The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band
Intersoup w/ Mr Paul (live electro)
Schliemannstr. 31
10437 Berlin

Hailing from the slums and ghettos of Auckland (the Prague of the South), The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band bring their unique brand of highly theatrically East-European Apocalyptic Debauchery to those in need, wherever they may be. Expect spontaneous combustion in the audience, clothes thrown off in frivolous rampage, macabre stories, legs turning into snakes, much musical and physical inebriation, and dancing, dancing, dancing… When Balkan, Punk, Cabaret and Swing combine, nuclear meltdowns of worlds begin.

The band is currently lurking in Berlin, and will be destroying minds and lifting knees and skirts across Europe for the next six months, until late November. Upon their return, they plan to bring a whole new Bacchanalia to New Zealand in another of their famed summer tours, as well as festivals across the country.

After first emerging from an alleyway behind Auckland’s Wine Cellar sometime in May of 2006, the band has gone from enigma to sensation. In April 2008, the band released their first ep, Danse Macabre which lingered in the Independent NZ top 40 for several months and the riotous energetic video for the single, The Dance of Death, has been in the top five most watched videos on Amplifier for over a year. In this time the band has completed three highly successful nationwide tours, brought the bordello to some of the country’s biggest summer festivals (including Prana, Jambalaya, Parihaka, Cross St Carnival, Fleetwaters and Splore), performed at AK09, Auckland’s biggest bi-annual arts festival, played in “The Famous Spiegeltent”, and opened for American band Beirut. Now, with the release of their album, Polkapocalypse, the band has relocated to Europe, and is ready to delve deeper, further past the apocalypse, into unlit and illimitable corridors of eldritch fantasy.

The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band and DJ Balkanetic take to the road again on another Gypsy Fever tour bringing you an intoxicating, exhilarating, uplifting blend of East European/Gypsy/Klezmer and Balkan tunes that will have you throwing your arms in the air and dancing as if your feet were on fire.

8pm, Wednesday 21st January – Marahau Park Cafe, Marahau

The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band and DJ Balkanetic take to the road again on another Gypsy Fever tour bringing you an intoxicating, exhilarating, uplifting blend of East European/Gypsy/Klezmer and Balkan tunes that will have you throwing your arms in the air and dancing as if your feet were on fire.

Wednesday 21st January – Marahau Park Cafe

“House on Fire” is the second single from Carafice’s debut album “Renee-Louise Carafice Tells You to Fight”. It was written for Texan alt-country singer Micah P Hinson who Carafice met while supporting him on his New Zealand tour in 2005.
“We were instant buddies and got on extremely well,” Carafice explains. “For me that was quite a rare thing at that point in my life. We’d both been to hell and back and maybe you can attribute it to that.
“He’s a person who just tells it like it is, both in his music and on stage… he uses profane language and smokes endlessly and is just a very vivid personality.
“I was very impressed upon that this young guy who had so much in common with me was traveling the world with his music.”

June 6th: Bar Mode, Palmerston North feat The Hot Grits, The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, DJ Balkanetic and Uncle Barnie

FREE ENTRY!

Monkey Magic II is a CD and DVD showcasing contemporary independent New Zealand music to be released on the 19th May and to celebrate we’re going to be touring the country in May/June. The tour features several of the most exciting new acts in New Zealand who have all had critically acclaimed new releases over the last few weeks:

An Emerald City
Currently garnering unanimous praise for their recently released self titled debut ep, Auckland band An Emerald City have strived for musical experimentation and liberation since their inception in late 2005. Organic instrumentation and sounds of the east meet psychedelia with guitars and violin are at the centre of this original and unique 6 piece. Already having performed at Rhythm and Vines, Soundsplash and WOMAD this summer, they will be recording their album over winter and are planning to base themselves in Berlin from April next year – catch them while you can.

