Category — Music

Rabbi Yonah, one of our Zionist friends at Jewlicious, and the architect of the festival, goes a bit overboard, claiming about the Moshav Band that,

Imagine the jamming of Phish, mixed with the vocal strength of Pearl Jam and the spiritual lyrics of U2, seasoned with a Middle-Eastern influence and you can begin to describe the unique sound of Moshav.

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Not a haredi fanatic

But now Y-Love is being promoted by the Jewish gifts shop Modern Tribe as specifically Modern Orthodox, not haredi.

Modern Tribe’s press release notes,

Entrants will also receive a code for over 50% off the Hip Hop Heeb Pack, containing the Y-Love Mix Tape (featuring international, biracial Modern Orthodox hip hop star Y-Love and Shemspeed founder and dj Diwon), the Mix Tape USB Stick by Suck UK (one of ModernTribe’s best selling products) and a subscription to the irreverent Jewish pop-culture magazine, Heeb.

Update: This is, apparently, old news. I had no idea, because I am not as involved with the hip-hop world as you people probably think I am, although I did see that post on Jewlicious.

Apparently, Y-Love is going “Open Orthodox.” Which is to say, Y-Love is becoming a hippy.

I wish him well in his spiritual search, and continued success in his career.

Radiohead was always a different type of band, even when they were a rock band first appreciated by the Israelis. After their simple debut album, “Pablo Honey,” the harmonies and rhythms became increasingly intricate and complex, and Jonny Greenwood’s 20th century classical influences became pronounced.

A group of very talented young men are highlighting the classical nature of Radiohead.

North by Northwestern reports on “The Gentlemen of NUCO,” “a group of seven music students known for their creative arrangements of Radiohead’s entire OK Computer album, as well as those of other pop and alternative rock songs.”

Josh Fink began this ensemble, and their popularity is growing.

While the Gentlemen are beginning to gain a fan base on campus that has finally stretched beyond the borders of Regenstein Hall, Fink attributes part of his group’s success to the genius of Radiohead itself.

“OK Computer is flawless in terms of its ability — there’s not one mediocre song on the album. Every one is a masterpiece in itself,” Fink says. “When I listen to OK Computer I can just see how it works within the ensemble. I’ve been searching for another album [to arrange] and there just isn’t one like it.”

Enjoy this rendition of “Paranoid Android.”

I have long noticed that while mainstream Jews will become infuriated when Messianics attempt to merge Judaism and Christianity, many don’t seem to mind much when Jews dabble in Buddhism, or even identify as Buddhists, even while maintaining a Jewish identity.

Why not?

Leonard Cohen attempts to answer this question.

The NY Times reports,

Mr. Cohen is an observant Jew who keeps the Sabbath even while on tour and performed for Israeli troops during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. So how does he square that faith with his continued practice of Zen?

“Allen Ginsberg asked me the same question many years ago,” he said. “Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I’ve practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief.”

Zen has also helped him to learn to “stop whining,” Mr. Cohen said, and to worry less about the choices he has made. “All these things have their own destiny; one has one’s own destiny. The older I get, the surer I am that I’m not running the show.”

Obviously the fact that Cohen performed in Israel during the Yom Kippur War is a far less pertinent question about his Buddhism than his shabbos observance. Not sure how they botched that one so badly.

I always felt touched by Suzanne Vega’s songs, and felt she spoke to “my group.” My friend Rob and I were annoyed when her song “Luka” became so popular. Vega was “Left of Center.” She was ours.

Vega herself addresses the feelings of group based on songs in her NY Times post, “Which Side Are You On?” Although Vega is part Puerto Rican, and part white, she feels her voice may be best lent to other types of specifically ethnic music.

I am of Irish descent, among other things, but I feel it would be false of me to perform traditional Irish music, even though I find some of it very moving. When I worked with Mitchell Froom, I liked that he said, “I will reveal you to be the mutant you really are!” when he heard how I grew up and about the mixed bag of stuff I grew up listening to — from Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs to Motown, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. But perhaps one day I could do an album of Jewish folk songs in A-minor, or an album of cante jondo, which Federico Garcia Lorca wrote of; this would take guts. I love sad and tragic songs, and I love the sensuality of Brazilian bossa nova; perhaps my melancholic temperament could do justice to an album like this.

Nu?

Sailer wrote an essay asking, “What is art?” Within the essay, Sailer discusses the Jewish role of Jewish buyers and critics, of which there is no shortage, and suggests,

“The basic problem is that Jews tend to be cognitively stronger with words than with images, so they are better at making up theories about why a stuffed shark is art rather than determining which art objects are beautiful and which are not.”

There is a good reason to explain why Jews may tend to be better at words than images, of course. Our religion bans the use of images and sculpture to a large degree, so there was simply less incentive to develop those skills, as they were not rewarded.

