Let’s face it — certain aspects of polka culture are ripe for parody. And when it comes to polka parodies, nobody did it better than SCTV‘s Shmenge Brothers.

Hailing from the mythical country of Leutonia (“on the dark side of the Balkans”), Stan and Yosh Shmenge (portrayed by Eugene Levy and John Candy) came to America and conquered the polka charts before their abrupt retirement in 1984. Along with their band, the Happy Wanderers, they appeared frequently on SCTV playing everything from covers of new-wave hits to original tunes like “There’s Rhythm In My Lederhosen.”

Shmenge-mania reached its height with The Last Polka, a 1985 HBO “mockumentary” about the duo’s final concert. If you haven’t seen it, it’s basically the polka version of Spinal Tap. Unfortunately, it isn’t available on DVD, but you can now watch the whole thing on YouTube (albeit divided into seven parts). Watch the first eight minutes and sing along to the Shmenge Brothers classic, “Cabbage Rolls and Coffee”:

I saw this classic video over at the Those Darn Accordions blog and just had to share. It’s a clip of TDA doing their unique rendition of Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up” on local San Francisco’s Fog Town Network, circa 1994. Note that there’s barely enough room in the studio for all eight accordion players.

We’ve shared our disappointment in the rock accordion lesson books of the past, but now there’s a DVD aimed at a new generation of budding rock accordionists.

Professor Louie’s Rock and Blues Accordion is a two-hour lesson covering 12-bar progressions, right hand pentatonic blues scales, chord inversions and blues and rock improvisation. Taught by keyboardist Aaron “Professor Louie” Hurwitz, the video comes packaged with fingering diagrams and sheet music. Here’s a preview:

Accordion technology has come a long way since the days of Guido Deiro. MIDI accordions continue to grow in popularity and just this past weekend, at a Silicon Valley Accordion Society meeting, we listened to a brand-new Roland FR-7 electronic reedless accordion. But not all of the latest advancements are so high-tech.

Tom Tonon, for example, has developed an acoustic technology called BluesBox that allows accordionists to bend notes (or pitch) much like a harmonica player can. With Tom’s system installed, you can bend notes simply by pressing down harder on any key or button. Check out this video for a demonstration.

It’s not a far-fetched idea; after all, accordions and harmonicas are cousins in the free-reed family. Tom’s looking for musicians willing to give his technology a try, so if you’re interested, check his site to learn more.

The kids at Fabulist have posted an interview with one of our favorite accordionists, Jason Webley. In it, Jason talks about his relationship with the number 11, his upcoming tour with Czech accordionist Jana Vebrova, and the origins of his annual event, Camp Tomato:

“You get a little membership card, and there are places you can get different merit stamps by doing different things. I think this year you’d get your feather stamp by writing a letter to Webster’s Dictionary asking them to remove the letter X from the alphabet.”

Before booking your trip to Camp Tomato 2007, though, check out the excellent video for Jason’s collaboration with Seattle poet Jay Thompson, “Eleven Saints”. It doesn’t feature Jason’s accordion (sadly), but it’s still wonderfully bizarre.

How does Santa unwind after another busy holiday season of delivering toys to all the good girls and boys? According to this video, he kicks back, takes off his beard, and runs through some jazzed-up Christmas carols on his accordion:

“I’m coherent in my art. I tell my story with the accordion.” Those are the words of legendary Brazilian accordionist/composer Sivuca, who passed away last week.

Born Severino Dias de Oliveira in 1930, Sivuca played and composed in a number of genres, including forró, bossa nova, folk, and jazz. Over the course of his lengthy career, he collaborated with musicians from around the globe — artists ranging from Harry Belafonte to South African singer Miriam Makeba to jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans.

Here’s a video clip of Sivuca performing his forró classic “Feira de Mangaio” with samba singer Clara Nunes. If your hips don’t move even a tiny bit while watching this clip, seek professional help.

[Found via Martin Klasch]

A few months ago, I wrote about an Italian accordion school (called Accademia del Mantice) that was offering diatonic accordion classes online. I couldn’t find any sample videos at the time, but I recently found this clip of a lesson called “Tarantella Riggitana”. It’s no substitute for a live, in-person accordion lesson, but it looks promising. If you can’t find a teacher in your area, this might be a worthwhile alternative.

Remember the strange Slovenian polka-rap video (with bikini babes on mini-tractors) from a few weeks ago? Since then we’ve been turned on to Atomik Harmonik, another Slovenian group with a flair for bizarre videos. Mixing traditional Slovenian folk music with a hyper dance beat, Atomik Harmonik is a quartet of two male singers (one who always carries/plays an accordion) and two scantily-clad blonde bombshells.

Check out the video for their first hit, “Brizgalna Brizga”, which was #1 in the Slovenian charts for several months. (It sounds like they later re-recorded this song as “Turbo Polka”, but I prefer the original.)

Thanks abaris!