Gogol Bordello | |
---|---|
Gogol Bordello performing in 2014
|
|
Background information | |
Origin | New York City, New York |
Genres | Gypsy punk, Latin rock, folk rock, dub |
Years active | 1999–present |
Labels | Rubrick, SideOneDummy, Columbia, MapleMusic Recordings (Canada) |
Associated acts | Balkan Beat Box |
Website | www.gogolbordello.com |
Members |
|
Past members |
|
Gogol Bordello is an American Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, formed in 1999 and known for theatrical stage shows and persistent touring. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music mixed with punk and dub. The band incorporates accordion and violin (and on some albums, saxophone).
The band has appeared in a number of popular films, most notably in 2005's Everything Is Illuminated in which the lead singer, Eugene Hütz, co-starred with Elijah Wood in a dramedy and adventure story about the Nazi purges in Ukraine. The entire group was present for one shot in which they played a brass band in a set that included the Star Spangled Banner. They also played the traditional Yiddish tune "Bublitschki". Gogol Bordello contributed the song "Start Wearing Purple" to the film's score. The band also has their own documentary called Gogol Bordello Non-Stop. This documentary was filmed in 2008 and follows the band's progress. In 2012, the band recorded a song titled Let's Get Crazy for Coca Cola's Euro 2012 advertising campaign.
"Gogol" comes from Nikolai Gogol, a classical Russian Ukrainian writer, born in today's Ukraine. He serves as an ideological influence for the band because he "smuggled" Ukrainian culture into Russian society, which Gogol Bordello intends to do with Gypsy/East-European music in the English-speaking world. "Bordello," in Italian, refers to a brothel or a "gentleman's club." The band was originally titled Hütz and the Béla Bartóks, but Eugene Hütz says that they decided to change the name because "nobody knows who the hell Béla Bartók is in the United States." The band played their first show as the unofficial band at an after-hours club called Pizdetz where they became the house band and DJ Hütz became the house DJ.