What this world needs is a Lithuanian trio who sing in Spanish, make their own hats and insert their arms into bigger sleeves than Elvis. Thankfully, the boys of Planeta Polar provide exactly this service on a regular basis. Beautifully lacking in logic, their flamboyant costumes create an absurd contrast against their humble, home-cooked stage presence while they deliver an impossibly authentic repertoire of latin carnival songs you will assume were written somewhere near the Caribbean, not the Baltic Sea.
Their stated mission is to make people shake their hips, which is a thing Lithuanians don’t normally do. “Challenge accepted” say Planeta Polar, picking up a bass guitar, some bongos and an accordion with a toy synthesiser stuck on top of it. Highlights of the show include the one about the big elephant, the one about the girl and “Puro Carnaval”, a song which is unsurprisingly about the purity of carnival. When asked why he writes in Spanish instead of Lithuanian, frontman [name here] explains "because I don't know how to write songs in Lithuanian". Let's be fair – not many people do.
Planeta Polar sound like The Doors would have sounded if they’d taken stimulants instead of psychedelics. Maybe this explanation makes no sense to you, but remember you don’t have to understand Planeta Polar, or their lyrics, to have a great time listening to their music.

Boliche

Planeta Polar - Boliche

Queens of the Stone Age - Go With The Flow (echolounge remix)

The XX - Crystalised

Black Pistol Fire - Suffocation Blues

The Black Keys - Heavy Soul

The Cardigans - My Favorite Game (Acoustic)

U2 - HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME - Cover By StonE 2017

The Blue Stones - Be My Fire

MAGIC WANDS - Black Magic

iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/secret-south/id324219873

16 Horsepower looms large in the Alternative Tentacles catalog, and over the entire alt-Americana musical landscape. Secret South is a cornerstone to this Denver band’s legacy, their first indie outing after departing A&M, recorded at Hamilton Glory Lodge outside Blue River, Colorado, in 2000. This album has long been out of print in America (originally released on Razor and Tie) and only available on vinyl in a very limited edition in Europe through Glitterhouse. As rural gothic goes, one cannot do much better than David Eugene Edwards and company, with their use of acoustic old-time instruments mixed with the impassioned vocals and fire-and-brimstone lyrics (excepting a cover of Dylan’s “Nobody ’Cept You”). Additional surround-sound mix of the album by producer Bob Ferbrache (Blood Axis, Soul Merchants) for this release is included on the DVD-audio format for both the 180-gram black vinyl LP and the CD. 

<i>“... the result is a forlorn dustbowl saloon bar where Nick Cave woefully sinks bourbons with The Gun Club only moments after a loved one’s funeral parade.... The objective was to make a fucking brilliant album where the mood is king, the delivery is queen, and studied modern coolness is a jester that’s one misplaced quip away from being the lion’s breakfast. And, of course, they’ve succeeded.” —NME (9/10 rating)  

“In just two songs, then, only one of them original, 16 Horsepower has made good on its promise of a “secret South,” and well before Edwards has gotten around to sticking the phrase in a song. The old-time religion from which the music is made—the belief that the devil is ever-present but in the deepest sense ephemeral, that God is hard to find but absolute, and that both are part of the landscape, in the air, in the swamp, running through the woods—encloses the performers, and they seem very old.” —Greil Marcus</i>

Sixteen Horsepower - Wayfaring Stranger

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Planeta Polar - Boliche

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