2005-10-28

Friday nonrandom ten: Balkan pop edition

I'm violating the "random ten" rules this time out, all for good educational purpose. A student was just over who is trying to learn the language of everybody's favorite region in a hurry, and I could not suggest that the best way to learn a language (aside from films) was by listening to pop songs without giving him some. So I made him a disc. A sampling of items on the disc:
Cabaret patetico -- Ultima patetica
My but she can sing "I will survive." In Slovenian translation, no less.

Edo Maajka -- No sikiriki
The only pop song I know of which compares the quality of life to burek, which has got to be more appropriate than anybody thinks.

Eva Braun -- Bečej noću
Imagine surfing across Vojvodina. By night.

Jarboli -- Revolucija
Whether they wanted to or not, this group has become the master of political songs that foreground the possibility of defeat. El pueblo unido quizás será vencido.

Jinx -- Tamo gdje je sve po mom
There was a time when you could not enter a coffee shop in Dalmatia without hearing this. Sometimes the coffee was also nice.

Let 3 -- Profesor Jakov
Why can't all pop songs be written in at least four languages?

Oružjem protivu otmičara -- Budi tu
Listeners of a particular generation will have no problem recognising this as a cover of the Bay City Rollers' "I only want to be with you."

Pekinška patka -- Biti ružan, pametan i mlad
It wouldn't be education without some time set aside for a careful study of the classics.

Prljavo kazalište -- Sve je lako kad si mlad
See above comment.

Zabranjeno pušenje -- Hadžija ili bos
This group spawned more than one group with an identical name. Before that, they were outrageous, funny and insightful.
Maybe it might be a good idea to try my hand at a language textbook?

6 comments:

Bora Zivkovic said...

Where do you download all the YU music?

Eric Gordy said...

Most of this stuff is from disc, domestic stuff is still inexpensive at the shops in Belgrade (and even cheaper at "CD alley" by the Sarajevo airport). But there are some groups that put up tunes for download:

Obojeni program -- http://www.obojeniprogram.com/ht_prva.html

Zabranjeno pusenje -- http://zabranjeno-pusenje.bosnia.ba/index.php

Cabaret patetico -- http://www.patetico.net/prolog/depot.html

Edo Maajka -- http://www.edomaajka.com/video.html

Eva Braun -- http://www.oaza.co.yu/muzika/evabraun/sounds.htm

Jarboli -- http://www.jarboli.org/osnovna.htm

There are certainly more that I do not know about!

Bora Zivkovic said...

Thanks.

I am just wondering if any of the big music purveyors has YU songs to offer for download. I guess not...yet...

Katja R. said...

I wish! The only way to get to hear this stuff on a regular basis in the Gulag is to have Shoutcast and just hit anything with .yu or stuff that says Serbia, or you can pull in Bosnian stations for a mix of all sorts of stuff, you have to go to the dropdown menu for genre, and select 'Folk' and then just see what is there. Another station I like is Radio Boglah, a Russian folk station with Russian Balkans wanna be bands and even more comico, Russian attempst to do Irish music!
Speaking of that form of wierd culture jamming there's Polish stations that have Polish bands doing Celtic music. Very wierd.
It's possible to get software that will let you save streaming Mp3s. Theres a fair share of Ceca and Brena, unfortunately the Slovenes and Croats don't often show up. ONE time and one time only there was a thing called 'Joe's Croatian Radio Station' which had lots of cropop and tamburiza. If you want Cropop the best thing to do is to get on HRT go to Uzivo, then select one of the radio stations. You need Realplayer or if Realplayer makes you want to kill things and break people get Classic Media player which will play Realplayer files. The regular HRT programming offers some pop music. They used to have a funny show called 'Glamour Cafe' too.

Eric Gordy said...

This is a site I know of but haven't tried, has a bit of a dodgy and disreputable look:

http://nostalgija.com/

Katja R. said...

I checked it out, it has to wait until there really is such a thing as money in this Gulag.
Tonight's secret Klingon Word:hnbtss to sharply press dough causing the dry flour under it to rise suddenly which makes the baker sneeze