Kultur Shock

Fucc the I.N.S. (Koolarrow)
by Jamie Kiffel

“We’re the Gipsy Kings but evil,” says Gino Yevdjevich, Sarajevan frontman for the freedom-mad, immigrant rockers Kultur Shock. Traditional Balkan folkdancing tunes gallop headlong into grinding electric guitars as this collection of freedom-chasers forces the music of their homelands up against the noise of American punk. The band’s various drummers, guitarists and horn players (not to mention the occasional zurla and tarmbuka) come (or go) from Bosnia, Tokyo, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and America, and their cultural clash is loud and strong. This could be the soundtrack to a Balkan wedding where the stout, leather-skinned grandmas have noserings and the grapevine-stepping cousins all have mohawks. Instead of tossing away its heritage, the band has unpacked it from its canvas rucksack along with the manifestos it smuggled through customs and the midnight grin of protest signs and beer bottles littering the streets of Herzegovina. Although I can’t understand all of Yevdjevich’s lyrics – which are almost all sung in his gypsy-rich native tongue – his positive, driving, party-meets-revolution energy comes right through. Overprivileged as we may be, any American grappling for freedom of any kind can identify with this sound. It’s the noise of a hot wind blowing up your internal flag.
(5902 Monterey Road #666 Los Angeles, CA 90042)