Rock

Pop and Rock

• The Accordion Pimps is a hardrock band from Dalarna, Sweden, with Micke Accordion on accordion, who have founded the New Wave Of Swedish Accordion Metal. They seem to be big fans of Roland Cedermark.
• Domenic Amatucci's Beatles Accordion Page, with audio clips of him playing Beatles songs
• American Singer is a folk rock band from Washington DC with Scott Trowbridge on accordion and lead vocals

• Benny Andersson got an accordion from his father when he was six. He played it with Abba sometimes, for instance on the 1977 and 1979 ABBA World Tours (as evidenced by photos on the ABBA Annual Homepage ). Also, after ABBA, he has recorded two albums with Swedish folk-like music, with the Orsa Spelman. () Accordionist Larsåke Leksell is also a member of the Orsa Spelmann
• Angel Corpus Christi is a pop/rock band in which the leading lady, Angel, plays accordion. The accordion has been featured on all of their recordings (although in the beginning it was so unhip that their record company made them say "keyboards").
• The Aqua Velvets from San Francisco, with Michael Lindner on bass, keyboards and accordion, play instrumental surf music. A page for The Aqua Velvets at mp3.com

• The Bad Things is a band from Seattle, led by "Jimmy the Pickpocket" on accordion. It is the successor of "A Midnite Choir". They mix gypsy and other traditional music, vaudeville theatre and punk rock. A CD Baby page for The Bad Things
• Garth Hudson plays accordion (and other instruments) in The Band
• The Band of Holy Joy from London, with Alf Thomas on accordion (now defunct). Another slightly more legible Band of Holy Joy page.

• The Barenaked Ladies from Canada with Kevin Hearn on keyboards, accordion and guitar. A Barenaked Ladies biography, with their song "One Week" in Real Audio
• Willem Barten from the Netherlands used to play in Max Tax y sus banditos; currently he plays and sings in duo Brintaas, () with Philip Augusteijn on guitar and double bass, and blues in the Shuffle House Band () -- that's the house band of Café The Shuffle.
• The Beatles and the Free-Reed Instruments, an essay by Henry Doktorski. Although the Beatles were instrumental in the declining popularity of the accordion, they did use free-reed instruments on most of their albums.

• Bersuit Vergarabat () is a rock band from Argentina, with Juan Subirá on keyboards and accordion. [site uses flash]
• Gérard Blanchard () [Wikipedia entry] is a French singer/songwriter and accordionist, who was one of the first to play accordion in rock music. His first band, in the mid seventies, was Roxy Musette; after a few more bands he started playing solo in 1980. A myspace page for Gérard Blanchard ()
• Both David Bryan and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi play the accordion (or know how to, at least)

• BZN from Volendam, the Netherlands, with Dick Plat on keyboards, piano and accordion (genre: paling sound)
• Peter Cetera of Chicago learned to play accordion before he learned to play guitar and bass
• chanson-francaise.net () is a site with biographies, song texts etc. of numerous (rock) groups that sing in French. Many of them with accordions in, of course.

• Cheapers () is a Japanese blues band, with Kumiko on accordion.
• Fyodor Chistyakov () is a rock accordionist from St. Petersburg.
• Cirkus Miramar () from Sweden, with Mike Petersen on violin and accordion

• Yasuhiro Kobayashi (COBA) () is probably the most famous accordionist from Japan. A blog for COBA. ()
• English multi-instrumentalist Marc Cole plays accordion in American style roots/rock band the Dockery Boys
• Ad Cominotto from Hasselt, Belgium, began to play contemporary classical music for accordion while he studied piano at the conservatory of Liege. Afterwards, he mainly switched to keyboard (not neglecting the accordion completely), and he has recorded with amongst others Arno, Elisa Waut and David Byrne. Recently he has taken up the classical side again as well.

• The Cosmic Sausages are a London based 5 piece psycoskiffle folk roots street band, with Dan Teper and Philippe Wittwer on accordion (in the UK and abroad, respectively; Celia Forestall left to have a baby), playing material ranging from the most beautiful jigs and reels, Eastern European folk tunes and Russian Polka's to the latest hits of Madonna and Prince.
• Counting Crows with Charlie Gillingham on piano, Hammond B-3 organ, accordion, Chamberlain and vocals
• Crash Test Dummies with Ellen Reid on back-up vocals, piano, keyboards, accordion

• The Crawdaddies are a band from Baltimore, Maryland, with Kraig Greff on accordion, who mix Cajun and Zydeco with North Eastern Roots Rock, Americana, Ska, etc.
• Sheryl Crow in MTV Unplugged, or at a gig with Bob Dylan.
• DAAU [flash site] (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung) is a band from Antwerp, Belgium with Roel van Camp on accordion. Apart from the accordion, the lineup constists of a violin, a cello and a clarinet - not your average rock band! They play a kind of mixture of rock, jazz, blues and classical music. Another DAAU page. To quote: "we are classically derailed and play with a rock intention". A Wikipedia article for DAAU. An unofficial DAAU web site.

• The Decembrists [flash site] is an indie pop group from New York, with Jenny Conlee on accordion
• Del Amitri with Andy Alston on keyboards and accordion
• The Adventures of AccordionGuy in the 21st Century is the blog of Joey deVilla from Toronto. He plays "Mostly pop and rock -- Nine Inch Nails, Fatboy Slim, AC/DC and a pretty mean Britney." His day job is programming; apparently he does use his accordion for presentations (but mainly for attracting women :-)

• DeVotchKa! is a punk rock band from Denver, Colorado, with Tom Hagerman on violin and accordion (and they've got sousaphone and theremin as well..). d by Eastern European, Southwestern, South American, and American punk and folk roots. Their are influenced by gypsy music, cabaret, spaghetti Westerns, etc.
• Os Diplomáticos de Monte-Alto () was a Spanish rock&roots band, with Manolo Maseda on vocals, accordion and saxophone, and Rómulo Sanjurjo on accordion and guitars. They disbanded in 2005. A page for Os Diplomaticos at RootsWorld/cdRoots.
• Russian speed folk conglomerate Dr. Bajan () and his band, Sovietabilly, might sing some Russian revolutionary or folk songs, but there's an awful lot of Deep Purple or Frank Zappa in the mix as well!

• Aaron Seeman is a versatile accordionist from Oakland, California. Amongst others he plays classical music and klezmer; Romanian folk in Fishtank Ensemble; and rock and punk as Duckmandu. Under that moniker he recorded a note for note rendition of the Dead Kennedys' album "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables" -- but also ditties like Tom Lehrer's "The Elements".
• Bob Dylan plays accordion on "Born In Time", on the 1990 album Under The Red Sky
• Easy Big Fella were a ska revival band from Seattle, with Liam Barksdale on vocals, trumpet and accordion.

• Field Trip with B. C. Sterrett and Carrie Burks, both on accordion, is an accordion rock semi-educational novelty band hailing from Santa Clarita, California.
• The Fins, a party rock/R&B band working in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. keyboard player Jimbo Lancaster wears an accordion on special occasions - and plays it a little.
• Five O'clock People were a band from Portland, Oregon, with Alex Walker on vocals, guitars, accordion and percussion, who played folk inflected pop songs.

• Peter Gabriel plays accordion on 'Trespass'
• Garófalos () is a rock band from Argentina with Campoliete Mariano on vocals, charango and accordion.
• Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, with Yuri Lemeshev (previously Sasha Kazatchkoff) on accordion, was described by Phill Jupitus as "a bit like The Clash having a fight with The Pogues in Eastern Europe". A Wikipedia page for Gogol Bordello. Gogol Bordello's myspace page.

