PAGING ALL POLKAHOLICS: Is punk polka sweeping...

PAGING ALL POLKAHOLICS: Is punk polka sweeping the United States? Should a polka band have a bass player who wears electrodes and a hospital gown? Is that good or bad? That’s what a Polish-American national paper wonders in light of the increased popularity of such “polka ‘til you puke” spoof-groups as L.A.’s own Rotondi, San Francisco’s Polkacide, Texas’ Brave Combo and Detroit’s Polish Muslims. Recent articles in the Polish-American Journal’s polka supplement raised questions about the propriety of such musical caricatures and whether they capture the authentic spirit of the polka and its place in the Polish cultural heritage.

According to writer Bill Falkowski, this crossover experiment would be easier to stomach if more sensitive musicians, like Ry Cooder or Los Lobos, were “exposing novitiates” to the polka’s exuberant rhythms. Or as Mark Kohan put it, in an accompanying editorial, “Taking the ethnicity out of polka is like making beef stroganoff with fish. You can follow the recipe right down to the last tablespoon of ‘slurr two, tongue too’ (slang for a polka trumpet technique), but unless you’ve experienced some sense of the power fueled by ethnic tradition, you’re just another robot playing for the money. . . . You can take the polka out of Polonia, but you can’t take Polonia out of the polka.”