I just bought an accordion at the flea market. The dude I bought it from claims it was played at the Opry, back in the day. While I don't know if I believe his story of provenance, it does has the inititals "TEF" in RHINESTONES on it.
― molly mummenschanz, Friday, 8 June 2007 18:51 (sixteen years ago) link
I love the accordion and the bandoneon. More so year by year. I borrowed one for a while a few years ago, but it was a kid's accordion, so I felt like I should get a real thing and learn to play that. Of course, that never panned out. Anyways, I had no instructions and not quite enough patience, so I just ended up playing faux-Univers Zero doomsday crap.
What's wrong with polka? The Andre Popp record I have is fantastic!
― Øystein, Friday, 8 June 2007 19:01 (sixteen years ago) link
I too love the accordion and stumbled upon one, and the fellow sold it to me for $40! And everything works!
I wish I were still in Buffalo, where I could get a little old man with suspenders to teach me for $10/hour. I don't know if I'll be that lucky here. When I try to play now, it's just me flailing around, yelling, "Look! I'm playing the ACCORDION!"
Also, polka rules. "Polka Party" with Frankie Yankovic and Friends is an awesome record.
― molly mummenschanz, Friday, 8 June 2007 19:09 (sixteen years ago) link
I hate them personally but the accordion is one of the most important instruments in musical history in the sense that they were
1. mass-produced 2. did not need tuning 3. loud
Thus they rendered a lot a instruments previously used in folk music/ social gatherings pretty much redundant
I find that very interesting and insightful. It ties in with what I was going to write when I clicked into this thread. Somewhat embarrassing maybe, but my mom used to play the accordion (and was actually pretty good!) and occasionally when their atheist/commie friends used to come over, we would all sing songs from the Elektra catalog and the Theodore Bikel songbook (loads of great international folk songs in there) and have one whale of a good time. I was very young and life was very uncomplicated then.
I am having a hard time thinking of an instrument that I don't view as CLASSIC!
― Saxby D. Elder, Friday, 8 June 2007 19:16 (sixteen years ago) link
There was some accordion double-CD or small box set that came out a few years back (possibly on Wergo) that had terrific liner notes discussing accordion's importance as an instrument in early recorded music, how it displaced a lot of other instruments and swept the world.
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 8 June 2007 19:45 (sixteen years ago) link
This was it:
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/graphics/globalac.jpg
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 8 June 2007 19:46 (sixteen years ago) link
I have to admit I enjoyed the liner notes more than the actual recordings.
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 8 June 2007 19:47 (sixteen years ago) link
I'd like to hear it with some distrotion and echo and slowed down a good bit.
― nicky lo-fi, Friday, 8 June 2007 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link
ha! distrotion is like fuzzy metal, and not all tubey.
― nicky lo-fi, Friday, 8 June 2007 20:05 (sixteen years ago) link
This guy can play the accordion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbuIZ-5-8o
PS: I love the accordion!
― Dan Peterson, Friday, 8 June 2007 20:52 (sixteen years ago) link
"I have to admit I enjoyed the liner notes more than the actual recordings."
i find the history fascinating. and baffling. it literally went around the world. it's such a ubiquitous instrument.
― scott seward, Friday, 8 June 2007 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link
In rock/pop related music, the accordion has often been used in a great way.
However, we have some absolutely awful music forms here in Northern Europe that have caused a lot of people to hate the accordion.
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 8 June 2007 23:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes, but Stian Carstensen makes us all love it. Well, I guess you don't like Farmers Market much, but his appearances on "Hitskolen" are a lot of fun.
― Øystein, Friday, 8 June 2007 23:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Viva Finland!
http://www.backstage089.de/presse_files/24/KORPIKLAANI_PR.jpg
― scott seward, Saturday, 9 June 2007 01:38 (sixteen years ago) link
OK SO THAT LOOKS AWESOME SCOTT.
I'll recommend this as a general frenzy of accordianness.
And this as some of the coolest weirdo accordian ever: KIMMO POHJONEN
I love love love the accordian, and own one that I am totally incapable of playing outside of bleating weirdness.
― John Justen, Saturday, 9 June 2007 01:46 (sixteen years ago) link
oh man you have to hear korpiklaani! they rule.
― scott seward, Saturday, 9 June 2007 01:52 (sixteen years ago) link
OK, so Scott is right, and is now my official musical spirit animal for today. THX!
― John Justen, Saturday, 9 June 2007 02:02 (sixteen years ago) link
someone mentioned pere ubu upthread, and they are correct, john kirkpatrick rocks the squeezebox, tho mostly in a brit-folk context
― gershy, Saturday, 9 June 2007 02:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Classic, for They Might Be Giants, who use one to fun effect a lot (eg "Mr Me")
― Trayce, Saturday, 9 June 2007 02:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Let's not forget Lars Hollmer, the ol' Samla Mammas Manna fellow. He has a lot of very nice solo albums (though not at all as mad as the SMM stuff) He's probably got the most gentle weirdness I can think of. Very lovely melodies that seem so unassuming, until you notice what's going on harmonically and rhythmically. And, of course, he's in the brilliant Accordion Tribe with Guy Klucevsek, Maria Kalaniemi, Bratko Bibic, and Otto Lechner. I think I need to hear all those people's solo material. Klucevsek's is really something.
