Berlin's music scene

Berlin: the capital of Germany.
Is Berlin also the musical capital of Germany? Expatica reported back in September 2005 that Berlin's music business was booming. How much do you know about it?

Which bands from Berlin have had international, national or local success?

International Success


If you ask any non-German to name a German band, the answer you're most likely to get is either Rammstein, the Totenhosen, the Scorpions or Die Aertze (from Berlin). Die Aertze's debut album, 'Debil', was released in 1984. Since then, they've grown to international success.

National Success


The Beatsteaks first shot to national fame with the release of their single 'Let Me In' in 2002.

Corvus Corax - well known in the medieval/gothic circles, this band based in Berlin has been producing records since the 1980s.

Do you know of any local bands from Berlin worth a mention?
What do you think of the music scene in Berlin?
How do you view the local bands who have become so famous either nationally or internationally?
What about the DJing scene in Berlin?

Feel free to add more bands names to the (extremely non-exhaustive) list above.

well, i believe... Wir sind Helden are from Berlin ...there's a big Deutsche Rap scene there too with dodgy characters like Fler on the 'Aggro Berlin' label. The kind of electro-punk pop type thingie with Mia, 2Raumwohnung and I would say one of the most succesful pop outfits in Germany the last
15 years or so... Rosenstolz

That's true - the rap scene there includes Sido, as famous for the metal skull mask he wears as for his agressive lyrics, e.g. in his first hit 'Mein Block'.

I'm pretty sure the absolutely great neo-jazz band Micatone is from Berlin. They are wonderful - definitely recommend checking them out.

Ich & Ich are from Berlin too. Good sound. You'll know them from a cartoon video on MTV for the song "Dienen" where a little kitten goes to great pains, literally, to befriend a large dog and lift him out of the doldrums of his life. Cool tune.

Wir sind Helden...Hamburg
Die Ärtze, international success??? I think you mean only Germany, Austria and maybe parts of Switzerland. I like them, but I would never say they are international. Also don't forget Sportfreund Stiller (sp?)

Sportfreunder Stiller are from Munich (Germering).

Wir sind Helden ...according to the Amazon.de spiel and Musicmagnet are from Berlin ... though I always get confused ...always thought the Beatsteaks were from Nürnberg and Blumfeld were from Berlin ...they're from Hamburg ..

Any road, that Magnetmusic link gives the lowdown on who's from the Hauptstadt ...never heard of the 'Brainless Wankers' before but I'll watch out for them ...as for the most successful internationally, domestically, etc-ally ...hmmm, don't know but I would say internationally Rammstein at the moment but I have no hard facts & figures ...just from their world touring, appearance in the film 'XXX' and what I read in the english-speaking press (US, UK)..

ATTENTION UA:
There's a little band out of Berlin called Tanzwut that you may have heard of. Very popular with goths, I'm told. You might want to give them a listen.

woof.

According to UA, Tanwut is a reincarnation (or something like that, a couple of the guys play in both bands) of Corvus Corax (mentioned in her post). They had a concert here on May 18, I couldn't make it because I had band practice but they sound really interesting. Oh and one of the guys (Ardor) is really hot.

Classic, long-standing techno label Tresor (Juan Atkins, Joey Beltram, Jeff Mills, Drexciya, etc) is based in Berlin, and organizes a lot of clubnights/parties both in Berlin and worldwide, with artists from the label itself and others.

So is dub/hip-hop/experimental label ~scape (burnt friedman & the nu dub players, pole, jan jelenik, etc)

The rap-reggae-funk group Seeed, who have an extremely popular song out right now called "Ding!", are from Berlin.

If you haven't seen it, the video for "Ding!" is pretty funny.

From their website:

That "ding" video creeps me right out. I can't watch it.

The song itself is a terrible earworm. If I hear even a snippet of it, I'll be singing "tingalingaling you pretty thing" for the rest of the day. Actually I heard the song for the first time last month and it's pretty much been running through my head on a continual loop ever since.

Yes the band is from Berlin, but only the singer is from there, the others, are from Bremen, Hannover and Karlsruhe. But none of them are from Hamburg.

What about H-Blox? I remember seeing them on TV here in Ireland in the early 90s!

What about Einstürzende Neubauten?

If you are into acoustic music and a want a (mostly up to date) lineup of gigs in Berlin, check out

http://www.springsandstrings.wordpress.com

And also check out the interview links, articles, and other info, including the first ever Springs and Strings Festival Oct. 16 & 17 at L.U.X. in Kreuzberg.

See you at the show!

The guy is an arsehole though, Knorkator are also based in Berlin