Automatonic Electronic Harmonics - Steam Powered Giraffe

Steam Powered Giraffe!  Wow.  Seriously.  Steampunk + pantomime + some pretty damned impressive harmonies = Super cool stuff!

Based in San Diego, California, Steam Powered Giraffe was formed in 2008, released their first album "Album One" in 2009, and have been playing Steampunk festivals all around the country ever since. 

Automatonic Electronic Harmonics by Steam Powered Giraffe from the 2012 album "The 2¢ Show"

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Thistle - Hundred Waters

I just came across this song today thanks to a thread on the ever informative Facebook.  I can't really find out any information about this 5-piece band, other than that they are from Gainesville, Florida and toured earlier this year with Skrillex, but I'm really liking this song.  There's a lot of Björk to be heard here, as well as a taste of Jesca Hoop, both whom I love!  Give it a listen.  It's really very good.

Thistle by Hundred Waters from the 2012 EP "Thistle"



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Whiskey Too Far - The Great Malarkey

I love this band so much!  Based in London, England, The Great Malarkey is absolutely one of my favorite new bands on the planet right now.  Frontwoman Alex Ware-Woolf has such an incredibly delicious blues rasp of a voice that makes goosebumps run pleasantly all up and down my body as I listen.  And this song showcases that to perfection.

And just because they are all so incredibly wonderful, here's the full band line-up for you:

Alex Ware-Woolf  -  lead vocals, guitar
Aiden Banks  -  fiddle
Alex Newton  -  trumpet extraordinaire
Jake Appleby  -  bass
Jason Nash  -  accordion
Joni Belaruski  -  drums, percussion
Owen Evans  -  guitar, banjo

Whiskey Too Far by The Great Malarkey from the 2012 album "Badly Stuffed Animals"




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Fashionista - Mercury Mad

Glam Rock or good ol' punk?  Whatever you want to call him, Mercury Mad rocks it!  After listening to his music and watching his videos, it really comes as no surprise that this self-styled "sarcastic Messianic figure" is theatrically trained.  And beautifully so.


Fashionista by Mercury Mad with APOX



Mercury Mad website

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The Bonney Anne - Firewater

I think I'm finally starting to get my feet back under myself after last week's dream come true.  On Wednesday of last week (September 26), my band, Juana Ghani, had the amazing honor and privilege of opening for one of my very most favorite bands of all time - FIREWATER!  I would love to go on and on about the whole experience, but honestly, there are no words that can even come close to expressing the magnitude of the amazingness of it all.  Not only is Tod A absolutely brilliant in his songwriting, not only is the entire band absolutely mesmerizing in their playing - individually and collectively, not only was their set incredibly tight - they were all so completely genuine and nice and gracious and absolutely wonderful as people, too.

I've been a fan of Firewater for years.  We own every single album they've ever released - including one that is only available digitally these days and is not very well known at all.  Every single album is amazing.  And this new one - just released here on September 11, 2012 - is equally fabulous!  Every single song from the opening anthem of "A Little Revolution" right through the contemplative "The Bonney Anne" - FAB-U-LOUS!

The Bonney Anne by Firewater from the 2012 album "International Orange!"




Firewater artist page

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Ballad for Beelzebub - Graveyard Train

Graveyard Train is 6 men (and they REALLY want you to know they are men) from Melbourne, Australia playing a style of music they call "horror country."  Their songs are dark and macabre ghost stories that spin around inside your head, teasing at nightmares and things that go bump in the night.  What's not love?

Ballad for Beelzebub by Graveyard Train from the 2008 album "The Serpent and the Crow"



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Zora - Kultur Shock

Such a hauntingly beautiful and heart wrenching song.

Kultur Shock was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1996 by former Yugoslav Gino Srdjan Yevdjevich who had immigrated to the US (with the help of Joan Baez) following the Siege of Sarajevo.
 
A loose English translation of Zora:

The red sun is still not rising. 

The tree leaves are still not falling off in the mountains. 

The nightingales song still can't be heard 

Announcing the sunrise

The sound of axes can't be heard 

Nor the song of the shepherd 

Silence is all around 

All that lives is resting

Sometimes the dewy flowers bloom, 

Let spring adorn itself with them 

I won't pluck it anymore 

Because it's not for me

I won't pluck it anymore

I don't have anyone to give it to
The one I used to give it to
Is now covered by earth
Every blade of grass on the mountain ranges
Now feels my sorrow
Happiness is running away from me
Far away

Zora by Kultur Shock from the 2001 album "FUCC the I.N.S."

Kultur Shock website

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Auschwitz - Margita Makulová

Porajmos.  The Devouring.  The Roma name for the Holocaust. 

"At Auschwitz-Birkenau, officials set up a separate "Gypsy family camp" for Gypsies in Section BIIe of Birkenau: From the wooden barracks, the gas chambers and crematoria were clearly visible. During the seventeen months of the camp's existence, most of the Gypsies brought there perished. They were killed by gassing or died from starvation, exhaustion from hard labor, and disease (including typhus, smallpox, and the rare, leprosy-like condition called Noma.) Others, including many children, died as the result Of cruel medical experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele and other SS physicians. The Gypsy camp was liquidated on the night of August 2-3, 1944, when 2,897 Sinti and Roma men, women, and children were killed in the gas chamber." --  Sinti & Roma: Victims of the Nazi Era

Today is International Remembrance Day, honoring and remembering the victim's of the Porajmos.

