Dec 02 2008
World of Rock Music in 2008
Rock music is truly a world-wide phenomenon. From the gypsy punk of Gogol Bordello to the African rhythms of American critical darlings, Vampire Weekend, rock music is a global affair.
Gogol Bordello is a motley crew of musicians headed by insanely entertaining lead singer, Eugene Hutz. From railing against bland American weddings with no vodka to instigating anarchy, the music takes an outsider look at crass American capitalism and points out the flaws of that kind of society. The stage show is just as frenetic as the music. I saw them at Lollapalooza this summer and you haven’t lived until you see Hutz yelling in Ukrainian and drinking onstage.
If Gogol Bordello is a band that takes their Ukrainian culture and gives it to America, Vampire Weekend leaves their native New York to get African influences in their music. While I think they’re a fad band that’s not worth all the hype they’re getting, I do like the rhythmic African guitar in their music. I don’t know how to describe African music, but listen to Graceland from Paul Simon and that’s what I mean. Their music takes the joyous sound of African guitar and drums and fuses it well with American lyrics about New Mexico and Washington Heights.
These two bands show that rock music has a far reach from America to the Ukraine to South Africa. As the world is getting smaller, the world of rock is getting larger in return.
