Amazing Photo From The MJ Memorial

Bryan Chan of the LA Times put together this amazing panorama of the Michael Jackson Memorial at Staples Center. It's almost like standing in the middle of the huge crowd and slowly spinning around.

Photo Shoot Sneak Peak

Are you following TDA's official twitter - Twitter.com/TDAccordions? If so, this past Sunday you may have read of a photo shoot that involved Suzanne, Carri, & Susie.

We're excited to share the final photo with everybody & we'll be divulging more details as soon as we can, so stay tuned!

AOL Radio Launches It's Polka Channel!

AOL Radio launches it's Polka Channel today and I'm honored that they asked TDA to be a part of it. The channel will feature all different styles of polka. Here's some easy to follow instructions I received from AOL on how to tune in.

"You do not have to be a subscriber to AOL to listen and there is no charge to you to listen. It is free to all plus we have a great tuner app for iPhones.
Here’s how you tune in from your computer.
Point your Internet browser to: www.aolradio.com and you’ll see a button on the page that says “Listen Now.” Click that and a player pops up. There will be a big column on the left hand side that says “Stations By Category.” Polka will be in the category “World/International” at the bottom of the alphabetical category listing. For a short time it will also be listed in “What’s New” at the top of the column.

Be sure to rate the songs you like, because that's how they decide which ones to keep playing. (Hint,hint)

Who knows, this could be the first step to bringing back the Polka Grammy!

White Castle Memories

When I was 17 I had a Honda CB 160 which I thought was the coolest bike in the world. A few of my buddies had bikes too and we used to all sleep over at someone's house and then take off for midnight rides. Our route was usually Outer Drive, which is a loop that runs through Dearborn and a bunch of Detroit Metro suburbs, as well as Detroit itself. One highlight of the trip was going by Zug Island, just downstream from the Ford Rouge Plant, and marveling at the flames that shot out of the smokestacks. Very cool.
Another highlight was our stop at Mott's Hamburgers, (now called Motz's Hamburgers because the old owner wouldn't sell the name) which was a knock off of White Castle, It had the exact same white tile building, in fact, now that I think of it, it probably WAS a White Castle that had relocated elsewhere. (Like everything else in Detroit.) We loaded up with 8-10 sliders each and hopped back on our bikes to complete the loop and get back home right around sunrise. Those were the days! If you'd like a taste of this experience, White Castle is making it easy. To celebrate their 88th birthday they are giving away free sliders. Kick start that old bike and go pick one (or 10) up!

TDA Covers: 20 Years of Accordion-Fueled Rock 'n' Roll

Those Darn Accordions has covered some pretty varied musical terrain over the past two decades. The originals and polkas are one thing -- we've tossed plenty of tunes into the genre blender and pushed frappe repeatedly. We tried not to make too much of a mess.

But, as you can tell by this long (and probably incomplete) list of rock 'n' roll songs we've played over the years, we've taken the accordion to some pretty strange places in our never-ending pursuit of the ultimate squeezebox rock cover songs. Some of these covers became staples of TDA shows and even made it on to our recordings; others disappeared from the set list almost immediately, for whatever reason.

As we pull together set lists for our 20-city tour, we've been thinking a lot about what we should play. We've been getting a kick out of the whole "trip down memory lane" thing, and we'd like to take you with us.

So let us know: Which of these covers would you like to hear? Which ones should be banished forever? And which ones have we forgotten entirely? Let us know in the comments section below.


Whole Lotta Love/ Black Dog -- Led Zeppelin
Magic Carpet Ride -- Steppenwolf
Low Rider -- War
Frankenstein -- The Edgar Winter Group
We're an Accordion Band -- Grand Funk Railroad
The Devil Went Down to Georgia -- The Charlie Daniels Band
Back in Black -- AC/DC
Baba O'Riley -- The Who
Radar Love -- Golden Earring
Pump It Up -- Elvis Costello
Making Our Dreams Come True -- "Laverne and Shirley" theme song
Godzilla -- Blue Oyster Cult
I Melt With You -- Modern English
Moondance -- Van Morrison
Party Hard -- Andrew W.K.
Shine Your Light -- The Mavericks
Aqualung -- Jethro Tull
Stairway to Heaven -- Led Zeppelin
Uncontrollable Urge -- Devo
Fire -- Jimi Hendrix
Surrender -- Cheap Trick
(Keep Feeling) Fascination -- The Human League
Proud Mary -- Ike and Tina Turner
It's Now or Never -- Elvis Presley
Play That Funky Music -- Wild Cherry
Viva Las Vegas -- Elvis Presley
It's Not Unusual -- Tom Jones
Our House -- Madness
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy -- Rod Stewart
Sleep Walk -- Santo & Johnny.
Walk Don't Run -- the Ventures
Pick up the Pieces -- Average White Band
Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk) -- Parliament
Dancing Queen -- ABBA
Dance to the Music -- Sly and the Family Stone
Walk This Way -- Aerosmith

Follow Drew's Blog

Drew Carey has a blog up and is posting some funny and interesting stuff ranging from his job hosting TPIR (The Price Is Right), The Seattle Sounders (he's a minority owner), his adventures on Second Life and his adventures in real life. Dang, if he gets a third life I won't be able to keep up.

Dreaming Up a New T-Shirt

This being our 20th anniversary and all, I thought we should try to come up with a new t-shirt. I had a meeting with a local artist/friend and we knocked around a few ideas. I'm pretty excited to see what he comes up with. His name is Frank Samuelson and he's done some very cool work. Check it out!
BTW, we will be phasing out the Flaming T's, so if you think you might want one, you should drop by the TDA store.