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The New York Times Loves The Macaroons!
The New York Times‘ Laurel Graeber included the Macaroons’ Sunday show at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in her arts roundup! Check it:
The Jewish Week Loves The Macaroons!
The NY Jewish Week is running a great article about new JDUB KIDS band the Macaroons! The piece finds Jewish Week writer George Robinson in conversation with Macaroon Dan Saks. Check it out HERE, with full text below the cut.
“The band’s Passover EP (cunningly titled “The Macaroons’ Passover EP”) is a good example of the approach the group has taken. It opens with big booming bass drum beats and some nifty Ray Davies-style guitar skronk, and then slips effortlessly into witty power-pop with more than a hint of Davies and the early Kinks. The lyrics are both silly and funny, a good combination for reaching an audience of children and their parents, and the end result is catchy fun.”
24 Hour Purim People
Our Purim was a BLAST! There were 4 different JDub artists playing parties, 3 in NYC and one in Los Angeles — were you at any of our events? Tell us how they went!
Luckily, we’ve got loads of photos from our HAMANBASHIN’ Purim party at the CSV on the Lower East Side in NYC. The rest of those pictures are HERE. All photos courtesy of Dan Sieradski.
Want more? Metromix New York sent a photographer out, and that gallery is HERE.
The Chicago Reader Loves Golem
Golem recently played Chicago, and Peter Margasak over at The Chicago Reader had some really nice things to say about the band. You can read that full writeup here.
“The music itself is smoking hot, a recklessly giddy amalgam of eastern European styles spiked with especially bracing work from trombonist Curtis Hasselbring and violinist Alicia Jo Rabins.”
Jeremiah Lockwood for The Forward
The Sway Machinery’s Jeremiah Lockwood recounted his trip to Mali for Festival Au Desert to The Forward this morning. You can check out that awesome article HERE.
“Ag Mohamed invited me into a Tuareg tent, where men were singing together in call and response. He nudged me into the circle, and we clapped and sang along. Two little girls were accompanying the group with drums, under the watchful eye of their mother, who was coaching their playing. Everyone was laughing and applauding each other’s creativity with raucous catcalls. In my mind’s eye, I saw the needlepoint on my grandparents’ wall, and I could hear the singing of zemiros, or Jewish hymns, and the sound of nigunim, wordless melodies, with my grandfather and my cousins at my grandfather’s tish. I looked around the faces in the tent and saw the kindness born of mutual respect. And I was grateful because I had been blessed to fulfill a verse of scripture: “Behold how good it is to sit in the unity of brotherhood.””
Sway in the Desert
Afropop.org has a great article recounting the recent Festival Au Desert, including some great insights on The Sway Machinery and what seems like their multiple collaborations with Malian musicians. You can check that out HERE.
“In the early evening in one of the tents a remarkable collaboration occurred as the American group, Sway Machinery, had a jam session with the Malian band from the city of Gao, Super Khoumeissa. At the outset, their music couldn’t be more different but as they played together a wonderful melding occurred. Super Khoumeissa has a unique sound that immediately hooked both Animal Collective and the Sway Machinery. As Jeremiah Lockwood, the leader of Sway Machinery put it, their sound is a “unique interaction with amplification technology that spins traditional music and repositions it into the realm of hardcore electronica.” The horns of Sway Machinery lent a chromatic depth to Khoumeissa’s already reverberating buzz, and Lockwood’s guitar playing melded perfectly into the mix. The groups made an arrangement to record together in Bamako a few days after the Festival ended so we’ll have to wait to hear what comes out of this meeting in the sands.“
PopMatters Loves Girls in Trouble
PopMatters is running a great Girls in Trouble review! You can read that HERE. Full text below the cut.
“Girls in Trouble’s simple, folk instrumentation is ripe with influences from around the world, including Jewish and even Venetian-sounding tapestries of sonic bliss.”
Sana Krasikov Talks to Alicia Jo Rabins on Largehearted Boy
Girls in Trouble’s Alicia Jo Rabins is once again over on lit-minded blog Largehearted Boy, this time in conversation with author Sana Krasikov (One More Year). You can find that HERE, though I have included full-text below the cut. Enjoy!
Soulico on NPR’s Top 12 Discoveries From KEXP
Our friends over at KEXP come through for us again, this time helping Soulico make it to an NPR Best of 2009 list alongside great acts like tUnE-yArDs, Fanfarlo and Bomba Estereo. You can check that out here.
What We Did With Our Winter Vacation
Well, we’re back from vacation, and it’s time to catch you all up on what you might have missed over the break. Here ya’ go:
- The Faster Times included The Sway Machinery and Girls in Trouble in their Best of 2009 Music list.
- The Boston Survival Guide chose Girls in Trouble to include in their 2009 Band Roundup.
- Made Up Disease (MUD) posted a really nice and very thorough ode to JDub, including a whole bunch of our artists, like The Macaroons and Balkan Beat Box.
- Music magazine Blurt included Alicia of Girls in Trouble in their The Artists Have Spoken: Best of 2009 feature.
- JTA’s The Fundermentalist shed a little light on the recent Jdub/Nextbook partnership.
- The Forward listed Soulico and The Sway Machinery as picks on their 2009 Forward Fives list.
- The University of Oregon’s Oregon Voice had a great writeup on Soulico’s Exotic on the Speaker.
- DJ Anjali listed Soulico’s Exotic on the Speaker as part of his Top 5 of 2009 in the Portland Mercury.
- Digital City has a fantastic interview with Dave Schneider of The Macaroons — conducted by Corn Mo’!
- The Sway Machinery is one of LimeWire’s Best of 2009 Staff Picks!
- Jeremiah Lockwood, of The Sway Machinery, published an op-ed in The Forward about the band’s trip to Mali.
- Our friends over at Tablet Mag talk up The Macaroons in a podcast dedicated to the best family-friendly music of 2009.
Last but not least, I’ve posted more photos from Jewltide 7 under the cut! All credit goes to Dan Sieradski.