Saturday Topinka Blogging
Saturday, Dec 18, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller
Oops. I was out of the office Friday afternoon and forgot all about my Topinka blogging duties.
To the left is an album cover from the Czech band Houpacà konÄ›. The first cut off the 2003 album, PÃsnÄ› z bistra, is called, believe it or not, “Topinka.” Not sure what all this means, but the state treasurer is a Bohemian, so maybe she knows.
You can listen to a sample of the “Topinka” track here. The lyrics can be found here.
A translation of some of the lyrics by Intertran gives us this mangled mess:
WITHIN bistru where shadows hangering as forth as nappy air them here supine plus wind ÄÃny Trencher sake two wedges chandry plus spleen she has wine he stewed fruit out of dýnÃ
Wall like out of ÄŒÃny Bože are supine transpose them out of whistles up mellow loam
I’m as baffled as you are.
Here is some info from an English language website:
The band started playing in 1991. Such a long time ago. In the beginning it was simple rock-songs with czech lyrics, boosters and a mad bass guitarist. Everything was expressive, bitter and noisy. During the years the band has played hundreds of concerts all over the republic and elsewhere – in Slovakia, Germany or Holland, has released three albums, changed members, sound and audience’s interest. In fact they didn’t make it to the first league.
The current sound of the Houpacà Koně is not so violent as it used to be. The band realised that hiding behind the wall of guitars and acting in a kind of rocker pose were no longer necessary. However, the y like that with some other bands.
But, what has not changed is autenticity and emotional performance. If you understood Czech, you could find a drunk female receptionist polishing her nails and also halfmoon, that fell in love with a ticket collector from the train to hell. One of the founding members of the band, who doesn´t play with them any more, says that the right time for houpaci kone is yet to come. If this prediction turns out true, it will probably mean a denial of all physical laws. But we can experience the above said anyway because they are working on new songs at the moment and they are enjoying it very much.
And that, dear friends, concludes your weekly Topinka blogging.