Metal Jew

Killer new video from DeScribe and Y-Love

I don't often post non-metal music on this blog but this absolutely kills:

 

Rocking in the schul

This week's Forward has an article about an Atlanta-based  'Jewish-inflected punk rock group' called Can Can.The band itself is not that interesting (and the singer, Patrick A, is the only Jewish member), but there are some interesting quotes about (non-Israeli) Jewish punk. For example:

With few exceptions, most of the contemporary Jewish punks are tongue in cheek about their religion of choice. “All the bands I’ve heard that are Jewish punk bands, they aren’t like Christian punk bands that are so sincere, like, “I will follow you, Jesus!” said Liz Nord, director of the 2005 documentary film “Jericho’s Echo: Punk Rock in the Holy Land.” “They’re much more like silly, funny punk bands.” Groups such as Jewdriver and Yidcore mock the stripped-down, occasionally Jew-hating aesthetic of hardcore.

And here's another quote from Steven Lee Beeber whow rote a book about Jews in the early punk scene:

Beeber, for one, is concerned that the Jewish punks veer perilously close to kitsch in their appropriation of Jewish themes. “When there’s a punk song, and there’s a little break for a klezmer moment, it feels tagged on,” he noted. “I don’t know that there’s any real connection there with the people performing it.”:

Jewish rap was, for a very long time, almost exclusively parody and kitsch but in recent years has become much broader and interesting. The same doesn't seem to be true about Jewish punk (or metal for that matter).

The article ends:

Will there ever be a scene of Jewish punk and hardcore, sincerely paying tribute to religion the way the band’s Christian counterparts do? It seems doubtful, but Patrick A., for one, envisions a world where synagogues host livelier events. “There is no culture in the synagogue, in the Jewish community center, for rock and roll music. Anytime there’s any kind of musical performance, it’s always a klezmer band or it’s some acoustic singer-songwriter guy in his 40s,” he said, laughing. “It’s time for all-ages hardcore shows in the shuls.”

It's interesting how non-rock the established Jewish community is in the US and  UK. I'll probably wrote something about this sometime...

[NB: excuse lack of links - I'm writing in a hurry]

UPDATE: PLEASE DON'T THINK I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A JEWISH ROCK SCENE SIMILAR TO THE CHRISTIAN ROCK SCENE! I'D LIKE THERE TO BE A JEWISH ROCK SCENE BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO FOLLOW EXISTING MODELS OR BE 'EVANGELICAL'.

Never to old for metal

There's a very sweet little report on BBC about a bloke in his 80s who's into metal. This is rare now, but in 20-30 years time when the first gen of metallers are old, it's going to be commonplace. You're never too old for the sound of the beast...

Some thoughts on the war

In line with my policy of keeping this blog reasonably light-hearted, I've avoided talking about the war in Gaza. Of course it's never far from my thoughts, but given how high emotions run in the blogosphere, plus my own position balanced precariously between the Jewish community and leftist academia, I've felt it necessary to be reasonably circumspect. Having said that, I have raised my head about the parapet to write something on the British Jewish community's changing relation to Israel here

Two things that have given me hope:

• Cudos to Mobius who has been organising to try and develop a 'pro-peace' bloc that avoids the simple minded belicosity of the 'pro-Israel' and 'pro-Palestinian' lobbies. I loved his poster downloads.
• Sunny Hundal's call for an 'end to whataboutery'.

Now if it's all the same to everyone, I'll go back to using this blog for highlighting the inane trivilialities that ease the pain of my existence..

More on metal band names

I blogged here and here on the book All Known Metal Bands. Now Jack has sent me a wonderful pentagram-shaped diagram that categorises metal band names. Can't tell who created it though.

New article

I just published a new article on the Open Democracy website . It's a critique of the solipsism in much internet-based politics. Take a look at the comment thread...

Music and spirituality

I'm featured in a free-to-download e-book called The Spiritual Significance of Music edited by Justin St Vincent. The book consists of  an enormous collection of interviews/statements about music and spirituality. It splits into several 'editions', including a metal one, which has an impressive range of contributors - if you've ever wondered about Shane Embury's views on spirituality, here is your chance to find out.

My own musings can be found here

New year reflections....

....are for those who have childcare over the holiday period.

Best wishes for 2009