Yeah, yeah, I know: everybody plays air-zither along with their favorite 'zither heroes,' they even play the Zither Hero video game, the zither-bass-drum lineup has been the standard for decades, and yet here we are again, posting another zither album. We're so damn trendy. I apologize, because I realize that our culture's obsessions with the zither has made so many other stringed instruments unfairly obscure. Perhaps other instruments have potential, but no-one knows because they're considered uncool? Like the "guitar," a six-stringed instrument of Spanish origin, whose strings are strummed or plucked by hand. Since it's held in the hands instead laid out on a table like a zither, it's sure to draw guffaws from the too-hip. Who knows, maybe in some bizarro-world alternate universe, it's the guitar that's the most popular. Nevertheless, this album of fun, peppy, all-instrumental Euro-cheese is another example of why all peoples of the world hail the zither as the King of All Instruments. Zesty percussion, accordion, sleazy electric organ and cool vibraphones add to the belated Oktoberfest (Decemberfest?) festivities.
A1 Ramona A2 Down By the Riverside - the familiar hand-clappin' American gospel song A3 Schöner Gigolo - hey, it's that Louis Prima song, "Just A Gigolo" A4 Tanze mit mir in den Morgen - love this Latin-a-gogo groover A5 Bye Bye Blues - one of my fave ol' Tin Pan Alley standards A6 Estrellita A7 Wochenend und Sonnenschein B1 Winke winke B2 In einer Nacht im Mai B3 La Paloma B4 Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein B5 Das machen nur die Beine von Dolores - Great hotel lounge psuedo-calypso B6 Das alte Spinnrad B7 Du schwarzer Zigeuner B8 Good Night, Ladies
Well, why not avant-polka? Who says classical, jazz, and rock should have all the fun? Guy Klucevsek's "Polka From The Fringe" is just that, a newly released 2-disk set of originals and commisioned songs written for accordionist Klucevsek, an '80s downtown New York arty-smarty who grew up playing polkas in Pennsylvania coal-mining country. He originally released this album over twenty years ago, and the label promptly went out of business. This new version is greatly expanded, boasting a whopping 29 tracks, many written by prominent avant-garde composers like Tom Cora, Carl Stone, Fred Frith, and Elliot Sharp, whose "Happy Chappie Polka" is downright punk. Despite the heavy art credentials of all involved, it's still alot of fun. You just can't play a pretentious polka. (Tho it is a lot to absorb - took me a few listens before I finally realized how good this album is.)
Another awesome avant-accordion album comes to us from, of all places, Belarus. Pictured left, Port Mone's album "DiP" is an excellent collection of moody instrumentals sporting unusual ethnic percussion and some surprisingly funky poppin' bass. I can now say that I have listened to an entire album from Belarus (and so should you.)
Petrojvic Blasting Company (pic below) are a crazy-fun L.A. band featuring a big brass section that suits both European Balkan and New Orleans styles. Tho probably best experienced live and drunk, their debut album (also available on vinyl) shows off their ace songwriting and muso skillz. They recently toured the old country - Poland, Latvia, Lithuania - but, like the above artists, don't expect anything too authentic.
Norteño literally means "northern", as in the US/Mexican border areas where Mexican musicians mixed their Spanish melodies with Dutch and Geman settlers' polka. A muy bueno norteño album I discovered on the jukebox whilst waiting for my order at a local taquería is Los Dareyes De La Sierra's "Corridazos Con Tuba Y Acordeon." Yep, pretty much the whole album is nothing but accordion and tuba duets. And the tuba player is loco. Ever bought an album for the tuba? Now's your chance. Tho I have my reservations about recommending it - I suspect that some of the songs are "narco-corridos," songs about, or even in praise of drug cartel thugs.
Tijuana's Nortec Collective offers a more self-consciously experimental approach to norteño. Like Wu Tang, the Collective quickly split off into solo projects, some leaning more towards techno dance territory, and others, like Bostich and Fussible's 2008 release "Tijuana Sound Machine" still keeping that border-polka beat in there amidst all the space-age sounds.
We then head even furthur down south to Columbia, where the accordion rules the cumbia scene...even as they cover Queen. That's what happens when a British producer (Quantic, in this case) moves to Sud America. From the self-titled album "Los Miticos Del Ritmo."
Ah, what the heck - the link to Duckmandu's accordion cover of the Dead Kennedy's "California Uber Alles" is dead, so I'll throw it in here.
