The Holy Cross Choir with Ray Jay - Midnight Mass at Holy Cross Church

 

Something a little different today! A Midnight Mass combined with some polka jams. I haven't been to a midnight mass in decades, and this gave me the experience from the comfort of my own home. Blast this album, bust out the sacramental wine, and have a piece of Christmas pie. 

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope you and yours have been happy and healthy as we enter Covid-Christmas. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Let's tough out these next few months and then I'll host the biggest polka party you'll ever see! 

Download here! 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/0dj2564vrpdfv7f/The_Holy_Cross_Choir_With_Ray_Jay_-_Midnight_Mass_At_Holy_Cross_Church_MP3_files.zip/file  

Stas' Bulanda And The Average Polka Band - That's Entertainment

Yeah baby. We're back. Hope you've all been doing well during Covid-autumn. Here's a fantastic release from Stas' Bulanda and the Average Polka Band. Very tongue-in-cheek, a lot of fun. Some great party tracks here. As I was listening I kept thinking "I can't wait to blast these at a post-Covid block party or something." Bring my boombox to the beach and crank my polka-party-playlist. 

Stay safe. Have a great and safe Thanksgiving. 

DOWNLOAD HERE: 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/k5tzj38te6dmfo1/Stas%2527_Bulanda_And_The_Average_Polka_Band_-_That%2527s_Entertainment_MP3s.zip/file 

Lenny Gomulka And The Chicago Push - A Twelve Pack Of Polkas

Happy Summer's End! Enjoy a great album from some more Chicago boys. Have a safe Covid-autumn. We're seeing a light at the end of this tunnel. 

Download below!

 http://www.mediafire.com/file/ve12ddxb5vslu7i/Lenny_Gomulka_And_The_Chicago_Push_-_A_Twelve_Pack_of_Polkas_Audacity_MP3s.zip/file  

Alex Pulaski and the Polka Dots - Polka Parade

 

Alright, I'm not typing much out today. It's Labor Day weekend for godsake. Here's a jammer with both Saturday Night Polka and Holiday Polka. 

Enjoy friends. Have a safe holiday weekend. 

DOWNLOAD BELOW: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/7qtcv229n51pdjf/Alex_Pulaski_and_the_Polka_Dots_-_Polka_Parade_MP3s.zip/file  

Stan Wolowic And The Polka Chips - It's Polka Time

I don't have a long stream of consciousness to share today, but this is yet another beautiful piece of wax right here. Much like last week's installment, Stan Wolowic And The Polka Chips' It's Polka Time just hits all of the right buttons for me. This is true party music right here from a homeboy from Chicago. Feel-good vibes through on out. Dreamy Fish Waltz and My Baby are great late-summer anthems. Slow and relaxed; perfect for a hot, humid day. Bruno's Polka, Mary Lou Polka, and Polka Chips Polka are great instrumentals. I love being able to hear the banjo clear as day. I think I also hear a mandolin at parts! I guess I could just read the liner notes to figure this out. This is probably the best rip I've done so far, and I hope it comes off just as beautiful for you. 

Hope you've had a decent summer all things considered. Hope you're safe and healthy. Continue to protect yourself and your own! 

DOWNLOAD HERE: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/xcqtogz3qng4zpx/It%2527s_Polka_Time_-_Stan_Wolowic_and_the_Polka_Chips_MP3s.zip/file 

Various Artists - 25 Polka Greats

 

Oooh yes. Now this is the shit right here. This is the sound and style I've been missing over these last few months. Sure the modern bands have been fun, and there have been some gems buried in those tapes, but goddamn, this classic polka sound is what this blog is all about. This sounds like the drinking music that brought me to the genre initially. As soon as I put the needle on this wax, I sparked a bowl, and just drank it all in. For a fleeting moment I felt that all was okay in this world. That is the power of polka. 

As you may recall, this blog began as an ode to polka's similarity to punk music, and this release emphasizes that comparison. Look at the length of these songs. Some of these barely last over a minute. This looks more like a Negative Approach album than it does a TBC one. Fast, quick, and to the point. When you're having a party you have no time for three distinct choruses. Let's get through this one and on to the next one! Keep the dancing moving! 

