CONCERT | U.S. TOUR 2012 | ATTWENGER
For the first time ever, the Austrian cult favorite duo known as Attwenger will be performing at select locations throughout the United States. The indie-gone-Alpine party comes to SXSW for the band’s U.S. debut in March, 2012. The band will also travel to New Orleans, LA, for this gig at Cafe Istanbul.
TOUR DATES:
March 14. 2012 Showcase at SXSW, Austin, TX
March 16. 2012 Cafe Istanbul, in New Orleans, LA
March 22. 2012 DROM New York, 9:30 PM
March 23. 2012 Deutsches Haus at NYU, 7:00 PM
LINE UP:
Markus Binder (drums, vocals, jew’s harp)
Hand-Peter Falkner (button accordion, vocals)
The Austrian duo Attwenger turn Upper Austrian folk music and wry local wisdom into madcap backbeats and funky, flaring accordion. It’s The Cramps parachuting into a mountain village street fest for a punk spree, or The Pogues punning in Alpine slang to dancefloor-friendly samples. It’s folk trip-hop, psychedelic and feral polka.
Part of a cross-genre outbreak of creativity in Austria—where rappers sit in with neo-trad bands and DJs deconstruct roots music with unabashed glee—Attwenger hear bass lines and funky beats in salty expressions and rural Alpine wisecracks. They hear defiance and political critique in traditional dance songs and ballad. They know how Saul Williams and Hank Williams, techno and Chuck Berry, can find a perfect, unexpected place in the spirited folk flow.
“This is the amazing thing: All these traditional tunes, polkas, and Alpine country sounds fit with punk or rock or hip hop drums,” marvels Attwenger drummer Markus Binder. “It works really well, but it was a surprise. Then we saw that this is the future.” (Photo by Gerald von Foris)
From their beginnings, when their music adhered to a bare-bones drum and accordeon doctrine, up to the integration of hip hop accoutrements in the 1990s and aggressive electro grooves in the aughts, their albums have celebrated the duo’s cultivated propensity for escapism – without ever losing their dialect or the connection to their roots.
The lyrics for the most part are committed to social criticism. It is mainly due to Attwenger that dialect-poetry has found its way back into the local musical landscape and also to the younger generation. Musically Attwenger has also opened new paths. Folk music and polkas combined with heavy punk-appeal and electronic beats are completely new territory.
Attwenger on the WFMU radio-show Transpacific Sound paradise
VENUE
Cafe Istanbul
2372 St Claude Ave,
New Orleans, LA
For information on admission, please visit cafeistanbulnola.com