With a favorite band you not only have the members in mind, but you also know exactly who you think is the strongest. This principle was drummed into us at the latest by the boy band decade, i.e. the nineties – but you probably already know it from the days of Black Sabbath, Beatles or minstrel all-star groups from the Middle Ages. So I always know mine by heart. My favorite Tocotronic was always Arne Zank, with the doctors Farin Urlaub, with the Toten Hosen, the one who looks like a horse and with the Spice Girls Sporty Spice aka Mel C.
In contrast, I found such a hierarchy difficult with the antelope gang. The beautiful, the difficult, the funny. Mmh… if I were given the awful choice of which of the three not to be left to a falling meteorite, I’d take Panic Tank. He has this fiery mix of lowbrow dude and demon.
And don’t forget: Panzer is also the last secret of the Antelope Gang. His colleagues Koljah and Danger Dan (who is also his brother) have all had their cards on the table for a long time. Danger Dan’s piano record THIS IS ALL COVERED BY ART FREEDOM even your old German teacher knows by now. But what about panic tanks? One of the rare pieces by the ash-blonde man can also be found on the last mix tape of the Antilopen Gang. It’s called “DIY CEO”, and he presents himself as a busy self-made businessman with a guarantee of success, a knowledgeable perversion of the FDP-heavy Kollegah principle.
The Antilopen-Ballermann hit, which they perform under the alias Die Rheinische Happy Nature, also gives a good insight into the tank fascination. This is where his character’s sinister feel-good attitude comes into its own.
No wonder the calls for a Panik-Panzer-Solo record got louder and louder.
The answer came as a surprise again: Panik Panzer is now publishing his first… book. A crazy biography with a high mockumentary content, he wrote together with a friend, a musician (formerly with The Shitlers) and sociologist Martin Seeliger. The largest part was created during a holiday together in Ibiza, the rest on a bench in Hasenheide. The title of her work: “Panic Tank – The best person in the world: How I managed to climb to the top of the food chain”.
Well, I’ve interviewed people for far smaller reasons. Then hello to Martin and Tobias (aka Panik Panzer)!
Buddy and demon: The man Panik Panzer (and Martin Seeliger) in an interview
“I see the book as a direct reaction to the constant and annoying questions about when my solo album will finally come out. I’ve been asked that for 15 years, it puts me under a lot of pressure!”
How did you meet?
MARTIN SEELIGER: We first met on the internet or registered each other there. That happened in the hip-hop partisan forum, which was a place around the turn of the millennium where politically interested rap fans exchanged ideas about music, worldviews and utopias. However, we didn’t meet in person until a number of years later, I remember, that took place in Aachen. We had arranged to meet at a bus station and I already felt very harassed on the way – for example by Irish tourists who were sitting on the bus. I’m quite sociophobic and asked myself: How is the encounter with this stranger supposed to be if the way is already too much for me? But it went wonderfully, we went to the Autonomous Center, drank wheat beer and then moved on.
PANIK PANZER: Funnily enough, I felt the same way. I first canceled Martin on an excuse because I found the idea of meeting someone I only knew from the internet so uncomfortable. In the end you have nothing to say to each other and you can’t get out of the situation. But then I got bored and decided to take the risk and withdrew the pretense – or invented a new one as to why I could now.
The antelope ultras always have the wish that Panik Panzer should – like the other two – finally make his solo record. On the last antelope mix tape (ANTILOPEN GELDÄSCHE) there is a very nice panic tank song (“DIY CEO”) and has fueled the desire again. Is this book here a procrastination result? Instead of the record, I’ll just write you my biography?
PANIK PANZER: I see the book as a direct reaction to the constant and annoying questions about when my solo album will finally come out. I’ve been asked that for 15 years, it puts me under a lot of pressure!
Danger Dan also ruined a lot with his smash hit, right? What are you supposed to do after that?
PANIK PANZER: Exactly, imagine, I come with such a half-baked 40-year-old boomer-makes-modern-rap-music-with-autotune-album, that would be unbearable. Especially in the face of Daniels [Danger Dan] Success.
The chapters are very entertaining, sometimes really crazy, about plane crashes, drugs, jail and the perfect scrambled egg recipe. Have you always been able to stay sober at work?
MARTIN SEELIGER: Yes, yes. We got really drunk twice in Ibiza, but the next few days were uncomfortable. I liked it more that we lived healthily there, went jogging – we never went to the beach either, practically never left the apartment. Only once did we get drunk there and I immediately lost my key in the sand. It was clear to us: We won’t go there anymore!
Do you also understand the whole project as a commentary on all these jerked off rapper biographies of the present time?
PANIK PANZER: I don’t want that to be understood as a pastiche. The project is too serious for me – and my own fan base regarding rapper biographies is too unironical for me. And if we have fallen into a style here and there that you might also find in the Kollegah biography, then that is not meant as criticism. It reflects more of an unconscious inspiration because we’ve both read a lot of that kind of stuff.
