Happy New Year! Do like the Austrians do and listen to some (J) Strauss.

Hey, Johann Strauss II! That is an *excellent* mustache/beard/overgrowth combo you have going there. Serious hipster action! Welcome to the year 2012, where to this day, peeps rock out to your music at their New Years celebrations. Specifically, people in Austria. More specifically, people reveling at the Vienna Royal Orchestra’s New Year Concert extravaganza.

Johann Strauss II was the son of (you guessed it!) Johann Strauss I, who was the leader of the Strauss Orchestra. Young Strauss grew up listening to the waltzes performed by the orchestra, so it is no small wonder that he followed in his father’s footsteps and composed waltzes as an adult. Strauss II was known as “The Waltz King” and was a mean waltz-writing machine. He was so dedicated and awesome that he commemorated nearly all major events in Vienna that occurred during his adult life.

If the Austrians ring in the new year with Strauss II’s music, so can we! Here is the Vienna Blood Waltz: