International Spotlight: Punkamine (Basque Country)

Tim Krysko of Wreck The Place Fantastic reporting in with our International Spotlight. Every week we're featuring updates and music downloads from bands outside the North American market. This week we're visiting Basque Country, a cultural region that straddles the western Pyrenees mountains betweeen France and Spain:

For those not in know, the Basque Country is a region in northern Spain and southern France. The culture of the Basque people differ enormously from those two European nations, and its language is unrelated to any other known language in the world. Not surprisingly, the country has a long history of nationalist movements, and where there is political action there is often punk rock. So, I took some time to talk to Asel, who is a Basque language and literature teacher, an author - and also the singer of an old school punk band called Punkamine that he formed in 2003.

What do they sound like? Asel explains,

"The influence is mostly 80s traditional punk, especially Dead Kennedys, The Adicts, and Basque bands like La Polla Records and Eskorbuto ... and of course, the early punk times with the Sex Pistols."

And what are their songs about?

"They talk about war and patriotic bullshit, terrorism, the US fucking influence over the world, music, personal drunk experiences, social problems, and education of the young generation. Lyrics are pretty ironic; they mix anger and humor. All of them (and some not included on the CD) are available in English on our website."

And that website is www.punkamine.org. To get you started, here is a Basque language punk rock song called "Gau Puta Honetatik".

Punkamine - Gau Puta Honetatik (MP3)