My dad got me Gramophone magazine’s The Classical Good CD & DVD Guide 2005 for Christmas, which I’ve been enjoying flipping through, but here’s what I’ve lately had in heavy rotation on the CD player.
Gogol Bordello. These guys proudly proclaim themselves to be “Gypsy Punks,” and that’s about as apt a description as you’ll find. Imagine the Clash getting together for a jam session with the Moldavian gypsy-brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia and some accordion and fiddle and saxophone and several crates of strong Ukrainian vodka thrown in for good measure and you’ll have an idea of what these folks sound like. Totally infectious, over-the-top, exuberant stuff, and it doesn’t hurt that the singer has the sort of Eastern European accent usually only heard coming from James Bond movie villains. They’ve got these stomping Romany rhythms and some fierce guitar, but you’ll also hear bits of ska and flamenco in there, and they’re far too good to take themselves too seriously.
Firewater. Ever since New York alt-metal band Cop Shoot Cop dissolved (they had an almost-hit in 1993 with “$10 Bill” but I was always more fond of the creepy, operatic “Room 429” and the bitingly funny “It Only Hurts When I Breathe”), I wondered what had happened to vocalist/songwriter Tod A and his gargle-with-razors voice and wickedly sharp lyrics, and then I heard him singing a cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” on the radio a while back and had to immediately find the album. As it turns out, their first effort, “Get off the Cross… We Need the Wood for the Fire” is the album to have; Tom Waits-style cabaret and klezmer are obvious influences, especially with the instrumentation (bazouki, djembe, saxophone, clarinet, accordion, violin, in addition to the usual drums-bass-guitar), but you’ve really got to hear “Bourbon and Division” for its relentlessly catchy, swinging nihilism. And my personal favorite, “When I Burn This Place Down,” is a wonderful tango (a tango!) with the pricelessly bitter line, “And baby if you were drowning / I’d throw you a funeral wreath.”
Secret Chiefs 3. Members include Mr. Bungle veterans Trey Spruance, Trevor Dunn, and Danny Heifetz, so you know what you’re getting into. Think freak-out Middle Eastern / West and South Asian techno beats and instrumentation mixed with thrash-metal guitars and achingly lush Ennio Morricone arrangements and melodies performed by an amazingly tight band. “Book of Horizons,” “Book M,” and “Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws” are all brilliant and really, really strange.
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