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Taxi (Romanian band)

Taxi are a Romanian pop-rock band. Their sound is an eclectic mix of rock and contemporary pop, occasionally introducing other influences such as hot Nashville-style guitar licks.

The band was founded March 13, 1999 in Bucharest. Dan Teodorescu, songwriter, lead vocalist and the band's leader, first recruited Adrian Bortun (with whom he had previously played in "Altceva" ("Something Else"). Bortun recruited his former bandmate Andrei Barbulescu from "Sarmalele Reci" ("Cold Sarmalele"; sarmalele are meat rolls with cabbage); Dan recruited Georgica Patranoiu with whom he had also played before.

Their first Romanian hit was "Criogenia salveaza Romania" ("Cryogenia saves Romania") which gained them fans even among the members of the Romanian Parliament with its ironic political lyrics.

Hai să ne băgam cu toţii-n niste frigidere mari
Să ne congelam pentru vreo suta de ani
Şi să-i aşteptam liniştiti pe-americani
Poa' să vina japonezii, poa' să vina şi nemţii
Să ne facă reformă că noi nu avem preţentii
Doar atât le vom cere: să nu ne uite-n frigidere

- Dan Teodorescu - "Criogenia Salveaza România"

Let's put ourselves all in some huge refrigerators
To freeze for about 100 years
And let the Americans come and solve our problems.
Even The Japanese and the Germans may come
To reform our economy;
We will not complain, but we have a small thing to ask:
"Please, do not forget us in the fridge!..."

It was followed by an EP "Jumătate de album" ("Half an album"), after which drummer Andrei Barbulescu left and was replaced by Lucian Cioarga. Shortly after their song "Luna" ("The Moon") became the Romanian nominee to the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. They came in seventeenth, a higher rank than any other Romanian band ever had, but disappointing nonetheless. A few months after the Festival in Stockholm, they debuted an English-language song called "E.B.U - European Broadcasting Union": "We played poker by their rules... But in the end, they told us that four jacks are stronger than four aces."

Taxi welcomed the millennium with a song "Doi zero zero zero" ("Two zero zero zero"). "Jumatate de album" was expanded in July 2000 to a full album "Trag Un Claxon" ("Honk a Horn"). A succession of Romanian hist included "Comunitaru'" ("Ownerless Dog"), which addresses Bucharest's plan of spaying and euthanizing ownerless dogs from the point of view of one of the dogs. The song describes, ironically, the state of the Romanian economy and society, then goes on to a chorus:

Castraţi-mă, castraţi-mă,
Sau, dacă vreţi, eutanasiaţi-ma,
Pentru că singură voastră problema
Sunt eu, câinele comunitar'.

- Dan Teodorescu, "Comunitaru'"

(Castrate me, castrate me,
Or, if you like, euthanize me,
Because your only problem
Is me, the ownerless dog.)

This appeared on their 2001 album "Americanofonia", the title track of which is a song about the flood of English-language expressions entering Romanian:

Business, meeting, briefing, trading,
Casting, shopping, fashion, trend,
Dealer, broker, leader, joker,
Manager, advertising, P.R., brand,
Lobby, hobby, weekend, party,
Timeout, fifty-fifty, supermarket, copyright,
Discount, cash, card, net, mail, chat, standby,
D.J., V.J., L.P., C.D., bye-bye!
Oops, yeah...

Suntem anglofoni, americanofoni,
Suntem bu-bu, bu-bu, bu-bufoni.

- Dan Teodorescu, "Americanofonia"

(We're English-speakers, American-speakers,
We're foo-foo foo-foo foo-fools.)

Table of contents
1 Band members
2 Albums
3 External links

Band members

Albums

External links