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 

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 

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