When it comes to music, the weeklong Yiddish New York festival doesn’t only have top-notch klezmer. On Saturday night, there was a late-night Yiddish New York Punk Showcase on the Lower East Side. “Yiddish music and punk rock go together in this neighborhood,” explained Rozele, the lead singer of Koyt Far Dayn Fardakht, from the stage. It was my first time seeing the queer/trans Yiddish punk band Koyt Far Dayn Fardakht. In case you don’t speak Yiddish, their name translates to…
Hilarious Jewish Punk Stories from The Hard Times
Posted on December 9, 2018The Hard Times is a punk version of The Onion. The fake news stories are often hilarious and relatable. On Thursday, for the third time in the last year, The Hard Times featured a Jewish punk story. Considering that the timing aligned with Hanukkah this year, Rosh Hashanah this year, and Hanukkah last year, The Hard Times apparently made deliberate decisions to run Jewish content around Jewish holidays. I say, job well done and keep it up! Here’s an overview of all three. Jewish…
New Book about the Mid-’90s Punk Explosion
Posted on November 23, 2018In the Introduction of Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk, I traced the rise of commercial punk rock in the mid-1990s because it is an important prelude to most Jewish punk bands using punk rock as a vehicle to explore their Jewish identity. If punk rock hadn’t gotten so big and reached so many people, fewer musicians would have been inspired to play punk rock afterward. When researching my 2016 book, I read My So-Called Punk (2007) and watched Punk’s Not Dead (2007) and One Nine…
Guest Speaker at Book Fair Shabbat
Posted on November 22, 2018On Friday, I was the guest speaker for Book Fair Shabbat at Woodlands Community Temple in White Plains, New York. Rabbi Mara Young and the other speakers on the bimah did a commendable job of tying in counterculture and resistance with Jewish values. Cantor Jonathan Gordon used the Ramones‘ cover of “Surfin’ Bird” for the “Adon Olam” melody. Jewish punk fit right in! My presentation featured songs by Yidcore, the Schleps, Moshiach Oi!, and Di Nigunim. Most are in the “Shabbat Punk Playlist” that…
Article about My Upcoming Presentation for Book Fair Shabbat
Posted on November 4, 2018On November 16, I’ll be the guest speaker for Book Fair Shabbat at Woodlands Community Temple in White Plains, New York. In addition to giving an overview of Jewish punk, I’ll be sharing Shabbat songs and talking about my writing process. Here’s an excerpt from a great article on the front page of the shul’s monthly newsletter, Makom. One doesn’t usually think of “punk rock” and “Judaism” in the same sentence. But on Friday, November 16, at this year’s Book…
Bram Presser Discusses Yidcore While Promoting Book in the U.S.
Posted on October 29, 2018Australian author Bram Presser just wrapped up a weeks-long U.S. book tour for The Book of Dirt. (Check out my 2017 post and Matthue Roth‘s review.) In addition to speaking about his award-winning book, Presser discussed his past as the singer of Yidcore, the quintessential Jewish punk band, at events and in interviews. I attended two of Presser’s New York events. On October 12, he was the guest speaker at Chabad at Columbia University’s Shabbat dinner. We met up at a bookstore and walked over…
Shabbat of Comfort and Renewal
Posted on October 5, 2018Today Sen. Susan Collins announced that she’ll vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be on the Supreme Court, signaling that he has enough votes to get confirmed. For many of us who objected to Kavanaugh’s nomination, this was devastating. The news came on a Friday afternoon. In Facebook posts, two thought-provoking Jewish musicians referred to the forthcoming Shabbat as a coping mechanism. Alicia Jo Rabins (singer of Girls in Trouble and former fiddler of Golem and KOSHER) said: I try…
“Angry Jew Punk” Band Confronts Nazis on “Oi Vey”
Posted on September 8, 2018Damn Dirty Commies’ Oi Vey is a pithy album. If you don’t count the two comedic interludes and the one rap bonus track, there are just three songs, taking up less than five minutes combined. At a time when Kanye West can offer up seven songs as an album, let’s not debate whether it’s an album. The Philadelphia-based “Angry Jew Punk” group don’t need more songs to pack a punch—especially in the face of a Nazi. Oi Vey kicks off with a vulgar and violent take…
On the Radio: “Mosh Hashana: A Punk Tribute to the Jewish New Year”
Posted on September 7, 2018Have you ever listened online to a public radio show in Alaska and felt like the DJ was speaking directly to you? Today on Soundings on KRNN Juneau, Johnny Negotiable started off his show by saying: We have listeners from far-flung Queens, New York. Well, actually, that’s a little bit of a hyperbole. We have one listener in Queens. We have my friend Michael Croland, the author of a great book on Jewish punk music, Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk. It’s…
Guest Post: Jewish Metal Music Politics on the Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud
Posted on September 4, 2018The following guest post is by Jim Hale. Jim lives in Juneau, Alaska, with his wife, Michelle, and their two dogs, Murphy and Molly. Under the nom de guerre Johnny Negotiable, he hosts a music show he calls “episodes in the history of noise,” on Friday mornings from 10 to noon on 102.7 FM, KRNN Juneau and streaming live at ktoo.org/krnn. After getting drenched in a downpour as I walked to an American ex-pat’s restaurant for a bland, overpriced Thanksgiving dinner, I took…