Zvonky, a retrospective

I heard that Monogram are playing tonight downtown in Vinohrady, a few blocks from Em’s school at the restaurant, herna-bar, horse-museum U Vodarny. They’re a great band, who we saw (and taped) last month as the opener for Hickory Project – they were a good band for that job. I’m curious about the show tonight, however. Monogram have invited “Zvonky” to play support, and concert listings list the “original lineup” of the group, trumpeting this unusual convergence. My friend Eda is listed on mandolin, so I looked up his current band’s website, and there it was: a whole photographic history of Zvonky from the 1980s through until the current transformation into the present-day Country Cocktail. Check it out – (photos from the Country Cocktail website.)

1976

1980

1981

1982

1980

1984

1990

1995

1999

2000

2005

2008

more reports on U Supa

From Bruce, fellow American and musician, who paid a visit to our favorite Smichov saloon a while back – he provides video, photos, and culinary rating

http://czechoutchannel.blogspot.com/2008/02/u-supa-country-saloon-bluegrass-jam.html

popmuzeum

2008-4-16

The requirement for this afternoon was something fun that was marginally related to my work. So Em and I went to the pop muzeum, an organization motivated by Czech pop music scholarship godfather Aleš Opekar, who I interviewed in 2002 about country, etc. … and it just happens to be in our Praha 6 neighborhood, in the basement of the former Kulturni Dum “u Kast’anu.”

On their web site I saw that they are carrying out some detective work, and – like I do – are farming it out to web readers – here’s the link and blurb:

The Matadors – can you help fans in Czech Republic?
We have 3 mystery tracks of this legendary Czech group from 1966, but we don’t have know where the originals are from. Singer is Czech who didn’t know English well.
His English is something like “czenglish”, so only the melodies (tunes) are a clue (guidepost).
If you think you know, please write your suggestions to info@popmuseum.cz.

Come on, pop knowledge-ists – help a brother out.

PS – In addition to an informative exhibit on the Czech new wave of the 1980s, illustrating the last gasps of a governmental ideological/aesthetic control apparatus, there’s a stage setup of instruments that are turned on and ready to play….we had fun: