STEVEN LEE BEEBER

Spiritualized

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:31:15 GMT

Roxy, July 30, 2008
Like fellow studio-friendly trance band Portishead, Spiritualized know how to bring their aural soundscapes alive in real time and space.

Israeli upstarts

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:05:21 GMT

Punk takes hold in the Holy Land
The sound of angry Israeli youth mocking the extreme right is growing in volume, so much so that it’s now reaching the US.

UNDER THE WALL: Drag City will release the Tel Aviv punk band Monotonix’s debut EP next month.

It’s Tuesday night at the Abbey Lounge in Inman Square, and the Israeli band the Genders are having some problems. The crowd have spent more time looking at their beers than at the stage, and the smatterings of applause are perfunctory at best. Yet as the Genders launch into their next number, some faces in the crowd light up: “Born in Brooklyn in the USA/They called me Jewfro Jerome/I changed my name/Got on a plane/Found a place to call home/I ride a tank in the West Bank/I’ll never leave/Who needs Tel Aviv!!!”

People applaud, and a couple near the stage begin to dance, enjoying the jumping beat and the singer’s high spirits. But as the song continues, its sentiments begin to sound mocking rather than joyous. “Look out mamma, my name is Horatio/I perform cunnilingus in return for fellatio.”

“Yeah!” someone in the audience screams, a guy with . . . well, a Jewfro. Maybe he doesn’t realize that the song is a putdown of a specific type of Israeli immigrant — the American transplants who populate the occupied territories in the West Bank. It portrays them as losers who can’t function in their own country and so move to the settlements to swagger like cowboys and — in the opinion of many Israelis — sow the seeds of further conflict.

The sound of angry Israeli youth mocking the extreme right is growing in volume, so much so that it’s now reaching the US. Next month, hip US indie label Drag City will release the EP Body Language, the first conventionally produced and distributed album by the Tel Aviv punk band Monotonix. And Useless ID (signed to the US label Kung Fu) have toured widely in the US. Their last trip to Boston was in 2003, when they played Axis.

But the real point here is the degree to which punk has taken hold in Israel itself. Although Israeli punk’s legacy can be traced to Rami Fortis’s 1978 release Plonter (loosely translated as “fucked up”), it’s only during the past couple of years that punk has really caught on. “Punk bands are suddenly more numerous than ever,” says Ayelet Yagil, former editor-in-chief of Israel’s rock Web site, mooma.com. “They have their own clubs, not only in Tel Aviv and Haifa but even in Jerusalem.”

No latkes?

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:46:11 GMT

A crazy worldwide Hanukkah party
Four bands, seven countries, and a couple of sponsors: that’s what it took to stage the festival of spotlights known as “A Crazy Worldwide Hanukkah Party.”

Meet and greet

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:22:05 GMT

Boston's rock n' roll social
To be a fly on the wall was, well, quite a buzz.

Mojo rising

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:38:24 GMT

Robby Krieger rocks Berklee
“So,” I asked, “how annoying was Jim?”

Rocker moms

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:54:37 GMT

HRT come straight outta Sharon
In Sharon, there’s one garage that’s been a breeding ground for a very different kind of band.

MOTHER LOVE: What started as a novelty act has become a real rock band.

In suburban garages across America, cars leak oil, rags sit too close to gasoline cans, suicidal sorts feed tailpipes into windows — and bands bang out raw renditions of “Louie Louie.” But in Sharon, there’s one garage that’s been a breeding ground for a very different kind of band. Because it’s not the kids who are making the musical racket in this garage, it’s their moms. And not just any moms: Lisa Yves (keyboards; 42), Marlane Pinkowitz (guitar; 43), Tammy Robbins (drums; 40), Emily Grogan (guitar; 38), and Marian (bass; 46 and, like Madonna, on a first-name-only basis with her fans) are HRT — Hormone Replacement Therapy. Although they’ve yet to release a debut CD, they’ve already been featured on The Today Show, The Fox25 Morning Show, and WCVB’s Chronicle. And last year, the Canadian cable channel Slice carried a reality show based on their lives. Negotiations are under way to bring a version of the same program — Rocker Moms — to a US outlet.

Despite the obvious novelty value of a group of rocker moms, HRT are more than just an A&R scout’s publicity stunt — they’re serious about the band, and they have two members who are seasoned vets. HRT co-founder and de facto leader Lisa is a Yeshiva-schooled NYC native who made a living playing piano in Greenwich Village before moving here to raise a family. (She also had a stint performing with Harry Connick Jr., but we won’t dwell on that.) And as a solo singer-songwriter, Emily Grogan has two albums to her credit: 2005’s iO and the new At Sea (One Way Productions). She’s also part of Angeline, a folk-rock project she formed earlier this year with fellow singer-songwriter Linda Viens.

Settled into the comfy-chair section of a Starbucks in Chestnut Hill, the members of HRT (who perform this Friday at Church) describe themselves only half-jokingly as MYLRs — Mothers You’d Like To Rock. There may not be anything particularly new about women in rock, but four decades after Janis, three after Patti Smith, and just one since the riot grrrl upsurge, HRT are emblematic of a grassroots shift. The spotlight has moved past mothers playing rock and roll to motherhood itself. Last December, HRT competed with other rocker moms at a Momapalooza festival in New York. And the MILF allusion is more than a joke: HRT are about rock and roll in the classic sense, with all the celebration of sexuality that goes with it. There was a genuine sense of liberation in the air when they played T.T. the Bear’s Place last spring. HRT offer the opportunity, as one mom in the audience put it, to “live vicariously through them.”

Straight Man Versus Jokerman

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:46:39 GMT

Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan, DCU Center, October 2, 2007
Those expecting a night of Sinatra-style duets when Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello shared the bill at the DCU in Worcester were sorely disappointed.

Rap Hashanah

STEVEN LEE BEEBER — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:35:15 GMT

An old school new year
The Boston Jewish Music Connection kicked off the Jewish New Year not with a kegger or kippers but with a freestyle showdown of Jewish rappers.