Music: Beatsteaks, desktop wallpaper nr. 39223

History

Peter Baumann, Stefan Hircher, Alexander Ross Waag and Bernd Kurtzke founded the Beatsteaks in 1995 (17 years ago). Shortly after Arnim Teutoburg-Wei� joined the band as a singer and additional guitarist. In 1996 (16 years ago) the band won a local music competition in SO36 and played a concert in Berlin with the Sex Pistols as opening act. This was also the tenth performance for the band.

In 1997 (15 years ago) the band recorded its first album 48/49, named after the number of their rehearsal space. It contains several songs in German, while the more recent albums are in English. In 1999 (13 years ago) their second album Launched appeared on the American punk label Epitaph Records. Thomas G�tz already played the drums at that time. On bass, Torsten Scholz replaced Alexander in 2000 (12 years ago). This was followed by tours with Bad Religion, Die �rzte and Die Toten Hosen, bringing the band to a wider audience.

In 2002 (10 years ago), they released their third album Living Targets from this album Beatsteaks would released their first two singles Let Me In and Summer. At the end of 2002 (10 years ago), the band played a concert at the Columbiahalle in Berlin and recorded an EP "Wohnzimmer", each concert ticket holder received a copy of the EP.

Their breakthrough was achieved in Berlin in 2004 (8 years ago) with the album Smack Smash, especially with the second single I Don't Care As Long As You Sing with which they won the MTV European Music Awards 2004 (8 years ago) in the category Best German Act. At the end of 2005 (7 years ago) they released the double-DVD B-Seite, which included a self-produced documentary on the band's history, a compilation of several concerts and music videos of the band up to this time. In 2006 (6 years ago) they played a short summer tour, consisting of 3 concerts and two festival performances. Following the publication of the preliminary single Jane Became Insane in Mar. 9 2007 (5 years ago) appeared the current album.limbo messiah on 30 Mar. 2007 (5 years ago).

On the 7th of Jun. 2007 (5 years ago), the band played a concert for a charity foundation, as part of the Deine Stimme gegen Armut (Make Poverty History - literally "Your voice against poverty") campaign in Rostock in front of 70,000 spectators. One month later, on 7 Jul. 2007 (5 years ago), they played in the sold-out Kindl-B�hne Wuhlheide in Berlin, their then largest own concert in front of about 17,000 spectators.

In 2007 (5 years ago) the Beatsteaks were again nominated in the category Best German Act on the EMAs and won the listeners price 1Live Krone for the best LiveAct.

On May 2 2008 (4 years ago) a live album was released, which includes two CDs and one DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) in the deluxe package or the first CD in an economy version.

Torsten Scholz said in an interview that the Beatsteaks would start writing new songs after the end of their Limbo Messiah tour in Aug. 2008 (4 years ago).

Side projects
The drummer of the band, Thomas Goetz, and Marten Ebsen, guitarist of Turbostaat, started the project NinaMarie. Their first EP was released under the name Scheiss. Taxi - Scheiss. Paris in Mar. 2006 (6 years ago).

Another side project of the band, in which all the band members are involved, emerged during the recordings of the album Limbo Messiah, is the cover band Die Roys. With swapped roles for the instrument and under the direction of Roy Baumann (Peter Baumann) they cover known songs, which are, referring to their own statement, "the best songs are already written." The first five songs can be found on the singles Jane Became Insane, Cut Off the Top and Demons Galore.

Miscellaneous
The Beatsteaks are mentioned by Die �rzte in their song Unrockbar, which helped increase the reputation of the Beatsteaks suddenly. The text reads: "How can you keep sitting quietly to the Beatsteaks, when schlager singers let tears come to your eyes?" Die �rzte dedicated their song Popstar to the Beatsteaks at Rock am Ring 2007 (5 years ago). Singer Teutoburg-Wei� challenged Die �rzte jokingly with calling the Beatsteaks the "best band in the universe" the day before, referring to Die �rzte's claim to be the best band of the world. Both bands are in a friendly rivalry in Berlin.

The Beatsteaks are present on the 2005 (7 years ago) sampler On the Run of the human rights group Pro Asyl with a cover of Opel Gang from Die Toten Hosen. They in return covered the song Hand in Hand from the album Smack Smash and released it on their unplugged album. The Rock-'n'-Roll band Boppin'B also covered the song on their latest LP Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

In the movie Knallhart by Detlev Buck the song Fool from the album 48/49 can be heard.

In the movie Extreme Ops the song Not Ready To Rock from the album Living Targets can be heard.

After the singer in the Berlin bands Seeed and Boundzound, Demba Nab�, could be seen in the music videos to the Beatsteaks singles I Don't Care As Long As You Sing and, dressed as a ninja, in Hello Joe, Arnim returns the favour with a guest role in the video for the single Boundzound Stay Alive.

They also support the Germany based Fair-Trade T-shirt company, ArmedAngels, and can often be seen wearing their t-shirts.

The song Hail To The Freaks is featured on Guitar Hero World Tour. However, this popular song is not available on iTunes.