Die Ärzte

punk rock

Die Ärzte (pronounced DEE AIR-TS-teh, German for The Doctors or The Physicians) are a punk rock band from Berlin, Germany. Die Ärzte are one of the best-known German rock bands and have released over 20 albums. The band consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B. and bass player Rodrigo González. All three write and sing. Die Ärzte were formed in 1982 by Jan Vetter (alias Farin Urlaub), Dirk Felsenheimer (alias Bela B.) and bassist Hans Runge (alias Sahnie). Bela and Farin had previously played together in the punk band Soilent Grün; after that band broke up they decided to form a band playing fun songs, in contrast to the mostly political bands of the punk scene at that time. While deriving from that punk scene, their early music was heavily influenced by pop and rock and roll, especially The Beatles, whom Farin heard a lot as a child due to his mother playing their records. In the first two years they mostly played in clubs of their hometown of Berlin. Their first release was a contribution to the sampler 20 schäumende Stimmungshits (roughly, 20 exuberant mood hits), which contained a strong alcohol theme. In 1983 they won a rock contest in Berlin; with the prize money they recorded their debut EP Uns gehts Prima (We're doing great). Finally Columbia Records signed them, and they released their first LP Debil in 1984 and the second one (Im Schatten der Ärzte) a year later. After the second record they parted ways with Sahnie due to internal problems. On th...