder via @Bittereinder7 on Twitter. You can also join the Bittereinder Facebook Fan Page.

So, there you have it, 10 Facts about Bittereinder. If you have not seen these okes live yet, do yourself a favor. It’s recommended that you DON’T miss their set at Oppikoppi Sweet Thing this year. So far Shadowclub, Dance You’re On Fire and Thieve are also on the bill for this year’s festival.

For those of you who are still in the dark, check out the video below featuring Bittereinder on MK Studio 1 featuring a performance of their song “Almanak”:

Remember,  feedback is appreciated and welcome here.  Drop me a comment and let me know what you think of this year’s Oppikoppi line-up so far? I would love to hear from you.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Facts and Music categories on Running Wolf’s Rant.