New Music Monday: Gogol Bordello - “Super Taranta”
“There was never any good old days
They are today, they are tomorrow
It’s a stupid thing we say
Cursing tomorrow with sorrow…”
Gogol Bordello - “Ultimate”
In the last couple of months I’ve taken up jogging. The sole reason for this is so that I can eat more ice cream after dinner and not gain the horrible ice cream belly. I really don’t enjoy jogging - for about two minutes when I’m running down hill toward the Thames from my house I have a brief feeling of elation which is crushed by the realization that I’m only three minutes into the run. In fact, I’m convinced that anyone who says that the enjoy jogging is either a liar or a masochist.
The point is that while jogging I like to listen to music that reflects my mood and drives me slightly harder. This is generally slightly angry, or jaded post-punk stuff - Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” is a great jogging song, as is Nirvana’s “Serve the Servants” and The Clash’s “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”. Basically anything that’s got a fast tempo and enough angst to make me feel like I’m not the only one suffering. By these criteria, Gogol Bordello’s new album “Super Taranta!” works as a jogging album, and kept me going this morning.
I heard about Gogol Bordello on NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast. They were described as an outstanding live band and the new album as somewhat more lyrically mature than their past records. The host described it as “gypsy punk” and I thought - concepte album, get the single and move on. Concept bands or albums can go one of two ways, really bad - Sinead O’Connor doing reggae covers, most of The Alan Parsons Project recordings - or really good - The Drive-by Truckers’ first two albums and most of 
The Pogues records. Gogol Bordello fits into the latter category. In fact, The Pogues are a good place to start. Eugene Hütz, the colorful frontman for this band, sounds like Shane McGowan with a Ukrainian accent. Like the Pogues mixed up traditional Irish music with punk rock, Gogol Bordello mixes up traditional gypsy music with post-punk rock.
The more I listen to this album, the more I like it. It’s a constant barrage of funky, Eastern European punk. It gets you moving from the opener and keeps on you, never slows down, never wanes. What’s remarkable about it is that you don’t get sick of it. I thought it peaked about four or five songs in with “Supertheory of Supereverything” and “Harem in Tuscany”, but it keeps going relentlessly “Forces of Victory”, nine songs in, is as good as the opener and the meat of the album. The use of untraditional instruments like the accordion (love it), fiddle and things I can’t even identify lends credibility to the album - it’s not like Sinead O’Connor doing reggae. And while staying in their gypsy punk genre, there’s enough diversity to keep you from getting bored. Finally, though this is the first of their albums I’ve heard so I have no basis for comparison, their lyrics are plenty creative, if slightly grammatically painful - like these from “Supertheory of Supereverything”:
“I don’t read the Bible
I don’t trust disciple
Even if they’re made of marble
Or Canal Street bling
My brothers are protons
My sisters are neurons
Stir it twice dlja prekrastnih dam…
Do you have sex maniacs
Or schizophrenics
Or astrophysicists in your family?”
I hope that the album title is a play on the tarantella - a traditional Italian dance that according to legend results from the bite of a spider. If the dancer stops, the poison is lethal, if the dancers carries on dancing they’re OK . That’s what this album is like, once you get started listening to it and get bitten, you won’t be able to stop. By the time the album closes with the title track, you’ll probably be exhausted, but I bet you’ll want to hear it again.
The verdict - if you like The Pogues, The Clash maybe with a bit of dub or reggae thrown in - then buy it. I got it as an eMusic freebie, but it’s definitely worth owning however you go about it.
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