Tocotronic

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Tocotronic
Tocotronic at the Festival Berlin 05
Tocotronic at the Festival Berlin 05
General information
Genre (s) Hamburg school , rock , indie rock , alternative rock , punk rock (early years)
founding 1993
Website www.tocotronic.de
Current occupation
Dirk von Lowtzow
Jan Müller
Drums , keyboard , vocals
 Arne Zank
Keyboard, guitar
 Rick McPhail (since 2004)

Tocotronic is a German rock band from Hamburg that was founded in 1993. The band name is derived from a Japanese game console called Tricotronic , a predecessor of the Game Boy .

In its initial phase, Tocotronic was considered a central part of the Hamburger Schule style, alongside the bands Blumfeld and Die Sterne . Other genre assignments for Tocotronic are indie rock , indie pop, and discourse rock .

The band has released twelve studio albums so far. Tocotronic became commercially successful in the late 1990s: since KOOK (1999) every album reached the top 10 of the German album charts . The album Schall & Wahn (2010) was the first Tocotronic work to take first place. Tocotronic albums and songs were regularly placed in the critics and readers' lists of the German music publications intro , Musikexpress , Rolling Stone , Spex and Visions and ranked there in 4th place according to the frequency of mentions (as of February 2013).

history

Beginnings (1993–1996)

Tocotronic was founded at the end of 1993 by the three Hamburg students Dirk von Lowtzow (vocals, guitar), Jan Müller (bass) and Arne Zank (drums). Before that, Müller and Zank had played together in the band Meine Eltern . Von Lowtzow is the only one who is not a native of Hamburg and moved there from Freiburg to study.

After it was founded, Tocotronic quickly made a name for itself in the Hamburg underground. One of the first public concerts took place in 1994 in the Rote Flora . In the same year, the single My girlfriend and her boyfriend was self-distributed . In March 1995 followed with Digital is better, the first album that was released on the independent label L'age d'or . This was followed by a tour through Germany, Austria and Switzerland with some festival appearances.

Tocotronic's popularity increased, for which both the slogan-like songs ( I want to be part of a youth movement ) and the visual appearance of the band - track jacket, corduroy pants and side parting - were responsible. A few months after the debut album, the second album After Lost Time was released in July 1995 .

Tocotronic entered the German charts for the first time in 1996 with the third album Wir Come to Complain . At Popkomm , the band was to be awarded the Comet (music prize by the TV station VIVA ) in the category Young, German and on the way up . However, the band turned down the award on the grounds: “We're not proud to be young. And we are not proud to be German either. "

Change of style (1997-2003)

Dirk von Lowtzow at a concert (2005)
Rick McPhail with Tocotronic at Rock im Park 2015

The 1997 released fourth album , it is but no matter represented a slight change of style to its predecessors is because of this work on synthesizer and string arrangements were used. The album reached number 13 in the German album charts. In the summer, Tocotronic played at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark and undertook the longest tour to date through the German-speaking area.

In 1998 the band played for the first time in the United States . The following year, the fifth studio album, KOOK , was released. Musically and in terms of content, the band developed further, the lyrics became more pictorial, the music more sedate and introverted . With number 7 in the German charts, Tocotronic made it into the top 10 for the first time - as did all of the albums that followed.

After the following tour, Thees Uhlmann (singer from Tomte ), who accompanied the band as a roadie , gave us a glimpse into the inner workings of the band with We could become friends - The Tocotronic tour diaries . A remix album was released in 2000, but it wasn't until 2002 that the self-titled sixth studio album Tocotronic was released. To mark the band's ten-year anniversary, the CD / DVD Tocotronic 10th Anniversary was released in December 2003 .

Berlin Trilogy (2004-2010)

Tocotronic at Rock am Ring 2013

Since 2000 Tocotronic had been supported by Rick McPhail (guitar, keyboard) in live performances . In 2004 he officially became the fourth member of the band. In January 2005, the seventh album Pure Vernunft must never win . It was recorded in Berlin and produced by Moses Schneider , as were the two subsequent works. Subsequently, the three albums were therefore to Berlin trilogy together, a tribute to the Berlin Trilogy of David Bowie .

Surrender , the band's eighth studio album, was released in July 2007. Tocotronics long-time record company L'age d'or had been dissolved, which is why the new work wasrelocated to the Vertigo Records label. The album was received extremely positively by many critics and columnists.

In January 2010, the ninth Tocotronic album Schall & Wahn was released , which also marked the end of the "Berlin Trilogy". It went straight to the top of the album charts and became the first number one in the band's history.

News (since 2013) and side projects

At the beginning of 2013, the tenth album, recorded in analog format, was released, How we want to live .

On May 1, 2015, the band's eleventh album was released. According to the band, it is untitled, but because of its cover and in contrast to the "white album" Tocotronic, it is usually referred to as " The Red Album ". The theme of love runs as a leitmotif through all songs on the album.

The band members are all active in various side projects: Dirk von Lowtzow together with Thies Mynther in Phantom / Ghost , Jan Müller in Das Bierbeben and Dirty Dishes, Arne Zank as DJ Shirley and Rick McPhail plays in Mint Mind , Glacier and was front man for several years the band Venus Vegas .

