What do you get when you combine a Bosnian lead singer, Croatian and Bulgarian guitarists, Japanese bass player, American drummer and violinist, move them all to the Pacific Northwest of the United States? The answer is “Kultur Shock”, whose “gypsy-punk” fusion can inspire even the most jaded of Political Science professors. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
WHAT: Multinational Seattle rock band featuring Srdjan “Gino” Yevdjevich (lead vocals, percussion), Mario Butkovic (guitar, vocals), Masa Kobayashi (bass, vocals), Val Kiossovski (guitar, vocals), Chris Stromquist (drums, vocals) and Matty Noble (violin)
SOUND: The band describes its incendiary music as “Balkan punk-rock/Gypsy-metal/wedding-meets-riot music from Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Japan and the United States. We have six members, and no two of us really speak the same language.”
QUOTE: “Right now we are stuck between two worlds. One we left (that of our homelands), but we did not become a part of the other world, the hip rock-star world,” the band says on its Web site. “We had to work for our living like all the other immigrants, and working means sweat, sweat means stinky — not cool. What we’ve worked so hard to build over these 10 years is this ‘monster’ we play on stage. And we dare you to try and stop us, because we’re not going to stop ourselves.”
Here’s a sample of their sound:
Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables 