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Sure, it’s the gray hair and the wrinkles, but what else?
I notice it with DIE PHILS from Berlin.
The band has been around for 20 years. They were founded when I still had a 1 as the first digit of my age. Back then, when I was still young and pretty...
The band, and especially singer Derstäffi, have crossed my path time and again over the years. We celebrated together, drank together (that was still possible back then), and discussed. Over time, we lost sight of each other a bit, but we also kept running into each other. And recently, Derstäffi told me that the band has released a new CD. I could hardly believe it, but now it’s in front of me. The band has captured a total of eleven songs on the silver disc, all produced in the best D.I.Y. manner. And since they have always been very close to the punk Olympus, the band will perform with Berlin scene greats She-Male Trouble, Frau Mansmann, Divakollektiv, Val Sinestra, and other guests on September 23, 2016, at Berlin's S.O. 36. Now that’s a statement!
The cover features a sloth as a skeleton. Does this symbolize the band, which might play only a handful of gigs a year, or does it have another meaning?
And then the CD player opens, I insert the CD and wait...
The first track is “Zugabe.” A song whose lyrics, upon first listen, make one think it’s just a description of the last five minutes before a performance begins, but upon closer listening, it’s more...
“Lachen oder Wein” is the second song. A song that is not a revelation lyrically. It’s once again about not understanding why so many people do so little against this society, the system, and the injustices. I’ve heard it many times; I ask myself the same question every day, but it’s nothing new.
“Monument” is a punk rock club banger. Fast, catchy melody, and lots of drum banging. At concerts, this will surely trigger a proper pogo.
It doesn’t even matter that the lyrics show weaknesses in the B-note.
Then comes “Hochachtungsvoll.” The best song so far and one of the best songs on the album. A pop melody that somehow sounds like the Tetris sound from the Gameboy, a familiar melody for our generation. A bit offbeat, a bit punk rock from high school, and a funny text.
Did I already explain the style of DIE PHILS? The band started out like many punk bands whose members are in their early 20s. Pop punk, simple, sometimes quirky, but always with fun. What one must acknowledge about the band is that their style hasn’t changed. How do they manage to preserve this pop-punk style? This creates a kind of time travel. I see myself dancing in youth clubs again...
“Depridisco” probably has the most intense lyric line of this year. It goes:
...I’m doing well or even better, great.
I could run over children.
We used to celebrate such lyrics. Today we say it’s intense. How times change!
Would anyone still write lyrics today like “A baby that doesn’t cry, that’s pretty high” from Abstürzenden Brieftauben in 1987?
“Riposte” reminds me a lot of Benno (singer of The Bottrops, previously Xarecrows) in the vocals, and the arrangement also strongly leans towards The Bottrops.
Punk rock meets power pop.
“Party ist Krieg ist Party,” another wordplay. This is about the search for the best party. Always in a good mood, always partying, more out of it than in the middle of it.
“Hitler Terror Gema” is provocative and a bit too forced. Comparing Gema to the Gestapo goes a bit too far for me. The topic of copyright is certainly difficult, and one can also think that Gema should be abolished, but I don’t understand why the Third Reich always has to be brought up when one runs out of ideas.
“Klipp und Klar” could be by WIZO.
The last song “Sid O Malley without a Cue” could also be a report from last weekend...
Overall, the songs are solid. They actually still bring (still) fun.
Friends of WIZO, Terrorgruppe, The Bottrops, and pop punk in general can grab this without hesitation. And we’ll see each other at S.O. 36...
