Jan Müller explains why Tocotronic are not a sherbet band, but a spritzer band.
Call from ME boss Stephan Rehm Rozanes: “What’s the situation, what’s the topic?” Me: “How, what, where? Good morning!” Rehm Rozanes: “The column! It’s due on Monday! I told you so.” Me: “Oh, yeah, I don’t know yet.” Rehm Rozanes: “How about protest songs? Tocotronic is one meta-protest song and now that Bruce SpringsteenŒ…”. Me (interrupting): “Yeah, um, I’ll have to think about it.”
Rehm Rozanes: “Ok, then something else, you’ll think of something. But while I’ve got you on the line. How do you actually feel about Brausen at Tocotronic? I’m currently in contact with a leading AI researcher and he supports the thesis that Tocotronic is a Brausen band.” Me (surprised): “Yes, Cola, yes…”. Rehm Rozanes (interrupting): “Yes, not Cola! Fizz!” Me (slowly waking up): “Well, there’s a point there. During the breaks during rehearsals I always go to Späti with our guitarist Felix and he pointed me out to the ‘Mio Mio Mate Banana’. I was really surprised that I didn’t know that stuff. And Arne and Dirk didn’t know that either. I thought beforehand that we had a good overview of the market.”
Rehm Rozanes (suddenly very curt): “Yes, great, that’s a topic, isn’t it? Showers are popular! So, Monday then!” Click. I lie on the sofa and think. Is Cola a soda? Is mate banana a fizzy drink? Is effervescent pop? Is Rehm Rozanes kidding me? These are not easy questions to answer. Cola is probably more of a caffeinated soft drink, if not actually a medicine. After all, “Coca Cola” inventor John Pemberton was a pharmacist. He experimented with the recipe for years until he finally brought his “new drink for intellectuals” (self-promotion) onto the market. It was not without reason that his invention was often copied. Not every imitation is edible. But every cultured person should drink “Pepsi”, “Jolt Cola”, “RC-Cola” (“The other Cola from Atlanta”) and “Tropi-Cola” at least once in their life.
“Mio Mio Mate Banana” is also only colloquially regarded as a soda. But subsuming it under lemonades would also be wrong. The brew is a “caffeinated soft drink” just like Coke. I’m surprised at myself that I let Felix encourage me to try the banana mate. Until now, everything with mate had a bad appeal to me. There was always a touch of backwards counterculture. But I have to admit: this banana mate isn’t bad. The best thing about it: The stuff doesn’t taste like banana at all.
Presumably all of these mate companies are actually less unscrupulous than some fizzy drink bottlers. But it would be even more consistent for everyone who rejects the drinking commerce to simply drink water. At least once a month I am happy that Anarcho Rio Reiser, of all people, chose the “Staatlich Fachingen” water as his favorite drink. He knew his way around. “Fachingen” tastes great, but is more like salt than water and inspired me and my group Dirty Dishes to write the track “Fachingen,staat”.
But back to the showers. After all, we and my band Tocotronic mentioned the drink “Sprite” in a song in 1999 “But as far as these boundaries are concerned / It is well known / That they are mostly fluid / You said that while drinking a ‘Sprite’”. Tellingly, the song is titled “The Limits of Good Taste 2”. Three years later, we first wanted to mention the fizzy drink “Fanta” in a song: “Everyone can see where we stand / That’s common knowledge / That the two of us get along well / When we go out for a drink of ‘Fanta’” is what the song “Closer to you” originally said. However, we ultimately decided on something different. The “Fanta” was replaced by champagne. We felt like a sophisticated provocation. And it also corresponded much more to our lifestyle at the time.
At our first concert in 1993 in the rehearsal room, however, we served the guests “Super Mario Brause”, “Crystal Pepsi” and “Uludag” (the latter drink is a chapter in itself, if you want to find out more, listen to the track “1 Berg Money” by Young Krillin ft. Yung Hurn). Today, with Tocotronic, we have reached the point where we are no longer interested in alcohol at all and are almost only interested in showers in theory. We have reached the spritzer stage.
At concerts we down gallons of apple spritzer between the main set and encore. Pear spritzer would be even better. But this is rarely made available to us. And best of all would be a few bottles of “Contratherm heat drink” (60 kJ/100 ml). This specialty was only available in the GDR and there, too, it was not sold freely, but was only distributed directly to heat workers in companies. Was that considered soda? I’ll call Rehm Rozanes now and ask him.
