I DIGGY DIGGY DUM

This week, we've been alternating between two universes here in the listening rooms of ESB Industries.

The first is Charlie and his Orchestra, the Nazi propaganda swing band we were obsessed with (for, yknow, historical reasons, of course) a few weeks back thanks to a link from WFMU. The other, almost in response, is Aaron Lebedeff, a Yiddish cantor from shtetl who appeared in a few films in the 20s. His records will forever be remembered by klezmerites as passionate, homeland kind of music that is almost untoucahble in terms of quality and soul-twisting joie de vivre.



AARON LEBEDEFF - Rumanye Rumanye (also sometimes called The Happy Rumanian)

While the song is sung mostly in Yiddish, it sounds as if Lebedeff is actually singing some Rumanian in there as well, although I can't be totally sure. Benny "Bell" Samberg did a spirited cover of this tune in Yiddish and English back in the 40s for the New York klezmer crowd. The best verse in Bell's version reads as such:

When I kiss a teenage girl, it tastes sweet like sweet potatoes
When I kiss an older dame, it tastes just like stale tomatoes
In Rumania at a show I met the sweetes girl I know
We would have married long ago, but my wife said "No no no!"

Yiddish humour c. WWII for ya, folks. Definitely your zeydie's kinda joke. Apparently there is a "jaw-dropping" remaster of the out there in the aether, which sound just as appealing as an English version.



ESB PLAYLIST 3/3/06

DIE! DIE! DIE! - Auckland is Burning
DIE! DIE! DIE! - Made Up in Red
TV ON THE RADIO - Tonight
LAND OF TALK - Sea Foam
LAND OF TALK - All My Friends
LAND OF TALK - Speak to Me Bones
FEMME GENERATION - 1! 2! 3! 4!
FEMME GENERATION - Adolph We Hardly Knew Ye
FEMME GENERATION - Aeropuerto Internacional
ST. JUST VIGILANTES - The Shallows
ST. JUST VIGILANTES - Rose Grenade
TSU SHI MA MI RE - Ebihara Shinji
TSU SHI MA MI RE - Umeboshi Plums - Big Seeds
TSU SHI MA MI RE - Pregnant Fantasy



Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re is a made up name that means nothign in Japanese but they're an excellent band nonetheless, and their album Pregnant Fantasy, is as equally funny as it is brilliant.



Thanks to Are You Familiar? for tipping us off to a good chunk of the show, for the second week in a row.