1. Duckmandu: California Uber Alles 2. Port Mone: River 3. Petrojvic Blasting Company: Princess Andy 4. Port Mone: Youth 5. Guy Klucevsek, Ain't Nothin' But A Polka Band: The VCR Polka (by David Garland) 6. Guy Klucevsek, Ain't Nothin' But A Polka Band: Happy Chappie Polka 7. Guy Klucevsek, Ain't Nothin' But A Polka Band: The Disinformation Polka (Fred Frith) 8. Los Dareyes De La Sierra: La Tragedia Del Compa Man 9. Bostich and Fussible: The Clap 10. Los Miticos Del Ritmo (Feat. Quantic): Otro Muerde El Polvo (Another One Bites The Dust)
The French invasion of wonderful naive/toy-pop continues with the loveable Carton Sonore (Sound Card). The three all-too-brief "Petit Themes" albums available for download are well worth the few euros/pounds/dollars/clams purchase price. Mr. Sonore sez: "It's mainly acoustic and instrumental music with various instruments, like: charango, ukulele, guitar, melodica, saw, saz, glockenspiel..." Yes! to more musical saw. Xylophones, ocarinas, kazoos and toys are also present. But as much as I'm drawn to unusual instruments, as usual, it's the top-notch songwriting that sucks me in - there's a dreamy, innocent-but-not-corny quality to these tunes.
I've included a couple tracks from each album, as well as a few tracks he's made available for free in this sampler:
There are lots of foreign-language covers out there, but what really intruiges me is when non-Anglo/Americans approach the material from their own ethnic/cultural background. Sometimes it's kinda clueless, like the South African group who sound like they really don't know their rockabilly (tho I'm sure they know rock better then most Americans know mbaqanga), while others are clearly going for a cross-over audience, e.g. the "chutney" version of Arrow's soca classic "Feelin' Hot Hot Hot": East Indians go to the West Indies. I'm pretty sure the Bappi Lahiri track was no more then the prolific Bollywood composer finding himself short on material and thinking no-one would notice if he ripped-off some Western oldies, but Tuva's Yat-Kha, on the other hand, apparently is a big fan of Western pop, and performing it in his "throat-singing" style seemed like the natural way to go - a tribute to his boyhood favorites. And Panta Siklja Nafta might be the first reported sighting of Serbian outsider music.
Plenty here were done simply to cash in on the teen rock market that emerged across the world by the 1960s. Jah Division, and The Ramones bossa, and steel pan covers are just good old-fashioned gimmicks, but fun ones, and The Dragons have even been accused of being somewhat of a hoax - their release, covering the likes of The Sex Pistols and the Rolling Stones - was supposedly smuggled out of China after the band overheard Western music on Hong Kong radio, but some have levied the accusation that they were, in fact, Chinese folks living in France at the time, and a smart-aleck record label put them up to the task. Who knows - the Pistols on traditional Chinese instruments sound amazing, and that's all I care about.
As I wrote last year: "I propose that we officially make March 4th 'Alternative Marching Band Day.' March 4th = March Forth. Geddit?" And, thanks in part to comments left by some of you good Maniacs, I've got another batch of alt-brass band goodness for ya this year. So put on your mismatched band uniforms and go marching around the house whilst listening to more spazz-jazz/non-guitar rock/Sousa-free tubas than you can shake a baton at: March Fourth 2012
- Boba Fett and the Americans, a Denver-based band that doesn't appear to have any albums out, but I did find a few stray things on the web: covers of the Beatles "Birthday," Hugh Masakela "Grazing in the Grass," a 'Star Wars'-themed parody of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" called "Bootie Hunter," and Run-DMC's "It's Tricky" (tho the vox are too low - you'll have to rap your own version.) - Hungry March Band - these alt-march pioneers started in 1997, have 4 albums out, and I've got one of 'em, "Critical Brass," from 2005. It features plenty of jazzy funky originals, and kooky kovers of tunes like Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," as well as solid originals like the one featured here, "Jupanese Ju Ju." Bonus points for covering Pigbag's classic early '80s instro "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag." - The itchy-O Marching Band (pictured above) are also from Denver, but could not be more different from the comedic Boba Fett gang. The 32-person strong multi-media group somehow march with hand-held electronic instruments like synths and theremins, and have a powerfully compelling dark sound. Their debut 6 track ep features tracks like "Inferno No Corridor," a song that blew me away with its gargantuan sound, like if Glen Branca wrote for dozens of percussionists instead of guitars. Bravo! - MarchFourth Marching Band were the Portlanders that were featured in last year's collection and gave this March 4th concept it's name. Their new album "Magnificent Beast" features no kooky kovers, tho still has a sense of humor as evidenced by the 'SNL'-skit inspired "Cowbell." Elsewhere, the album ranges from James Brown rhythms to Caribbean/Latin influences ("Sin Camiseta") to New Orleans jazz. Unlike most, they sometimes feature vocals, often of the simple, chanted variety. - Raya Brass Band: These Balkan/Eastern European-inspired New Yorkers have produced an album of absolutely crazed, twisted melodies over rhythms as difficult as the the pronunciation of the song titles. "Dancing On Roses, Dancing On Cinders" starts off pleasantly enough with the toe-tapper "DJevadov Čoček" (that's easy for you to say) before piling on song after song of head-spinning complexity leavened with irresistible buoyancy. Your head may be ringing after listening to this, but you can't possibly be in a bad mood. - Seed & Feed Marching Abominable: this Atlanta combo have been around since 1974, which def. pushes the timeline back, but they apparently don't have any recordings. All I could find was an interview that features some generous chunks of their music. - The Residents never used marching bands (that I'm aware), but, as a bonus track, I've included a song ("Washington Post March") from their "Stars & Hank Forever" album that remade the marches of John Philip Sousa inna electronic stylee, complete with parade sound effects. Sorta the inverse of the rest of this collection of trad bands playing non-trad music.
