Thanks to Anna, I can’t stop listening to “(Is it Love or) Food Poisoning” by Slim’s Cyder Co., a London-based accordion band that plays country, swing, and rockabilly, mixed with a healthy dose of humor. According to Slim’s MySpace profile, he has played with the likes of Joe Ely, Billy Bragg, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and many more over the years. Check out a couple tunes from Slim’s latest release, “Journey into Cyder Space,” and catch the bug:

Food Poisoning (MP3 download)

Sweet Sweet Kisses (MP3 download)

When it comes to musical subgenres, are there any more neglected than accordion hip-hop? Lewis of the TDA Squeeze Blog linked to this week’s top entertainment picks from the Boston Globe, which highlights a show Friday in Cambridge featuring not one, but TWO acts with accordion-playing rappers. Seriously, what are the odds?

Called “polka’s antithesis” by the New York Times, Julz A (aka Julian Hintz) bills himself as “somewhere between Beck and The Beastie Boys with an accordion,” and the tracks from his solo EP, “Squeeze Rock”, definitely fit the comparison (see links below). While Julz A goes it alone, Ghorar Deem Express (which translates literally to “the horse?s egg” in Bengali, used to mean “nonsense”) is a ten-person combo whose music runs the gamut from rock to klezmer to funk to balkan folk, with plenty of stops in-between. Rachel Koppelman is their accordionist.

Check out some samples:

Julz A: Out on the Tiles (Led Zeppelin cover, streaming MP3)

Julz A: Julz-A.com (streaming MP3)

Ghorar Deem Express: Mucoid Plaque (MP3 download)

The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival just wrapped up in Austin and there were plenty of performances by talented, independent bands featuring accordions. Here are a few bands to check out (with MP3 samples):

• Madagascar
  This Baltimore band incorporates the accordion, ukulele, and musical saw into hauntingly beautiful, mostly instrumental tunes. Their first album, “Forced March”, was released this last June.
  All That Spring You Could See Halley’s Comet
• Very Be Careful
  VBC brings rollicking, make-you-dance Colombian vallenato rhythms to the masses, via Los Angeles. If you like cumbia, you’ll like these guys.
  El Camionero
• The Theater Fire
  They tell stories about “drifters, hangmen, brothers, and lovers grappling with their own honor, trust, guilt and loss,” over music that combines country with mariachi, folk, and blues influences.
  Swimming
• Noahlewis’ Mahlon Taits
  A unique, jazzy instrumental group from Tokyo, featuring some great musical saw playing. (The musical saw must be making a comeback… or maybe it never left.) Very mellow and ethereal.
  Street of Dreams