Punk chefs advise that if you want to ground up matzoh to make matzoh ball soup, you can have the punk rock band in your living room do it for you.

If you don’t have a punk rock band in your living room, this playlist should rev you up for all eight days of Passover. If it still isn’t enough (dayenu?), check out last year’s Passover punk playlist.

Yidcore: Bashana Haba’ah

A key theme of Passover is that while we might face problems now, things will be better next year. The chorus of this traditional song says, “You will yet see how good it will be next year.” In Yidcore’s cover, this rallying cry is more of a scream the last time it’s uttered.

The Shondes: True North

The chorus of “True North” connects the seder-ending slogan “Next year in Jerusalem” with social justice activism. Shondes singer Louisa Solomon said the song is about “utopian ideals” in “revolutionary movements—and the related Jewish tradition of actively imagining a better world.” The band included “Next year in Jerusalem” to “connect with our ancestors’ aspirations toward justice,” Solomon explained.

Gefilte Fuck: Why Don’t We Do It in the Shoul?

The song is modeled after the Beatles’ “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” and starts off by suggesting sex in a synagogue. There are four questions in total, and two of them are from the Four Questions: “Why do we eat unleavened bread?” “Why do we dip our parsley twice?” Click here to listen.

Schmekel: The Mohel Song

“The Mohel Song” addresses whether a transgender Jew should get circumcised. Toward the end of the song, singer/guitarist Lucian Kahn sings the chorus of “Chad Gadya.” Kahn associated “Chad Gadya” with his family’s inebriated renditions following four cups of wine at Passover seders. He saw in “Chad Gadya” the “drunken revelry of the liberation moment of the seder.” As Kahn put it, incorporating the song fit into Schmekel’s approach of taking liturgical melodies and other familiar elements of Judaism, “commenting on it,” “re-contextualizing it,” and “making it [their] own.”

G-d Is My Co-Pilot: Dayenu

G-d Is My Co-Pilot was part of No Wave, an avant-garde offshoot of punk rock. The band originally spelled out the first word of their name, but when they played overtly Jewish songs, they used a hyphen instead. Their 1994 album Mir Shlufn Nisht (Yiddish for “We Don’t Sleep”) included “Dayenu,” plus a hora, a Chanukah song, and “Hatikvah.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nphRFZg4zQE

Total Passover: Get Kosher

Total Passover qualifies for this playlist because of their awesome name. Their slogan, “Shalom Motherfucker,” wasn’t well received in their home state of Iowa in the early ’90s. In “Get Kosher,” the Jewish narrator tells a non-Jewish woman that he’ll only date her if she keeps kosher. The chorus includes the hilarious line “Lips that touch swine will never touch mine.”

Moshiach Oi!: Eliyahu HaNavi

This Hebrew song calls for Elijah the prophet to come to us soon with Moshiach. Moshiach Oi! have plenty of punk rock in their rendition, but there are also heaping servings of reggae. In addition, Moshiach Oi! discuss the Exodus from Egypt in songs “Yetzias Mitzrayim” and “This Is My God.”

Gangsta Rabbi: 1st Diaspora Egypt

“1st Diaspora Egypt” appeared on Steve “Gangsta Rabbi” Lieberman’s 69th album last year, and now he’s released three more since. The lyrics discuss how Joseph wound up in Egypt, Pharaoh’s order to build pyramids, the splitting of the sea, and wandering in the desert for 40 years en route to Israel.

…You might need to read the lyrics to get all that.

For more information about all these artists, check out Michael Croland’s book, Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk.

Art courtesy of Tom Meehan/Total Passover

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Believe it or not, it’s become a tradition for Jews around the world to celebrate the High Holidays with punk rock.

In 2008, for example, in Tel Aviv, the band Friday Night Sissy Fight promoted a “Rosh Hashana Mayhem” show and encouraged people to “Celebrate the Hebrew New Year with Some Punk.” That same year in Australia, Yidcore played a “Happy Jew Year” show they said would “be sweeter than apple dipped in honey!” Yidcore added, “Well it’s Jew Year next week so we thought we’d give y’all one last chance to rack up a bunch of sins before you wipe your slates clean!” And last year, Jewcy shared Schmekel songs for four Tishrei holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah.

From “Mosh Hashanah” to Yom Kippur intensity, here’s a Jewish punk playlist for the High Holidays, with a Christmas tune thrown in for good measure.

Free Radicals: Mosh Hashanah

As a lover of punk and puns, I give this song title an A+. Houston-based Free Radicals are known for their fusion of jazz, funk, ska, reggae, Afrobeat, and more, and “Mosh Hashanah” combines klezmer and punk rock. “Free Radicals doesn’t play klezmer exclusively, but when we do, it often tends to be our heaviest music,” the band said in a statement. “Maybe this is because our band members have several Jewish ancestors [and] because when we play one-two beats we get confused as to whether we are doing polka, klezmer, or punk rock ….”

