Gogol Bordello Bring Gypsy Punk to the Stage

Posted on Nov 5th 2007 5:00PM by Benjy Eisen
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Now that the 2007 festival season officially closed -- with the grand finale of Vegoose in October -- the results are in and Gogol Bordello gets a nomination for newcomer of the year, despite that fact that they've been around for nearly a decade. They may have had an underground following in certain circles, but it was sets at this year's Coachella, Bonnaroo and Vegoose that brought the gypsy punks more recently into the spotlight. The increased attention has earned them fans from all over the musical map.

"It's actually quite ironic that Gogol Bordello has come to embrace so many different types of audiences," bandleader Eugene Hutz tells Spinner. "Essentially, it's an Eastern European rooted band, but 50 percent of our fans are Hispanic in the States. And it's ironic to me that people who are into things like jam bands end up getting into us."

When he assembled Bordello in New York City in the late '90s, there were no other acts melding gypsy, Ukrainian, flamenco and punk music with a vaudevillian flair, exactly, so Hutz had to pick the right people for the job. "I was kind of, in a way, casting for my own movie, because I had the script. I was looking obviously not among any emo kids for my musicians," he says. His band members needed to have "high stamina and endurance for not only music, but also for late-night and drinking. Creating a family essentially. A band is a modern way to kind of create your own family."

Ladies and gents: the Bordellos.