BERLIN/DUsseldorf (dpa) – Ruling some fans of dissatisfaction from the start is almost as old as Tottenhausen themselves.
And that annoys Campino, which is why he’s taunting her at the beginning of a new song: “Not punk rock pants anymore—everyone says it,” the singer yells at his naughty buddies for the collective success of his little mangy street mutt was once, and now proud Proudly 40 years of unique German Pop under its belt.
Still a lot of villain in the store
Next, Campino combines personal advice against the seemingly eternal “mainstream” who grumbles with a scathing text about “fake news” and conspiracy myths: “Hold on to the rumor factory/Who can prove I’m lying.” The song, which begins with a beautiful western intro of spaghetti (“3 strings for Hallelujah!”), shows: Yes, Totten Hosen still has a lot of punk up their sleeves.
“Everybody Says It” is one of a total of seven new songs on a lavish memorial album marking the band’s 40th birthday this spring, which will also be celebrated on a grand tour starting in June. The Song of Rage is one of the highlights of “Alles aus Liebe: 40 Jahre Die Toten Hosen”, a largely expanded compilation of the dizzying career of this musician, who grew sharply out of punk music in Dusseldorf in the early 1980s.
“Everyone says that,” Campino said in an interview with dpa in Berlin, “There was this beautiful, aggressive melody with a high tempo, so the theme simply presented itself.” Because it grumbles, these lies go against the current: “Anyone can now make any claim and at the same time find a dubious source on the Internet that will confirm the alleged claim. In the end, all that remains is a giant cry.”
Other newly written songs on the album, released as a vinyl box quad or double CD, are tongue-in-cheek political (“Scheiss Wessis”) and almost as catchy as a punk song (“Amore Felice”, “Teufel”). Or it reflects the current self-image of the venerable quintet around Andreas Frigy’s striker, known as Campino (59).
The chaos inside me continues to rebel
For example, “112” (“We’ve been ready for 40 years / We remain winners against time / On good and bad days / In us nothing but gratitude”), which is perfect for a pitch scream. Yes, humbly grateful for the great years and their loyal fans, it truly is this “the band Heaven sends you”. And also a little defiant – due to moderate old age or even bourgeoisie, “Anarchy Within Me” (the title of the song) is still rebellious against it.
“It’s a set of songs that have been groundbreaking for us. Key moments that can only be measured by commercial success,” Campino says of the intentionally unsequenced album. “There are also a few pearls that matter to us as a band, but of course also the pieces that people love so much.” . We enriched it with new songs.”
Early stage fans don’t have to do without drinking and fun punk songs like “Zehn kleine Jägermeister”, “EisCooler Bommerlunder” or “Opel Gang”. Big pants songs (“Wünsch dir was”, “Here comes Alex”, “such days”) stand next to socially significant political songs (“Welcome to Germany”) or very personal songs (“Outside the door”, “only to visit”).
Also “Bayern”, the song from 1999 barking against a certain record football champion (“A lot can happen / A lot can happen / Only one thing I know a hundred percent / I’ll never go to Bayern in my life”) can be found. In the best combination of trousers takes center stage. “It’s just part of our history. I’m not particularly proud of that now, but someone had to do it back then, so it was us,” says Campino — and offers his biggest bluff Campino laugh in a Zoom interview.
They look to the future from one game to the next
At 43 songs, the band mostly plays high-pressure punk rock, but there’s also time to take a deep breath with some pretty, somber ballads. Appropriately, at the end you say “Greetings, goodbye.” The 30-year-old says, “That’s why we say goodbye / Had a great time with you / Maybe you better go now / We can’t see any tears / Greetings and goodbye n.”
40 years – a long time for a band that came out of their German punk hobby basement and first wanted to have some fun. Campino, Andreas von Holst (guitar), Michael Breitkopf (guitar), Andreas Meurer (bass), and Vom Ritchie (drums) are a little outside influence, but they’re still in pretty good shape as musicians, songwriters, and performers. So what could happen now that the first man turns 60 in June?
For more than two decades, “our on-stage cast has always remained the same, and I couldn’t imagine anything else,” Campino wrote in the album’s humble “introduction.” In the dpa interview he said, “Toten Hosen won’t last forever – so it’s good that we’re the last squad.”
“He is very happy at the moment, the mood is good between us, we meet regularly to train and we will definitely be together until the fall. You never know what life has in store for us.” The ardent Liverpool fan adds some football talk to this cautious look: “So we prefer Thinking day in and day out, from match to match, if you like it, and then see what comes out of it in the end.”
The 43-song album “Alles aus Liebe: 40 Jahre Die Toten Hosen” by Toten Hosen will be released on Friday (May 27) as a vinyl quartet, double CD, download and stream at JKP/Warner.
Website Die Toten Hosen