Six Points Fellowship Recordings (Sway Machinery, Clare Burson, David Griffin, Divhan)

I found another cool Jewish music source this week. The site is called Imeem and claims to be a "social network where millions of fans and artists discover new music, videos, and photos, and share their tastes with friends." One nice feature of Imeem is playlists, user defined song collections. I haven't played around with creating any yet, but I spent a week in the office listing to a variety of different Jewish music themed playlists including this great one featuring musicians from the Six Points Fellowship.

About a year ago I mentioned the Six Points Fellowship when writing about Jeremiah Lockwood's Sway Machinery and David Griffin's Hebrew School, two good musicians and good guys who have gotten some grant funding through the Six Points fellowship. A year later, I'm still waiting patiently. As far as I'm aware, none of the Six Pointers have released the albums that they've been working on. Ah well. I'll tide myself over listening to these tracks. They're the same ones features on the Six Points website, but it's a lot more fun to kick off the playlist and dig back into the telemetry control system design tool I've been working on. (Yes, I consider that fun.) I get a bit of whiplash going from Burson's throaty barstool Americana to Griffan's understated tickity Casio keyboard pop to Lockwood's deep mystical funk to Divahn's whirling, growling, Mizrachi chanting, but it's a good whiplash. It'll have to do until the albums come out.



Hat Tip to Imeem user Lila Dobs for compiling the playlist.

Teruah - The Israel National Radio Interview

I was on the radio today! Israel National Radio to be precise. I was interviewed by Ben Bresky for his weekly music show, The Beat. I'm a big fan of the show, so it was great fun to participate. The interview was recorded last Thursday and, I'll admit, I wasn't as prepared as I'd wanted to be. I'd been on the road for work the two days before hand and my concentration was shot. I FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT JEWISH COWBOYS. ARGGH! But I had fun and hopefully it sounded ok. I got to name check some of my favorite groups (sorry if I left you or your favorite out, I didn't have much time). I talked too fast and too much. No big surprise there. Anyway, if you'd like to hear it, you can go to the download it or listen now. My bit starts about halfway through.

Because of the time difference between the US and Israel, I lost track of when it was going to be aired. I actually found out when I got a nice email from a Beat listener who wanted to chat about definitions of Jewish music. I'm a bit skeptical of the value of definitions but between the two of us we came up with "Music that celebrates or recognizes Jewish life or comes from a Jewish artistic impulse." It doesn't say much, but it doesn't remain altogether silent.

One irony of the interview is that it was recorded and aired during the Three Weeks, a traditional period of mourning where frum Jews don't listen to music (and don't have weddings, haircuts...). The result is that Ben opened the show with some poetry readings and didn't play any of the music I had picked out. Timing is everything. As the music tracks and videos I've posted lately demonstrate, I'm neither frum enough or clever enough to be Three Weeks compliant here at Teruah. I'm glad that Ben is and I'm going to steal his idea of showcasing Jewish poetry during next year's Three Weeks. But, no music for me.

Update: Ben emailed with the link to his web page for the show and say that we should "save the mp3 and share it, spread it, etc. The mp3 should last about 6 months." I've already downloaded the mp3 so if you want a copy after it's pulled from the Israel National Radio website, just give me a yell.

Ghost of the Robot's "German Jewish"

Ok, this is a new one for me. Following up on yesterday's Shoah rap, here's a pop song that speculates about a romantic affair between an (American?) German and a Jew from the perspective of the German. The song specifically references the Holocaust, not only in setting up a romantic dilemma that would make the Capulates and the Montagues seem like fishing buddies, but in the use specific Holocaust images in the context of the courtship.

Talk about pushing a lot of sensitive buttons all at once.

I'm pretty bugged by the trivializing portrayal of the Holocaust implied by the song. I'm almost as bugged, though, by the power dynamic in the song. The lyric places the German "around [the Jewesses] finger." It's a cliched line that it inverts the historic power dynamic. That doesn't make me feel much better about it. I would have liked the song a whole lot better if it didn't have that undercurrent of power struggle in it.

