OK, that title was total nonsense

But seriously, when I want to know the latest in teen religious Jewish boy band news, the first place I go to is Heeb magazine. And they never disappoint! After the bump check out these uh… cuties, called the Moshiach Times Band. JDub dubs them the “Jewnas” brothers and raves about their “skinny jean/Tzitzit combo” while Tablet Magazine says that they are “the religious Jews’ answer to the Jonas Brothers.” Me? I don’t even know who the Jonas Brothers are and I’m definitely not going to make any cracks about scoring sem girl booty in the temple bathroom (I leave that to Heeb). All I can say is that I am heartbroken that the David Kelsey approved musical line up at the Jewlicious Festival is all booked up and that we won’t be able to invite the Moshiach Times Band to play before they hit puberty and their sweet, angelic voices begin to crack. Oh well.

Yesterday, a story featuring Rinat Gutman was on the front page of the Ynet (Hebrew) Web site. She had been interviewed about the whole Orthodox female rapper thing that she does, and they delved a little into her family background. Turns out her Dad is a Rabbi and her Grandfather is Rabbi Joseph BaGad, a Rosh Yeshiva and colorful former MK with the right-wing Moledet and Moreshet Avot parties. The interview discussed issues relating to the extent of the prohibition against Kol Isha (a man is prohibited from hearing a woman’s voice in song) and how her family feels about her musical career. They also featured Rinat’s newest video Agas (Pear) shot last summer in London:

The talkbacks were mostly encouraging – though there was some pretty spirited discussion related to what is and isn’t “religious” etc. reminiscent of previous discussions on the topic. OK fine but, did you notice that I was credited with two photos that appeared in the article, including the bad ass pose shown here (Unisex Matte Faux Leather Hoody courtesy of American Apparel Jerusalem, of course)? So far I’ve had photos published in Heeb, YNet, Haaretz, the JTA etc. Can I now consider myself “an interdisciplinary artist and documentarian investigating post-normative forms of Jewish cultural expression?” Please? Can I?

Rinat Gutman is going to be on some Channel 2 morning show tomorrow. I don’t ever watch Israeli TV so I can’t tell you more, but it’s a big deal apparently. You can also see her perform at the Jewlicious Festival in Long Beach, California on Feb. 19th. Buy your tickets today!

UPDATE:
Here’s the video from Rinat’s Channel 2 appearance. It’s in Hebrew but as soon as I figure out how to snarf it, I’ll upload it with subtitles. As it is I can’t even embed it even though the code is provided. Oh well. Here’s a photo from the studio interview instead:

CK and I were chatting yesterday. While this alone might be of little interest as the chat this time did not entail any risqué or gross topics (Will CK ever get used to my “Look what I’ve found / invented / dreamt of!”-outbursts?), there were a few things to blog about.

Firstly, Stacey Solomon came in third in the X-Factor UK 2009 finals. What shall I say? I felt a little sad that she didn’t win, but I wish her good luck in making her way. My gut tells me she’ll be in over a longer haul than her fellow contestants. And we’ll always welcome her at a European festival. (Have I spilt a secret now?)

Secondly, as I was watching Stacey’s duet with Michael Bublé, I mentioned to CK that Muffti looks a bit like the Canadian singer. We both agreed on that Muffti’s cuter, yet his singing qualities were not rated as favourably by CK. (I’ve never heard Muffti sing, so…) Anyhow, I pointed out to CK that Michael Bublé could well be singing his way into the pants of most ladies, which was a talent. I won’t paraphrase the next few lines of the chat but treat you to the real deal, raw emotions, and genuine drama (please excuse any typos and the lack of capitalisation):

CK: heh
wimmins
froylein: yeah?
CK: its not the greatest thing on earth to get them to have sex with you
froylein: but to have them drool over you by the millions – that’s something
CK: there’s only so many women you can fuck [ed.'s note: CK meant to say, "engage in loving and respectful consensual sexual intercourse with".]
froylein: serge gainsbourg would never have got laid if not for his singing

CK: even serge gainsbourg could have gotten laid
froylein: with that punim?
CK: yes
the french women are weird that way
froylein: heh
CK: germans too so dont get uppitty

Luckily for CK, I missed that last line and only just saw it in the chat history. I’ll save the comparison of lovers of different nationalities for another post, so you’ll have something to look forward to.

Back on topic, thirdly, Jewlicious’ favourite Yuriy Gurzhy is featured in the current edition of Jüdische Allgemeine (click here for the .pdf-version of that page). The article is an abridged chat between him and Shantel about how they met and what constitutes as respectively whether there even was such a thing as “Jewish music”. The most interesting aspect in this excerpt, I think, was that both these veterans of indie dance music with an often Jewish twist have been under the impression that lately people have invented or re-discovered their Jewishness as it suddenly appeared to be a fashionable thing to be Jewish. I’ve been wondering whether seeing a disproportionate number of Jews in pop culture not only had to do with fashion but also more acceptance of artistic professions among Jewish families.

