Hanz Openschut

12 Fans

Band Bio

Due to his tragic early demise the true genius of Hanz Openschut was never realized. Born in Hamburg Germany to parents who were both employed by the Universitat Hamburg (his mother a Nazi History professor, his father the Chancellor.) Restless from an early age, Hanz ran away from home and hit the streets by the time he was 14. Running with a highly anarchistic crowd of hooligans, Hanz taught himself the bass guitar and quickly became a much sought after commodity in the local punk scene. He hooked up with a young Greta von Schluchtaagen (later to be known as Stalker Channing) and the two of them left the streets of Hamburg for Canada, settling in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Hanz was a bass for hire in numerous local bands before finding a steady gig with "Pout".
But soon after is when tragedy struck.
Hanz and Greta took a road trip to clear their heads and get out of the city for a while. They stopped near a field of barley to eat some lunch and Hanz, never one to shy away from experimentation, noticed some mold growing on the crops. He had heard the story of the synthesis of LSD from ergot (a fungus growing on wheat and barley) and decided to pick and ingest some of the tainted barley. Unfortunately for him this was not ergot, but some toxic mutation that is nearly instantly fatal.

Thus, the end for Hanz Openschut.

Fortunately, Greta (now Stalker) was recently going through some of her stuff and came across some cassettes that were labeled "Me in the alley"
Hanz liked to practice in the alley behind their apartment (for the acoustics of the closed in quarters of all the surrounding brick buildings) and Stalker realized these must be recordings of some of his sessions back there.
Bringing the tapes to Zandergriff Miggs (her new lover and musical collaborator) she begged him to release them as is, to show the world the raw energy that was Hanz.

The world should feel lucky!

Band Gear

This band doesn't own any gear!

Albums / EPs

Mine Shaft gig flyer Date Released: 9/15/2011   Tracks: 4 Sales: 8   Listens: 4 The year was 1994. Hanz had been playing bass for a number of bands in Thunder Bay's thriving punk community when he got the call. That call came from Johnny Wonderz who straked the guitar for Ontario's most notorious punk outfit, Pout. Pout had recently lost their horse addled leader and bassist to his addiction and Wonderz had been checking out Hanz at various shows. It was a match made in Heave...er...Hel...uh...Anarchy. Wonderz and drummer Lanny X were already a lethal combination of angst and energy, but the addition of Hanz Openschut on bass and vocals propelled Pout to the top of The Ontario underground. Hanz's first gig with Pout was at the storied Mine Shaft club in Sudbury. Pout headlined the show with openers Of Chaos, The Immortals, Gypsies and The Volcanos. It is widely regarded by those in the scene as one of the greatest punk shows of it's time. ------------------------- Lanny designed most of Pout's flyers and he had a habit of finding albums by bands he hated at thrift stores, using the album cover as background for his flyer. For this show we find him making a decided mockery of a certain iconic 70's album of fluff pop crap. After Xeroxing copies to pass out, the original album cover designs were often left in bathroom stalls of seedy dives to be found by unsuspecting patrons. This one recently resurfaced at an estate sale of a wealthy collector of music memorabilia. UncleDuffRecords has made Xerox prints of the original available to fans with this limited run collectable. *as a special reward - the first person who can name the album cover defaced in Lanny's flyer will receive a download code for 3 songs recorded off the board at the Mine Shaft gig.

Live at the 'Shoe! Date Released: 11/20/2009   Tracks: 17 Sales: 5   Listens: 8 On Nov 19, 2004, while patrons were still grubbin' their poutine and slammin' Labatt's, Hanz cranked out an impromptu set. The crowd reaction was such that the owner of the Horseshoe Tavern asked him to come back & do it again the next night. Widely considered 2 of his best performances, these legendary shows were captured on DAT straight from the soundboard and the best tracks are presented here as-is. Hanz-Bass & Vocals Lanny-Drums & Backing Vocals (courtesy of Pout)

The Lost Alley Tapes Date Released: 4/26/2009   Tracks: 13 Sales: 6   Listens: 16 Posthumous release of tapes he recorded in the back alley behind his apartment, "The Lost Alley Tapes" thrusts it's fist right into your eardrums! Lo-Fi, Lo-Tech and no external effects, these songs are just Hanz. Hanz screaming into his pawnshop mic. Hanz cutting apart his fingers on the rusty strings of his trusty bass. Just Hanz...raw...open...angry...and at his anarchistic best. Though Hanz is gone, long will these songs live on in our memories.