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Yeshiva of Rock
Melody Macher
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Other articles by Mordechai Shinefield
More in Melody MacherFour years ago, I received a burned CD copy of an unreleased album. Hastily written on the disc in black marker was the band’s name, The Marcus Brothers. The CD contained an album-worth of explicitly Orthodox rock. It was something of an underground Chabad secret, the group’s core members two real-life brothers, one of them a Lubavitcher emissary in California.
The pair (occasionally joined by four other brothers singing back-up) eventually re-formed as The 8th Day and last month released their second album, “Brooklyn.” The record is something rare in the burgeoning business of frum rock. Instead of marketing a collection of revved-up wedding songs, The 8th Day takes its cues from contemporary popular music, from the dirge-like post-grunge of “C.D.S.G.” (Chassidim Don’t Say Goodbye) to the reggae-rock of “Wake Up.”
“Brooklyn” lacks some of the under-produced charm of that first bootleg, but it contains enough of its own to make it worthwhile. Foremost among its charms is the band’s melding of Hasidic pop and rock sounds. (Try finding another band that sings about bubbes with guitars grinding in the background.)
The 8th Day is at once yeshiva-oriented and musically up-to-date. Other ultra-Orthodox musicians tend to either be trapped in a liturgical-inspired genre (such as well-known Hasidic musician Avraham Fried, who happens to be the Marcus brothers’ uncle) or sacrifice the motifs of Hasidic culture for mass appeal (Matisyahu).
The 8th Day alternates its lyrics between English, Hebrew and Yiddish. This musical melting pot is what makes songs like “C.D.S.G” — with its soaring English-language chorus punctuated by a rat-a-tat-tat hip-hop delivery in Yiddish — so interesting. Unfortunately, the band’s English lyrics too often tend toward weakly formulated clichés (“The hearts are broken, how can you shatter a dream?” on “Broken Hearts”). Nevertheless, “Brooklyn” is an album well worth examining — at the very least to see the enormous influence that modern rock is exerting on a new generation of Hasidic musicians.
You can listen to “C.N.S.G.” and title track “Brooklyn” on The 8th Day’s MySpace page. See The 8th Day playing “Yarmulke Blues” here.
Mordechai Shinefield has written about music for Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and the New York Press.
For more Melody Macher columns, click here.
Comments
I agree. I still have the bootleg version. I've never seen them live, but that will change on Aug. 28th I hear they will be playing in NYC! I'll report back after the show!
i just saw them at the maccabee games in OC. much bettter live!!!!
Can a group of orthdox kids make it in the real world? I think c.d.s.g. off their new album should be on the radio! loved them from day 1.
absolutely, pinny. i have been saying that all along. you have the modern orthodox twins that made it mainstream (forget their names) and matisyahu though he did not come from an orthodox background. 8th day would be a first for those who grew up hasidic. i agree that many of the songs could make it to the radio.
I think that is what the review above is saying. They can do Fried or Dylan, they have that mix in their music and lyrics. My fav has got to be Manhattan from the first album.
"Instead of marketing a collection of revved-up wedding songs," Amen! What is Jewish music today? A wanna be Marley? A wanna be Metalica? A wanna be Back Street Boys? I hope 8th Day can help change the stalemate of Jewish music today, where each one is trying so hard to sound like the last one. Great review.
love this band. hands down best thing happening in jewish music. no doubt. article was mostly well written although I cant quite wrap my head around "yeshiva oriented". Also, I think you miss the point with both Matisyahu and Fried. Matisyahu does not portend to be anything but a reggae artist whos hasidic and Fried never claimed or is interested in getting out of his box. He likes in there and thinks more poeple should join him. Fianlly, i think this article warrants some discussion on what is Jewish music?
Amen. They truly are unique in being modern and Jewish/chassidic at the same time. And this is not just cool because it's not being done by anyone else. It's the blending of the modern and the shtetl that i think speaks to people in a way that Matisyahu or Blue Fringe, on the one hand, and MBD and A Fried on the other, cannot. i was surprised though that shinfield found the lyrics cliche. they are the opposite of cliche. Ditto on the home-made sound of the first album, tracht gut... i miss it too. but then i can always go listen to the old album... actually there was a bootleg copy of "penny of fire" that i liked much more than the one they put on the album. maybe they'll release it as a bonus track on the next album???? : )