Bambi Kino

A gimmick, but kind of a fun one, Bambi Kino was formed to celebrate (and replicate) the Beatles' first concerts in Hamburg, Germany. The people in the band are medium well-known in other contexts. (I hesitate to say "super group" but maybe "semi-super group" or possibly "well-over-average group".) They include Doug Gillard from GBV (also see yesterday's Lifeguards blog), Mark Rozzo from Maplewood, Ira Elliot from Nada Surf, and Erik Paparazzi of Cat Power's band. The band originally came together for a concert in the summer of 2009, then were invited to Hamburg to the actual Bambi Kino club to re-create the earliest Beatles concerts.

I think everybody knows that I'm more of a Stones person than Beatles, but this is early, early, early Beatles, back when they were doing a lot of covers...and the disc (self-titled, out on Tapete records) has some killer versions of early 60s songs like "Shakin All Over" (Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, but memorably covered by the Who), "Ramrod" (Duane Eddy) and "Soldier of Love" (Arthur Alexander, but also done by Marshall Crenshaw and Pearl Jam, as well as the Beatles).

So yeah, super fun and performed with a great deal of enthusiam, what's not to like?