“GOOD CITIZEN Los bastardos buy - Golem are a New York City band who take klezmer and Eastern European folk strains and bash them out with a punky fervor, which aligns them philosophically with Gogol Bordello and such JDub labelmates as Balkan Beat Box and Matisyahu. Accordionist-bandleader Annette Ezekiel Kogan and Aaron Diskin trade off lyrics in English, Yiddish and Ladino as trombonist Curtis Hasselbring and violinist Alicia Jo Rabins stitch the songs together with frantic tempos and madcap melodies on their latest album, Citizen Boris. But Kogan’s lyrics don’t ape the surreal bohemianism of Gogol Bordello singer Eugene Hütz’s wild-eyed tales. Instead, her tunes are more overtly sensual, such as “Tucheses and Nenes,” where Diskin frankly lists his favorite types of women (”I like them dirtier than clean”). Even more intriguing is “Come to Me,” which unwinds with mesmerizing, serpentine weaves of Rabins’ violin as Kogan sighs and screams with orgasmic delight. The song pulls off that rare trick of being sexually thrilling without being crass or juvenile. Diskin and Kogan are also delightfully whimsical on the title track, where they grill each other with questions lifted directly from a citizenship test. - Falling James”

Golem - Tucheses & Nenes

Golem just played a show for 800 high school kids. They were screaming so loud before we went into the room that we were afraid we would be killed and eaten alive, chewed up by their little teeth. Kids are a great test audience and it turned out to be amazing to play songs from our new album, Citizen Boris, for them. The most important thing to know is: kids like drums. Loud drums. That is Rule #1. As soon as Tim was playing loud (and that was almost immediately) they couldn’t take their eyes off him, or stand still. If I ever wondered whether or not one of songs had a good beat, all I had do to was look out at this crowd. They were jumping on the stage, high-fiving Aaron and dancing their butts off. Then we got to “Tucheses and Nenes“… I wondered if it was appropriate, but figured why not, these kids definitely already know their body parts. Sure enough, when I asked if they knew what a tuches was, one boy started pulling down his pants. I yelled, “Don’t show me!” And nenes? Three teenage girls yelled “tatas!” in a fit of giggles. We played the song and their mouths hung open as they danced along. When we were done, they yelled in unison “Play it again! Play it again!”

We waited until the end of the show, to see if they had forgotten (isn’t their memory span 5 minutes max?). Sure enough, they were still yelling, “Tucheses and nenes! Tucheses and nenes!” We played it again and this time they were already singing along. Who says Yiddish is dead???

Golem’s Model ‘Citizen’ … Ukrainian-American Style

As the primary songwriter for the New York band Golem, Annette Ezekiel had been chronicling the stories of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants to the U.S.

Then she married one. With that, the now Annette Ezekiel Kogan’s frame of reference has changed a bit for the band’s new album, ‘Citizen Boris.’

“It definitely takes all the stuff I’d been doing and makes it a million times more real,” says the lively singer-songwriter. “Of course, I’m learning things I didn’t know but also the things I did know are coming to life in Technicolor — went from black-and-white to color. It’s pretty amazing how it all fit together so well.”…..

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GOLEM IN BLENDER!

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