• Alpen-rocker Hubert von Goisern from Upper Austria. From 2007-2009 he is touring by ship on the Linz Europa Tour: [Flash site] from Linz down the Danube to the Black Sea, collecting artists along the way, back again, and continuing up the Danube and down the Rhine to Rotterdam, to finish back in Linz again. Local artists include Haydamaky and Hohtraxlecker Sprungschanzenmusi
• The Grandsons, formerly known as Grandsons of the Pioneers, with Chris Watling on saxes and accordion, is a Washington, DC based band, who play a variety of roots music.
• Sarit Hadad is an Israeli singer, who represented her country in the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest. As a child, she was taught the piano, and she taught herself to play the organ, guitar, accordion and darbuka among others.

• Multi-instrumentalist François Hadji-Lazaro plays or played accordion, amongst many other instruments, with a number of French alternative rock bands: Pigalle, () Les Garçons Bouchers () and Los Carayos. () He also set up the (now defunct) Boucherie Production record label. In 2002 he released a solo album, Et si que?. () An interview with François Hadji-Lazaro.
• Högsommarmännen is accordion based group from Bulftown in Sweden who play "very, very, very, very, very easy listening, accordion based pop music."
• Multi-instrumentalist Peter Holsapple, member of the Continental Drifters since 1992, seems to be popular as a session musician. He has played accordion (and guitar) with R.E.M. on 'Shiny Happy People' and on the REM Unplugged CD(-ROM); and also on albums by amongst others the Indigo Girls, Hootie and the Blowfish, and with guitarist Mark Bryan. A Peter Holsapple discography.

• The Hooters [pages below that page have some Java that makes my Netscape crash!] are thus named because of their trademark instrument, the melodica.
• Bruce Hornsby plays accordion, among others with the Grateful Dead for close to a year immediately following the death of keyboardist Brent Midland in July of 1990).
• Hot Tuna with Pete Sears on piano, keyboards, and accordion.

• Aaron Professor "Louie" Hurwitz from Woodstock, New York, has his own band, "Professor Louie & The Crowmatix" in which he plays keyboards and accordion (and sings). Their music is a blend of Rock'n'Roll, Soul, Country and Folk, and they have released 4 CDs so far. He is also active as a record producer (amonst others for The Band), and he has played accordion on CDs by amongst others Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, The Band, Four Men and Dog and Graham Parker.
• Iva Nova is an all-female band from St. Petersburg, Russia, with Elnara Shafigullina on accordion. Their music is a mixture of modern rock and punk and Russian folk music. Their agents for the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, More Zvukov
• Joe Jackson played accordion on the Big World Tour and on the video of "The Big World Sessions". He also played accordion on the song "A Bud And A Slice" on the Heaven & Hell Tour With this instrument - specifically bought for the tour - he tried to recreate the complex arrangement found on the album.

• Jean Michel Jarre [flash site] plays/played accordion on Chronogie (6), on the 1993 Europe in Concert tour, and in the 1995 Concert For Tolerance
• The Jazzabels, Kilissa McGoldrick on guitar and saxophone and Cathy Carfagna on guitar and accordion, from Buffalo, NY, combine elements of folk, country, pop and rock'n'roll. See also a review of their album Skyway
• Joddla med Siv () from Sweden, with Mange Manet (Magnus Jansson) on accordion

• Billy Joel on the album "Storm Front" and the video "Eye of the Storm"; a review of a Billy Joel concert
• Canadian singer, pianist and accordionist Michael Johnston plays acoustic rock -- now solo, previously in quasi-acoustic rock trio Us and Wilbur.
• Julian Hintz a.k.a. Julz A from New York who plays an alternative rock style, "Squeeze Rock Hip Hop", which combines accordion polyphony and beat production with rhyming and singing.

• Jump, formerly called "Jump, Little Children" is a rock band from Charleston, South Carolina, with Matt Bivins on accordion, mandolin, harmonica, tin whistle and vocals
• Kajto () / (in Esperanto) from the Netherlands, with Marian Nesse on accordion (that's akordiono in Esperanto), sing in Esperanto.
• Swedish symphonic rock band Landberk

• Last Call is a blues band from Belgium, in which lead vocalist Henk van der Sypt also plays harmonica and cajun accordion.
• JT Lauritsen & The Buckshot Hunters is a Norwegian band that play a blend of Blues, Rock & Zydeco music -- mainly blues. They are led by Jan Tore Lauritsen on lead vocals, accordion, harmonica, and piano.
• The Leningrad Cowboys from Finland, the world's worst rock'n'roll band, with Mauri Sumen on keyboards (including accordion).