I also really like the accordion-use in Doina Klezmer's "Sorja Tanz". I love the violin & accordion tradeoffs. Great jazzy klezmer throughout (ah, here there be samples. There's a second album!? I need!)
I'd like to see more accordion in metal, but I don't really like the folky metal bands much. I guess it's hard to work on well into brutal death metal though, which is the only type of metal I really have much patience for anymore. Then again, Farmers Market did an old standard almost as a grindcore song once, and that worked quite well, with the accordion playing the lead melody.
― Øystein, Saturday, 9 June 2007 11:11 (sixteen years ago) link
I love the way accordion is used in Arabic music, although it doesn't tend to dominate the proceedings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl0g6dXIsqQ
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 9 June 2007 11:13 (sixteen years ago) link
(I've said it before about accordions in Arabic music, but now there's youtube for an instant example!)
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 9 June 2007 11:16 (sixteen years ago) link
classic (sometimes)
Cajun and zydeco music is not just for old people
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 9 June 2007 13:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Young people are way overrated.
― Øystein, Saturday, 9 June 2007 13:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Young people turn me on!
― Saxby D. Elder, Saturday, 9 June 2007 17:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, I guess you don't like Farmers Market much, but his appearances on "Hitskolen" are a lot of fun.
They were funny, but Wolfgang Plagge's comments made considerably more sense. :)
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 9 June 2007 22:34 (sixteen years ago) link
just in case people are curious about Korpiklaani:
happy little boozer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JFBYIT4fvcY
beer beer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XOKbhQbvpPA
hunting song:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FrGwGyrfmCI
wooden pints:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IGIc4jJQn1k
i like korpiklaani more for the oi! + pogues kinda insanity than the metal elements. though i think they are good at the more metallic stuff too. might also appeal to andrew wk fans! there must be some of those left.
― scott seward, Saturday, 9 June 2007 23:17 (sixteen years ago) link
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/10/13/arts/13MARC.650.jpg
― Daniel Giraffe, Friday, 14 December 2007 12:51 (sixteen years ago) link
[by christian marclay]
― Daniel Giraffe, Friday, 14 December 2007 12:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Here's a video of Farmers Market performing their silly medley "Tails of the unexpected". Perhaps not the best example of Carstensen's accordion skills, but it's a laugh.
― Øystein, Friday, 14 December 2007 13:04 (sixteen years ago) link
This is the day, by The The
― Daniel Giraffe, Saturday, 15 December 2007 09:33 (sixteen years ago) link
accordion with cimbalom is a killer combination
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQwYq4oKIDQ&feature=related
this shows off lincan playing the cimbalom rather more than mexicanu on the accordion, theres plenty more marian mexicanu on youtube with other cimbalom players too
― Alex in Denver, Saturday, 15 December 2007 11:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Someone from the Library of Congress just sent me a pdf for a Thursday July 12 noon to 1 pm free event some of you might be interested in, if you can make it to the Library of Congress in Washington DC at that time. The event is called "Squeeze This: A Cultural History of the Accordion in America." That is also the name of the new book by NYC based Marion Jacobson, an ethnomusicologist, accordionist, author and educator, who will be doing the presentation and signing books. The talk takes place at the Library of Congress Madison Building's Pickford Theatre on the third floor, 101 Independence Avenue SE. For further information, call 202-707-1743
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 10 July 2012 14:40 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.theindependent.com/news/local/update-accordion-causes-school-evacuation/article_cee9b86c-c53e-11e5-87fd-d717b29f3217.html?mode=jqm
A suspicious package that resulted in the evacuation of approximately 900 students and staff members from Walnut Middle School Wednesday afternoon turned out to be an accordion inside a box.
Capt. Robert Falldorf of the Grand Island Police Department said a staff member spotted the box in the band room, but could not recall seeing it there before. The staff member did not think the box looked like it held any kind of band instrument.
― scott seward, Thursday, 28 January 2016 16:49 (eight years ago) link
http://youtu.be/8Gr7JCKyZc4?t=55s
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 28 January 2016 17:08 (eight years ago) link
see now that video led me to this and wowee zowee what a performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG4-1I4QgvI
― scott seward, Thursday, 28 January 2016 17:42 (eight years ago) link
dig that funky drummer and those extended organ breaks...
https://youtu.be/C3daPnPl1HM
― Tuomas, Thursday, 28 January 2016 21:56 (eight years ago) link
https://youtu.be/GSutIu8tc9w
― Tuomas, Thursday, 28 January 2016 22:01 (eight years ago) link
Sorry, that didn't work...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3daPnPl1HM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSutIu8tc9w
― Tuomas, Thursday, 28 January 2016 22:02 (eight years ago) link
Looks like the same accordionist, too, scott. A lot of of Egyptian music from that era had kind of trippy instrumental passages of this sort.
― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, 28 January 2016 22:03 (eight years ago) link
If I wanted to learn to play an accordion, should I learn to play piano first, or can I jump straight into learning the ol' squeeze box?
― Audrey Tautoulogy (Leee), Tuesday, 16 April 2019 23:56 (five years ago) link