Auschwitz, sung by Margita Makulová (Aushwitz survivor) in the movie "Latcho Drom"

Opre Romale!

I Left the Wolves Behind That Night - The Tiger and Me

Our (Juana Ghani) accordion player turned me on to this band a few weeks ago.  This is the video he showed me.  It's all shot live and in one-take by the amazing Australian video team, Side Show Alley.

Based in Melbourne, Australia, The Tiger and Me released their first album, "From a Liar to a Thief" in 2010 to wonderful reviews.  Since then, they have released 2 of a trilogy of EPs ("The Howling Fire" and "The Silent City") with the 3rd part due out this year.  This trilogy explores "a descent into madness, the ensuing struggle, and the ultimate embrace of insanity."  (Sounds like similar theme to the stuff my band does.  Yay, for descents into madness!)

I Left the Wolves Behind That Night by The Tiger and Me from the 2010 album "From a Liar to a Thief"

 The Tiger and Me website

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Break Out the Violins - Visa

A little Russian ... a little Armenian ... some rock-n-roll ... a touch of theatrics ... a whole lotta cool!
Visa (now VIZA) is based in Los Angeles, California and blends so many of my favorite musical styles into one fabulously awesome experience.  Formed in 2000, they have released two EPs and four albums - the most recent, "Carnivalia" in 2011.  All the standard rock instruments are there - guitars, bass, drums - but they also bring in some wonderfully exotic (at least in this corner of the world) instruments like oud, tar, saz, zurna and duduk.

Break Out the Violins by Visa from the 2007 album "Maktub"

VIZA website

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Magyarbödögei galambozó - Folk Error

I'm trying to resurrect this blog, I promise!  Life just has a tendency to get a bit busy and full of distractions for me.  But the cool music - fun music - strange and wonderful music - is still out there!  Like this one.  Hungrarian ska.  Folk music coming face-to-face with a titch of Euro-punk flavo(u)r.  It's fun.  Bottom line: it's fun.

Folk Error was formed in 2006 in Hungary.  This is their very first "real" video (according to Youtube via Google translate).   That's really all I can figure out.

Magyarbödögei galambozó  by  Folk Error



Folk Error website

Folk Error on facebook

The Rumour Song - Joe Black

This is not safe for work (NSFW), small children or those with sensitive ... umm ... sensibilities.  But I like it.  It's dark, it's naughty, and it makes me giggle a secret giggle.  This whole Dark Cabaret/Neo-Vaudeville scene so completely entertains me.  Yes, I'm a titch warped ... but ... come on!  Kazoo solo!

The Rumour Song by Mister Joe Black from the 2011 album "Sex, Drugs and Vaudeville"



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Happy Birthday (My Olde Friend) - Voltaire

 Today is the birthday of one of our (Juana Ghani) drummers.  He's a bit of a smart ass.  Jus' sayin'.  Anyway, his birthday brought this fun little song to mind.  And anything/anybody that brings Voltaire forward in my mind is a good thing/body.  I love Voltaire (and would love to share a show with him someday).

Happy Birthday (My Olde Friend) by Voltaire from the 2008 album "To the Bottom of the Sea"



Voltaire website

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The latest video from one of my all-time favorite bands, The Urban Voodoo Machine.  This is directed by Sin Bozkurt (one of my favorite photographers) and Anthony Ratcliff. 
I fell in love with The Urban Voodoo Machine years ago (thanks to MySpace, actually, and clicking through "friends" of Mediaeval Baebes, whom I have loved for so long) when I first heard their song "Love Song 666".  I hope to one day make it to London and attend a Gypsy Hotel night and meet them in person.

Rather You Shot Me Down by The Urban Voodoo Machine from the 2011 album "In Black 'N' Red"




The Urban Voodoo Machine  on Facebook

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Life Fantastic - Man Man

I'm sure it's no surprise that I really like Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based Man Man.  They are gifted artists who create amazing music around intelligent lyrics and play children's toys and kitchen gadgets with the same exquisite focus as they do the more socially accepted "serious" instruments.  It's like they've taken the stuffy adult by the hand and let the curious kid do the leading for awhile.  What's not to like?  (And the bio on their facebook page is FABulously done!)

Life Fantastic by Man Man from the 2011 album "Life Fantastic"




Man Man website

Man Man facebook  (Read the bio!  Serious!  Do it!)

Man Man twitter

Sweet Spirit - Mara Carlyle & Willy Mason

It's been a weird series of days around here.  This song only added to the weirdness.  Not sure what I was expecting, but crying in my proverbial beer wasn't it.

Mara Carlyle is a British singer-songwriter from Shropshire who also plays saw and ukulele.  Willy Mason is an American singer-songwriter from New England.  "Sweet Spirit" is a 19th century prayer that Mara Carlyle set to her original music.  The combination is heart-wrenchingly beautiful. 

Sweet Spirit by Mara Carlyle and Willy Mason, released November 2011, is available on itunes.



Mara Carlyle website

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Willy Mason website

Willy Mason facebook

Hallways - Islands

Canada continues to turn out some really cool music. 

Formed in 2005 in Montreal, Quebec but currently based in Los Angeles, California, the band Islands released its 4th studio album (and 3rd album with Anti- records) last month. 

And yes, I really like this video.  There's just something about skeleton marionettes that makes me smile.

Hallways by Islands from the 2012 album "A Sleep & a Forgetting"




Islands website

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