Hladno pivo

Hladno pivo ("Cold Beer") is a Croatian punk rock band from Gajnice, a western suburb of Zagreb, fronted from the start by the singer Mile Kekin. Formed in 1987, they began by covering the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Motörhead, Azra and Zabranjeno pušenje, and played their first concert in Kumrovec on 21 May 1988, where they also played their first song of their own, "Čelične zavjese".

A home-made video for "Buba švabe", their remake of the Toy Dolls' "Spiders in the Dressing Room", shot in Kekin's house for 200 German marks, was shown on the TV show Hit-depo in April 1992 and introduced the band to the whole of Croatia. Their first songs on record appeared that year on the T.R.I.P. Zone compilation on Croatia Records, and on 17 December 1992 they opened for KUD Idijoti in Ljubljana.

The debut album Džinovski (1993) won the Porin for best alternative rock album, and with G.A.D. (1995) and Desetka (1997) it completed an unofficial trilogy of street punk, pop punk and hardcore. In October 1994 they opened for the Ramones in Zagreb. Pobjeda (1999), the first album on the band's own label Gajba Records, added trumpet, keyboards, ska rhythms and country touches, and its video for "Politika" won a Porin.

Šamar (2003) and its summer hit "Zimmer frei" topped the year's best-album lists and won four Porins in 2004, among them best rock album and, for "Teško je ful biti kul" with Edo Maajka, best vocal collaboration. Knjiga žalbe (2007), with "Nije sve tako sivo" and "Pitala si me", won the Porin for best rock album again, as did Dani zatvorenih vrata in 2016; Svijet glamura (2011), led by the single "Ezoterija", came in between. On 20 September 2008 the band celebrated its twentieth birthday in front of 20,000 people in Zagreb.

Hladno pivo sold more than 60,000 records, played many benefit concerts, above all for the SOS Children's Village in Lekenik, and recorded "Soundtrack za život" with Josipa Lisac. The line-up long settled around Kekin, guitarist Zoran Subošić, drummer Mladen Subošić, bassist Krešimir Šokec and keyboardist Milko Kiš. In September 2022 Kekin announced a break from concerts to concentrate on his solo career, and the band played its last concert before the break in Hum, Istria, on 29 October 2022.

The playlist here is the album Šamar, from the band's own channel.