The Andrew Sisters' rendition of Beer Barrel Polka may be my new favorite; a divine horn section paired with equally angelic vocals. Cuckoo Waltz and Under the Double Eagle are just a couple of great instrumental pieces featured here. Tinker Polka has a surf-guitar section and is perfect for any beach day. And of course we have Johnny Bomba who could very well be related to Chris Bomba, the person who inspired this blog in the first place. 

A song that sticks out to me is Russ Morgan's There's a City Called Hamtramck. For the uninitiated, Hamtramck is an island of a town surrounded by the greater Detroit area. My friends Nick and Breayne live there, and I was fortunate enough to be able to play a show there during a weekend tour, courtesy of Nick. A lovely little town with some of the best pizza I've ever eaten. 

In Heaven There is No Beer could double as a Satanic anthem, while Beautiful Brown Eyes reminds us to never trust a person with blue ones.  Then of course you have the pairing of There's a Tavern in Town and Friendly Tavern Polka. A staunch reminder that we will hopefully return to the care-free days of a pre-Covid world. 

My only critique...the body-shaming anthem that is Too Fat Polka by Frankie Yankovic. I could have done without this track. Thankfully it's early on, and once you're past it it's clear sailing. I haven't really seen many renditions of this polka performed, so hopefully it's just contained to this release. 

This album is a must have for anyone who loves polka. It's as important to me as a polka lover as Fat Music For Fat People is to me as a lover of punk music. 10 out of 10 beer steins. I would even suggest trying to hunt down a tangible copy of this for your own collection. 

DOWNLOAD HERE: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/z9bdnols8dqqwg8/25_Polka_Greats_MP3.zip/file 

The E-Z Tones - Tonight Is The Night

As a teenager getting into punk music in the very early 00's I really had the pick of the litter. The genre had been steadily growing since the late 70's, and many acts had come through and stretched the boundaries of the style defined decades earlier. At this point in my life, my favorites were that of the typical "starter bands." Black Flag, Anti-Flag, Casualties, Minor Threat, etc. These bands were in my heavy rotation. 

However, my interest began to pique when I learned about the bands who birthed the genre. Velvet Underground, Richard Hell, Television, Elvis Costello, Blondie, all the classic New York acts. I started checking out these albums from the Rolling Meadows library, excited to hear the bands that created the genre I had fallen so hard for. 

Suffice to say, I was very disappointed. Velvet Underground was too slow! Too soft! Too pretty! I wanted a singer who sounded like Jello Biafra, not Joan Baez! I shelved those types of records for years, and returned to listening to NOFX and whatever ska band I was into that week. 

However, when I returned to Velvet Underground during my college years I fell head-over-heels in love. I finally got it. I understood what the 1970's "punk" scene in New York stood for. They were striving for diversity, not uniformity. It made me realize that, whenever I approach something new with a preconceived idea of what I'd like it to sound like, I've already set myself up for disappointment. Listening to the Velvet Underground and expecting something like Tilt is what killed it for me. I buried it myself. Knowing what to expect made me break those boundaries I set for myself, and let me really enjoy the beauty. 

Which leads me to today's release, Tonight Is The Night by The E-Z Tones. Cracking into this for my first time, I expected something a little more rustic and classic. Instead I was treated to a very modern polka sound. It rubbed me the wrong way as it was not at all what I was expecting. I again buried another band for myself. 

But with my later listens, these little ear-worms dug a hole in my head and made their home. Tonight Is The Night and I Love Everybody Waltz are great, authentic polka songs. Why, Because I Love You and I Love You Polka brings visuals of me spending time with my lovely fiance, Danielle. These are really genuine songs, and I feel silly for having ever disliked them. Great release here, and well worth a download. 

I also want to note that I LOVE this album art. So much in fact that I suggested to Danielle that we get this as a matching tattoo. 