My own family, it should be noted, has a gift of exceptional hearing. How did that develop? Well, it is more closely related to words and of course, tone, something which is considered of value in the Jewish world. For my own family, it also provided dispensation to live in, say, the then Russian capital of St. Petersburg, when most Jews were not allowed to live within the city limits in the latter 19th century, but where my family resided because they were recognized as proficient professional musicians, as one member worked in the opera. But regardless of this privilege, they got get the hell out of Russia, though that side was quite conservative politically. The family joke is that the single issue my great-grandmother and her parents had with the czar was his anti-semitism.

I can’t say Jews are usually strong in music, as many Jews, to my parents chagrin at any given service they are attending, sing out of tune. But there appears to have been a role and outlets for at least some to excel at music since at least the first Temple period.

Still, I have heard similar complaints about the role of Jews in the classical music world similar to those leveled at the Jews in art world. But it seems a harder case to make, especially from an American perspective, where our composers are pretty critical to our limited canon.

It’s crappy, awful frum music with some lame-ass hip-hop influences and…oh…oh wait…could it be…the “hip-hop” influences the Great Ones object to? Is that the issue?

Hat tip: SJ

Some friends aren’t getting it. Everything needs to be spelled out explicitly for them when we are attacking a haredi kiruv organization. Very well. Let’s replace Jew for goy, and see if we can a handle on why this idea is not valid, not acceptable, and (yet another) proof that Ohr Somayach is a hateful, fundie place.

What if, say, a white Christian group wrote this,

There are those who say that even the influence of western or classical music written by Jews can contain the negative spiritual genes of its composers. However, it is well known that many of the great European army songs bear more than a passing resemblance to Jewish sabbath songs.

Would that be okay with you?

You were probably wondering why Ohr Somayach “prefers” one listen to Jewish music instead of classical music. Weren’t you wondering what exactly the reasoning is? The source for such a preference? What sage advice Dark Light was weighing carefully? On the one hand, you have Beethoven…on the other hand, you have the Miami Boys Choir.

I know, I know, “Do I have to choose only one?”

Music aficionados, before you reach for the Beethoven sonata…please note the following consideration of Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair.

At the other end of the scale, there are those who say that even the influence of classical music can contain the negative spiritual genes of its composers. However, it is well known that many of the great Chassidic nigunim (tunes) bear more than a passing resemblance to Russian and Polish marching songs.

Rabbi Nachman Bulman, zatzal, the great Mashgiach (spiritual counselor) of Ohr Somayach, founder and rabbi of numerous Torah communities and institutions, once told me that in every generation we have had composers who were able to extract the pri, the “fruit” from the klippa, the “shell” of impurity.

So you see, even if this is true…even if there are composers who can extract the “fruit” from the “shell” of their “negative spiritual genes,” and we’re certainly not saying they all can, oh, no, no, no, but even if that is true, please consider this:

EVEN if a composer does succeed in that, well…we still don’t know which ones did, and which ones didn’t, because we, a lesser generation, don’t have great Rebbes like they did in previous generations in Russia or Poland (and Romania!).

And even if you say they do have composers that a certain rabbi or other “borrowed” music from or was known to listen to a specific composer’s work, how do we know that the recording you are listening to is being PERFORMED by musicians who have ALSO extracted the “fruit” from the “shell” from their “”negative spiritual genes?” WE DON”T KNOW THAT! And unless it is fully shomer shabbos orchestra, no one can know that!

So it is preferable to be stringent. It is preferable to listen to haredi music only.

The NY Times has an article about Radiohead’s business decision to offer their wonderful new album online, In Rainbows. The NYT is quite justifiably excited about this story, and posted it front and center on the home page, replete with a picture of the band.

But one of the quotes was strange to read in the Gray Lady.

Mr. Hufford said that he and Bryce Edge, Radiohead’s other manager, had come up with the pay-what-you-want plan during a stoned philosophical conversation about the value of music.

Update: Oh, I hope you don’t mind. I just can’t resist. Radiohead is the one (so-called) rock band that still speaks to me consistently and deeply, even as I plow deeper and deeper into Pandora’s classical music genome.

So.

My favorite three songs on Radiohead’s new album “In Rainbows” are:

3. “Videotape”
2. “All I Need”
1. “Reckoner”

My favorite Radiohead album: “Hail to the Thief.” Not as groundbreaking as say, “Paranoid Android” was in its day, some even suggested it was a mere consolidation of previous achievements, but I don’t think that is true at all. I think they grew serious roots, and those critics were merely judging it by its height alone. Takes awhile to get into, but then you stay there.

My second favorite song of all time is “There, there,” off of “Hail to the Thief.” Moves from gentle soothing, with a mild rebuke, to one of strident empowerment, and an implicit warning to not become paralyzed with sadness or fear. Though the lyrics don’t exactly match what I take from it…

My very favorite is “Pyramid Song,” off of “Amnesiac.” A most precious song about life and death itself. It specifically helped me understand our narrative of the slavery of Egypt, and prompted ideas about what it is really all about. But that’s for a longer, different post. Anyway, the the time signature of “Pyramid Song” is in 8/8, which is an unusual time signature. VERY unusual. Listen to “Pyramid Song”…loudly, in the dark. As soothing as it is mournful. Everything has been a little different since I really heard this song.

I jumped in the river and what did I see?
Black-eyed angels swam with me