2007-12-11: FM4 Radiosession: Radiokulturhaus, Vienna, Austria

Biography

Tocotronic is a German rock band formed in 1993. Similar to Blumfeld or Die Sterne, Tocotronic not only innovated German language rock music, but also inspired a number of later bands, such as Wir sind Helden. Their influence on pop culture is widespread, from fashion (Tocotronic made the combination of 1970s style track suit tops with cheap second-hand ad-shirts famous in Germany) to the playful and weird look of their early records. Tocotronic are from Hamburg and are released on L'Age D'Or,...

Tocotronic is a German rock band formed in 1993. Similar to Blumfeld or Die Sterne, Tocotronic not only innovated German language rock music, but also inspired a number of later bands, such as Wir sind Helden. Their influence on pop culture is widespread, from fashion (Tocotronic made the combination of 1970s style track suit tops with cheap second-hand ad-shirts famous in Germany) to the playful and weird look of their early records.

Tocotronic are from Hamburg and are released on L'Age D'Or, together with Die Sterne - forming the so-called Hamburger Schule ("Hamburg school"). However, they dislike this classification; they rather like to see their music as "discursive-rock", which emphasizes their rather intellectual approach to pop music.
Despite having never been overly commercially successful - only "Schall & Wahn" made it to the top of the German charts, most other albums merely in the top 5-, Tocotronic have a steady fanbase in Germany and their records have been reviewed in mainstream newspapers and music magazines alike.
The band members are bassist Jan Müller, drummer Arne Zank, and guitarist and singer Dirk von Lowtzow. Starting with the album "Pure Vernunft darf niemals siegen" a second guitarist and keyboard player, Rick McPhail, has joined the band. He used to play with Tocotronic at live shows before.

Discography:

Studio Albums:
* Digital ist besser (1995) (Digital is better)
* Nach der verlorenen Zeit (1995) (After the lost time)
* Wir kommen um uns zu beschweren (1996) (We're Coming To Complain)
* Es ist egal, aber (1997) (It Doesn't Matter, But)
* K.O.O.K. (1999)
* Tocotronic (2002)
* Pure Vernunft darf niemals siegen (2005) (Pure Reason Must Never Prevail)
* Kapitulation (2007)
* Schall & Wahn (2010)
* Wie wir leben wollen (2013)
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