I do need to make a note though, and this really sums up the story of my life. The first three tracks were ripped in perfect quality. I remember thinking "oh wow, what am I doing differently now than I did previously? This sounds great." Then...To The Left Oberek began to play...and the quality plummeted. Unfortunately, this is just a side effect of these old tapes. I assume the person I bought them from did not store them well. Oh well. It adds character! 

DOWNLOAD HERE: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vc74dy0xxz8loe7/The_E-Z_Tones_-_Tonight_Is_The_Night_MP3s.zip/file 

Frankie Liszka And The Brass Connection - The New Generation

The more I try to understand polka, the more I find myself confused. With the exception of last week's post, the tapes I've been posting recently fall under the genre of Slovenian-American polka, specifically Cleveland-styled Slovenian-American polka. Wikipedia describes the genre as:

"...generally played at a smoother tempo and features different instrumentation. Whereas the Polish style utilizes trumpets and concertinas, the main melody instruments in the Slovenian band are the accordion and tenor saxophone. A diatonic accordion or "button box" is sometimes used instead of the piano accordion or chromatic accordion and offers a different sound. The Slovenian style also adds a banjo or guitar to bolster the rhythm section (most commonly banjo for polkas and guitar for waltzes)."

If I can be candid, I'm growing a little tired of what (I assume) is the Slovenian-American style. It's pretty much all I've been posting lately, and I miss the polka stylings of my earlier entries.  So what exactly is that genre of polka? Is is Chicago-style Polish-American music, aka "push-polka?" Upon further review, no, it is not. The sound is pretty identical to Slovenian-American polka. In fact, here's Wikipedia's definition of push-style:

"The typical Chicago-style polka band includes one or two trumpets, an accordion, a concertina, drums, a bass, and sometimes a clarinet, saxophone, or fiddle. This style is connected to the '50s rock-and-roll era and is sometimes referred to as "push" style because of the intense "bellow-shaking" of the accordion."

Maybe it's just too early in the morning for me, but this definition seems pretty similar to Slovenian-American polka. Maybe it's German-American polka I long for? However, my research brings me to the same conclusion as the latter cases, and Wikipedia greets me with another near-identical definition:

"The German-American sound is often described with the term "oom-pa-pa" and is characterized by an emphasis on brass (especially the tuba), accompanied by drums and reed instruments (including the accordion or concertina, although for the most part the concertina is usually favored over the accordion in German-American bands)."

It's at this point I realized where my distinction in taste comes from. I long for the classic days of polka. How can I be such a curmudgeon over an era of polka that existed long before I was born? I will not let myself become old at heart. I must embrace the new! Well...new-ish. Today's tape is after all nearly 30 years old.  So let's talk about it!

When I first saw the cover art for Frankie Liska and The Brass Connections "The New Generation" I was under the assumption that it would be Star Trek themed. However, like most of these tapes that I've posted so far, the theme of this album is only surface level. That's not to say that this tarnishes the album in any way. There are still great tracks like Good Friends Polka and Gonna Have My Love Polka.

I'd dedicate My Buddy's Wedding Polka to my buddy Connor, but I have no idea what's actually being said. I'll dedicate it to him anyways. Don't Tell Me Polka comes off a little too "nice guy" for me, but some may find comfort in it.

Not a bad release, just more of the same that we've been seeing lately. Well worth a listen through! Hope you're all well. Take care of each other. There's a light at the end of this tunnel.

DOWNLOAD HERE: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ntb4epdadpalyzn/Frank_Liska_TBC_-_The_New_Generation_MP3s.zip/file

Marisha Data ‎– Na Wesolo

I'm a mutt. My heritage does not consist of merely one nor two nor three nor even four ethnicities. I am Irish, German, Italian, Scottish, and French. Like most white guys with an Irish last name, I self-identify with the Irish side more, but it's very likely that I'm more German than anything else. In the end, none of this even matters. I've never been to any of these counties. My family does not partake in any of these culture's customs (unless you count drinking beer, eating pasta, drinking more beer, etc.). I'm unfortunately just a boring old American. Most of us in this country are. However, it is fun to throw on a green shirt on St. Patrick's Day and pretend like I have a clue what clan my family comes from.