Maybe I should lighten up, though. I'm a big fan of Say Anything's "Alive with the Glory of Love." Granted, that's a much better written song, with (I think) something profound to say about the human experience. And it uses the love affair to say something about the Holocaust, not the other way around. The song also immediately reminded me of the storied love affair / power dynamic between the Jewish Lou Reed and the German Nico. You can hear their power dynamic, Reed chasing the famously racist and anti-semitic Nico, in Reed's classic song "Pale Blue Eyes."

Am I more comfortable with Alive and Pale Blue Eyes because they were written by Jews? Because they accept the proper power differential? Because they're both just better songs? I'm not sure. But it will have me thinking about it for a while.

By the way, and as a warning, the music in the video clip below is the "German Jewish" song, but the video is a fan montage from the popular TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The clips center around the power-dynamic rich (vampire, vampire slayer) love affair between German looking "Spike" and "Buffy" (who is played by a Jewish actress.) The trivializing continues. sigh. (though, as a note. I liked the show a lot).

Ghost of the Robot


Here's the full lyrics, courtesy of Sing365

I'm German, you're Jewish
How could we ever make it through this?
I've got this problem, that seems to linger
Everytime I find myself around your finger
This would make more sense, in another time
Not in America where we're westernized
But if we were, what would I do
What would I have said to what we've gone through?

War won't stop me, I'm no Nazi
That's why i'd never tell
If you were fighting, surviving hiding
Behind an old bookshelf

I'm German, you're Jewish
How could we ever make it through this?
I've got this problem, that seems to linger
Everytime I find myself around your finger

you've always been above, in some higher class
i'm just a small rockstar, you're an actress
what could i say, to ever prove to you
that there can be a love between a German and a Jew?

War won't stop me, I'm no Nazi
That's why i'd never tell
If you were fighting, surviving hiding
Behind an old bookshelf...

Hat tip to YouTube user Nawayonki for posting the video

Remedy - Never Again

Yesterday I speculated, tongue firmly in cheek, on how (and whether) Scott Ian of Anthrax's Judaism impacts his music. Today I've got a video from a popular rapper who's connection with Judaism doesn't require much speculation. Remedy is a rapper and an affiliate of the popular hip-hop collective, The Wu-Tang Clan, and runs Code Red Entertainment and the Clan's Killa Bees project. Remedy's rap 'Never Again' picks up on the standard 'never again' response to the Holocaust, personalizing it with details about Remedy's own family members lost. The video below shows Remedy performing at the Ohio State Hillel during the 2007 Ohio Loves Israel summit.

Remedy Performing "Never Again" at OSU Hillel


Hat tip to YouTube user OSUHillel1 (the Ohio State Univiersity Hillel) for posting the video.

JewsRock.Org - A Challah Fame

Personally, I don't invest much time in speculating on whether Scott Ian of Anthrax's Judaism impacts his music. Unless he says it does, I'm not going to think much about it. But JewsRock.Org is "devoted to illuminating the intersection of rock and roll and Jewish culture. We've heard a lot about what the Jews have contributed to science, literature, the fine arts--all the high brow stuff. Well, we're going low." Cataloging and speculating on Ian's Judaism is exactly the sort of thing that keeps JewsRock up at night. According to their website, here's how it all began...

"Do you remember the anthrax-in-the-mail panic of 2001? At the time, David Segal, who was then the pop music critic of The Washington Post, was without an angle on the most important news story of the week. He had just one idea: Call the legendary speed-metal band Anthrax and ask if the group was thinking of changing its suddenly infamous name. He wound up on a cell phone with Scott Ian, the lead guitarist, who fired off one quip after another about his groupﾒs new predicament. Ian said that friends had been joking about how funny it would be if he were to die from anthrax poisoning, prompting him to start taking Cipro, the anthrax antibiotic. Why?

"I have vowed that I will not die an ironic death," he deadpanned on the phone.

