The BossHoss - Do or Die (2009)

Berlin-based weisenheimers the Bosshoss reinterpreted contemporary pop and hip-hop hits in the style of traditional country music. Singer/washboardist Boss Burns (born Alec Völkel), singer/guitarist Hoss Power (Sascha Vollmer), lead guitarist Russ T. Nail (Dean Micetech), bassist Gus Brooks (André Neumann), mandolinist Hank Doodle (Mathias Fauvet), and drummers Frank Doe (Ansgar Freyberg) and Ernesto Escobar de Tijuana (Tobias Fischer) co-founded the Bosshoss in 2004, taking the name from a song by the legendary U.S. garage band the Sonics. Clad in ten-gallon hats and fringe-adorned western shirts, the septet developed a sound they dubbed "country trash punk rock," performing rockabilly-inspired covers of songs by Britney Spears, Nelly, and OutKast. The gag quickly caught on with audiences, and by year's end the Bosshoss signed with Universal Music to record their debut LP, Internashville Urban Hymns. A 180-date tour followed in 2005, as did a sponsorship deal with ice-cream manufacturer Langnese, whose trademark jingle "Like Ice in the Sunshine" the Bosshoss regularly covered. After contributing to the soundtrack for the 2006 film FC Venus, the group issued its sophomore effort, Rodeo Radio, which debuted in the Top Ten on the German pop charts and led to a resurgence of interest in their debut, which started selling again and eventually went gold. Over the next few years the band remained immensely popular in the German-speaking countries, winning numerous awards and earning a further gold record in Austria. Maintaining an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach, they continued to churn out albums at a prodigious rate, each one incorporating more of their own original material: 2007's Stallion Battalion was followed by Do or Die in 2009, Low Voltage in 2010 and Liberty of Action in 2011. The following year, singers Boss Burns and Hoss Power became judges on the German version of the TV talent show franchise The Voice. The group returned in late 2013 with a new studio album, Flames of Fame.