What always surprises me is that, as a cracker with the "blood" of many European cultures "running" through my "veins," none of my family comes from Poland. So when I decided it was time to upload this album, Marisha Data's Na Wesolo, I knew I wouldn't be able to provide any insight as to what the fuck is going on in these skits. Na Wesolo is to polka as the Blue Collar Comedy guys are to country music. At least that's the insight I've gathered. I have no clue. Marisha is from Chicago, and the cover art for this LP is hilarious. This is good enough for me to upload it to this blog.

Especially because I uploaded it to celebrate TEN POSTS ON POLKA HOLE!

Wow, what a long, strange trip it's been. Thanks for being here, and thank you for making this all worthwhile. I may be posting less often going forward. I  may be posting more. Who knows. Covid-19 has made it harder for me to make it to thrift stores. But I ain't going nowhere.

Take care out there, and enjoy your summer safely. See you soon!

DOWNLOAD HERE: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hp8o21wb7z0t3fp/Na_Wesolo_-_Polish_Comedy_Album_MP3s.zip/file

California Connection - Cooking With Polkas

Huh, I don't have anything sentimental to talk about today. Weird. We've officially entered Phase 4 here in Illinois. Summer is still officially cancelled in my book, though. I plan to spend my evenings sitting on our porch, reading a book, smoking herb, and waiting for this all to pass. My fiance and I have a collection of yard games to play, like bags and some other pseudo-horseshoe related contraptions. This is Covid-Summer, baby. My only hope is that we all stay healthy enough this summer for Palatine's Oktoberfest to still take place this September. I might lose my mind if it doesn't. Please, for the sake of giant, frosty mug of beer, wear your masks.

Today's entry is another "modern" take on polka. The 90's still seem "modern" to me, even if this release is 30 years old. California Connection brings you Cooking With Polkas! My copy of this tape is warped to shit, but it's still quite listenable. I will stubbornly believe that recorded polka needs to sound a little bit rustic for it to be enjoyable. My favorite part about this release (after the fantastic artwork) is how they abandon the "cooking" theme immediately after the first track, Recipe For Polka.

Hi-Ho to Polkaland is, as my friend Connor would say, an "ear-worm." I had it in my head all weekend. There's a sweet breakdown in the middle, perfect for pogo-ing. Cheers for the Angels reminds me of that one Lawrence Arm's song where they sample a radio broadcast of a Cubs game. A lot of instrumentals on this release as well, such as Connecticut Oberek and Sax O-Fun. I haven't seen that as often on the more "modern" releases.

Enjoy, and stay safe folks. Daisy Cutter is great on a hot summer day.

DOWNLOAD HERE: 
http://www.mediafire.com/file/128pg7xo28sxdqg/California_Connection_-_Cooking_With_Polkas_MP3.zip/file

Energy - Get Energized!

It has recently come to my attention that the 1/4 inch adapter I've been using to record these tapes absolutely sucks. I noticed yesterday while I was recording my weekly show for Harper College Radio (Shameless Plug: Jake Joyce's Wide World Of Sounds, every Monday at 7 PM CST, 88.3 FM WHCM or www.harperradio.com. Tune in an hour earlier for Dexter's Radio Hour at 6 PM CST! 😀) that the fidelity sounded like absolute shit. I had to Frankenstein my entire set up to get it to work properly.

Anyways, I almost thought about scrapping today's post and re-recording the entire album once I got my new adapter. But then I realized, no matter what I did, the rip I recorded would never be of perfect quality. Then I got to thinking, "what even is 'perfect quality?'" I'm a pretty simple man. My idea of "perfection" denotes anything I can peacefully enjoy without harming anyone or anything physically or mentally. That seems pretty straight forward, right? So during my initial playback of my copy I realized, this is perfect. Unless you're the most stringent audiophile, I'm almost certain you will not need this album in hi-fi. In fact, I believe the grittiness even adds to production. It does what it's intended to do. It gives me ENERGY! 

