JDub Records

Late last year I stumbled upon The Secret Mountain, a Montreal-based publisher specializing in multi-cultural children’s literature and music. When I found out that they were planning to release a Jewish book, I knew it was something we absolutely needed to share. We don’t usually work with children’s projects, but Songs from the Garden of Eden is a book of heartbreakingly fantastic, mixed-media illustrations paired with 28 track CD. Needless to say, it really struck a chord with me and JDub founder/new-dad Aaron Bisman.

Each page of the book includes the lyrics to its corresponding song, in both the native text (Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, and Ladino), the English transliteration, and the English translation. We’re proud to count the cool folks at The Secret Mountain as our new friends and to share this with you. We’re offering the book/CD for a special May 4th pre-order here, and below are a couple tracks to check out. Spread the word!

LA PARIDA - an enchanting harp-driven Ladino melody that celebrates pregnancy.

YOME, YOME - a whimsical Yiddish song dating back to 1912 that tells the story of a mother watching her infant daughter grow up.

Last weekend I was watching “Big Love” and was momentarily excited to hear Modest Mouse in the background of one scene. That moment of joy was shattered when I realized that it wasn’t really Modest Mouse, but Kidz Bop singing Modest Mouse.

Kidz Bop is essentially popular music sung by kids - it’s the equivalent of children doing indie rock karaoke. There’s virtually no difference between the two versions of said Modest Mouse song, aside from the singers. So are we to believe that kids would rather listen to a chorus of other kids singing Modest Mouse than Modest Mouse singing Modest Mouse? Or should I say, parents would rather have their kids listen to the kids version?

Maybe this stuff flies in Utah, but please New York hipster parents, don’t let me down.

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???