MILWAUKEE — You've probably never heard a band combine musical genres like this one group in Milwaukee. What do you get when you combine an accordion, drums, bass, and three MCs? Polka Hip-Hop.
The November Criminals are a polka hip-hop group from Milwaukee. They have been around since 2011.
"You could simply define us as the world's first and only non-ironic anti-fascist polka hit hop band, Evan Maruszewski, the melodeon (a type of accordion) player and MC, said.
The accordion provides the polka vibe, the drums lay down the beat, a bass sets the groove, and three MCs rap the lyrics.
“This is in fact a labor of love. We do actually believe in the concept of musical melding and just putting things together that are kind of unique and wouldn’t belong together normally," Keith Gaustad, the Brümeister and one of the MCs, said.
The group's sound is a little funky, weird, and cool all at the same time. They believe it reflects the people of Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
"All those things you just said you could apply to the City of Milwaukee. We got some funkiness, definitely cool, a little weird, we got all those things going for us," Gaustad said.
Watch the video to hear what polka hip-hop sounds like...
Wisconsin has a strong polka tradition. There used to be an elevator in what is now the Baird Center called the 'Polka Escalator'. There's a group of accordion enthusiasts in Milwaukee who gather often to play polka music too. The November Criminals draw from classic folk-style music and blend it with the many variations of hip-hop music.
"We're building this genre from the ground up. We're creating it anew cause no one else had the terrible idea of mixing these disparate genres of music," Maruszewski said.
The blending of genres creates a vibe that hip-hop heads can enjoy and polka purists can still identify with. For as infectious as this seemingly strange musical pairing is, the group said it was hard to play shows around the city. So they came up with a solution.
“It’s very difficult to get bookings in large-scale festivals which is why we ended up starting our own called the Milwaukee Polka Riot," Gaustad said.
The Milwaukee Polka Riot is an alternative polka festival featuring bands adjacent to the genre like a polka Beatles cover band or punk polka. The first one was held in 2017.
“We want to throw wide the doors to all of these weird bands that had a hard time finding where they fit like we did in those early days," Maruszewski said.
The show is on Saturday, Sept. 7th at Last Rites bar in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood from 2 pm to 8 pm. It’s free and features six different acts including the legendary Milwaukee musician Sigmund Snopek III. He toured with the Violent Femmes, played at Carnegie Hall, and has performed at Summerfest for 53 years.
“It’s fun to play the alp horn and to fit into the whole scene with the German scene and the polkas and how it hooks up with Milwaukee," Snopek said.
Here's the lineup in order: Sigmund Snopek, Sgt. Sauerkraut Polka Band, Dead Freddy, Polkaholics, Mario 'The Poet', and the November Criminals.
While the festival is at a bar, it is still family-friendly. You can purchase drinks at the bar and food across the street at Zócalo Food Park. The November Criminals encourages those attending to buy merchandise like shirts, koozies, and hats which help fund the festival.
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