I normally don't include the liner-notes in my posts, but the back of the tri-fold taken from Energy's Get Energized! (pictured above) is too good not to share. This recording stands alone from the other albums I've posted over the last few weeks as it presents itself as more tongue-in-cheek than my other inclusions. While polka has always been the most light-hearted of music, this album is more self-aware. Polka Maniac is a great example of this, as is the entire album's aesthetic itself. Just look at the cover! Would you ever think that this would be a polka album? I had to double take when I first saw it.

We Will Dance Then has become my anthem for a Post-Covid World. Granted, we are no where near a Post-Covid World yet. We are closer than we were three months ago, but please continue to protect yourself, your family, and your friends. However, the moment it is truly eradicated, I will be blast this song from my window for an entire day. Fun is also one hell of a weekend anthem. We will dance and have fun all together very soon.

DOWNLOAD HERE! 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0r595sei35fejfq/Energy_-_Get_Energized_MP3s.zip/file  

The New Brass - Rolls Out The Barrel

This blog has become a true testament of my own personal growth. When I first started the Polka Hole back in 2011, I couldn't be bothered to upload an album within a consecutive month. This was back when I had all the free time in the world. I worked evenings at an "adult store" in DeKalb, IL. I would literally sit in a chair and read books for eight hours. Sometimes the monotony would be broken up by helping the customers who would stumble in from the neighboring bars (after building up enough drunk courage) to meander in our shop at 11:30 at night. I didn't have to take my work home with me, and prepping for the next day was as simple as vacuuming the floors and dusting the DVD shelves. So now that I'm exponentially more busy than I was in my 20's, why has my demeanor changed to allow me to keep a consistent Polka-Schedule?

As a much older young-adult (I'm still a young adult right?) my priorities have shifted. In the world of social media and instant gratification, I can attest that 24-year-old me was probably discouraged that this blog didn't take off into the stratosphere of Blogspot fame. I'm not exactly sure what I expected though. Websites like this started to fade into obscurity in the early 2010's, and a blog solely dedicated to a style of music that no one listened to obviously wasn't going to be popular. What was the purpose of this blog? Was I doing this for me? Or was I doing this to cultivate other's perspectives of me?

Travis Shettel of Piebald did an interview back in 2014 where he talked about his new band and the projects he had been working on since Piebald broke up. I'm paraphrasing here, but he said something along the lines of "I'm finally able to record the music I want to record." I'd think about this quote over the following years, but it never really sunk in until recently. You reach a point in your life where you realize "Hey, only a handful of people care about this project I'm working on, but it makes me really happy, and I will continue doing it for those seldom few."

This new ritual of waking up on a Saturday morning to drink coffee and rip old polka records to an MP3 format has become something I truly love because I enjoy it. If others grow fond of Polka Hole then that itself is a bonus. Compare this to ten years ago where it was a chore to drag my hungover ass out of bed to get anything done, let alone write up an entire blog about polka music, hoping and pining for other's approval of what I was doing. Maybe I was depressed a lot earlier than I realized. Hindsight is a bastard.

Which brings me to a track I'd like to talk about from today's featured album from The New Brass, Rolls Out The Barrel. As soon as I saw the title Strawberries and Raspberries Polka  I knew I'd fall in love. Let us ponder the following lyrics. "It brought new life to me/some joy and gratitude/I shared my joy with friends/and changed my attitude." Now, in this song, the singer is talking about "wine." However, what if we decipher "wine" as a metaphor? What if "wine" represents the feeling you get when you realize that life is truly valuable, and you can't spend too much time trying to impress people you barely even know? Life is making valuable moments that you yourself cherish.

Although I'd still like to think of myself as a "young adult," I'm far too old to worry about how far-reaching my art will become.

"There are friends gathered round that often I do thank." 

DOWNLOAD HERE: 
http://www.mediafire.com/file/gk25blaf23eauuo/The_New_Brass_-_Rolls_Out_the_Barrel_MP3s.zip/file

The Four Mugs - Barber Shop Ballads

Hello folks. I hope you're all doing well on this lovely June afternoon. I'm back at work today. Feels a little bit strange, but I'll be working staggered shifts until the Illinois Phase 4 plan comes to fruition. Sounds like that could be happening as soon as next month. We shall see. This pandemic has done a decent job proving that, even as adults, as we go through life, none of us have any idea what we're truly doing.