With the Riva-Verlag, the book is published by a rather notorious shop. At least you don’t see any literary figures in the program here, but hip-hop celebrities like Kollegah or ghosts with a lot of followers like this twitch guy Montana Black. How did you get there?
PANIK PANZER: Luckily I still had contact with the publisher. About a week after we went to number 1 in the German album charts with the Antilopen Gang in 2017, we received an email from the Riva publishing house asking whether we wanted to publish a book with them. I think there’s an intern there who checks who’s in first place every week – and if it’s a German-speaking act, he gets a message straight away. So I still had this email address, wrote it down – and the fish took the bait immediately.
The book “Panik Panzer – The Best Man in the World” will be published on February 19, and Panik Panzer and Martin Seeliger will go on a reading tour together in March. Tickets for this will be available from the end of this week.
Over the past year, I’ve really sympathized with the whole event industry. Despite the opening, bad visitor numbers spread like Corona, the live world suffered from Long-Covid. So I still had an encouraging pat left even for the big brands: “Will be back for your annoying giga events! Your backward-looking men’s booking will soon get back on its feet. Do not Cry. Here you have a small steak.”
Today, normality in live operations is still not back, but it has come a big step closer. In this respect, the sympathy of most music fans is certainly limited when you look at Rock im Park / Rock am Ring again – and can see that their current PR scenario is like a “food test” in the jungle camp.
So inedible, disgust and a lot of shouting. Hanger in this special case: Pantera were caught up by right-wing extremist failures of their singer Phil Anselmo. A Hitler salute on stage – and unsavory details (white power references, first of all public non-apologies) bubbled into the “discussion”. In the musician’s subsequent professional remorse, most saw only the will to limit the damage.
Pantera are not wearable at Rock im Park, where they were emblazoned as headliners. However, the organizer saw it differently and hoped to be able to pull it off against all votes. But as well Die Toten Hosen with a statement on Instagram increased the pressure, things really started to move. Eventually, the organizers had to part with Pantera. In order not to let the damage to the image that has already been conjured up swell further.
It should come as no surprise that this “understanding” or crisis management no longer generated good press. In all of this, though, it should be noted that Die Toten Hosen didn’t come out of this shitstorm showdown well either. Their statement, in which they justified why they had not yet canceled their participation in the event despite Pantera and legitimate doubts, did not read decisively enough for many social media activists. It’s correct. Although it formulated critically, it was also defensive and deliberative. Sure, Die Toten Hosen aren’t a punk account with 39 followers, but with their tormented-looking words, they went into the minefield of “exchange of opinions on the internet” unarmed.
Nevertheless, I would like to say very clearly that I was personally disconcerted how a band that has been supporting anti-fascist projects on an informal and official level for decades was then judged for such an awkward statement. Campino was the only one who stood up at the last ECHO award and had positioned himself with a (also rather shaky) speech against the Holocaust lines of Kollegah and Farid Bang. That was exactly what killed the ECHO back then, just as the intervention of the Hosen this time may have had a decisive influence on the decision against Pantera. You don’t actually have to start with Jamel and countless solo actions. But maybe?
Because all those accounts that have not only laughed at them for the last few days, spat at them digitally or sometimes put them in the right corner at this point be shown again with a relativization is doubtful. Pantera’s appearance is off, but now the Foo Fighters are coming – and those who helped bring about this circumstance are a shitstorm richer.
This is Internet 2023. Awesome is something else.
Detour to the hit department (I)
Mariybu
On March 10th the debut album of an artist will be released, whose ovarian merch (“Digga, now there’s stress / I’ve got PMS”) I was enthusiastic about years ago. Musically, a lot has happened with Mariybu, the new preliminary track shows the Hamburg native mellow to dark. “Ganz raus” tells of escaping the world, the animated clip is reminiscent of “I’m Blue” by Eiffel 65, but above all it’s music you can feel into. Soothing and exciting at the same time. This is a blurry song for your own endless loop of the moment, which even the use of autotune cannot harm. I love it!
Detour to the hit department (II)
Daniel Decker
Anyone who takes really good care of their indie albums, is there at midday at the Immergut Festival and likes small, cool labels may know Daniel Decker. There’s still a light under the radar: For decades, the Berliner-by-choice has been providing his fans with a changeable sound and little hits. His singles series is just coming to an end, with a new piece in a different genre every month. I particularly like “Neville”, the closing song for this project. A film noir instrumental that sounds as raw as the gnarled desert it seems to describe. Is the last sentence still precise music journalism or is it already cerebral Eso-babble? Judge for yourself. But above all: Have a listen to Daniel Decker.
Editor’s disclaimer: Decker himself once worked for the publishing company that publishes the Musikexpress – and thus directly on this homepage here.
What happened until now? Here is an overview of all pop column texts.
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