Volume 15 – #8 – August 2012

POLKA SEASON UNLEASHED! Can’t you just feel the vibrations; the rippling waves of joy? This can only mean one thing. It’s Polkatime! Many, many years ago I noticed something unique about polka music. It’s an ethnically-based mash-up of melody and rhythm that has the power of rock and roll. But it transcends rock and roll because rock and roll, and its mainstream offshoots, are equal parts sound and ego. Polka has the lowest amount of ego one can find in popular music. It encourages the listener to abandon those crippling notions and just give in, even if he or she is not one of the “beautiful people.” This is built-in due to decades of abuse from the greater music establishment, dominated by rock, pop rock, hip hop, and country pop, which always has to have a representative of the uncool to compare itself to, because, as I said, it is as much ego as it is music. More and more rock musicians just look shallow and desperate, appealing to the most superficial qualities of which humans are capable. The bottom line reason for Brave Combo has forever been to destroy the idea that music has to be declared hip for it to be worthy of an audience. To be fair, I clearly remember how important it was for the high school version of me to be more “with it” than my other Texarkana school mates and friends, but, come on, that was high school, the time when most of us are pretty much at our dumbest. That doesn’t seem like the place we would want to stop growing. But wide-spread media just can’t let us get beyond it for some reason. Into college, and way beyond, our egos, apparently, remain so fragile we just can’t let those adolescent things go. A perfect, and frankly, chilling example was expressed recently in a speech by Paul Ryan, the Republican choice for vice-president. He said his iPod shuffle starts with AC/DC and ends with Led Zeppelin, light-heartedly pointing out the generational difference between his listening choices and Mitt Romney’s. Watching him try to reassure us of his cool factor, has the opposite effect on me. What that says to me is that this guy is easily manipulated and profoundly insecure, definitely not someone I would choose as a leader. Polka music insists that you think for yourself. In fact, in some circles, if you claim to love polka music, you might as well also claim that you live in an insane asylum on Venus. And that’s what is so great about it. I’ve been to a few insane asylums on Venus and are all wonderful places, by the way. You know, if you pay attention to the media too much, or even just a normal amount, there’s not a lot of good news out there. The economy sucks, the environment is turning on us, everyone is trying to kill everyone else, disease is rampant, whatever. Well, the one thing that absolutely is an antidote to all this hopelessness is polka music. It just is what it is and something about it makes you not even care if there’s no hope. So what? And maybe that’s where we should all be anyway. Maybe having no hope is a good thing because it makes you live life and not have high expectations. As well, maybe comparing your world to your neighbor’s is not the best way to go. Your life, which is ticking away as you read this, is your life, to be defined and determined by you. It’s a day-to-day thing. None of us is guaranteed anything. And that reality is to be respected, for sure, but also ignored. It’s definitely okay to say, “Screw this, let’s have some fun!” And, speaking of having fun with polka, you should check out our itinerary. It is festival season and a bunch of Brave Combo’s festivals are centered around this unique music. And we do know a lot of polkas; all kinds. You want some Czech with your Polish? Will that be the quicker-tempo East Coast Polish or the deeper grooved Midwest push-style Polish? Shall we throw in a heaping side of Slovenian or German? Of course, since we’re from Texas, we tend to drape everything in a Tejano sauce; vegetarian, of course. And see, for me, presenting polka is also about liberating polka from the things that shackle it within it’s own communities. I’m talking about meat, beer and ethnically specific clothing. It doesn’t need any of these things to be viable, just like any other popular music. It’s okay to love polka music and not get drunk, eat animals or look like a person who would get drunk and eat animals. But that’s a personal thing, not for everyone. I just mainly dig the idea of accordions blazing through polkas in a trendy Brooklyn night club, that serves vegan dishes after hours, as much as I love playing polkas for cowboys of Czech heritage in Central Texas. It has been our experience that, despite what mainstream media says, open-minded ears are everywhere. We never find anyone that really dislikes polka once they’ve actually been allowed to hear it. So, look over our upcoming dates, get to our shows and forget about all the rotten things in your life for a little while. It’s okay. Kick-ass!

Speaking of Paul Ryan (mentioned above), he claims to be one of those scary kinds of Christians. Romney isn’t as scary because I’m not sure he’s anything other than just a really rich guy. They’re like the new super heroes, Chameleon Man and The Scary Christian. Okay, what the hell, I guess it is a culture war. Bring it on! I’m always in a damn culture war anyway, with this whole polka thing. My enemies are everywhere. But I’m not paranoid! Stop following me! Do you hear that clicking on the phone?

Hey, have you heard our new album, SOUNDS OF THE HOLLOW? If not, you should treat yourself. We’re selling them cheap at our live shows. People are buying them by the bag, like donuts or tofu cubes. Our audience is a pretty diverse crowd. We like it like that!

Well, I think it’s time to change the cat litter. This is a big job at my house. Cats like fresh, clean litter. But they never lift a finger to help. None of them offer to go to the store to get it. They refuse to wash out the boxes or even carry the litter in from the car. And if one of your cats is prone to constipation, you must keep the litter in good shape. So, dear ones, go clean the litter and listen to polkas while you do it. I live in a circus, but I’m not a clown. Okay? Get it? Fantastic! Try to have the best time you can despite your worries.