While it's still October (or, as I like to call it, 'ROCKtober'), here's a whole beer garden's worth of German "schlager" music for a maniac's Oktoberfest. Most of these songs are remakes of Anglo-America hits. They're sometimes sung in German (or inaccurate English), and performed in a gleefully tasteless, absurdly upbeat party-ready delirium. The closest analogy in American music would be Vegas-type lounge music, but even the cheesiest of those swingin' cats had a bit of jazz in them. This stuff is more like oom-pah tarted up for the '60s and '70s, trading in lederhosen for eye-poppingly colorful wide collar shirts and bell-bottom flared pants. It's quite ridiculously entertaining, and it all comes from my collection of used vinyl. Vee hef ways of making you LAFF! [original artist's name in brackets] OKTOBERFEST A-GO-GO
1. Bernd Spier (not to be confused with reggae band Burning Spear!) "Memphis" [Chuck Berry] 2. Chris Roberts "Rock and Roll Music" [Chuck Berry] 3. Rolf Kühn "Paranoid" [Black Sabbath] - clarinet instrumental! 4. Rex Gildo "Speedy Gonzales" [Pat Boone] 5. Chris Robert "La Bamba" [Richie Valens] - absolutely absurd English lyrics 6. Rolf Kühn "I Hear you Knockin" [Dave Edmunds] 7. Ruth Brandin "Warum (nennt man dich Sunnyboy)" 8. Rex Gildo "You Call Everybody Darling" 9. Bernd Spier "Danke Shoen" [Wayne Newton...or was this a German original?] 10. Tanzorchester Schwarz-Weib "Kleines Haus am Wald" 11. Jo Ment "Get It On-Sweet Hitchhiker" [T.Rex/Creedance Clearwater Revival] 12. Rolf Kühn "Apeman" [The Kinks] 13. Pumuckl's Kinder-Party "Pumuckl Rock n Roll" 14. Chris Roberts "Blowin In The Wind" [Bob Dylan] - play this for any Dylan fan, and watch smoke come out of their ears 15. Lolita "El Paso" [Marty Robbins] 16. James Last "HeyTonight-She's A Lady-What Is Life" - [Creedance Clearwater Revival/Tom Jones/George Harrison] 17. Gunter Hapke "Fur Gaby tu ich alles" - from 1963; early electronic keyboard? 18. Rolf Kühn "Black Magic Woman" [Santana] 19. Ruth Brandin "Papagei-Twist" 20. James Last "Be My Baby-Immigrant Song-Have You Seen The Rain-My Sweet Lord" [Ronnettes/Led Zeppelin/Creedance Clearwater Revival/George Harrison] 21. Lolita "Wenn der Sommer Kommt (Theme From A Summer Place)" [Percy Faith] 22. Rex Gildo "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" [Shirelles]
Yeah, yeah, I know: everybody plays air-zither along with their favorite 'zither heroes,' they even play the Zither Hero video game, the zither-bass-drum lineup has been the standard for decades, and yet here we are again, posting another zither album. We're so damn trendy. I apologize, because I realize that our culture's obsessions with the zither has made so many other stringed instruments unfairly obscure. Perhaps other instruments have potential, but no-one knows because they're considered uncool? Like the "guitar," a six-stringed instrument of Spanish origin, whose strings are strummed or plucked by hand. Since it's held in the hands instead laid out on a table like a zither, it's sure to draw guffaws from the too-hip. Who knows, maybe in some bizarro-world alternate universe, it's the guitar that's the most popular. Nevertheless, this album of fun, peppy, all-instrumental Euro-cheese is another example of why all peoples of the world hail the zither as the King of All Instruments. Zesty percussion, accordion, sleazy electric organ and cool vibraphones add to the belated Oktoberfest (Decemberfest?) festivities.
A1 Ramona
