Speaking of SOUNDS OF THE HOLLOW, the title has two meanings. The “hollow” refers to a place, so to speak and a state of mind or an altered perspective. But don’t worry about that. It doesn’t matter. In fact, it’s a hollow, and the opposite of matter. It’s nothing. But, the album has much more than nothing on it. There are 15 songs, plus an intro, an outro and two moody interludes. The songs are, as follows:

1. Baby, Baby, Baby, Don’t – This is an old Italian folk song, played as a cumbia (with new lyrics provided by us) which morphs into an old Russian folk song. The arrangement that inspired our version was sung in French by a Vietnamese recording artist.
2. Seduction – Ft. Worth accordionist, Ginny Mac, joined the band in 2011, but this new CD is our first to feature her amazing talent. “Seduction” is one of her original songs.
3. Fiesta – In the Fellini movie, 8 ½, a woman is seen dancing on a beach in front of some teenage boys. This is the song driving her passion. Some people call it “The Rumba,” because it was called that in the movie. But the real title is “Fiesta” and it was written many years earlier.
4. Rose Maria – A Polish polka standard. The first version I ever heard was by Ray Budzilek from Cleveland.
5. Tattletale Twist – Another Polish standard, but this one played as a twist. Orlando accordion star, Joe Oberaitis, sent me a cassette once with cool modern, kinda techno/disco-fied arrangements of old Polish songs. One of those inspired this.
6. The Dance Lesson – It’s an original Little Jack composition and actually is a rumba. That’s Jack singing, too.
7. Snowflake Reel – Traditional song from Nova Scotia. It’s a reel and, apparently, written to honor the snowflake.
8. What Do You Want – This is a fast polka, written by me. It’s a remix of a song we released on a 7-inch vinyl record in 2011 and it has nothing to do with romance.
9. History of a Love – Famous old song which we play as a rock tango, of course. Mucho many folks have recorded this classic and now we have, as well.
10. Zombiefied – Also previously released on our vinyl record in 2011. Another BC original, featuring band alumnus, Bonnie Norris on violin.
11. Jesusita en Chihuahua – This is a polka that transcends all polka boundaries. Czech-style bands play it, Polish-style bands play it, Slovenian-style bands play it, German-style bands play it, Brave Combo-style bands play it, Conjunto, Tejano and Mariachi bands play the hell out of it. You’ve heard it even if it doesn’t sound that familiar, which it probably will. This song immediately says, “Hey, it’s a polka party!”
12. Mambo Dolito – This is an old latin groover, probably from Mexico. Brave Combo played it a couple of decades ago and decided to revive it. Jeff used to play two horns at once on this one.
13. Where I Belong – Original pop song with an anthemic chorus, about being yourself, which is a common theme in Brave Combo’s music.
14. America, the Beautiful – You know it, you love it, but you’ll really love it as our Conjunto-style polka. And, yes, that is the sound of a Tejano bar in Tijuana you hear in the background.
15. Making Out in the Bowling Alley – Inspired by the sound and the times of famous dance band leader, Billy Vaughn. It’s a dreamy double-sax way to say the party’s over. So, there you have a brief description of each song. Now it’s up to you to take it to the next level and introduce it to your ears.

Speaking of CD release parties, we are planning them all over the country this summer, so please keep an eye on our itinerary.

Hey, did you hear that the four Brave Combo members from our silver era (roughly 1984-1992), reunited, unexpectedly, at the 35 des Refuses festival, in Denton, recently? That would be myself, Jeffrey, Bubba and Mitch. We played about 30 minutes and were extremely loud, but also pretty damn rocking, too. There are photos and video floating around.

Speaking of that silver era, Brave Combo made its first trip to Japan a little over 20 years ago. We would never have gone, at all, if it were not for Mr. Toyo Nakamura. He was the editor of MUSIC MAGAZINE, Japan’s equivalent to ROLLING STONE, and loved to travel the world, in search of new, unusual music. Somewhere, he stumbled upon our album, HUMANSVILLE and returned to Japan with it and, ultimately, convinced a very open-minded, somewhat artistically-radical, production company, B. U. SYNDICATE, to take a chance on us and bring us over. So, they did and we did. The result was a little tour, which introduced us to Japan’s music scene. This opened up everything, under the midnight sun, to us. Mr. Nakamura often featured us prominently in the magazine (lots of full-page, color photos included), asked me to write articles and reviews for the magazine, helped set up interviews and basically gave us his gigantic stamp of approval. And before we knew it, Japan seemed like our second home. What an amazing time that was. Sadly, we heard recently that Toyo Nakamura had died. He was almost 80 years old and, apparently, had decided his life had been full and fun enough. He jumped from the roof of a condo he had just purchased, after leaving his vast musical estate, including lots of rare instruments, to various institutions in Tokyo. Personally, Toyo Nakamura was a friend and one of those rare supporters to whom you feel immediately connected. I remember how reassuring his smile was. He provided Brave Combo with a magical experience that turned into a huge part of the band’s history. RIP Toyo Nakamura.