And while I keep wondering, here’s some indie dance music with a Jewish (or is it a European?) twist for you:
Gay, Gypsy and Jew by Yuriy’s band Rotfront, performed in Budapest last night.

Another Ideal Chanukah Gift Idea!

The Gods Of Fire’s Chanukah album, Hanukkah Gone Metal is not some cheesy exploitation thing. It is a sincere homage to both Chanukah (however the hell it’s spelled in English) and classic 70’s Heavy Metal.

Seth Diamond of Gods Of Fire, wrote of this album in a recent piece in Jewcy:

The initial ideas flowed quickly. It would be eight songs, one for each night. We would keep our versions of “Oh Hanukkah” and “Havenu Shalom Aleichem,” and write six songs of our own. Each song would represent a significant part of the holiday. Then the hard part started. How do you stay true to your Metal roots while writing about gelt or frying up latkes? Also what should the record sound like? I wasn’t comfortable staying exclusively in the realm of traditional Metal. I knew we needed to do something special. We were making a holiday record for *our* people and *our* culture. And then I started humming some melodies I remembered from Shul. I picked up the guitar and cranked up the distortion. The sounds of the synagogue were PERFECT for Heavy Metal. Then I made some calls. I can get a clarinet player, and a trumpet player too! Not only could I have a Klezmer feel on a few songs, but I can have the sounds as well! Suddenly the vision and the sound came together quickly. We were truly going to make a JEWISH METAL album. One foot in each culture, co-existing peacefully. Admittedly some of the songs are very American and conventional, but I hope the more Judaic songs could serve as a bridge to help someone else connect with their history, and learn more about Hanukkah or Klezmer. I don’t know if Gods of Fire will make another religious album, but the sounds and the melodies of our faith are here to stay.

Some might take umbrage with this project, but as Diamond mentioned, this is not a Jewish Stryper. This is the real thing. You can purchase the CD on Amazon OR you can send an email to heavymetal@jewlicious.com. On the 6th night of Hanukah we’ll select 3 lucky random winners to receive a free CD! This is in keeping with our traditional super easy contest policy. But don’t be a cheap bastard! Buy the CD – or we’ll uh… bite off the head of a chicken and stick it in a latke!

I get requests like that every day. Being linked to from established blogs is perceived to be a great way to get traffic to a new blog. I tend to dismiss most of these requests because I’m not likely to link to a blog that doesn’t have an established history – many blogs begin with god intentions and then peter out after just a few posts – adding and deleting blogs from our blogroll is not something I really have time for. I also prefer to link to a blog whose author I have some familiarity with. This can be accomplished simply by hanging out at Jewlicious for a bit and offering incisive and relevant comments to the posts. If you do that, I’m likely to add you to the blogroll without being asked first.

OK, boring geek stuff aside, I recently got a request from Dave to add his Matisyahu blog. A blog about Matisyahu? I mean I like him and his music, but an entire blog dedicated to him? I did my due diligence and went to his site where I saw a post about an ad Matisyahu recently did for Kenneth Cole. Never saw that before. And Matis looked sharp rockin’ what looks like a black tux! Even with his very Hassidic close cropped ‘doo.

Not only that, but the blog was not all about Matisyahu. There was all kinds of content relating to cool indie Jewish bands as well. While checking out the blog I found the Web site of a UK band called Ghetto Plotz. Described as “The Prodigy with Violins,” this band verily kicked ass and I spent the afternoon preparing for the Sabbath while getting my ass whupped by their awesome beats. So here for your listening pleasure is a live set by Ghetto Plotz. Seriously, listen to it. It’s awesome shtetl techno. Those Ashkenazim are SO exotic huh? Dave’s Matisyahu Web site can be found here, or on our blogroll.

Shemspeed is giving you all the chance to remix from our files. First up is Y-Love next will be Pharaoh’s Daughter and they will keep coming. Here is how it works!

We give you the instrumentals and accapellas and you use whatever program you would like to make your own remixes from these files. We recommend Ableton (download a free trail here). You have the chance to remix four different singles off the “This is Babylon” album.

Once you finish the remix submit it to Shemspeed (djhandler@shemspeed.com) and have a chance to win a Shemspeed fun pack (includes CDs, Stickers, Posters, Fliers and an official Shemspeed T Shirt).
have fun!

DOWNLOAD ALL FILES AT www.ylovemusic.com/remix to listen to the songs in full go to myspace.com/ylove.