Watch out, West Coast: the Monsters of Accordion are on the loose. Next week, four unique singer/songwriter/accordionists — Jason Webley, Corn Mo, Geoff Berner, and Duckmandu — will be spreading squeezebox mayhem in Seattle, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, and Oakland. Special guests will join the tour in each town, including Amy Denio and Hell’s Bellows in Seattle, Eric Stern of Vagabond Opera in Portland, and Mark Growden in San Francisco. Needless to say, if you only attend one all-accordion extravaganza this summer, Monsters of Accordion should be it.

The Monsters of Accordion tour is the brainchild of the foot-stompin’, tomato lovin’ Jason Webley. I recently had the chance to talk with Jason about the tour and I’ll be posting our interview here soon.

On Thursday morning, the NPR show Morning Edition will be airing a piece about the Coupe Mondiale accordion competition. The show will include a rendition of the Morning Edition theme song as performed on accordion by three members of the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society: Mara Cherkasky, Peter DiGiovanni and Lee Paulson.

Thursday’s Morning Edition will also feature some music by one of our favorite bands, One Ring Zero. They’ll be interviewed during a segment on music inspired by Pluto’s recent demotion to dwarf-planet status. I’m anxious to hear how that discussion goes, but it will likely include a clip of their new song, “International Astronomical Union.”

Update: Here’s a link to the Coupe Mondiale segment: “Ace Accordion Players Compete.” (The One Ring Zero segment is linked above.)

It’s been almost a year since polka legend Li’l Wally Jagiello passed away, but he certainly hasn’t been forgotten. Chicago punk/polka band The Polkaholics are hosting a free tribute concert this Friday, and they’ll be playing a slew of Li’l Wally classics. There’ll also be some Li’l Wally memorabilia on display and raffled off to lucky attendees. (Note: the Polkaholics don’t have an accordion player, but I don’t hold that against them.)

Li’l Wally and the Polkaholics may seem like an odd match, given the generational gap and the latter’s leanings toward punk-ed up, guitar-driven polka, but they actually performed together at Chicago’s Zakopane Lounge back in 2002. Filmmaker Wes Hranchak chronicled their epic meeting in the appropriately-titled documentary, Polkaholics.

• Seacoast Online: Gary Sredzienski is Not Just the Polka Guy
  Candid interview with Gary Sredzienski, the “accordion warrior” who hosts the eclectic, long-running “Polka Party” radio show in New Hampshire. On his show: “This is about everyone, everyone taking an interest in their roots… their musical, the deep, rich history. It’s not about Polish culture, but about all and open-mindedness.”
• Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Concerts Online
  Watch and listen to this week’s Coupe Mondiale concerts from the Kennedy Center live online. The concerts start at 6pm Eastern, but will also be archived on the site for later viewing.
• Those Darn Accordions Album Pre-Release
  Place your order now for the new Those Darn Accordions album, Squeeze Machine, which comes out on September 18.

Bruce over at Accordion Noir forwarded us an Augusta Metro Spirit piece on folk-rock band Bain Mattox and Shot From Guns. Based out of Athens, Georgia, the band is led by Mattox on the guitar, banjo, mandolin, and (of course) accordion.

“The band has added an accordion in the past few years and they use it like a lead guitar. [Mattox] laughs, ‘I am trying to make the accordion sexy… Today, it seems you see the accordion everywhere — but in my defense, I started playing over seven years ago.'”

He even has a great “first accordion” story to prove it:

“I saw a band called 16 Horsepower and the lead singer played a bandoneón. I was amazed and said, ‘I am going to have to play the accordion now.’ The next day, I saw an ad in the classifieds. I went to this old, old man on a farm. He told me he’d bought the accordion in Germany when he was in the war. I spent a great afternoon with him, then left with an accordion, a couple of watermelons and hot peppers.”

The band has been working on an album this summer; in the meantime, check their MySpace for clips like the one below.

Bain Mattox and Shot From Guns: Shotgun Pageant (MP3 download)

• Victoria Times Colonist: Squeezed by Stereotype
  Learn how the Victoria Accordion Club fights accordion stereotypes (and the ghost of Lawrence Welk) as they prepare for their Accordions by the Sea festival this weekend.
• Santa Barbara Independent: Squeezing Out Swinging Sparks
  “Jazz fans who reflexively smirk at the phrase ‘jazz accordion’ are actually blessed: They may be in for an awakening. Accordion jazz, while still a subcultural niche within jazz, can be uniquely exciting.” The Independent praises jazz accordion in advance of Frank Marocco’s gig on Monday.

Nobody has done more to keep polka music varied and vibrant than Brave Combo, the genre-busting quintet from Denton, Texas. For more than 25 years, they’ve been winning over listeners to their unique melting pot of musical styles. According to bandleader Carl Finch, their goal is to “break down people’s perceptions about what’s cool to like in music. Our deal is to shake up people’s ideas about what they label hip, or right or wrong.”

The two-time Grammy winners have a new album out, Polka’s Revenge, that continues that tradition by mixing rock and Tex-Mex-inspired polkas with old-world waltzes, schottisches, and obereks. Of the album’s twenty tracks, four are Brave Combo originals and the rest are new renditions of classics by polka greats like the Connecticut Twins, Wanda and Stephanie, and the Ampol Aires.

And, as if you needed another reason to attend the Cotati Accordion Festival later this month, Brave Combo is one of the headliners and will be performing on both Saturday and Sunday.

Brave Combo: The Innocent Gadfly (MP3 sample)

Despite our best efforts to stay on top of all accordion-related festivals, one occasionally slips in under the radar. Fortunately, the Lincoln Journal Star has an excellent recap of last weekend’s Wilber Czech Festival in tiny Wilber, Nebraska (“Czech Capital of the USA”).

The 46th annual festival drew close to 45,000 people (to a town of only 1,700) for a weekend of Czech food (mmm… kolaches), polka music and dancing, and an accordion jamboree. Check out the accompanying audio slideshow to hear Charlie Keller, president of the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber, talk about the culture of the Wilber Czech Festival.

Nebraska Czech Queen Shandra Korbelik, 18, plays the accordion

No summer slowdown on the accordion calendar. What’s going on this week?

• Camp Accordionland (Sat-Sun in Berkeley, CA)
  It’s a weekend full of workshops, jam sessions, ensemble playing, and general merriment with 50 other accordion lovers at beautiful Tilden Park in Berkeley. We went last year and had a blast.
• Mamou Playboys School of Music (Tuesday in Lafayette, LA)
  Louisiana Folk Roots presents a one-of-a-kind learning experience: four weeks of accordion, fiddle and guitar lessons led by Steve Riley and his band, the Mamou Playboys. On the final week, every participant gets a chance to play with the full band!
• Accordions By The Sea Festival (Fri-Sun in Victoria, BC, Canada)
  Head north of the border as the Victoria Accordion Club hosts its first-ever accordion festival, with performances by Mario Pedone, S-Bahn, Bertram Levy, and many more.

And if you’re a San Francisco Giants fan, check out Italian Heritage Night this Tuesday night at AT&T Park. SF’s own Bella Ciao will be performing the (American) national anthem. Oh, and you might see Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run, too.

Have an accordion event for our calendar? Tell us about it!