The story ran in the paper, and Segal soon got a call from his friend, Jeffrey Goldberg, who was, at the time, the Middle East correspondent of The New Yorker. Goldberg told him he loved the quote from Ian. "I bet that guy is Jewish," Goldberg said. Segal asked why. It was that peculiar combination of irony and hypochondria in Ianﾒs answer, Goldberg said, that offered the best clue. A little digging, and Goldberg and Segal found out, of course, that it was true: Scott Ian is a member of the tribe."

The article lead to a website devoted to, well, cataloging and speculating. And if you're the sort of person that grooves on knowing that Paula Abdul is of Syrian Jewish descent, that David Lee Roth is dedicated to overturning Jewish stereotypes, that you can read a d'var Torah based on Steely Dan's "Any Major Dude", or that "[m]any of Judaism's most dearly held traditions are also prevalent in indie rock" than this is the place for you.

In honor of JewsRock.Org's connection with Scott Ian, here's a live concert video of Anthrax covering Joe Jackson's "Got The Time." Great track. I could say that the obsessive urban work driven alienation of the song comments on Jewish cultural tendency toward knowledge- and work-based forms of identity development. But if I did, I'd be speculating.



Hat tip to YouTube user Thraxfan54 for posting the video.

East Rock Klezmer - live at the Shoreline Jewish Festival & the Cowboy Song

Sorry folks, it's been a slow week in Teruah land. I was traveling for work and didn't have much time for blogging. On the bright side, I was interviewed by Benyamin Bresky of Israel National Radio's "The Beat" program. There were about a dozen things I wanted to talk about and actually managed to remember two of them once the interview started. Hopefully I won't sound like an idiot. Ah well. It is supposed to air this coming Tuesday. I'll let everyone know when the interview is posted to their website.

Anyway, back to the music. Today's video is of the 'East Rock Klezmer' band playing at the Shoreline Jewish Festival. The video really caught my attention, both because of the musicianship and the instrumentation. Great stuff. Nothing like a low solid bass drum line as an anchor for the otherwise swirlytwirly violin, clarinet and accordion. Very well done.

I'm also partial to this video because the East Rock gang are from my home state of Connecticut and were on my short list of bands to hire for my brother's post-wedding wedding reception. (For a variety of reasons we hired Arnie Davidson who did a fabulous job.) This video is the third of three that East Rock posted to YouTube recently. Why did am I posting video 3? They're all great but I loved the moment, about half way through the video, where someone came up to the videographer and asked if he was with the press or just some random guy filming the show. A question now caught on tape forever.

East Rock Klezmer part 3 @ Shoreline Jewish Festival


If you enjoyed this video, YouTube has video 1 and video 2 to for your viewing pleasure.

I also have to point out that the East Rock Klezmer band is near and dear to my heard for recording a "Cowboy Song." As regular readers know, I have thing for Jewish Cowboys.

Cowboy Song (Live at the KlezKabaret 2007)

My Robot Friend - Walking Jewish

"there's just something 'bout a man with a talis bag..."

I've mentioned a number of times the absence of a Jewish presence on the radio. Growing up I'd hear all sorts of songs making reference to Christian religion and culture. Sometimes it was pretty explicit, e.g. Christmas songs, but often it more subtle, with lyrics spun from Christian Bible imagery or religious practice. (For some reason U2's 'One' and Tori Amos 'Crucify' jump to mind, but there are zillions). There are lots of Jews in music, where are the Jewish references? Something a little less alienating please? Anyone? Hello? (Thank you Leonard Cohen. Anyone else?)

So I'm pleased and delighted every time I hear a band let their (take their?) Jewish identity out on the public airwaves (or wires). Today I'm particularly delighted with "Walking Jewish" by the band My Robot Friend. Walking Jewish is as raunchy, rebellious, and in your face as it gets. The kind of thing that makes you jam your speakers against your dorm room wall, spin the volume to 11 and drive your neighbors out into the snow*. It's that gleefully obnoxious. The song lyrics are defiantly gay and Jewish at the same time.

