Kettcar

History

Marcus Wiebusch of ...But Alive and bass player Reimer Bustorff, who were both members of the ska band Rantanplan, decided in 2001 to break away from punk's and ska's traditions of aggressive, political lyrics in favor of developing a more emotional, laid-back style. Together with Erik Langer (guitar), Frank Tirado-Rosales (percussion) and Marcus' brother Lars Wiebusch (keyboard), they formed Kettcar as a guitar pop group exploring the experiences of grown men in their lyrics.

When they failed in finding a label to publish their finished first album "Du und wieviel von deinen Freunden", Marcus Wiebusch and Bustorff banded together with Tomte-singer Thees Uhlmann and formed the independent music label Grand Hotel van Cleef out of Wiebusch's own B.A.-Records and Uhlmann's label Hotel van Cleef. In early 2002 "Du und..." became the first record to be released by the new label. Its success, while still moderate, exceeded expectations by far and Kettcar became darlings of the German music press.

They managed to record and release the even more successful second album "Von Spatzen und Tauben, Dächern und Händen". On 18 April 2008 Kettcar released their third album called Sylt and debuted at number 5 in the German album charts. On 31 August 2008, she played at the Club Kampnagel a sunrise concert with acoustic versions of some of their titles, supported by a string quartet. A recording of this concert is the main part of the DVD Live at Kampnagel - 5:43 am, which appeared in fall 2009. In November 2009 they came back with this program, supported by strings, the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, on a six-concert tour. From the concert tour in the temporary buildings in Hamburg appeared on 22 January 2010 an eponymous live album on CD and vinyl, which contains the songs of the concert without the intervening announcements. In June 2010, Frank Tirado-Rosales known that he is leaving the band in order to pursue other projects. His successor, Christian Hake, already drummer at the Home of the Lame and Olli Schulz. On 10 February 2012, the band will release their fourth studio album, which will be called Zwischen den Runden (In English: between rounds).

Musical style

Kettcar are classified in the German indie rock and indie pop. The band is often mentioned in connection with the Hamburger Schule. Following statements by Marcus Wiebusch he does not see this relationship, only the origin is the same. Reimer Bustorff denotes the style itself as guitar pop.