We've played some great shows recently. The photo (taken by our friend Andrew) is from our Christmas party at Mikey's Juke Joint in Calgary, and features Lincoln Frey as "the Bishop". Packed house, three sets of mayhem, and a brace of Xmas songs - "Jingle Bells" as a kalamatiano, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Rebetis" as a zeimbekiko, and the ever-popular "God Rest Ye Merry, Trainwreck".

New Years Eve was spent playing the party at Kefi, a newish Greek restaurant on MacLeod Trail in Calgary - thanks to Gus and Tony at Kefi. Try the kalamari.

We opened up for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the Jack Singer. A humbling experience. Those guys can play pretty good.

And many thanks to all of you who came out for the CD release party on a cold night at the end of November. And to our special guests Zoe Theodorou and Jon May recreating their fine contributions to "Kafeneion".

Jonathan Lewis travels to Greece to study with an Epirotian master

Rembetika Hipsters Jonathan Lewis has a keen interest in the music of the mountainous Greek region of Epirus. This music, known as Epirotika, is dominated by clarinet and violin and often features polyphonic vocal melodies.
Thanks to a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Jonathan travelled to Kastoria, Greece this September to study Epirotian violin with Aourel Kyrio. You can hear Aurel playing here . To hear some of Jonathan's explorations of Epirotika, go here.

Video of "Michaela Tripticho"

Rembetika Hipsters from Big Sky Sessions on Vimeo.

This is a videi shoot we did back in March for Big Sky Sessions. Shot on the observation deck of the Calgary Tower - the overhanging glass floor. One take only. Don't look down....

Palookaville

I'm a big fan of the self-styled underground cartoonist Seth of Drawn & Quarterly Publications, for his ongoing comic Palookaville, for the amazing Bannock, Beans and Black Tea memoir, for his work designing the ongoing Complete Peanuts for Fantagraphics.

So I was surprised and thrilled to find that the Rembetika Hipsters make an appearance in Palookaville #20. In a story called "Calgary Festival", he recounts an existential crisis he experienced while booked to read at the 2001 Wordfest festival. While in Calgary, he attends our CD release party for our first album Architects of Narghile at the late lamented Night Gallery Cabaret.

"the band comes on, they are actually quite good". Love it! - Allen

Jonathan found this, a great BBC documentary on Epirotian music: here

MySpace

New MySpace Page : http://www.myspace.com/rembetikahipsters - includes rough mixes of some new recordings.

Illyas Pagonis

If you're at all a regular at Pegasus Wednesdays over the past 5 years or so, you've probably seen a wild-haired Greek sitting in with us from time to time playing violin. Illyas Pagonis isn't mentioned anywhere on this website yet so I thought I'd correct the oversight. He's one of the Hipsters' best friends and patrons, and we're hoping he'll do the cover art for our next album - you see, Illyas is a pretty phenomenal painter and sculptor. Among his many sculptural projects was the restoration of Calgary's Centre Street Bridge lions. In 1999 the Centre Street Bridge received a major overhaul. Prominent on the bridge were sculpted lions sitting on top of kiosks on the four corners of the bridge. Having been built in 1916, the lions had badly deteriorated. It was decided that the original lions would have to be replaced with exact replicas. Illyas Pagonis did the work. He also designed some of the prehistoric park at the Calgary Zoo. As a visual artist, Illyas' depictions of the Canadian west are represented locally by the Virginia Christopher gallery. He and his wife Margo just celebrated 30 years of marriage. Yiasou Illya!