I was honored recently to receive an award from the National Accordion Association at their annual convention in March, recognizing me for my support of accordions and accordion music. I was quite touched by the acknowledgment and got a plaque and everything. Hmm, do I need to consider opening the Brave Combo Museum and Massage Parlour, or something like that? Is it time? We can sell Brave Combo post cards, massage oil and maybe something like cans of hominy. That covers everyone.

Okay, believe it or not, the music continues. Please come out and see and hear what all the fuss is about, assuming there is a fuss. We, Brave Combo, still find that playing music is a super fun thing to do and hope you pick up on our groovy vibe sometime soon. Until then, remember that polkas are all around you, if you just tune your head to that station.

But, to be honest, that wasn’t as funky as the area around Al’s Bar in downtown Los Angeles. Ever been there? I remember us driving away from that place, looking around and seeing a beautiful, fascinating sight; beautiful in the perfection of its despair. It was like a circus-of-the-damned movie set and there was even a toxic-looking smoke hanging, which made the scene even more surreal. I remember seeing twisted human silhouettes of myriad sizes maneuvering through hazy patches of light. It was great to be there.

Well, warm weather never went away this year and neither did that one ice cream truck that plays only “Turkey In The Straw” over and over. I think that particular composition is in the public domain, so if anyone wanted to do a reality show about the poor soul driving that truck, music clearance would be a snap. I would like to know how the ice cream man or woman deals with having to hear a relentless digital rendering of “Turkey in the Straw” from dawn to dusk everyday. It might be an interesting show. The truck could go, as it does in reality, to all parts of town, meeting every kind of person. I will say, Denton’s one apparent ice cream truck is an equal opportunity server, offering its frozen goodies to every neighborhood, from the most humble to the snazziest. I’ve heard that familiar melody from north of 380 to way south of Eagle and from the old Walmart to the new Walmart, and all parts in-between. In fact, I can hear it now, deep in my brain.

What if you had a box with a button on it? And if you pushed that button all the bad people would disappear. Surely this topic has been covered on an old TWILIGHT ZONE or OUTER LIMITS or HAZEL (starring Shirley Booth) or some show along those lines. Obviously the box would have to originate from some cosmic source. No human being can be the ultimate judge of who is good or bad or right or wrong, right? So, let’s say the non-Earthly properties of the box are confirmed and you believe it to be real, fully expecting it to work. And let’s say that pushing the button wouldn’t kill anyone, it would just make the bad people go away, like in a non-painful puff of smoke. I wonder if anyone would feel confident enough in his or her own correctness to push the button. The box, by the way, would be made out of an alien material, adding to the sense that the box is real and can, indeed, wipe out all bad people if its button is pressed. Might be interesting to see who would be left. I think Jimmy Carter would still be here. Of course, pushing the button could just wipe the slate clean and, in fact, if the box was real, that’s what would happen. No one would be left. The line between good and bad can’t be easily drawn.

The new Brave Combo album is finished. Well, the songs have been recorded, mastered and sequenced. We even have CD-release gigs already booked in Denton, Dallas, Austin, Houston and Ft. Worth in May and Early June. So I better come up with a title, a band photo or two, liner notes (with credits) and the package design. Do we go with digi-pacs or eco-pacs this time around? There’s a lot to do, but who cares? And I know almost no one longs for, yet another, new collection of fine Brave Combo sides, but I have to say, you will listen to these songs non-stop, like that poor “Turkey in the Straw” guy, except that you will choose to be a slave. Especially since this is our first release featuring Ginny on accordion. Have you heard her play yet?

Speaking of Brave Combo playing, we are about to be doing a lot of it. Dates are falling into place like termites swarming in the early summer. Please look at our itinerary regularly and make your plans to attend one of our hootenannies soon. We hope to go almost everywhere this summer, so maybe we’ll put on a show near you. If not, come to us. Either way, we’re all winners!

