Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building – News /news Thu, 26 Jan 2017 19:53:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.3 /wp-content/themes/b/bates-framework/styles/images/bates-favicon.png Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building – News /news 32 32 Gogol Bordello brings punk-flavored world sounds to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ /news/2007/10/10/gogol-bordello/ /news/2007/10/10/gogol-bordello/#respond Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:00:05 +0000 http://batesviews.net/?p=3779
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Gogol Bordello, a band that feeds a growing cult following with a frenetic mix of Gypsy, punk and world musics, performs at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College at 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, in the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building.

The concert is presented by the Chase Hall Committee, a student organization at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Tickets are $10 at the door (while they last) or in advance at Bull Moose Music locations, and are available for $12 (includes a $2 handling fee). Anyone with a valid ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ ID is admitted free. For more information, please call 207-795-7496.

Since 1999, the critically esteemed Gogol Bordello has been smashing musical barriers with a supercharged Eastern European two-step rhythm churned together with punk, metal, rap, flamenco, roots reggae, spaghetti Western, dub and other sounds generated by rebels from across the globe.

The band’s philosophy is simple and pragmatic: Music makes it possible to make the contradictions of life sound harmonious, at least for the duration of a song. What they call their “transglobal rebel rock” is based on the belief that music and art can transform negative energy to positive and inspire individual action.

“The musicianship of this New York-based Gypsy-punk-cabaret collective is often dazzling, creating a culture-clash fusion of dub flamenco and other styles that reflects the dizzying immigrant experience,” wrote a Los Angeles Times reviewer. The band’s new album, Super Taranta! (SideOneDummy Records), said longtime rock critic Robert Christgau, is “the best rock album of the decade. Period.”

Lead singer and founder Eugene Hutz grew up in the Ukraine on a diet of punk-rock. As a teenager, he and his family came to the U.S. after escaping the Chernobyl meltdown and enduring a seven-year trek through Eastern European refugee camps.

During that journey, says Hutz, “we visited the village my family came from. My relatives introduced me to the essential foods and music of our Gypsy culture. My parents hid [their Gypsy roots] in the city; in the countryside I was face to face with it. My biggest musical influence was coming face to face with that ancient culture.”

Three members of the eight-member band come from Russia and another from Israel. Gogol Bordello includes accordion and violin, not to mention two percussionist-dancers, in addition to the more typical rock instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums.

Super Taranta! is Gogol Bordello’s sixth full-length recording. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ stop is part of an American tour that concludes in their hometown, New York City, in November.

Super Taranta! is our interpretation of tarantella, a ritual music from Italy,” Hutz says. “I saw a painting in Tuscany of a woman in convulsions and a guy playing a violin. He’s leaning over her, playing music to cure her hysteria, put her into a trance and exorcize her demons. It was sexual, mystical and cultural, almost obscene — all the qualities of Gogol Bordello.”

He adds, “Our musical awareness isn’t based on flirtatious moments of musical fusion; we’re constantly adding new stuff that compliments our roots: the Gypsy music from the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine.”

Hutz is driven by an inexorable creative desire. In the past two years he starred in Liev Schreiber’s film Everything Is Illuminated and was the focal point of Pied Piper Of Hutzovina. This documentary follows him to the Ukraine in 2006, as he searches for the extended family he left behind at the time of Chernobyl.

“It was a challenging experience,” he says. “The film connects the dots, joining different aspects of Gypsy culture in Hungary, Ukraine, Russia and Siberia, from its manifestations in elite society all the way down to the musicians and activists in the ghetto.”

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Annual International Dinner to assist tsunami relief /news/2005/01/26/intl-dinner/ /news/2005/01/26/intl-dinner/#respond Wed, 26 Jan 2005 17:31:36 +0000 http://batesviews.net/?p=5373 Annual International Dinner

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College International Club hosts its annual International Dinner at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30, in the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building. The public is invited to attend, and tickets may be purchased at the door for $7. This year a major portion of the dinner’s profits will go toward tsunami relief.

Guests will enjoy dishes from around the world and multicultural entertainment throughout the evening. Considered one of the most popular events on campus, the dinner will be prepared by various members of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community including international students, said Khoa Pham, a sophomore from Saigon, Vietnam.

The buffet banquet will include approximately 15 dishes from various countries. Students were invited to submit recipes to a dinner committee organized by the International Club. Once recipes were chosen, committee members purchased ingredients and organized teams. Students will work in teams to cook the entire meal, with some peeling and chopping as others fry and steam.

“This dinner is more than just exotic food and good music,” said Pham. “It is truly a community effort, and everyone helps make it a success.”

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Counting Crows to perform concert /news/2001/09/20/counting-crows/ /news/2001/09/20/counting-crows/#respond Thu, 20 Sep 2001 19:38:13 +0000 http://home.bates.edu/?p=22025 Counting Crows

The critically and popularly acclaimed band Counting Crows will perform at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, in the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building. Tickets are $28 for general admission and are available at all Bull Moose locations throughout Maine and New Hampshire and at Bowdoin and Colby colleges. For more information call 207-795-7496.

Counting Crows’ emotionally-kindled rock songs, such as the smash hits “Mr. Jones” and “Hanginaround,” are notorious for their reflective musings on life. In the midst of a year-long concert tour of the United States, the group’s forthcoming album is slated for release in early 2002 and will be their fifth on the Universal-distributed Geffen record label. “The best music is unself-conscious,” says band member Charlie Gillingham. “We won’t be satisfied unless it’s perfect, but also perfectly unself-conscious.” Lead singer Adam Duritz says, “The most important thing about this band is heart. That’s where the songs come from.”

Named after an English divination rhyme, Counting Crows assembled in 1989 in the San Francisco Bay area when Duritz and Crows’ guitarist David Bryson began writing songs together. Counting Crows Duritz and Bryson recruited bass-player Matt Malley and keyboardist Charlie Gillingham in August 1991 and began performing in San Francisco clubs. Released in September 1993, their first album, “August and Everything After,” featured the hit song, “Mr. Jones,” and garnered a four-star review from Rolling Stone Magazine.

The Wall Street Journal said of the album, “Vivid, startling images, via one man’s tales of alienation, heartache and dreams.” The Seattle Rocket called it, “…The start of something very beautiful.” “August and Everything After” rose to the fourth spot on the Billboard 200, remaining on the chart for 93 weeks. In 1996, the album was certified seven-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Counting Crows’ “Recovering the Satellites” (1996) album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart before going double platinum in July 1997. The Crows’ most recent album, “This Desert Life,” (1999) has sold more than two million copies worldwide featuring the hit song “Hangingaround.” The Counting Crows were honored with a 1995 American Music Award for favorite artist in alternative music. The band won also won a 1994 MTV Video Music Award for “Mr. Jones.”

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