Tipsy Oxcart's evocative name comes from an old Bulgarian folk tale of a cart driver, hauling a precious load of grape brandy up a mountain-all while taking slugs from his cargo. The Brooklyn-based Balkan-inspired band has had similar mad treks up and down mountains, always with their sights on one destination: the open-eared and open-armed hospitality of a truly great party.
They've made it all the way to the top on their new album Upside Down (release: May 12, 2015), a full-throttle collection of tracks that manage to feel rootsy and hip, brainy and fun. They've also captured the culinary side of their adventures in their accompanying cookbook Cooking with Tipsy Oxcart. The band will be trundling and bopping along the East Coast this May for an album release tour.
"We want to share what we love. We've been digging deep into the Balkan style, but we love a whole range of different music styles, too," explains sax and clarinet player Connell Thompson. "By combining intricate Eastern European melodies with elements of the rock, funk, jazz and reggae we grew up with, we hope to open the minds of those who wouldn't think to listen to this kind of music. We want as many people to hear and love it as we do."
"We are not from the Balkans," adds Jeremy Bloom, who developed his accordion chops busking in Istanbul and playing at Turkish village celebrations. "We play music that is what we are, and reflects our listening habits and backgrounds, which are all over the map. We're not trying to reproduce this unreachable authentic sound. We're not getting lost in the details. We're having a lot of fun."
It's downright impossible to separate the hospitality and exuberance of the party from much of Balkan music, even the bittersweet, crying-in-your-brandy ballads.
Tipsy Oxcart keeps that spirit alive by doing what their Balkan music teachers showed them: You eat together before making music. You travel together, via a tune penned in jest or a real live hitchhiking race after a Bulgarian bagpipe contest (true
Tipsy Oxcart story).
Though none of the band members hail from the region, they all imbibed the music and its culture in quirky, second-hand ways that led to full-on obsession. Bloom, for example, loved klezmer as a kid, and fell for the accordion. What was a bit of a social liability in high school became a real asset when he went as an exchange student to rural Turkey. He found himself invited to play at important local functions. "I was playing and realized all of a sudden that I was part of the party," recalls Bloom. "I was a real participant, making music together."
For some Tipsy Oxcarters, Balkan sounds and rhythms came naturally because of their resonance with other music around the Mediterranean. "I didn't really realize it before playing Balkan music, but a lot of the Israeli pop music is simply Turkish stuff with lyrics in Hebrew," muses Israeli-born bassist Ayal Tsubery. "In Israel this kind of music is often looked down on, but it's just everywhere you go, on every radio station. Even if you're not a fan of it, you grow up with these sounds deep inside your ears."
Yet Balkan sounds aren't the only ones that
Tipsy Oxcart hears; the band's musical ideas come from every which way. The scronking horn and bumpin' beat on "Honeydripper" sprang from Thompson's love of a
Kanye West track. They mix in ska in "Tipska", take on classic instrumental hits from all over the Balkans such as Ara Dinkjian's "Homecoming," or the cheeky "Tutti Frutti," popularized by the film Gadjo DIlo, and put new spins on traditional forms like Bosnian sevdah, giving it a Brooklyn area code ("Sevdah One Eight").
All this serious knowledge and light-hearted exploration aim to maximize fun and include as many eager dancers and listeners as possible. "With Balkan music, it comes down to overwhelming hospitality," reflects Thompson. "It doesn't matter where we've been, in Bulgaria or Turkey, or in Queens. People gave us so much. They fed us, put us up even when they had no space, went out of their way to share with us."
The band brings this generosity to its playing, makes it part of its creative work, whether playing a club or sharing recipes. (Purchasers of the album via Bandcamp will get a copy of this handy guide to the perfect hummus and how to seed a pesky pomegranate.)
Or busking in the subway at Times Square. "Those gigs at Times Square, even though they are a little grimy, are my favorite thing to do," laughs Bloom. "It gives you a way to observe the heartbeat of the city in a way you don't usually get to do. It creates an environment where you're approachable, when you can share with people you wouldn't regularly come in contact with. I love it."
Photo credit: Offical Facebook
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