Hello 21 (Single 2020)
Bankrupt
Punk
The year 2020 was not too kind to us humans, who we are “a plague upon the earth”, as David Attenborough stated. The music and event industry is one business field that was hit very hard by the pandemic. And so at the end of the year, a band from Hungary, which played the known places like Dürer Kert and Sziget and with acts like 3 Feet Smaller, decided to put something hopeful out there and to welcome the new year: “Hello 21”!
After their fifth album “Trolls In Suits” that was promoted on Distrolution and another single “Tropical Breakdown”, this song is another hit by Punk institution Bankrupt. After all it is the bands 20th anniversary of their first record “Listen” in 2000. Since then, the group has published several additional EPs and as band concept produced the songs in two languages, English and Hungarian.
The same they did with this single. The version in their mother tongue is entitled “Huszonegy”, recorded at Bresaola Studios and premiered on Recorder.hu. In an interview they revealed to the magazine, that they also recorded a cover of Commodores’ “Sail On” for their fifth participation on a Cleopatra Records sampler with Smash Mouth, The Vibrators and more.
For the video to “Hello 21”, the band asked friends and fans to hand in their drink-raising 10 seconds horizontal HD videos. Now the idea is nothing completely new as e.g. The Boys You Know (Wohnzimmer) did it for “All The Other Kids” and Seether just asked for contributions for a “Dangerous” community video. But Bankrupt knows their craft, and like their other videos, make this one a highlight too.
Befriended bands like DeeCRACKS, Sinking Heroes and Brigantik cheering to the camera are one part. Between those, pictures of playing cards, riots and the pangolin underline the lyrics, motivating lines like “We’ll resurrect the scene.” For “2020 fell on Trump”, they added Wile E. Coyote as guest star of the Looney Tunes.
The band brings great joy with their Ramones-inspired, motivating Punk in general. And with this one minute track and the positive message they have their finger on the pulse of the age.