Left to right: Farin Urlaub, Bela B, Rodrigo Gonzalez.
Die Ärzte (lit. The Doctors
note As in medical doctor/physician.) are a punk rock/pop-punk band from Berlin, Germany. Along with Die Toten Hosen (lit. The Dead Pants) they are the most successful German punk act. In
The Nineties they made a music video starring
Lara Croft. They
modestly refer to themselves as
die bäste Band der Welt; "the best band in the world."
For most of their career they have consisted of:
- Farin Urlaub (Vox, Guitar) *
His stage name is a pun on the German phrase fahr' in Urlaub, meaning "go on vacation."
- Bela B. (Vox, drums)
- Rodrigo Gonzalez (Vox, Bass)
Formed in 1982, they broke up briefly in 1989, reuniting in 1993. They have released 12 studio albums until now. Their discography:
- Debil ("Moronic," 1984)
- Im Schatten der Ärzte ("In the Shadow of Die Ärzte," 1985)
- Die Ärzte (1986)
- Das ist nicht die ganze Wahrheit... ("That is not the whole truth...",1988)
- Die Bestie in Menschengestalt ("The beast in human form," 1993)
- Planet Punk (1995)
- Le Frisur (Gratuitous French, "Le Hairstyle" 1996)
- 13 (1998)
- Runter mit den Spendierhosen, Unsichtbarer! ("Stop being so generous, Mr. Invisible!"note literally "Take off your spending pants, Mr. Invisible" 2000)
- Geräusch ("Noise,"2003)
- Jazz ist anders ("Jazz is Different," 2007)
- Auch ("As well," 2012)
Die Ärzte and their songs provide examples of:
- All Men Are Perverts: Parodied in Männer sind Schweine
. The song starts with calling them the "usual" pejorative terms; pigs, rats, etc., but by the end it's the nonsensical "men are cars." - An Aesop: Quite a few especially on their recent album "Jazz ist anders"
- Audience Participation Song: They will turn any song into this.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Once again played for laughs in "Claudia hat 'nen Schäferhund" (Claudia has got a german shepherd).
- Blasphemous Boast: "There is only one god: Bela Farin Rod"
- Be Yourself: The message of Lied vom Scheitern.
- Black Sheep Hit: "Nur einen Kuss" (Just One Kiss) is a surprisingly depressing ballad, especially coming from the band that brought us "Lasse redn".note
For those who don't speak German, this guy is in love with a girl, who in turn falls in love with a traveler. The traveler leaves, promising to return, but he never does, and she eventually dies of heartbreak. The protagonist goes searching for the traveler, and when he finally finds him, he kills him by cutting out his heart. Yeah.
- Lampshaded on their spoof album "We don't want the song, Farin. (...) I've talked to Rod and he doesn't think it's funny either"
- * Break Up Song : "1/2 Lovesong" of the "Please don't go"- and "Mach die Augen zu" (Close your eyes'') of the "Teetering at the brink of a breakup"-variety
- Brother-Sister Incest: Their song "Geschwisterliebe" (Siblings' Love) is the Trope Namer for the german page.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: Farin and especially Bela are quite fond of the horror genre. Cue the "Pro Zombie Song", the !anti Zombie Song" and the video for "Junge"
- Filk Song: The "Grotesksong", a parody (or is it?) of filk protest songs.
- Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: Their logo is a parody of this; it's an A with three dots on top of it. (Their name actually needs an standard two-dot umlaut above the A to be proper German).
- I Am A Humanitarian: The song "Gebt Schweinen eine Chance" (lit. ~give pigs a chance) jokingly advices cannibalism against hunger and for a better world.
- In The Style Of: Something they like to do.
- 'Leichenhalle' spoofs Rammstein.
- 'Vermissen Baby' moves towards Type 0 Negative.
- The Warumska is... ska.
- They video to '3 Tage Bart' is in the style of boy bands like Take That.
- The best-of album 'bäst of' contains more than a dozen bonus tracks moving through maaaany genres.
- Ironic Nursery Rhyme: Played for Laughs. Their song "Schlaflied" is a lullaby about... stuff that lullabies normally aren't about.
- Long Runner: They have been around (with one short break) for now 30 years. They just released the album Auch.
- Obligatory Bondage Song: Parodied in "Bitte, Bitte" (Please, Please)
- Self-Parody: Their spoof album "Jazz ist anders - Economy Version". It contains all the songs from the original album "Jazz ist anders" but in amateurish and unfinished versions, altering the texts, singing with modified voices, playing 20 seconds of the song and then discussing why they don't want to play the song anymore, resulting in one member shooting the other two, killing them on record. He sings the rest of the songs alone and cries over his actions.
- The song 'richtig schön evil' has Bela (and Rod, but mainly Bela) trying to frame Farin as a terrorist to stop his solo album from being a success.
- Take That: "Lied über Zensur" (Song about censorship), as well as the video to "Bitte, Bitte"
- The Pete Best: Their first bass player Sahnie. To an extend his temporary replacement, The Incredible Hagen.
- Three Chords and the Truth: Often a bit more than three chords, but often true to their punk roots.
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