Hip-Hop, Fresh Squeezed
The New York Times
Hip-Hop, Fresh Squeezed
By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
July 31, 2005
White guys and live instruments may be minorities in hip-hop, but
they are not so rare. Julian Hintz, who performs as Julz A, still
manages to be a hip-hop anomaly, however: he rhymes while playing the
accordion. 
The instrument is less apt to roll with the posse than
roll out the barrel, but onstage Mr. Hintz, 27, is polka’s
antithesis. Fingers fanned out at chest level, terry-cloth band on
his wrist, leaning back slightly, he strikes a classic rapper’s pose
despite playing an instrument that has been relegated to Dorkville at
least since the Beatles. Mr. Hintz has long aimed to sex up the
squeezebox: after he picked up the accordion at 16, the first song he
learned to play was “Purple Haze.” Today he uses a wah-wah pedal and
distortion on tracks like “Julz-A.com” (“What’s that new sound/
accordion lowdown” and “the accordion man/ with the rockin’ hand”)
from his first solo EP, “Squeeze Rock,” to be released at a Knitting
Factory show on Aug. 30. Mr. Hintz discussed a few other modern
appearances of the accordion with Andrew Adam Newman.
“ROCKY RACCOON,” the Beatles (1968): “This is one of those songs
where the accordion fills a theatrical role. It comes in for about 10
seconds – when ‘the doctor comes in, stinking of gin’ – and then
disappears again. And it’s intentionally played badly – the style of
drunk playing.”
“COLD, COLD GROUND,” Tom Waits (1987): “Every time I tell people I
play the accordion, they say, ‘You must love Tom Waits.’ I don’t. The
way he uses the accordion is a gimmick. He’s just taking accordion
waltzes and sticking them into a minor key to create this scene, and
even though he’s trying to create this dark mood it still seems sort
of goofy.”
“THE DOWNEASTER ALEXA,” Billy Joel (1989): “It’s a beautiful swooping
ballad with solid songwriting and a great melody. I can’t really
complain about it except that the accordion is not featured. I
personally play accordion as if it’s the guitar in a rock band – the
accordion is playing the main riff rather than the guitar player
doing it. But in pop music the accordion oftentimes works as padding
to give harmonic support.”
“PARTICLE MAN,” They Might Be Giants (1990): “The riff for the
accordion is the most similar approach to what I do in these
examples. It has a unique line that uses no traditional accordion
style. There’s no one-two style (boom, chick, boom, chick) that’s so
prevalent in traditional accordion music.”
“JESUS DOESN’T WANT ME FOR A SUNBEAM,” Nirvana (1993): “I’m a big
Nirvana fan. The accordion-playing was very traditional, but it was
still a traditional punk-rock song. It had a melancholy quality that
was kind of sweet.”