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Hava Nagila (Christmas Arrangement)

When Me First and the Gimme Gimmes recorded a live album at a bar mitzvah, they of course played “Hava Nagila.” Afterward bassist Fat Mike (better known as the front man of NOFX) explained that he didn’t like the “traditional” song, so they “rewrote” it and came up with a “better version.” The group then played “Hava Nagila” to the tune of “Feliz Navidad,” with a chorus of “I wanna wish you a Rosh Hashanah from the bottom of my heart.” The line doesn’t make sense without an adjective in front of “Rosh Hashanah,” taking the absurdity of the situation to even greater heights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Q-3ifV1c0

Yidcore: Avinu Malkeinu

Yidcore followed in the path of Barbra Streisand and Phish by covering “Avinu Malkeinu.” This liturgical staple of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur beseeches “Our Father, Our King” to have mercy. In Yidcore’s version, the verses and the coda have punk rock frenzy. Arguably, though, the slower introduction and bridge invite inner reflection. Yidcore deserves extra credit for playing a shofar in songs that had nothing to do with the High Holidays and for saying “Shana tovah” in a song about the secular New Year.

Pitom: An Epic Encounter

On Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes, Pitom addressed the themes and liturgy of the High Holidays. “An Epic Encounter” is the song with the fastest tempo, and it rocked out with intensity toward the end of the album. Guitarist Yoshie Fruchter explained that the song is “supposed to echo as the day is winding down … as things are speeding up” and “echo the movement of” Yom Kippur. He added, “As the day is winding down, the day is getting more intense. … That was the reason for putting that where it is on the record and the feel that it is.” Pitom used intense music to express the intensity of Yom Kippur.

To learn more about Yidcore, Pitom, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and other Jewish punk bands, check out Michael Croland’s book, Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk (Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO).

Flyer courtesy of Yidcore.

The post Mosh Hashanah: A Jewish Punk Playlist for the High Holidays appeared first on Jewcy.

1. Yidcore: Punk Rock Chanukah Song

Adam Sandler took Jewish holiday music to the next level with “The Chanukah Song,” but Yidcore one-upped Sandler with this parody—and circumcised him in the (arguably NSFW) music video. Yidcore proudly recalled the many prominent Jews in punk rock. Yidcore declared, “Joey Ramone ate matzoh at the seder/Just like Richard Hell and most of the Dictators.” Sure the Maccabees are important, but this is an important history lesson too.

2. Golem: Freydele

Golem is a klezmer-rock band with a punk edge. The first few times I heard “Freydele” live, I was blown away that Golem had come up with such a catchy, poppy, dance-y song. Just like most songs that meet that description, there’s some rapping in Yiddish. The lyrics discuss a maydele, named Freydele, who plays with her dreydele.

3. Shira: Hanukkah Song

Although Shiragirl was a punk rock band, as a solo artist Shira focused more on dance music, while still incorporating punk-inspired distorted guitar. “Hanukkah Song” mentions the oil that lasted for eight nights, latkes, chocolate gelt, and doughnuts. The lyrics include a tutorial on how to play dreidel. As far as Chanukah songs go, it’s all encompassing in discussing both the historical and celebratory aspects of the holiday.

4. Schmekel: I’ll Be Your Maccabee

Schmekel frequently relied on Jewish holidays as a familiar, resonant vehicle to discuss the transgender Jewish experience, (Remember all their High Holy Day songs?). Singer/guitarist Lucian Kahn explained that “I’ll Be Your Maccabee” was about “a young, Jewish, trans guy who goes to a Hanukkah party” and tries to seduce “a very handsome, Christian, non-trans guy.” The song includes a keyboard interlude of the more traditional Hanukkah ditty “Maoz Tzur.”

5. The Schleps: Maoz Tzur

If you’re looking for a full version of “Maoz Tzur” (Rock of Ages), The Schleps recorded a 37-second “koshercore” rendition. For Hanukkah 2008, JDub Records (z”l) featured the song on their blog and “predict[ed] that koshercore will finally take off in 2009 (maybe).” Koshercore did not hit the big time in 2009 or, as of press time, ever, but Jews are good at waiting.

6. Gefilte Fuck: Dreidel Song

Gefilte Fuck’s “Dreidel Song” is a medley of “I Have a Little Dreidel” and “Hanukkah, O Hanukkah.” Front man Howard Hallis recalled that he and the band’s guitarist thought it would be “really funny to take some of these old songs” and “make them punk rock style, because there are some really lovely melodies there that can be bastardized and put into the punk rock format.”

7. Electric Menorah: Charmonica for Chanuka

Brett Singer played guitar in a hardcore band under the stage name Bozo Foreskin. He had the idea of “Bozo Foreskin years later exploring his Jewish roots,” so he formed the one-man band Electric Menorah. Electric Menorah released the EP Chanucore, which consisted of three songs uploaded to MySpace. After a Passocore detour, Electric Menorah returned with “Charmonica for Chanuka.” Singer began the song by chanting “Shin! Hey! Gimmel! Nun!” before saying, “Shin sucks. Gimme Gimmel!”

8. Gangsta Rabbi: My Last Chanukah

Finish up your Chanukah with some end-of-life music. Steve “Gangsta Rabbi” Lieberman is battling cancer and finds it difficult to keep making music, but he hasn’t given up. He’s working on his 30th album (68th if you count his 38 cassette recordings), The King of Jewish Punk. He included “My Last Chanukah” on 2014’s Cancer Ward, but it wasn’t his last Festival of Lights. In a July interview, the Gangsta Rabbi had a unique take on his health situation. He wondered, “Has the God of Israel written a scorching rocker for me to play in Heaven—but not until I get there?”

You can learn more about all eight artists in my book, Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk.

Photo of Shira: Andrina Farago, Hair/Makeup: Paul Mojica

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