In 2017, Stereo Deluxe's ​​"Coming Home" series featured a compilation of bands who influenced or accompanied Tocotronic.

In November 2017 the band announced their twelfth album. Infinity was released on January 26th, 2018. The first singles were Hey Du and 1993 . In April 2020, the band released the single Hope as a harbinger of the new album planned for 2021 .

Political commitment

Tocotronic can be assigned to the active left scene among German artists. In addition to supporting I Can't Relax in Germany , a campaign against nationalism in German pop culture, Tocotronic has also repeatedly participated in solidarity campaigns for alternative and anti-fascist organizations. In 1997 the band played two concerts for Wildwasser eV , an organization for victims of sexual violence. In Hamburg in 2002 the band performed at a solidarity concert for the vacated Bambule site in the Rote Flora . On the eve of May 8, 2005, the anniversary of the German surrender, Tocotronic was one of the top acts in Deutschland, du Opfer, an event organized by Jungle World and other left-wing groups. A few weeks later the band played at the “ Berlin 05 ” festival , which was intended to encourage young people to participate in politics as part of “ Project P ”. As part of the campaigns against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in June 2007, Tocotronic took part with the “beer quake remix” of “But here live, no thanks!” On the sampler Move against G8 . In September 2009 the band performed again on the occasion of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the cast of Rote Flora, as well as in October 2014 for the 25th anniversary. In addition, Tocotronic and Pro Asyl have been campaigning for the protection of refugees since 2015.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / without sources
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH
1995 Digital is better - - -
First published: March 9, 1995
After the lost time - - -
First published: July 31, 1995
1996 We come to complain DE47 (9 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: April 1, 1996
1997 It doesn't matter but DE13 (8 weeks)
DE 		AT21 (9 weeks)
AT 		-
First published: July 28, 1997
1999 KOOK DE7 (8 weeks)
DE 		AT18 (8 weeks)
AT 		-
First publication: July 26, 1999 available
in various languages
2002 Tocotronic DE5 (7 weeks)
DE 		AT6 (10 weeks)
AT 		-
First published: June 10, 2002
2005 Pure prudence may never win DE3 (18 weeks)
DE 		AT9 (7 weeks)
AT 		CH32 (3 weeks)
CH
First published: January 17, 2005
2007 surrender DE3 (10 weeks)
DE 		AT10 (9 weeks)
AT 		CH35 (3 weeks)
CH
First published: July 6, 2007
2010 Schall & Wahn DE1 (7 weeks)
DE 		AT5 (6 weeks)
AT 		CH13 (5 weeks)
CH
First published: January 22, 2010
2013 How we want to live DE3 (7 weeks)
DE 		AT5 (5 weeks)
AT 		CH17 (2 weeks)
CH
First published: January 25, 2013
2015 Tocotronic
also known as: Red Album 		DE3 (6 weeks)
DE 		AT4 (4 weeks)
AT 		CH15 (2 weeks)
CH
First published: May 1, 2015
2018 the Infinity DE1 (8 weeks)
DE 		AT5 (5 weeks)
AT 		CH10 (3 weeks)
CH
First published: January 26, 2018

Awards

  • 1996: Comet in the category "Young, German and on the way up" (price rejected)
  • 2010: 1 Live Krone in the category "Best Plan B Act"
  • 2010: HANS - The Hamburg Music Prize in the category "Hamburg Artist of the Year"
  • 2015: Soundcheck Award in the category "Best Album of 2015": Tocotronic - Red Album

documentary

literature

  • Hossbach, Martin (Ed.), Balzer, Jens: The Tocotronic Chronicles . Blumenbar Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-351-05020-7
  • Lindt, George (ed.), Rech, Ingolf: We will always go on (book with documentary). Favorite book publisher, 2013
  • Uhlmann, Thees : We could become friends - The Tocotronic tour diaries . VENTIL Verlag, Mainz 2000. ISBN 3-930559-79-X
  • This Book is Tocotronic: A Reading Book . Leander Science, 2013, ISBN 978-3-981-53683-6

Web links

Commons : Tocotronic  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b biography on Laut.de
  2. ↑ Concert review on Kultur-in-Bonn.de
  3. ↑ Tocotronic in the annual top lists of German music publications
  4. ↑ Tocotronic in fourth place among the most frequently mentioned performers in the best lists of German music publications
  5. ↑ The history of Tocotronic from the past to the present day, written down in full multimedia by Felix Bayer
  6. ↑ Album review for Schall & Wahn on Zeit-Online
  7. ↑ Tocotronic with their first number 1 album
  8. ↑ Review of How we want to live
  9. ↑ Red is love review on sueddeutsche.de from April 25, 2015
  10. ↑ Review on tagesspiegel.de from January 23, 2018
  11. ↑ Report on spex.de
  12. ↑ Concert report "Rote Flora" (25 years)
  13. ↑ proasyl.de: Tocotronic support PRO ASYL
  14. ↑ Soundcheck Award 2016 - from Radioeins from RBB and Tagesspiegel