Lassie Singers | |
---|---|
Origin | Berlin, Germany |
Genres | Indiepop, Hamburger Schule, Neue Deutsche Welle |
Years active | 1988–1998 |
Labels | Columbia Records, Dragnet Records, Flittchen Records |
Members | Christiane Rösinger (vocals, guitar), [1] Almut Klotz (vocals), [2] Funny van Dannen (guitar), Kathrin von Witzleben (vocals), Heiner Weiß |
Past members | Britta Neander (drums) Herman Herrmann (guitar) |
The Lassie Singers are an indie-pop band from Berlin-Kreuzberg that was active from 1988 to 1998. Their musical style was in between the Hamburger Schule and Neue Deutsche Welle. [3] The Lassie Singers have been called the first German girl-band. [4] The band's lyrics often use bitter humor to describe clichéd romantic relationships from a feminist perspective. For example, popular songs of written by the Lassie singers include: Die Pärchenlüge (English translation: the couple-lie), Mein zukünftiger Exfreund (English translation: My future ex-boyfriend), and Liebe wird oft überbewertet (English translation: Love is over valued).
The Lassie Singers' largest commercial success came with the 1994 single Es ist so schade (English translation: It is too bad), peaking at number 24 in the Austrian Charts. [5] They released four studio albums, the first of which was released on Columbia Records; their final three studio albums were released on Dragnet Records, a sub-label of Sony Music Germany.[ citation needed ]
The founding members of the Lassie Singers were Christiane Rösinger, Almut Klotz, Heiner Weiß, Kathrin Fitzner (aka Kathrin Witzleben), and Funny van Dannen. The band had three front-women, and Rösinger wrote the band's song lyrics. van Dannen was only a member of the Lassie Singers for a short time; Herman Herrmann later joined the band as a guitarist. The band name refers to the American TV series Lassie . Over a period of years the Lassie Singers worked with many different well-known German pop-artists, including Bernd Begemann, King Rocko Schamoni, Die Regierung, Eff Jott Krüger (Ideal), and Jochen Distelmeyer (of Blumfeld). [4]
Their first album Die Lassie Singers helfen Dir (English translation: "The Lassie Singers help you") was released in 1991. [6] This was quickly followed by Sei À Gogo in 1992, [7] and then Stadt, Land, Verbrechen in 1994. In 1996, the Lassie singers released the album Hotel Hotel, which was produced by Thomas Meinecke and recorded by Chris von Rautenkranz. [8]
In 1998 the Lassie Singers broke up. [9] Almut Klotz and Christiane Rösinger opened the record label Flittchen Records . Rösinger founded the band Britta and since 2010 has released two solo albums under her own name. [10] [11] Klotz and Sandra Grether founded the riot-grrl band Parole Trixi. Klotz also founded the band Maxi unter Menschen with Maximilian Hecker, and played as a duo with Christian Dabeler called Klotz+Dabeler. In 2013 Klotz died of breast cancer. [2] [12] In 2020 Christiane Rösinger won the Rio Reiser Sonderstipendium from the Musicboard Berlin. [13]