Album version here. Live:

Man, violinist Sergey Ryabtsev rocks so hard its ludicrous. Even though Multi Kontra Culti Vs. Irony is an earlier album, I first bought it because I loved their Gypsy Punk Underdog World Strike album. While I like much of this earlier album, it wasn’t until I heard “Punk Rock Parranda” that I really got excited. I confess, while I dig many of Gogol Bordello’s slower tempo songs, I really get excited when they cut loose.

A parranda is Venezuelan music form where the drum is the main accompanying intrument:

This song isn’t so much a parranda as it is about forming a band with some “new friends from Mexico” and playing a punk rock parranda. There are some fantastic, hilarious lyrics in this song:

And if there is no guitar in a house,
You know its owner, he cannot be trusted.
And if there is no drumset in the office,
Don’t be surprised when the business get busted.

And if your spouse doesn’t play a sitar,
Don’t expect a whole lot of commitment.
And if President doesn’t play the sax,
He will not get an under-table treatment.

And in this kind of town,
Say you kick somebody in the head -
They just, they likely sue you,
But man, no they don’t get mad!

Basically, the song laments the tired, stale culture he’s living in and suggests that its time to musically kick things up a notch. The great thing is, the song achieves this very goal.