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:
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.
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
“Who Needs the DJ?” is a great feature from today’s Pitchfork on the decline of community radio, and DJs in particular. It focuses on Gary Sredzienski, host of the popular Polka Party radio show on WUNH-FM 91.3 in New Hampshire. Gary’s been doing the show for nearly 20 years, in addition to performing solo and with his “Ethnic/Instrumental Rock & Xtreme Polka” band, The Serfs (definitely worth checking out!).
The piece covers the history of the show and Gary’s ongoing struggle to keep fans happy — whether they’re into traditional Polish music, Polish-American polkas, or something else entirely. And he’s no fan of current polka music:
“When he gets new polka albums in the mail, he throws them straight into the trash. ‘Today the accordion is just used to bellow-shake in a polka band, and it’s mostly two or three trumpets playing now. It’s turned into a brass form. And to me it sounds like a freakin’ invasion of a country.'”
Even if you’re beyond the reach of WUNH-FM’s antenna, you can still listen to The Polka Party on Saturday mornings from 9-11am EST via the WUNH website.
Maybe I’m just nostalgic about my marching band days, but I’m a sucker for this story about a girl who’s playing accordion in her high school pep band. Shandra Korbelik, 16, of Exeter-Milligan High School in Exeter, Nebraska, has been sitting in with the woodwinds and belting out “classics” like “Eye of the Tiger” and “Hawaii Five-O” on her button accordion. It sounds like she’s having a blast, and I love her description of picking up her current, rhinestone-studded accordion:
“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got heaven in my arms.'”
Do you know of any proud pep/marching band accordionists in your area? Let us know and we’ll give ’em the attention they deserve.
Posted March 6th, 2006 in News, Profiles · Comments off
Anyone who’s ever been to Battista’s Hole in the Wall in Las Vegas knows Gordy, the wise-cracking accordionist who roams the old Italian restaurant belting out tunes at every table. We ate at Battista’s earlier this year and, true to form, Gordy asked where we were from and launched right into a geographically-appropriate tune (“California, Here I Come”).
After trying in vain to describe him, I found a great video profile of Gordy from KTNV-TV in Las Vegas, recorded last summer after he had recovered from hip surgery:
Posted February 27th, 2006 in Profiles, Videos · Comments off
