Why Limpopo Kicks Ass!

So, why do I like Limpopo so much more than the Red Elvises...
Limpopo is rooted in, well, I cannot say Russian Popular music, but certainly assuming that they are about my age to maybe 5 or 10 years younger, a lot of what they play fucks with the sort of music they would have heard on Soviet radio or television. A lot if is rooted in what have become cliches: Volga Boatmen/Volga Haulers/Ey, ukhnem!, Dark Eyes, Kalinka, Korobeyniki, and Katiusha to list a few of the most familier. I've been sort of training myself to like these Russian standards. I'm sure I got fixated on some of those songs playing Tetris back when I had a Mac SE. But I listen to the Red Army Choir a lot, and the Leningrad Cowboys, who also mine those particular songs for all sorts of things.
Katiusha is my particular downfall. First off, That's The Song They Named The Rockets After!, and I guess that years of peripherally hearing "Katiusha Rockets" on the news it just sunk in as a sort of cool phrase. Then, it's so damn Russian. The girl is wandering in the orchard of blooming trees by the river, blah, blah, blah. Third, it has a lot of weird videos on youtube. It's a perennial patriotic favorite, and if you're producing a Victory Day celebration, you better include it. Finally, it's a pretty kick ass song. And Limpopo does it well. And pokes fun at the tradition as well.
Now, I'm fixated on odd musical instruments, and the accordion tops that list. (Okay, it's not really odd, but it is an instrument that doesn't fit in the rock tradition.) And they have accordion. And they have a bass trombone. And I love that bass trombone. I don't know that I've ever heard a bass trombone anywhere else, and I may never do so. But I love that brass trombone...
And the Red Elvises? They are so adapted to the pop american ear... They sound like most pop music--or at least pop music that isn't in the sappy ballad/easy listening vein of pop music. They just aren't as special. Yeah, I Want to See you Belly Dance is pretty good. I'm glad that people that give me such pleasure are getting bigger chunks of cash and more exposure. But it just sounds like most pop music. Yeah, it's better than a lot of it, but it simply isn't very interesting to me.