It’s not any longer a big secret, that ‘Meine Schuppen’ (one of Germany’s finest fun punk bands) are proud to be back again. After more than 30 years of hibernation, they brought us first their 6 track Hamburg EP, which was full of fun and action about their beloved hometown.
Now they continue to amaze with old and almost forgotten stories, anecdotes and unsung fables, when they take on the capital Berlin in their newest 6 song release.
The songs are slightly more modern punk sounding, compared to the ‘oldschool rock’n’roll punk’ of the previous EP. But the themes are very much alike and likeable, when they sing about further riots, road trips, town visits, punch up’s, hardcore kids, and the usual stuff what happens on punk shows etc.
Coming not from Berlin themselves, of course they view the town from a visitors point of perspective and refer mostly to events they’ve took part when visiting, or sing about friends and people they know in the capital. This explains the rework and the altered lyrics of Ideal’s ‘Berlin’, the only cover song on the EP:
One exception is ‘Kreuzberg gegen Tempo’, as they revive some old events around the band Tempo at the 3rd Punk Festival in the Markthalle, Hamburg, in 1979 where some unfriendly Berlin Punks kicked the band from their hometown off the stage:
That said, the song ‘Wizo sind die Ärzte keene Terrorgruppe’ has at first glance only the title related to Berlin. The lyrics are more about people, who are constantly whinging about those Bands, who after years and years of touring finally made it big:
It’s just too easy to now call them ‘not punk’ or just to hate them for the fact, that they have been just that little bit better, longer around, more professional or even luckier than the most kids with their bands which started just a few days ago. They mention only 3 known bands from Berlin, but you probably can put Die Toten Hosen, Abstürzende Brieftauben, Killerpilze, Die Goldenen Zitronen and ZSK also in that pot of bands, which the casual punk hates for having a bit of (or in some case major) success.
They also pay a tribute to the largest punk radio station in Berlin:
It quite astonishing that a band like SCHUPPEN 2000, who enjoy airplay around the world big time, pays homage to that large station – would it not be the other way around normally?
The next one is a tribute to one of Rudi’s own trips to Berlin, the beauty of hitch-hiking a trip and crashing at a fellow member of the punk rock fanzine elite:
Last but not least SCHUPPEN 2000 do provide a trip down memory lane – this is a reminiscence to a mid-80’s show of Missing the Scene (Meine Schuppen successor and as such SCHUPPEN 2000 predecessor, but by now Meine Schuppen are in succession anyway) and the dislike of the Metalcore scene back then:
Looking at the cover, the band seemed to have made some changes also in the personal line-up, which might explain the different sound and musical style to their previous release. By the looks of it Rudi has now surrounded him with trusted and experienced musicians, rather then relying on old friends and the need to cover his police record.
All songs are recorded as usual, in the famous GARD HAAR STUDIO in 2015 and mixed by a guy who calls himself Grobi and who happens to be from Berlin himself. Now how about that?
