When a band is named Polkastra and their album is called Polkalypse Now, you know it’s going to be fun. But don’t let song titles like “Ludwig van Polka” or “Four String Polkanini” fool you; there’s some very serious musicianship behind Polkastra’s silliness.
Led by renowned violin virtuoso Lara St. John, this eclectic septet includes Israeli composer Ronn Yedidia on accordion as well as the New York Metropolitan Opera’s contrabassoonist. They set out to make a polka record just for fun, but soon found themselves exploring polka’s ties with folk, jazz, and classical music. It’s too bad that the polka Grammy is no more because Polkalypse Now is a blast — a joyous, energetic of celebration of polka in its many forms — and already one of my favorite albums of the year (polka or otherwise). You can find the digital album on iTunes now, while the physical CD will be released in August.
3 Comments:
..trouble making a comment here today, so sorry if I end up duplicating myself. Just want to say, this sounds fantastic!
by mister anchovy on June 29th, 2009
Yea, I regularly have trouble commenting. My last comment was lost and it keeps taking me to a “page not found” page.
In fact, don’t be suprised if this one appears more than once because I’m sure it will fail the first time.
Fun music!
by Clayton on June 30th, 2009
Thanks! I’ll look into the comment issues — not sure if it’s a problem with WordPress or our web host.
by Chris on June 30th, 2009