Mardi Gras: "What is Ya Ka May?"

Rick Farman, whom I first met as the guy behind mega music fests Outside Lands and Bonnaroo, shares a fun, Mardi Gras-themed video with us today from the "modern New Orleans funk" band Galactic. We've featured them before on Boing Boing TV. I caught their set at Outside Lands with Russell Porter. The funk was so thick you could scoop it up with a spatula.

Rick says, "Galactic just released an incredible new record. This video piece really sums up the project well."

Ya-Ka-May (or yaka mein) is the name of a traditional soup enjoyed in New Orleans, as the video explains, and it is also the name of the band's new album. The band's on Twittah.

Video Link: What is Ya Ka May? (duration 5:00, YouTube)

Previously: "Boing Boing TV—Galactic's Modern New Orleans Funk with Xeni and Russell"

• [Anonymous]

  Galactic is literally the best live band in America! They bring a New Orleans party every night. They will be on the West Coast soon and next weekend at the Fillmore in Denver with Karl Denson will who also join forces with them at The Pageant in St. Louis and the Wilma Theater in Missoula! Apparently each night both full bands will perform together in a special one-time collaboration where they will cover classic songs voted upon by their fans! Only a New Orleans band could pull off this kind of crazy collaboration. The band have nominated several classic hits and you can vote here…

  http://www.galacticfunk.com/NEW2007/TRL/index-kd.php?skin=8

  Galactic’s full tour is here
  http://www.galacticfunk.com/NEW2007/gigs/index.php?skin=8

• [Bayou Maharajah]

  Nice to see Big Freedia and sissy bounce getting some time in here. If ever there was a good subject for a BoingBoing TV piece, it’s sissy bounce. Awesome video. There’s even a quick shot of good ol’ Verti Marte!

• [arkizzle / Moderator]

  Cool, I’ll def be checking this out. Ya-Ka-May Soup sounds like the new Memphis Soul Stew :)

• [ADavies]

  I saw these guys when they came through Amsterdam. Really good show.

• [Boeotian]

  I would also strongly recommend Rebirth Brass Band, as some of their members were present in the video. One of my favourite brass bands out there.

• [Anonymous]

  Why doesn’t anyone in the video have a southern accent?

• [Phikus]

  The new album is definitely a gumbo of assorted N.O. musicians of today. I’m sure at Jazzfest this year Galactic will have a lot of local guests in their set, reflective of this heterogeneous album.

  Anon@4: Please retire your stereotype. It doesn’t hold with reality for the most part.

  Anon@6: Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead translated it in an interview a while back, as I recall (they used to cover Iko Iko regularly) as “If you don’t like it, you can kiss my ass.”

  Anon@7: Plenty of women on the album. Give it a listen.

• [Anonymous]

  anon #4 – New Orleans is a port city with similar immigration patterns as New York and Baltimore. Americans with southern accents didn’t come here until after the Louisiana Purchase, and they’re a small slice of the population. There are still Creole folks growing up here whose first language is French, but there’s also a strong influence of German, Italian and other Mediterranean/Eastern European cultures, and Irish. More people here sound like they came from Brooklyn than from Georgia. And a lot of people have very little accent at all.

• [Ugly Canuck]

  Can one city have too much music?

  Some New Orleans stuff that deserves wider play (and there’s a lot of that, IMO!), brought to you by ” 9th Ward Jukebox”:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg1UcetyljU&feature=related

  Here’s hoping everyone has some fun this Mardi Gras!

• [Anonymous]

  Okay so now can someone explain to me what jacomo fee-na-nay is?

• [Anonymous]

  This stuff sounds great. I LOVE New Orleans. Where are the women though? (And I’m not counting booty shakers, talented as they are!) I’m not snarking, I’m just asking – where are the women?