Gogol Bordello – Gypsy Punks – Underdog World Strike – Review

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Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike (Side One Dummy)
by Scott Hefflon

Yeah, so I’m confused by Side One’s latest few novelty releases, but I applaud them for doing whatever they want. This is gypsy punk, which kinda makes sense, cuz gypsy’s are wild partying rebels, like punks used to be, before they got scrubbed clean and mom-approved. Alternative has been as boy band and diva-centric as the mainstream for years, and aside from Rasputina and Firewater, what’s really been worldly alternative anyway? Weird, scattered stuff, sure, but no movements, and thank god for that. Alternative is all over when the band gets a Myspace page and teenage girls post their single-sentence adoration, and frat guys in ballcaps start showing up at the shows.

Gypsy punk is a novelty, and hopefully it won’t catch on like swing/rag time did, cuz I don’t think I could restrain from beating down Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and that kinda come-lately poser this time ’round.

So this is a fun CD, but it’s a live thing, I’m sure. Garish colors and whooping it up, kicking up your heels, and all the kinds of stuff white people suck at. If we can have folk metal (not singer/songwriter folk, I mean traditional Norwegian forelore), why not gypsy punk? The beat works. Polka. Damn near hoedown, so maybe white people can dance to it after all. Irish punk has blossomed over the years, because it’s “music of the people,” and the other kinda punk is the outcast, the loner, the rebel style. And gypsies are pretty anti-establishment, at least in theory. So why not?
(www.sideonedummy.com)