• Limpopo is a crazy Russian Rock 'n Folk band, now based in Southern California, with Yuri Fedorko on bayan
• Nils Lofgren started to play the accordion at the age of 5, although now his main instrument is the guitar. But he still plays the accordion -- amongst others on Neil Young's MTV unplugged session. An interview with Nils Lofgren
• M. Walking on the Water () is an eclectic band from the German Ruhr Area, with Mike Pelzer on accordion, (other) keyboards, guitar and vocals.

• Kenny Margolis is keyboard and accordion player with amongst others Cracker (style: "a Southern-rock Mott The Hoople"), Rogue's March, who play celtic inspred rock'n'roll (that's how they started anyway), and with his own band, Lucky 7. He is also active as a session player.
• The Mekons is a rock band from Leeds, England, with Rico Bell on accordion.
• A Midnite Choir was a band from Seattle in which both Greg Adair and Jimmy Berg played the piano accordion (amongst others). They played what they call: blasphemous ballads, suicide waltzes, and polkas of doom; basically, circusy, Tom Waits-y kind of stuff. Theyve reformed as "The Bad Things".

• Abra Moore, formerly of Poi Dog Pondering, has released a pop/contemporary folk solo album 'Sing', on which she sings and plays guitars, accordion and piano
• Moxy Früvous, a quasi-a-cappella pop group from Toronto, Canada, in which David Matheson plays accordion. An interview with Moxy Früvous
• Naked Barbies from Oakland, CA, with Mike Connor on harmonica, (Sonola A330) accordion, and keyboards

• Nieuwe Helden () [flash site] is a Dutch acoustic trio, with Kok de Koning on diatonic accordion, who play well known and less well known pop, country, jazz, latin and tex-mex.
• Nightingales, a Finnish rock band with Jorma Pirttijärvi on piano, organ and accordion
• Nirvana unplugged in New York saw Krist Novoselic playing Kurt Cobain's accordion on "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam". Apparently, it was the first instrument Kris learned.

• Oingo Boingo was a band from California with Doug Lacy on the accordion; they disbanded 1995.
• Orlek is a band from Zagorje ob Savi, Slovenia, with Jure Tori on accordion. Their music is a mixture or rock and roll and polka punk. Another Orlek () page.
• Entertainer and musician Tim Padilla from Norco, California plays at the Champagne Theater in Branson, Missouri, and in the live touring Welk Show. He also plays rock music in his band Rock-a-Bellows.

• Phil "Mr. Squeeze" Parlapiano is a multi-instrumentalist, who has played with John Prine, Dave Koz, Rod Stewart, Jon Bon Jovi, etc. And he played a button accordionist in the movie "Titanic".
• Poi Dog Pondering had Dave Max Crawford on (amongst others) accordion, but it seems he has left (and the current PdP site abuses flash).
• Poor Rich Ones a folk pop/rock band from Bergen, Norway, formerly with Kjetil Gåsland on bass, accordion and pumporgan. Their debut album, "Naivety's Star", got 4 stars out of 6 from Panorama Musikk, their second album From The Makers Of Ozium () even got 6 stars out of 6, and has been number 1 in the Norwegian Album Top 40. I don't know whether there is any accordion on that one, though.

• Gary Brooker of Procol Harum plays the accordion
• RACK () is an rock band from Belgium with 3 accordionists: Nico Bovijn, David Lefebre and Francis Bovijn.
• Mike Mills plays accordion in R.E.M. and besides, the book IT CRAWLED FROM THE SOUTH: AN R.E.M. COMPANION quotes Michael Stipe saying "When I was about eight or nine, I played accordion, piano and guitar."