The Hot Grits
What do you get if you mix a pound of Fela Kuti’s Afrika 70, two cupfuls of The Meters, 250g of thinly sliced early James Brown and a level dessert spoon of psychedelic rock? You get the heaving, convulsing powerhouse of soul music that is The Hot Grits. For over five years, 11 piece band The Hot Grits have been electrifying club dancefloors and festival stages around New Zealand with an eclectic, take no prisoners approach to soul and afrobeat music. When THG hit their stride, no-one in the room is immune from the power and sheer soulfulness of their groove, and band and audience become one in a giant, convulsing testament to the power of good music. Their debut album ‘It’s too Drunk to be this Early’ featuring the bnet hits ‘The Ballad of Joe Stalin’ and ‘Headlights’ is out now.

The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band
Hailing from the slums and ghettos of Auckland (the Prague of the South), The Benka Boradovsky Bordello band is a highly theatrical musical group specialising in music of Eastern European, Gypsy and Jewish flavour, along with some Western European influences. With music ranging from old to new, originals to standards, vocal to instrumental; they are remarkable in their ability to get everyone up and dancing, regardless of age, musical taste, or level of drunkenness. Benka’s globetrotting voice sings in a wide variety of languages, with lyrics in Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romani, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, English and more. If references are necessary, they sound like Tom Waits, Shane McGowan and Franz Kafka drunk too much vodka and thought they were in 1950’s Yugoslavia. Having undertaken a highly successful Gypsy Fever tour over summer and performances at Prana, Jambalaya, Parihaka and Splore, the BBB Band are back to devastate dance floors and promote their new ep ‘Danse Macabre’.

DJ Balkanetic
DJ Balkanetic has been entertaining audiences at festivals, parties and weddings around New Zealand for the last couple of years with a highly infectious, uplifting blend of Balkan beats, Klezmer, Romani/Gypsy music and organic global grooves. He has also supported his good friends The Mamaku Project, The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band and the Jews Brothers. Over summer he played at Prana, Jambalaya, Splore and Cross St Carnival and recently undertook a 20 date national ‘Gypsy Fever’ tour with the Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band. He has a world music radio show called Terra beats on KFM every Tuesday from 2-4pm.

THE TOUR
Friday, May 23rd: Album Release Galatos feat An Emerald City, The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band and The Hot Grits ($15 presales/$20 door)
Friday, May 30th: Refuel, Dunedin feat The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, An Emerald City, Haunted Love and DJ Balkanetic ($10/8 doorsales only)
Saturday, May 31st: Als Bar, Christchurch feat The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, An Emerald City and DJ Balkanetic ($10 doorsales only)
Sunday, June 1st: Revolver, Queenstown feat The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, An Emerald City and DJ Balkanetic ($10 doorsales only)
Friday, June 6th: Bar Mode, Palmerston North feat The Hot Grits, The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, DJ Balkanetic and Uncle Barnie (free entry)
Saturday, June 7th: San Francisco Bath House, Wellington feat The Hot Grits, Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, DJ Balkanetic & Uncle Barnie ($10 doorsales only)

THE COMPILATION
10 of the tracks on the CD are from artists signed to genre-defying indie record label Monkey Records including Tim Guy, The Hot Grits, An Emerald City, The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band and Káren Hunter. Also featured are four unsigned or self-released artists who are friends of Monkey – Haunted Love, Steve Abel, The Mamaku Project and Ragamuffin Children.

Monkey TV is a DVD featuring all the music videos made by Monkey Records since the year 2000 featuring some of New Zealand’s most talented emerging filmmakers and animators.

While perhaps not considered that commercially viable by the powers that be, independent radio has embraced and supported many of these artists. The Hot Grits have enjoyed several weeks at no.1 on student radio bFM with their first single, The Ballad of Joe Stalin’. ‘Werewolf’ by Haunted Love was voted Radio One song of the Year on Radio One last year and Cinema 90 by Onelung (here remixed by Sola Rosa) was the most played tune across the bNet for several weeks upon its release in May 2006. As on the original critically acclaimed Monkey Magic compilation in 2004, this new selection continues to champion new and exciting music from Aotearoa and aims to introduce many of the artists featured to a wider audience In New Zealand and further afield. Many thanks to Creative New Zealand for their continuing support of Monkey Records which helped make this compilation and tour possible.