The News Review:
- Jews gone wild: Book explores punk’s kosher roots
- Jewish Punks Unite
- The Best of 2006: Music
- Pop and Rock Listings
- Britney Spears Fan Site Shuts Down – News Story | Music Celebrity…
- … – The Gold Standard – Altered Stitched and Gathered -…
- ‘Hardcore’ for hard-core fans
Jews gone wild: Book explores punk’s kosher roots
Downtown Express – Dec 29, 2006
I’m culturally and spiritually Jewish but I don’t think in the early days of CBGB’s there was any sense of religious identity except by using the symbols and the touchstones of religion and spirituality as elements within a larger artistic work. It was a place where you could get a foothold and stake your claim and work your way in with your sense of idealism mission and creativity; in many cases really slowly like the Ramones to the point where now ironically they could probably fill Madison Square Garden. ” Even though there were many Jews involved in the punk music scene from musicians promoters managers and record label producers to critics and writers Beeber states in his book that he doesn’t mean to imply that Jewishness is everything but that it played a part in varying degrees. While Tommy Ramone Lenny Kaye Richard Meltzer (co-manager of the Dictators with Sandy Pearlman) and Handsome Dick Manitoba (a Dictator real name: Richard Blum) “might find their connection to Jewishness essential others such as Richard Hell Chris Stein and Joey Ramone might find it tangential. [However] there is no way to fully understand these musicians without exploring the Jewish part of them whatever that may consist of” he contends.
Jewish Punks Unite
Forward – Dec 29, 2006
?To actually get a punk tour aimed on a punk side rather than a Jewish side ? but that actually has a Jewish thread? has never been done before? said Bram Presser the multipierced multicolor-hair lead singer of Yidcore a Melbourne Australia-based band. Jews have been prominently involved in the punk scene since it began in the 1970s most notably members of the Ramones the Dictators and the Clash. But those punks never advertised that they were Jewish beyond a few limited references. The Eight Crazy Nights tour organized by the Los Angeles chapter of the Workmen?s Circle brought together Yidcore and akland Calif. -based Jewdriver ? two outwardly Jewish bands that for several years have dreamed of touring with each other ? as well as New rleans?s Zydepunks and the filmmakers behind the upcoming documentary ?Jericho?s Echo: Punk Rock in the Holy Land. ? ?The original punks probably would still be a bit turned off by the Hanukkah tour: Punk was supposed to be inclusive? not a division into separate ?interest groups? so to speak? said Steven Beeber author of ?The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGBs: A Secret History of Jewish Punk. ? Beeber thinks that while a handful of punk pioneers might be interested in such a tour today they would have been much less likely to participate in their bands? heyday… ?Jericho?s Echo? excerpts of which were screened at the tour?s shows documents Israel?s extremely secular punk scene. Israeli punks typically do not discuss their Jewish identity unless they?re criticizing the country?s observant Jews. Director Liz Nord said that Jewish punk ? as a variety of punk music that plays up Jewish shtick ? is absent from the spectrum of punk subgenres in Israel calling it a ?subsubsubsubgenre? overall. For the Zydepunks playing Jewish music doesn?t even stem from being Jewish. Frontman Christian Kuffner described the Zydepunks as ?the honorary gentile band from Louisiana. ? The quintet combines fiddle accordion bass and drums to play a hybrid of punk rock and various folk stylings including klezmer music sung in Yiddish. Bassist Paul Edmonds proudly wore a yarmulke on the second night of the tour and Jewdriver quipped that he?d be Jewish by the end of Hanukkah.
The Best of 2006: Music
Washington Post – Dec 29, 2006
K Go "Here It Goes Again" video on YouTube. Silly but great for wasting time at the office. And the live performance on MTV’s Video Music Awards had us watching with oddly nervous concern. " Fewer Japanese art-noise bands played in Washington this year than in ’05 but this all-female quartet — led by Boredoms veteran Yoshimi P-We — compensated with its best collection yet of avant-primitive beats pulses and chants… The Evens "Get Evens" and around town. This folk-punk duo’s (Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina) rougher-edged second album serves eviction notices to certain unnamed "liars" vowing that "Washington is our city!"5. Salif Keita "M’Bemba. " The great Malian singer continues his retreat from Western timbres matching his rich voice to traditional instruments but this time the result is livelier and more rhythmically complex than in past efforts.
Pop and Rock Listings
New York Times – Dec 29, 2006
(Sisario)BRAZILIAN GIRLS (Tonight and Sunday) Electronica a live rhythm section and a wildly cosmopolitan spirit meet a charismatic and unpredictable singer Sabina Sciubba in the Brazilian Girls. The music dips into reggae samba funk and house never staying in one place for long. Tonight at 9 with Kudu and DJ Hardedge and Sunday at 9:30 p. at Irving Plaza 17 Irving Place at 15th Street Manhattan (212) 777-6800… (Sisario)* SPN (Tomorrow) Led by Britt Daniel one of the best songwriters ever to get stuck with the meaningless appellation “indie” Spoon from Austin Tex. accomplishes a lot with a little. Its tight jabby songs influenced equally by minimalist post-punk and sentimental white soul are beguiling miniatures that seem to end just when you think you’ve figured them out. As a result you must listen again and again and again. With Benjy Ferree a rising singer-songwriter from Washington.
Britney Spears Fan Site Shuts Down – News Story | Music Celebrity…
MTV.com – Dec 29, 2006
The lineup for this year’s Cornerstone Festival is starting to take shape. The Christian-music-centered fest is scheduled for June 25-30 in Bushnell Illinois and will feature Underoath Switchfoot Emery Flyleaf Anberlin the Almost Disciple and Spitfire. “I guess it is sort of charming that we can send the wrong song to the whole world with the click of a mouse” frontman Win Butler said in a post on the band’s Web site. org) an organization supporting community-based initiatives to fight poverty and disease… Flogging Molly can’t wait to get the party started: The Irish folk punks are kicking off their St. Patrick’s Day-themed Green 17 Tour on February 22 in Los Angeles. The 18-date outing comes to a close March 17 in Phoenix.
… – The Gold Standard – Altered Stitched and Gathered -…
New York Times – Dec 29, 2006
In “Defamation of Character” the British-born New York-based writer Neville Wakefield who became a curatorial advisor at P. 1 at the beginning of 2006 has created a bracing black hole in which movements like Dada Fluxus Punk Pop Conceptual and neo-Conceptual mingle with performance art feminism abject art with a capital A and various forms of appropriation. Largely devoid of color these works by 46 artists take issue with most aspects of contemporary and especially American society. A high premium is placed on shock value with frequent references to sex violence bodily functions celebrity consumerism and power. In the show’s opening gallery black lines and shades of gray mingle to visually lively effect. “Cioran Handrail” a long free-floating squiggle of black polyurethane (toxic smoke? excrement?) by Urs Fischer spirals toward “The Period” by Glenn Ligon which spells out the word America in lighted neon tubing that has been painted matte black.
‘Hardcore’ for hard-core fans
Deseret News – Dec 29, 2006
“American Hardcore” is more interesting musically thancinematically. While this documentary features rare performance footage of hard-corepunk-rock bands Black Flag and Bad Brains it’s not exactly thebest-assembled or deepest cinematic exploration of the subject. Consequently the film probably won’t appeal to newcomers to the music— especially because of the rawness of the language here. But it willprobably hold some interest for devotees of this particular musicgenre.