• The Rheostatics from Toronto, with Tim Vesely on accordion (occasionally)
• Kitty Rumping () was the vocalist and accordionist of the band Kitstone from Beverwijk, the Netherlands; they played plays "eigentijdse pop", modern pop, but the band stoppped after 16 years in 2006. Early 2007 Kitty Rumping formed a new band, but that one does not have a name yet.
• Apparently Samim's Heater, a.k.a. The Ibiza Accordion Anthem [youtube video] was the UK summer hit of 2007, hailed by Pete Tong as his "Essential New Tune". It samples the Columbian "Cumbia Sienaguera". The Heater video was shot in 9 cities across the world in 14 days, (with an accordion in it, of course).

• Botielus from Portland, Oregon, perform wacky singing telegrams as 3 different acts. As Polkadot Wizard he prides himself on being the cheesiest accordion show in the Universe.
• Sandmann () is the band of painter and musician Gernot Fischer-Kondratovitch () [flash site] from Austria. They play a mixture of songs in German, Italian, French, Spanish, English and instrumental music - many of it played with the accordeon.
• Schatzy is a rock/folk band from New Orleans, fronted by Greg Schatz on vocals, accordion, bass, guitar, and keyboards.

• Schintaler () [flash site] is a pop band from the Limburgh province of the Netherlands, with Frans Senden on accordion, guitar and keyboards. They have recorded a number of CDs in the Limburgh dialect, and recently one in Dutch.
• Gary Sredzienski from Greenland, NH, plays traditional styles and old country Polish folk music. Besides, he plays in a surf rock band, "The Serfs"
• According to the Paul Simon discography, his albums regularly feature an accordion

• Michael MacNeil of The Simple Minds plays piano, accordion & electric keyboards on the album Street Fighting Years
• 16 Horsepower is a grunge/ alternative/ rock/ country/ bluegrass/ jazz/ whatever band from Denver, with front man David Eugene Edwards on Chemnitzer, amongst others. According to the Wikipedia entry on 16 Horsepower the band disbanded in 2005.
• Hans T. Zeiner-Henriksen from Oslo used to sing and play organ and accordion in St. Hanshaugen Poporkester and music inspired by the 60s in "The Sign". But not anymore, it seems.

• Superelvis from Barcelona, with Alfredo Costa Monteiro on accordion (since 1995), was founded in 1986. In 1996 their album "Happiness Is Stupid" was elected "Best Spanish Album Of The Year" by magazine Rock De Lux.
• Thierry Svahn () plays piano accordion and keyboards, now solo; previously he played in "Pigalle" and in "Les Garçons Bouchers".
• Swee () / () is a Frysian folk rock band, with Tsjerk Bootsma on amongst others accordion. It used to be Reboelje, () but that band stopped after the lead singer left.

• Termite from Camden, NJ, with H-Man on accordion and piano, "have explored rock and roll, blues, jazz, bluegrass, big band, polkas, country, R&B, and whaling songs, and have mastered none of these"
• Parisian neorealist band Les Têtes Raides () (with Christian Olivier on accordion, I think)
• The Official They Might Be Giants Home Page. The Unofficial They Might Be Giants Page.

• Those Darn Accordions! is probably the wildest accordion band around. There are video and audio samples there; elsewhere, you can listen to `Autumn in Vilnius (1.5MB .au) or `On our way to Lithuania (1MB .au)
• Turlu Tursu () from Belgium, play "Accordion 'n Drum 'n Bass", with Fabian Beghin providing the accordion part of that. They are an eclectic lot, that mix music from Turkey, India, Ireland, Eastern Europe, etc. with rock and jazz. A page for Turlu Tursu at their record label, Home Records.
• Unicorn Jones, with John Beck on keyboards and accordion, describe their music as High Cabaret but refuse to say what that means.

• Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam plays an accordion he found in a little thrift shop on the song `Bugs'
• Mexican rockera Julieta Venegas. () A Time article Tough As Males mentioning her. Erika Valdez' Julieta Venegas pages.
• Vermishelle Orchestra is an instrumental project from Russia, which borders upon rock, classical and ethnic music. Accordionist Sergey Schurakov previously played in folk rock band Aquarium.