As I write this MACHINE’S PUMP I’m listening to rough mixes of our new album, jotting down a list of things that need to be fixed, turned up, turned down or erased. The more I listen, the more I hear. You can quote me on that. What I mean is that one will never stop hearing things that should be fixed when working on a recording. You just get as close as you can and then say that’s enough. Making a record isn’t always just fun and games and drinking and partying and eating and fighting and cussing and skating and cooking and reading. It’s hard work, too; tedious, actually. The big question is, “How do I make this not mediocre?”

2012 Joke
Man on the Street: Well, this is the year we have a presidential election in November and the end of the world in December.
Sidewalk knish and bagel vender: Yep.

This is a big ol’ planet. The immediacy of the internet and its constant flow of information about everything, everywhere, all-at-once, might give you the impression that you’re always in the middle of a big party and the seven billion known people are not only all invited, they’re all attending, constantly. But if you step outside your house and look around you’ll see that the same nothing is going on today that was going on yesterday. The party is in your head. Which is cool, and probably the obvious place we were all going to end up anyway. Interacting physically is hard work. You have to look at people, maybe even touch them, and worse, they have to look at you. So it makes sense that we’re all discovering the joy of increasing isolation. The point I’m making, though, is that the perception that the world is small isn’t true. It’s an illusion. With my space-shrinking, info-gathering-and-spreading iPhone I can quickly calculate how long it would take me to walk from where I am now (my house) to downtown Dallas. Drum roll. Cymbal crash. Fourteen hours, that’s how long! That’s just to Dallas, the closest big city to Denton. Actually, Ft. Worth may be a little closer, but it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is this. If I lived in Denton before there were cars (or, let’s say, for the sake of argument, even before horses) and needed to get to Dallas for something important, I would have to plan ahead and block out a lot of time for going and coming. If you were on the top of any one of the many mountains around the globe, the world wouldn’t be a small place. If you were on a raft 500 miles north of Hawaii, the ocean, which is part of Earth, would seem ENORMOUS! However, if you were stuck on Mars, Earth would seem pretty small and far away; an impossible dot to hit, surrounded by the Universe. Plus, iPhones and iPads don’t even work on Mars.

Speaking of Mars, you must attend the taping of our performance for the nationally televised program, MOLLIE B. POLKA PARTY at the Sokol Hall in Ennis on Thursday, March 8. Mollie is bringing her musical carnival from Minnesota to Texas. The shows airs on the RFD-TV Network.

I hope to have the previously mentioned new album out by early April, just in time for the spring festival season. Isn’t that convenient? Between now and then many of you will have opportunities to hear what we do best. Complain! Just kidding. We try to play music. We don’t arrest people or run a hotel. We play music. It comes out of our mouths or the instruments we play and we amplify it appropriately for the situation (we hope). Join our crazy fun whenever possible. We accept every creed, race, tribe, nationality, religion, sexual preference, whatever. Just leave your weapons and bad attitude at home. Let’s Polka!

MUSIC INDUSTRY INSIDER JOKE:
Famous Musician: Well, I guess it’s time to hit the road and start touring again.
Next-Door Neighbor: Oh, are you about to release a new recording?
Famous Musician: Nah, I just finally finished off all my little bottles of hotel shampoo.

As I’ve mentioned before, our friend, accordion genius, Guy Klucevsek, has a new album called THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITY REUNION TOUR. It’s an amazing piece of work and Brave Combo was fortunate enough to be invited to perform on half the album’s ear-tingling tracks. Well, that album is now available! Check it out here. And here’s a heads-up for our friends in Europe. Guy will be on tour somewhere near you the entire month of February (and a little beyond). http://www.guyklucevsek.com

Speaking of new albums, Brave Combo has been busy recording and we hope to have the new arrival in tangible (and download) form by the spring festival season. We’re well along, so I think this is totally possible. This will be our first release featuring Ginny on accordion. Have you heard Ginny play with us? Have you heard our six-piece mini-orchestra, which includes Jeff, Danny O. and Ginny playing some crazy stuff? Or how about when we add Danny J., from Wisconsin, to the mix or Joe on percussion, stretching the combo to seven member or eight members? Aren’t you curious? It’s a sound that excites, yet soothes. But what is the maximum number of musicians that can be in a combo? Can a “combo” have more than five or six members?

