Volume 14 – #12 – December 2011

Happy “dwindling days of 2011,” full of shopping, Santa, sad television, stories of Jesus, obligatory nods to the Menorah, doomsday predictions about 2012, the never-ending Republican Party presidential candidate droning and holiday-style eating. The texture of life has never been so crunchy, at least as far as I can tell. We all know this is a bad time to trust anyone, especially someone we don’t know, because we are in a desperate era and half our neighbors are probably bunko cons. Not only is the general population distrustful, it also feels scared and hopeless. The future looks bleak if you are a certain kind of person; someone who can’t accept the inevitability of change and still believes the Beaver Cleaver American Dream is synonymous with a life fulfilled. If your idea of “how things should be” looks like a big, beautiful, tree-dotted yard, surrounding a mansion, which contains your great-looking spouse and polite smiling children, then there’s a chance you’re not satisfied yet, probably not even close. But, I wish for you whatever you desire and the short-term peace that comes with it. Let’s face it. There are too many people and most of ‘em aren’t going anywhere, except somewhere to make more people. So that means that each piece of the pie just gets smaller and smaller, so it might be a good idea to change one’s expectations; to shift perspective. I mean, I don’t know why we’re here or if there’s any purpose to anything, but I do know that there are no guarantees you’ll get to be one of Garth Brooks’ grand kids. For myself, the goal is simple. Make it powerful, but make it musical. I can’t tell you why that’s a goal, but it is. I try to overlook the self-serving aspect to it and imagine that the simplicity of it makes it cosmicly life-affirming. Good for everyone, right? I mean, if I find something that I like and I excel at it, that’s a bonus for the universe, right? And, as an Artist, with a capital “A,” if I express my vision through my work, that’s important for all of humanity, even if what I do feels like goofing off much of the time, right? I hope the answer is yes, cause this is what I do. I have fun making music and it’s really not super tough. The band and I look for songs or write songs and figure out how we can best perform the songs and then we do just that. Of course, we might have to go to a lot of trouble to get to the place where we bring the songs to life and dress them up in bright colors. Unfortunately, everything but the musical part is hard. Bands have to physically move themselves, being blobs of matter, from where they live to various locations all over the place, through dense forests of Little Debbie snack displays. Plus a true musical performing Artist (with a capital “A”) has to “sell” the song, not just play the notes and mumble, which usually requires frequent attitude adjustments in order to summon the magic. And I’m not necessarily talking about the obvious stuff, like booze, uppers, downers, bennies or maryjane (been watching some old DRAGNET TV shows). Attitude adjustment could mean just that by itself. It could mean stopping whining and complaining and getting down to business. There’s a show to do. That’s what the fat man said.

Our seasonal rocker, “Hey, Little Dreidel,” from the album, HOLIDAYS, inexplicably, became one of the most requested songs of 2011 at station 965TheNoize in Las Vegas. I spoke to DJKlick recently and she excitedly let me know how much her listeners love the song. It’s a Hanukkah song, obviously. This is weird and what’s the deal with Vegas? We’re going back in February to do four more shows with Drew Carey at the MGM Grand. Maybe Las Vegas is our new Denton. Perhaps we should look over some off-the-strip properties in Sin City, rather than Branson, for our Brave Combo Theater.

Speaking of traveling and Branson-esqe things. I was in a store the other day, looking at a Christmas display and sniffed an evergreen-scented candle. The smell stayed with me the rest of the day. Not pleasant.

SONG OF THE YEAR. The world is full of music. Jam-packed full and some of it is fantastic. In fact, I would even venture to say that the world is full of fantastic music; more than any one person can take in. I often listen via an app called Tune-in Radio. It’s amazing. I can even listen to the Denton Police Department dispatcher, if I want. But I find myself most usually drawn to the domestic polka stations (shocked?), Russian stations, Eastern European and Balkan region Stations (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland), Regional Tejano/Conjunto stations, Hawaiian stations, some Middle Eastern stations and, on occasion, African, Haitian or Dominican stations. And I listen to a fair amount of South American and Mexican stuff. What can I say? I listen to a lot of music. But, there can be only one Song of the Year. And the winner is obvious. It’s “Polka Never Dies” by the Vancouver, BC band, The Dreadnoughts. It’s the perfect blend of rock/pop and polka. It works on so many levels. It seems that the band was touring a lot in Eastern Europe and, apparently, as I’ve reported here in recent installments of the Machine’s Pump, many of the young rock bands in that part of the world are now heavily influenced by that relentless 2/4 polka beat. Anyway, the sound got under The Dreadnoughts’ skin and “Polka Never Dies” is the result. I’m not sure how aware they are of Brave Combo, if at all, but, man, they sure sound a lot like us, but that could be total “sign of the times” coincidence. I highly recommend that you check out the song and the band out YouTube. http://youtu.be/FzEfI72HyCY

Speaking of Beauty, another growing trend in Europe is a polka movement that’s more about disco or disco pop. Slovenian bands, such as The Turbo Angels or Atomic Harmonik, represent that bass drum heavy, shiny, happy, dance-floor snappy, Abba-influenced polka style perfectly. This particular sound comes from disco, in general, but more specifically, from the new German Oktoberfest Oberkrainer groove. It’s a polka with a disco drum beat. Oddly enough, it’s actually been around for decades and in the 1980s Myron Floren, I believe, released an album called DISCO POLKA, which was just what I described – a polka with a disco drum pattern. This is blowing your mind, right? Nostradamus and The Mayans predicted it, too.

Accordion Tribe-ster and Brave Combo ally, Guy Klucevsek will be releasing his amazing new album, THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITY REUNION TOUR, in early January. Do whatever is necessary to hear this thing. And I’m not just saying this because we, Brave Combo, played brilliantly on half of it. It’s just a damn good piece of work. Guy is one of the world’s finest accordionists and we are honored that he asked us to play on this masterpiece.

Speaking of work, although BC is entering the slowest time of the year, there are still gigs popping up and a trip to our itinerary page is always in order. Plus, we are about to begin slaving over our own new album, emotionally draining every crevice of our being for your ears. Thank you for appreciating the sacrifices we make. Here’s to 2012! High Hopes/Low Expectations. Whatever, it’s still polka time, Baby!