Last week I had mentioned that this week's post would stray from the theme of this blog. Although Barber Shop Ballads by The Four Mugs is not a polka album, it's a record that I wanted to showcase due to the memories I have attached to it.

Early on in my young adulthood, I was an avid collector of any "obscure" record I could get my hands on. It's pretty much why this blog came into existence in the first place. I would always be scraping the bottom of the barrel at thrift stores, picking up the wax that no one else dared touch. This would include collections of 1920's carnival music, Chinese violin compositions, polka (duh), and anything with a cheesy floral arrangement on its cover.

Over the years I've gotten rid of a lot of this stuff. When my depression and anxiety was at its peak I would look through this portion of my collection and derive absolutely no joy from it. "What did I ever see in this crap?" I'd think as I flipped through my record shelf. Looking back, I wish I would have kept it. I derive joy from it now!

But how would I have known then that I'd feel this way now? I don't beat myself up about it too much, especially since these types of records are still available in MASSIVE quantities at any second-hand establishment. My lovely fiance Danielle has a tattoo that I think about all the time. It says "It's never too late to be what you might have been."  My entire healing process has been me pushing myself to get back on that correct path; the one I was directed away from momentarily. It might not be the same path, but I can see a similar destination in the horizon.

Okay so what does this all have to do with this silly record? Barber Shop Ballads would grow to represent a period of my life that I thought was lost forever. It represented that bitter-sweet naivety that many of us in our late teens and early 20's take for granted. I'll never forget when I first came across this record. "WOW A BARBER SHOP QUARTET? YOU DON'T SEE THESE KIND OF RECORDS EVERY DAY!" As it turns out, as I would later learn, you DO see these kind of records quite often.  I kept the album around because it comforted me, and I'd look at it with  hope that good times would again find me in the future.

Every track on Barber Shop Ballads should be pretty recognizable if you've watched as many cartoons  as I have over the years. My Old Kentucky Home and Clementine have acted as theme songs of sorts for Huckleberry Hound, while Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes was featured in I Love To Singa (which is easily my most favorite short of all time). There is a Tavern in Town helps complete the connection between this album and the rest of this blog, and that's the excuse I'm going to use to include it on the Polka Hole.

Take a seat in the Shade of the Old Apple Tree and remember that we all good times to look forward to on the horizon. Here's to new beginnings.


DOWNLOAD HERE: 
http://www.mediafire.com/file/0hh0011zg4it66c/The_Four_Mugs_-_Barber_Shop_Ballads_MP3s.zip/file

The Mom and Dads - 22 Favorite Waltzes With...

Happy June, everyone. I hope you are all healthy and safe. I know I just returned and all, but these next two posts are going to be off the beaten path. Today's post is a waltz record, which isn't straying too far from the norm. A lot of polka groups have (and continue) to play waltz songs. Next week's record, however, is not necessarily polka related, but you'll find out more about that in a few days.

A quick Polka Hole history lesson. If I recall correctly, this blog blossomed from a discussion I was having with my friends Nick, Chris, and Matt. I think we were at Spunky Dunkers in Palatine, so I must have been home from school for a break or something. My memory is awful these days. This could have happened at a completely different location and time, or maybe it didn't even happen at all.

Alas, if my memory is indeed serving me correctly, we started talking about the different styles of music that people our age (at the time we were in our early 20's) seemed to choose to not listen to. Polka was brought up, and Chris (again my memory sucks, this may have not happened or it may have been Nick) said that "polka was the original punk," comparing the two genres use of the 4/4 time and quick tempo.

So if polka is the original punk, then waltz is undeniably the original emo. This brings us to today's highlighted release, the double-disc 22 Favorite Waltzes with The Mom and Dads. May was undoubtedly an emotional month for a lot of people, and I was surprised to find that the music on this release really helped me reflect on my somber mood. With titles like Are You Lonesome Tonight?, Tears On My Pillow, and It's a Sin to Tell a Lie, you'd think you were listening to a Mineral record.

