Metal Jew

Metal Symposium in Birmingham

I just got invited to a fascinating looking symposium on metal in Birmingham on July 13th as part of the Supersonic festival (which also has a mouth-watering lineup). More evidence, it seems, of metal being rehabilitated amongst the intellectuals. Sadly I can't go, but here's the details anyway:

METAL - A symposium to celebrate and explore the musical heritage of the West Midlands.

For too long Birmingham and the Black Country have failed to celebrate what is rightfully theirs, to claim the city and the region as home of Heavy Metal. Perhaps because it is not deemed to be the most elegant or sophisticated of music genres the advantages of upholding and celebrating the region as the home of heavy metal may not in the past have been so obvious. However anyone who's ever been influenced by heavy metal see�s the region as a truly inspirational place and the roots of the genre have since spread to influence a wide range of artists.

Key Speakers:

Jim Simpson- Black Sabbaths manager for their first 3 albums

Edwin Pouncey aka Savage Pencil- renowned music journalist

Mark Titchner - Turner Prize nominee 2006

Nicholas Bullen- Originator of Napalm Death/Scorn  inventor of Grindcore

+ special guests for Q & A session

Chair -Tony Sylvester - A human encyclopedia of musical fact and anecdote

Friday 13th July 07

Registration 4.45pm Start 5.00pm - 9.00pm

@ New Art Gallery� Walsall . Gallery Square . Walsall . WS2 8LG

Booking Info: www.ticketweb.co.uk or Limited places available free to Supersonic weekend ticket holders but must be booked via email by 6th July: metal@capsule.org.uk

Free coach from the Custard Factory, Birmingham to Walsall and then returning to Birmingham - Limited places available

Young, Jewish and Left

Just discovered a cool looking documentary  called Young, Jewish and Left looking at Jewish radical activism in the US. Sometimes I yearn to be an American Jew. There is just so many great opportunities within the American Jewish community. The downside? You have to live in America (not that I'm anti-American you understand, I just don't want to live there). 

Big up the Hertfordshire massive!

As someone raised on the mean streets of Elstree, it does my heart good to see  2 Hertfordshire bands  producing some of the most exciting music in the UK at the moment. Step forward St Alban's  Enter Shikari and Watford's Gallows . Both are unbelievably young and make me feel very old.

Jewdas at Glastonbury

There may be no metal at Glastonbury, but at least joyful subversives Jewdas will be. Not many details on their site but I love the idea of a radical Jewish presence at Glastonbury...

Jewish punk

I just finished Steven Lee Beeber's excellent The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGBs - A Secret History of Jewish Punk . No time now for an extended discussion of it. Suffice it to say that Beeber not only reveals an astonishing number of members of the 70s New York punk scene that were Jewish, he also shows how their Jewish irrevocably informed their work in complex ways.

Top fact? Ross The Boss, ex of Manowar, the Dictators and Blue Oyster Cult was Jewish.

Islamic Black Metal?

This month's Terrorizer has the second part of its excellent middle eastern scene report. It includes an astonishing report on a Black Metal band from Afghanistan. Taarma is a one-man Black Metal band founded by 'Black Emperor Jogezai' from Baluchistan. Apparently he hasn't had too many problems with the Taliban:

I have had one or two small encounters with them concerning my music, but after explaining to them what I play and write, they kind of eased off and never troubled me again. It's basically the typical image of western music which bugs them, for example Britney Spear's ugly little ass moving on screen or some gay shit like that.

This makes sense. Black Metallers often have a lot in common with fundamentalists - sexism and homophobia for instance. Interestingly, Jogezai doesn't appear to have much against Islam:

I am not exactly religious...but it's also true that I don't have anything against Islam. It's a very militant religion, unlike Christianity and such crap. The Muslim fighters defend their people and resist the occupation of foreign invaders - what's wrong with that?

Can the birth of fundamentalist Islamic Metal be far away?

Of course, this whole thing could be a hoax...

Technical problems

For reasons too complicated to explain, I screwed up the formatting of this blog which meant that it appeared there weren't any new posts for a while. I sincerely hope that the few regular readers I have havn't given up on me!

No Metal at Glastonbury - Again

In contrast to the previous post, it's striking how far the Glastonbury Festival is, as it always is, completely Metal free (although there are a few emo-ish acts). Does this matter? I don't want to appear like those neanderthals who used to sign petitions for 'more rock on radio one' in the 80s. But I have to confess that when I went to Glastonbury in the 90s I did yearn from some stronger musical flavours.

Perhaps the lack of Metal at Glastonbury stems from a determination to stay true to the festival's positive, hippy roots. But of course, Metal also emerged out of hippiedom.  It's another symptom of how far Metal has been almost completely separate from the rest of the music scene in the UK.  Recent 'hipster Metal' trends have not touched Glastonbury so far.

It's a striking contrast to other European festivals such as Roskilde which have all the musical diversity of Glastonbury but also have uncompromising Metal acts (Roskilde has Machine Head, Pelican and Zyklon this year for example)

Metal Meltdown

More evidence of Metal becoming hip: This year's Metaldown Festival at the South Bank Centre in London, is curated by Jarvis Cocker. Amongst other tempting treats, there are performances by Sunn O))) and Motorhead. Good on yer Jarvis!!

Review in Decibel Magazine

There's a very fair review of my book in the latest (July 2007) issue of Decibel Magazine