All posts tagged as: interview
The Wailing Wall Talks to The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post recently interviewed Jesse Rifkin on the Wailing Wall and reviewed his new album, The Low Hanging Fruit.
Within the mellifluous chords of The Wailing Wall’s indie music, we hear the discord of a ukulele jamming with a guitar, a trumpet vying for airtime with a bass, and a harmonium and pipe organ on stage with a trash can. This beautiful, organic pandemonium again puts us in touch with the creative origins of Jewish prayer.
That’s Jewish rebellion at its best. That’s real ‘bad.’
Michael Showalter at the Pitchfork Music Festival
An interview from the Pitchfork Music Festival, which according to Michael Showalter was the best music festival in Chicago that week.
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!
Alicia Jo Rabins Talks to David Bazan for Magnet Mag
Today, Magnet Magazine posted a really wonderful conversation between Alicia Jo Rabins of Girls in Trouble and David Bazan (Pedro the Lion). You can read that HERE. I’ve also included full-text below the cut. Enjoy!
“You know what I’m saying; Do you think the more exploratory open-ended artist model ended up pushing your spiritual practice or interior life a little more toward the artistic model?
I don’t know if that’s directly where it came from or if I even got it from a third place that I can’t think of, that influenced both of those spheres simultaneously. Because I used to write songs a lot differently, too; early on, I was a little more deliberately didactic with the music I was making, so I feel like those shifts might have happened in the religious sphere and the artistic sphere at the same time. But it’s hard to know. I mean, is your religious identity one that’s really conflicted, or is there a religious expression that you engage in that you’re not particularly conflicted about?”
Soulico in Denver Examiner
A reporter from The Examiner in Denver found some time to chat with Rob from Soulico while the band was in town celebrating Halloween at the Walnut Room, and the result is a very cool (and very big!) interview. Want to check it out? It’s HERE. Full text under the cut.
“When it comes to their musical influences, Soulico doesn’t limit themselves to one style. “First of all you have to keep an open ear and an open mind. Don’t narrow yourself into one genre,” Rob describes. “Good music is good music. It’s not generic, it’s good music. That’s my favorite genre, whatever that is- it can be African, it can be Moroccan, it can be Arabian.” For Soulico, growing up in Israel contributed to their broad musical tastes. “The major influences, besides the music made in the US or Europe, is the Mediterranean,” Rob explains. “I’m not going to sell hip hop to Americans, you guys do it way better than we do. It was essential for us to come up with our own sound. We are influenced by Middle Eastern instruments and elements. By listening to a lot of music and dealing with music in different ways and forms- that is the Soulico sound.”
The Wailing Wall on MTVU
Last week the folks over at MTVU posted a great interview (though this isn’t his first mention there) with Jesse of The Wailing Wall, alongside a video of him playing “Hospital Blossom” live just for them! Full text after the jump.
The Sway Machinery on WBAI
Jeremiah Lockwood on WBAI’s Beyond the Pale
Last week the lovely Abraham Velez welcomed Jeremiah Lockwood of The Sway Machinery into the WBAI studio to inaugurate Beyond the Pale On the Waterfront movie download ’s new music feature. It’s a lengthy clip, with Jeremiah and Abe discussing Cantorial singing, Jeremiah’s music and a slew of other great topics. Plenty of live music, too!
Balkan Beat Box in Boston Globe 3/27/09
BALKAN BEAT BOX IS ON TOP OF THE WORLD - Siddhartha Mitter
The band’s name is Balkan Beat Box. Its core membership is three Israelis who found their voice in New York subcultures and whose sound encompasses Arabic rap, Moroccan gnawa, mariachi, and dub in an electronically infused cocktail. And when the band hits the Paradise Wednesday, it’ll be fresh from Mexico City, where it has a huge outdoor gig this weekend in the central plaza, the Zocalo, sharing a bill with Asian Dub Foundation, the London Indo-punk massive.
Orthodox, these guys are not. Not in their Jewishness, squarely anchored at the secular, pluralistic end of the spectrum, and even less so in their musical sensibility. But don’t confuse Balkan Beat Box with one of those goofy world-fusion jam bands that peddle low-impact exotica to undiscerning ears. It may be a party band - its live shows are famously raucous - but its members have the spirit of researchers and activists.
Interview with Annette (Golem) on National Geographic Music
The Nat Geo Music Interview: Golem
Nat Geo Music catches up with Annette Ezekiel Kogan to find out more about our favorite musical monster.
03/02/09
According to medieval Jewish folklore, The Golem was a brawny automaton summoned up from the clay of the Vltava river by the Rabbi Lev to protect the Jews of Prague. Got all that? This Golem of legend was famously silent – and infamously destructive.
Today, Golem is a six-piece band from Brooklyn who’s anything but quiet – unleashing musical havoc worthy of their medieval namesake. Their sound is a hard-driving mashup of punk rock and Eastern European influences – especially the traditional Yiddish dance music known as Klezmer. Read More »
Golem on AOL Spinner!
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.”…..