• Tom Waits plays the accordion occasionally, amongst others in the music video "Temptation". He co-wrote and starred in Frank's Wild Years (1986), "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts", "a story of one accordion player's redemption and baptism".
• Jason Webley is one of the more famous Seattle accordionist/singers at the moment. He plays guitar and maybe piano, but he is best known for performing outside with just his accordion and a homemade rattle made from a plastic bottle filled with coins. His performance and singing style is sort of a cross between Tom Waits with an accordion and Kurt Cobain singing sea chanteys, with perhaps a dose of Baby Gramps thrown in for good measure. RealAudio for most of his songs.
• The Webstirs is an original pop/rock group from Chicago, with Mark Winkler on piano, accordion, French horn, and vocals

• Weird Al Yankovic. The text of a 58 page booklet on Weird Al by Dr. Demento. Al-oholics Anonymous.
• The Wonder Stuff is a (now defunct) folk rock band, with Martin Bell on (amongst others) accordion (on a few albums, anyway).
• The Yard Dog Roadshow from San Francisco is a mix of cabaret, vaudeville and rock and roll.

• Yezda Urfa is a progressive rock band with Phil Kimbrough on accordion (and other instruments). The band existed from 1973 to 1981, and again from 2004 onwards, it seems.
• The portfolio of jt yost includes hand-painted accordion block prints (image on the bottom row). He played with a band called Drunk for about seven years, "doing kind of depressing, introspective, beautiful kinda stuff along the lines of maybe Leonard Cohen or Will Oldham".
• Zolty Cracker, a "motorfolk tribal-pop" band from Vancouver, with Annie Wilkinson on bass, accordion (sometimes) and vocals.

Punk

• German folkpunk band Across the Border
• Ahmed má hlad () is a klezmer/punk band from the Czech Republic, with with Daniel Hůle on accordion. A review of Ahmed má hlad "Magadan" CD
• Bad Livers from Austin play(ed) bluegrass/punk/trash. Ralph White on fiddle and accordion was a member until 1996. An old Bad Livers biography.

• Black Cabbage is an eight-piece soulfolkpunk band from Guelph, Ontario with Michael Barclay on accordion, organ and alto saxophone
• Eläkeläiset is Finnish band with Lassi "Hurja" Kinnunen Jr. on on accordion. Their website is called humppa.com; hoompah seems to be a fair description of their sound.
• Flogging Molly from Los Angeles plays a mix of traditional Irish punk music and hard-core punk rock, though they also have some zydeco and country influences. Apparently in his former life Matt Henly, their accordion player, was a professional skateboarder.

• Avant garde/cabaret/Cajun/classical performer Phoebe Legere from New York. [That's a rather long flash intro, leading into The World of Phoebe Legere] A Phoebe Legere interview. A Wikipedia entry for Phoebe Legere
• Lily of the Valley () is an all-female folk-rock-fun-punk-frauen-band from Wiesbaden with Eva Risch on vocals, viola, accordion (guitar, bass)
• The Low and Sweet Orchestra with James Fearnley (formerly of the Pogues) made one album, but their record label pulled the plug on halfway through their 1997 Tour.

• Lozenge with Kyle Bruckmann on feedback-prone accordion (plus a few other instruments)
• MaCavity's Cat is a cowpunk/punkfolk band from England, with Louden Forthright on accordion, trumpet, and vocals
• Les Négresses Vertes () [Flash site] is a French band that are a kind of mix of punk, folk, rai and latin, with Matthias Canavase on accordion. A Les Négresses Vertes biography. A Wikipedia article for Les Négresses Vertes

• Franz A. Nicolay is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from New York. He plays accordion in two groups: cabaret-punk circus The World/Inferno Friendship Society and in Gypsy-klezmer band Guignol. He is also the founder of composer/performer collective Anti-Social Music. A Wikipedia entry for Franz Nicolay
• Esmeralda Strange from San Francisco is a one-woman punk rock band: she plays the accordion, drums and sings at the same time. Her musical influences include urban folk, cumbia, circus music, Norteno/ranchero, and an Eastern European gypsy sound.