Okay, I can feel the tension mounting. I hear the rustle in the trees. 2012 gigs are starting to add up and some cool things are right around the corner. First, but not least, we are returning to Las Vegas in early February to, once again, make musical mayhem at the MGM Grand with Drew Carey and his fine bunch of IMPROV-A-GANZA buddies. If you happen to be rolling dice at the Luxor or Ceasar’s or something, stroll on over and catch one of the shows. And, in mid-February, our good friend, Mike Dillon comes to Denton for a Brave Combo/Mike Dillon Band show. And Mike and I hope to unveil a song or two from our new album project, which is only about eight years old now, but who cares? The show will be at Hailey’s on Friday, February 17. Big ol’ night of music guaranteed.

Before I sign off, here’s a video of one of our fans somewhere playing our version of “Breslau” on solo piano. Be not afraid, for what will be, will be.

Our seasonal rocker, “Hey, Little Dreidel,” from the album, HOLIDAYS, inexplicably, became one of the most requested songs of 2011 at station 965TheNoize in Las Vegas. I spoke to DJKlick recently and she excitedly let me know how much her listeners love the song. It’s a Hanukkah song, obviously. This is weird and what’s the deal with Vegas? We’re going back in February to do four more shows with Drew Carey at the MGM Grand. Maybe Las Vegas is our new Denton. Perhaps we should look over some off-the-strip properties in Sin City, rather than Branson, for our Brave Combo Theater.

Speaking of traveling and Branson-esqe things. I was in a store the other day, looking at a Christmas display and sniffed an evergreen-scented candle. The smell stayed with me the rest of the day. Not pleasant.

SONG OF THE YEAR. The world is full of music. Jam-packed full and some of it is fantastic. In fact, I would even venture to say that the world is full of fantastic music; more than any one person can take in. I often listen via an app called Tune-in Radio. It’s amazing. I can even listen to the Denton Police Department dispatcher, if I want. But I find myself most usually drawn to the domestic polka stations (shocked?), Russian stations, Eastern European and Balkan region Stations (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland), Regional Tejano/Conjunto stations, Hawaiian stations, some Middle Eastern stations and, on occasion, African, Haitian or Dominican stations. And I listen to a fair amount of South American and Mexican stuff. What can I say? I listen to a lot of music. But, there can be only one Song of the Year. And the winner is obvious. It’s “Polka Never Dies” by the Vancouver, BC band, The Dreadnoughts. It’s the perfect blend of rock/pop and polka. It works on so many levels. It seems that the band was touring a lot in Eastern Europe and, apparently, as I’ve reported here in recent installments of the Machine’s Pump, many of the young rock bands in that part of the world are now heavily influenced by that relentless 2/4 polka beat. Anyway, the sound got under The Dreadnoughts’ skin and “Polka Never Dies” is the result. I’m not sure how aware they are of Brave Combo, if at all, but, man, they sure sound a lot like us, but that could be total “sign of the times” coincidence. I highly recommend that you check out the song and the band out YouTube. http://youtu.be/FzEfI72HyCY

Speaking of Beauty, another growing trend in Europe is a polka movement that’s more about disco or disco pop. Slovenian bands, such as The Turbo Angels or Atomic Harmonik, represent that bass drum heavy, shiny, happy, dance-floor snappy, Abba-influenced polka style perfectly. This particular sound comes from disco, in general, but more specifically, from the new German Oktoberfest Oberkrainer groove. It’s a polka with a disco drum beat. Oddly enough, it’s actually been around for decades and in the 1980s Myron Floren, I believe, released an album called DISCO POLKA, which was just what I described – a polka with a disco drum pattern. This is blowing your mind, right? Nostradamus and The Mayans predicted it, too.

Accordion Tribe-ster and Brave Combo ally, Guy Klucevsek will be releasing his amazing new album, THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITY REUNION TOUR, in early January. Do whatever is necessary to hear this thing. And I’m not just saying this because we, Brave Combo, played brilliantly on half of it. It’s just a damn good piece of work. Guy is one of the world’s finest accordionists and we are honored that he asked us to play on this masterpiece.

Speaking of work, although BC is entering the slowest time of the year, there are still gigs popping up and a trip to our itinerary page is always in order. Plus, we are about to begin slaving over our own new album, emotionally draining every crevice of our being for your ears. Thank you for appreciating the sacrifices we make. Here’s to 2012! High Hopes/Low Expectations. Whatever, it’s still polka time, Baby!