“Who is this band, Gogol Bordello?” asks Xavier Ferdón, guitarist for Asheville folk-punk collective Sirius.b.

It’s the band’s gypsy-infused violins (they have two), European street sensibilities, world-traveled tunes and multiethnic lineup that warrant comparisons to New York City gypsy-punk icons Gogol Bordello, a group fronted by Ukrainian-born lunatic-turned-actor Eugene Hütz that did much to inject Slavic culture into the New York underground music scene.
Sirius.b, likewise, boasts some far-flung roots. Ferdón claims Vorkuta, Siberia, as his hometown (then again, his MySpace page names “prankster” as his occupation and he speaks with no trace of an accent). He’s joined by drummer Imhotep (a recent New Orleans transplant) and songwriter Pancho Romero Bond (who speaks multiple languages). Fully manned, there are six members, including new recruits Jamie Davis on bass and violinist Hannah Furgiuele.
Sirius.b, however, isn’t planning to follow (at least not directly) in Gogol Bordello’s footsteps.
“We saw Everything is Illuminated,” Bond says of Hütz’s 2005 big-screen vehicle. “We thought, ‘This is great,’ but for the longest while we didn’t have any Gogol Bordello albums. It’s only sort of recently we started to learn more about them.”
Instead, the group considers its sound a happy accident.
“Fusion would imply intention, that’s my impression,” Ferdón says. Neither he nor Bond wants to classify the band as fusion or world music.
“Absurdist” is one description they’re comfortable with—which is fitting with lyrics like, “Your aunt was a microbe who lived in a bathrobe. She’d wear it night and day.”
“This is more our own thing,” the guitarist states, “flavored with various elements.”
And discovering those elements has been years in the works. Ferdón and Bond met at college in Columbia, S.C., where they first played together in a band. The guitarist delicately explains, “We only had two shows.”
Ferdón went on to study flamenco guitar in Spain for most of a year before returning to Asheville to head up U.S. distribution for Spanish-made Alhambra guitars.
Violinist Laura Baskervill came into the band through providence and plenty of wine. She found herself missing her old fiddle during a jam session at the house shared by Ferdón and Bond, and picked up a sad, out-of-tune violin that was missing a string. “Stuff started flowing,” she recalls. “Or maybe I just thought it was because I was a little drunk.”
“At the beginning, things all started falling together and we were kind of amazed,” Bond remembers.
“People wanted to play with us.”
And, since winning a third-place mention as one of Xpress readers’ favorite
as-yet unknown bands, it’s obvious people want to listen to them, too.

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