Currently Browsing: Music 17 articles
Pointless
Loolwa Khazzoom shares the story behind ‘Pointless’ a new song on her band’s debut album, Iraqis in Pajamas (June 4 release). The BackstoryThe world knows little or nothing about indigenous Middle Eastern Jews, like my family, who lived on the land of Iraq for 1300 years before the Arab Muslim conquest of the region. My family lived on […]
My Metal, My Judaism
Adam Kammerling reflects on metal, theatre and Judaism. The first song to move me to tears was the Avinu Malkeinu, as sung by the congregation of the Bristol and West Progressive synagogue. I was fifteen years old and it took me by surprise. It was the hyper-normative, mega-hetero, small-town, the early noughties. Boys couldn’t just […]
Congahead: Martin Cohen
Martin Jaffee reflects on Martin Cohen’s lifelong love affair with Latin music. On stage, hidden behind my full set of congas and bongos—a warm evening at Cain Park, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the Workmen’s Circle Klezmer Orchestra ( now Tischler Klezmer Orchestra) launches into Ich Hob Dich and I latch onto a sinuous Latin rhumba on […]
What kinda goy has the first name Lenny?
Nathan Abrams reviews a new memoir by musician Lenny Kravitz. ‘I am deeply two-sided’, Lenny Kravitz writes in his memoir, Let Love Rule, which recounts the first quarter-century of his life, from birth until the release of his debut album in 1989. That is because of the two halves of his identity: ‘Black and white, […]
Introducing Tsitsit, the Jewish Fringe
Alastair Falk tells us about a new initiative and wants your support. You will know the feeling. It’s the Edinburgh Fringe and there’s this huge list of performances which you are desperately working out how to choose what to try and see. Of course, for Jews it’s always slightly easier: just look for shows that […]
Metal and the Holocaust: Feeling the ‘Gut-Punch’ of History
Dominic Williams considers whether and how metal music can help us ‘feel’ the Holocaust.
Metal and the Holocaust: Too Much Transgression?
What do you do when you are drawn to the bad guys, but the baddest guys around are just too bad?