Gogol Bordello

Trans-Continental Hustle (American Recordings)

Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Gypsy, and/or tongues unknown – Manu Chao, Shane MacGowan, Joe Strummer? Eugene Hütz. And for album No. 5 from comrade Hütz’s East European blackout – NYC’s Gogol Bordello – comeback kid/producer Rick Rubin, American lama. Mostly indistinguishable from 2007’s Super Taranta!, which no one mistook for 2005’s high powered Gypsy Punks, Hütz and Rubin’s lean, punchy Trans-Continental Hustle opens already drunk on the dizzying one-two of exotics “Pala Tute” and “My Companjera,” so that “Sun Is on My Side” has to bake just for everyone to catch their breath in preparation of the blind Staten Island salute “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher).” “Last One Goes the Hope” buoys the middle third atop the bar, placeholder for acousti-punk tango “In the Meantime in Pernambuco,” new greatest gauntlet. Penultimate “Break the Spell” doesn’t. Do the Hustle.

***

This article appears in May 21 • 2010.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.