tomer yosef
Artists, Activists Rally Against Child Deportation
November 1st, hundreds of Activists rallied against the intended deportation of migrant workers from Israel along with their children, most of whom were born in the country. They also protested the statement by Minister of The Interior Eli Yishay (of Shas), who was quoted saying: “They will spread Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and Aids”. The rally, which took place at Tel Aviv venue The Block, featured several Knesset members, as well as social activists and artists Tomer Yosef, Kwami, Useless I.D, Kottage and me.
JDub Radio App!
Calling all you iPhone and iPod touch heads out there, the JDub Radio App is now available!! For the low price of $1.99, you can have instant and unlimited access to 100+ streaming tracks from the JDub Records archive directly on your iPhone. Features tracks from Balkan Beat Box, Michael Showalter, Golem, Soulico, DeLeon and all your other favorite JDub artists.
Download the app HERE
Holy Land Home Run
Today we have some real wisdom from Erik Kesten and Brett Rapkin, the brilliant pair of directors behind new documentary Holy Land Hardball. The movie focuses on the struggle to put together a professional Israeli baseball league, and includes a cameo by Jewish first basemen for the Red Sox, Kevin Youkilis. The film (and this entry) speaks for itself–but I’ll leave you with this a cool tidbit: last year, Kesten’s fantasy baseball team were called THE UNHOLEY BAGELS, named after IBL creator Larry Baras’ cream-cheese-stuffed hole-less bagel invention from the film. He also had Jewish All-Star Ian Kinsler on my team. They finished in 7th place!
When we first read about a middle-aged, bagel-making Jew from Boston named Larry Baras who was attempting to create the first-ever professional baseball league in the Middle East, it sounded like one of those absurd underdog premises that often make the best sports movies. Of course this was real life and a victorious ending was far from guaranteed. Nevertheless, we were inspired by a number of Hollywood sports films.
It was clear Larry was guided by the “If you build it, they will come” mantra from “Field of Dreams.” Despite a skeptical Israeli public, which had gone 5767 years without the sport, Larry believed that if he was able to show Israelis the best qualities of baseball - father/son camaraderie, pastoral backdrops - they would in fact come.
With players ranging in age from 17 to 51 and hailing from nine different countries, the IBL was a rag-tag group of underdogs, much like the characters in “Major League.” But while the fictional Cleveland Indians had Ricky Vaughn and Jake Taylor, the real life Netanya Tigers of the IBL have Leon Feingold and Dan Rootenberg! (”Who are these &^%&-ing guys?”)
As we looked to meld a hip Mid-East vibe to the classical sports film score - like the iconic theme to “The Natural” - we were extremely fortunate to work with JDUB Records in molding the film’s soundtrack. In addition to using tracks from Tomer Yosef and Sagol 59, an original score was composed by Sway Machinery’s Jeremiah Lockwood. The film moves from moments of absurdist comedy to nail-biting suspense to spiritual exploration. Somehow Jeremiah was able to pull it off. Our limited edition DVD comes with a “Making of the Score” featurette starring Jeremiah and members of Sway Machinery. Check out the entire film HERE.
Soulico gives it up
Soulico’s debut album, Exotic on the Speaker, is on iTunes September 9 and in stores September 29th. Exotic on the Mixtape
will be out next month and is fire fire fire! Yes, they have collaborations with MCs like Ghostface, Del, and Rye Rye. And yes, Israel is represented by Axum, Tomer Yosef, Onili, and more. Underneath those voices are some banging, intricate beats. Check two of them out for free below. One is based on a Ladino folk song called “Et Dodim”. The other is 100% original flavor. Like what you hear? Grab them on iTunes for a whopping $1.98. While you’re there, can you help us spread the word by leaving a review and rating it?
Balkan Beat Box fan video
Seattle fan Otto Bulut just sent us this amazing video for BBB’s La Bush Resistance. True the album came out almost 4 years ago (!) but we say better late than never. Thanks Otto!
JDub gets Jewish hip-hop props
Last Friday, the Rhapsody Soundtreks blog had a story on Jewish hip-hop, and JDub was well-represented. Tomer Yosef, Sagol 59 The African Queen release
, and So-Called all got nods. So did a few non-JDub artists, including Hip Hop Hoodios and Blood of Abraham, whom Dr. Doughnuts
Sydney White on dvd taught you about in an earlier post Lethal Weapon 2 psp .
JDub Records: your one stop shop for Jewish hip-hop knowledge.
39 Weeks + 36 lbs + 1 Baby Girl = 13.1 Miles
I am a runner. I live in Los Angeles; a place where you can run outside almost 365 days a year. Along the promenade, which lines the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice, I can give you the exact mileage from one specific landmark to another; from one tattoo shop to the next piercing stand, from the silver-coated mime to the guy building his daily crocodile out of sand, from the bicycle rentals to the segway rentals. I am a runner.