"When I turned 13 the cantor took me by the hand. "Forget your Bar Mitzvah, kid, I'll make you a man."
....I may not have the foreskin, by you know I have the balls.

The singer is making a point. I'm here. I'm gay. I'm Jewish. I'm not going away. And the singer is making fun of himself too. C'mon, not only Catholics can have sex scandals. I'm a walking sex scandal. Rock and roll, even squawky, sample heavy, rock, is at it's best in songs like this. Dumb, loud, true to itself, unapologetic, brilliant. Whew. Play it again.



* umm. Don't ask about that one. It was justified. Really.

Hat tip to the ActioNext website for the music player.

Polish Chazzanut

Definitely my week for cantorial music. Shira, of the Shira bat Sarah blog just left me a comment on my post "Cantor Leib Glantz: The Man Who Spoke To God" pointing me (and us) to this wonderful cantorial performance. This is my favorite kind of chazzanut. Heavy on traditional nusach, light (or absent) operatic embellishments. Thanks Shira!

(From the YouTube notes) "This special piece of amazing "chazanut" was taken in an old & beautiful synagogue in Poland in a small village by the name "tiktin" the cantor is mr' Zvi Slonim - 7th generation to the old Rabbi of Lubbavivh the "Ba'al-Hatania"

Tzur Israel - Zvi Slonim

Hat tip to YouTube user noamlm for posting the video.

Shalom Aleichem on ancient temple lyre

Shabbat shalom everyone,

To help get us in the mood, here's Michael Levy (aka Klezfiddle1) playing Shalom Aleichem on ancient temple lyre. I first showcased on of Michael's videos (Yigdal) back in December. He wrote to me recently to let me know that he has a new album coming out soon, so if you like what you hear you should swing by his myspace page for more details.

Nproject - 1/Berechit - It's more than an album, it's an overriding urge...

I've got a new toy...Deezer. Deezer is a French music on demand service that, as you'd expect, has great coverage of the European scene. One interesting disc I ran across today is Nproject - 1/Berechit from Geneva, Switzerland. The disc has a variety of Jewish standards, mostly prayers and zemirot, done in a jazzy electronica style. The concept isn't exactly new, this territory has been mined in the past by Wally Brill's "Covenant", "Forgiveness: Traditional Jewish Prayers With Contemporary Electronic Music", and Gershon Kingsley's "God is a Moog" and a variety of others. But the style of jazzy downtempo that presented here works. Maybe not A list, but solid. But..as they said, it's more than an album. It's an overriding urge.

"NProject is more than an album, it’s an overriding urge to compose a collection of albums intended to build a musical link between men. The aim is to ask artists of all ages, from all different sorts of backgrounds, believers, atheists or agnostics, brought up in every kind of religion and tradition, to get together and merge their talents to create from traditional songs and prayers a sound that exceeds the individual and reaches out to the universe. Title after title, the collection will offer a trip round the world, visiting different cultures and questioning accepted ideas. The first album in the collection, Berechit (at the beginning), reexamines traditional Jewish prayers and songs, drawing up from the roots the juice that will revitalise the tree. Featuring singers and musicians of all ages – the youngest is only 10 and the oldest over 70 – and from all religious faiths. A soothing album, “Hebrew voices against a rich background of soaring electronic sounds and haunting jazz. From under the crushing millstone of the great religions, a breath of sweet air seeps out.” Gabriel Catagnier, Edelweiss, May 2008"

So of course, I have to grump here. (I feel like I've been doing a lot of grumping lately) While Mr. Catagnier, a reviewer, thought it was clever to be insulting to Judaism at the same time he waxes poetic about the merits of the "Hebrew voices", I can't imagine why the publishers of the disc thought it was clever to quote him. I guess you can only "visit different cultures" if you also "question accepted ideas" loudly and rudely. Whatever. But check the disc out. It's a good listen.


You can get more info about NProject through the albums Myspace page and record label webpage.