However, the mood isn't always that of melancholy. Feelings of optimism and calmness arise during such ditties as Springtime in the Rockies, The Sidewalk Waltz, and my personal favorite, The Naughty Waltz. The track Beautiful Ohio comes as a rare breed, as it may be the first time I've seen those two words used consecutively.

I'm sure at the point of time when this was released, folks would be welcoming of a double-disc with nearly two dozen tracks. Double the fun for a LOW, LOW PRICE!  However, through modern ears, this record suffers the fate of being more about quantity than quality. Upon my first real playback, I thought I had accidentally saved Mexicali Rose twice, as Love is a Beautiful Song is nearly identical.

All in all, despite its repetitive nature, this record is great to listen to after smoking a bowl and going for a walk. Spring is almost over. Enjoy this as its curtain-call soundtrack.

Download the album here: 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1jswtj4kso0zvkz/The_Mom_and_Dads_-_22_Waltzes_With_MP3s.zip/file 

Will Glahe and his Orchestra - Beer Garden Musik

Wow! I'm back! And goddamn, does it feel good! I hope you're all doing well, and I hope that this blog can bring you as much solace as it has brought me in the past, present, and future!

Today I'm bringing you a record that I've been holding on to for quite a long time. Nine years ago, when I initially had created this blog (and had higher hopes for it), my friend Ed from Sluggisha Records sent me a giant care package of polka albums. As I'm sure you've come to realize, I didn't really keep up with this during its first go around, and my dreams of returning to it eventually were always put off due to certain life circumstances. I'm a much different person than I was nearly a decade ago, but in the same breath, returning to this project has made me realize that maybe I'm not as different as a think. I essentially took a detour on the path to finding myself , and it ended up being a not-so-short-cut. Although I didn't loop back to the space where I initially started, I found old, discarded traits and pleasures along the way that I realized I actually wanted to keep.

Whoa shit, sorry. Went off on a therapeutic tangent there. Anyways, over the past decade, I've had to get rid of a large chunk of the records Ed sent me. It's unfortunate, but when you find yourself moving nearly every year, some of the first things to discard to lessen your load are records you don't find yourself ever listening to. And since I assumed I'd never actually start this back up again, I had no reason to keep them.

However, the one I always held on to was Beer Garden Musik by Will Glahe and his Orchestra. I knew that if I decided to ever start working on the Polka Hole again, this would be the first record I'd upload. First off, how could I ever get rid of an album with such a fantastic cover photo? Whenever the fear of aging creeps into my brain, I remember this album cover and think "But in old age I can become this!" Secondly, there's no way I'd ever be able to come to terms with getting rid of an entire album dedicate to drinking beer with your friends. In fact, I would like to quote a little excerpt listed on the back of the record:

A warm, summer night and the air heavy with the scent off the lime trees, a seat at your favorite table, your favorite pipe in one hand, and a foaming stein in the other. What more could you want to make you happy? Some of your old buddies 'round you and some music? Well, here come a bunch of your pals - make room for them - as the orchestra strikes up, appropriately enough, with a well-loved son of your youth, "Good Friends, Good Company", with the rousing toast, "Here's to those we miss!"

Dave Anians once told me that, if one thing could be said about me, it's that I truly enjoy the simple things in life. So when a record label describes a new entry into their catalog as the soundtrack to a night out with your friends, you better believe I'm buying into what they're selling.

Beer Garden Musik begins with a banger in "Good Friends" and closes the night off with the somber, yet serene, "Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart." Driven by a very prominent accordion, this record is continuously peppered with a subtle xylophone, and a very classic organ sound (reminiscent of the angelic tones of bowling alleys past). A heavy brass and woodwind section keep a steady melody, and the chugging bass lays low in the background.

Summer is almost here. Let's continue to stay safe, (WEAR YOUR MASKS IN PUBLIC) but let's also not forget about those simple pleasures in life.

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM BELOW: 
http://www.mediafire.com/file/eqq4jplx28h8csf/Beer_Garden_Musik_MP3s.zip/file