"I just wanna melt away in all Its grace, drift away to that sacred place where there's no more you and me, no more they and we, just unity." - From "Unity," written by Trevor Hall and Matisyahu

Does Matisyahu dislike Jewish musicians?  That was my suspicion recently when I saw an ad for the singer's Festival of Light performances in New York City, which started on December 10 and continue (with breaks for Shabbos) until December 20. Inventively, Matisyahu has a different opening act on each of the eight performances: Glitch Mob, John Brown's Body, Dub Trio, Brothers Past, Rana, Kid Koala, Travis McCoy, and Kevin Devine, a mixture of reggae bands, rappers, and earnest singer/songwriters.

All of these acts--with the exception of McCoy, who is the singer in Gym Class Heroes and also works with Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship and Pink, and dated Katy Perry--are relative outsiders in the music business, lacking the headliner's major-label support or platinum sales. And also, none of these acts is Jewish, as far as can be easily ascertained.   Matisyahu is in a unique position: He's not the biggest Jewish musician in the world, but he is certainly the biggest Jewish-identified musician in the last 50 years. We might divine Jewish sentiments or perspectives in Paul Simon's music, or recognize the Jewish references in Leonard Cohen's songs, but those are only facets of the performers' fully-assimilated identities. Matisyahu's musical identity begins with his Jewishness: He performs using a Hebrew name (a variation on his birth name, Matthew Miller) and both lives and performs as a Hasid, wearing traditional garb and declining to perform on Friday nights, when many musicians can command their largest fees. Financially, being in a band and not performing on Friday nights is kind of like owning a bar and closing it on Friday nights.

As recently as ten years ago, "Jewish music" usually meant ancient prayers set to homespun melodies and sung earnestly, accompanied by finger-picked guitar. It was about as fun as Hebrew school. Then came our current Jewish Musical Renaissance, with bands mixing klezmer, rock, jazz, punk, and cabaret, and adding witty or provocative lyrics in the tongue of the diaspora. (Some of this music is recorded and released by JDub Records, the label that issued Matisyahu's first three albums; JDub also now owns Jewcy.) Anyone who has been paying attention could have recommended some of these bands to Matisyahu, who would have found excellent, well-suited opening acts among them.

Let's not forget the specific circumstances here: This is the most commercially preeminent Jewish artist of our era celebrating a Jewish holiday in the very-Jewish Manhattan and Brooklyn, without any Jewish opening acts. Maybe an analogy will help illustrate my dismay: It's as if Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye, at the height of black consciousness in, say, 1969, had gone on tour with Simon & Garfunkel opening the shows.

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G-d told me to go on tour with a punk band called CAN!!CAN.

No shit, I wish I were making this up.

I'd love to wake up in the morning, eat a bagel, go to work in a cubicle Office Space style and fly under the radar for the rest of my life. But I can't. As The Blues Brothers said, "we're on a mission from G-d".

It came to me like a flash in the dark; like a warm feeling in my stomach after eating hot tomato soup on a cold day. I need to go on tour with my band. I need to sing about spirituality, G-d's love for humanity, tikkun olam, olam haba and all the things that drove me crazy-in-love with my creator.

And I needed to do it through indie punk, hipster metal and noise pop. 

So I started messaging some friends; frum-punks, hippiedox kids, tattooed Reform rejects...anyone who would listen to what I was trying to do. 

It worked out. My tour is being guided by the great people at Shemspeed, Artists4Israel, ModernTribe.com, Frumsatire.com, HeebnVegan, Bahay Shalom, Birthright Israel - Next, PresenTense...you name it! And I get to work with some awesome cats like Y-Love, Matthue Roth, Diwon, DeScribe, Stereo Sinai, Juez, Darshan and others.

The greatest thing that ever happened to me was waking up and realizing that my life was no longer about me anymore. Luckily, G-d saw it fit that the one thing I'm good at, playing in a rock band, is the thing he needed me to do the most.

I'm one lucky guy. Shalom...and I better see you guys rocking out with your cocks out!

TH Aug 13 Louisville, KY @ Derby City Espresso

F Aug 14 Louisville, KY @ Adath Jeshurun Synagogue Patrick A Dvar Torah!!

SN Aug 16 Chicago @ Empty Bottle sponsored by Birthright Israel, PresenTense, Shemspeed

M Aug 17 Indianapolis, IN @ The Vollrath

T Aug 18 Teaneck, NJ @ Shemspeed Summer Music Festival - Mexicali Live

W Aug 19 Baltimore, MD @ Sidebar

TH Aug 20 Philadelphia, PA @ Shemspeed Summer Music Festival -The Raven Lounge

F Aug 21 Providence, RI @ AS220

S Aug 22 Trenton, NJ @ Millhill Basement 

SN Aug 23 Amityville, NY @ Broadway

M Aug 24 Asbury Park, NJ @ The Saint

TH Aug 27 NYC @ Shemspeed Music Festival - The Bellhouse

F Aug 28 Hickory, NC @ Drips Coffee House 

 

www.punktorah.com

www.myspace.com/cancanband 

What does it mean to be PunkTorah? In the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy's "You Might Be a Redneck If..."

-You've seriously considered taking speed in order to stay awake on Shavuot

-You only have one-night stands with girls/guys you've met at JCC

-Your rabbi is on your Top 8 on Myspace

-You hosted a bar mitzvah for your black, lesbian neighbor's dog

-You think Whole Foods should sell organic gelt

-You got your "Never Forget" tattoo on Friday night after watching Schindler's List

-You try to match up the rhythm of the Shema with your favorite Sex Pistols song

-You love the High Holidays because you get to wear your Converse high tops to Shul

-You despise bureaucracy but will join every Jewish group on Facebook

-You feel a sense of indie street cred for knowing that Brian Chase from Yeah Yeah Yeahs is also in a band on JDub Records

-You secretly admire Chabadniks because they out-drink everyone on Purim

-You're on a never-ending-quest for a hemp yarmulke with an anarchy symbol

-Your car has "gefilte fish", Obama, and Apple stickers on the bumper

-You like going to Hillel meetings to see "how the other half lives"

-You beat the shit out of everyone at No Limit Texas Dreidel

-For the guys... if you've considered becoming a frum because their beards are "metal as balls"

-For the ladies...if you wish the local sheitel store had wigs in blue, green or fire engine red

And finally, you might be PunkTorah if you consider it a mitzvot to get rabbinical students stoned after they pass final exams, because those kids worked their asses off and deserve a nice vacation with Mary Jane.

In this season of giving it's easy to forget about treating yourself—especially with most of us finding ourselves to be financially challenged in these tough economic times. Let us at Jewcy hook you up with an awesome Hanukkah contest and ticket discounts for Matisyahu's Festival of Light Tour. Lucky Jewcy readers are eligible to enter to win a pair of tickets to Matisyahu's Hanukkah week New York shows at Webster Hall (December 21-25) and Brooklyn tour dates (December 27-30) at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Simply email the date you'd like to attend, along with your name and phone number to contests@jewcy.com. We will randomly select winners on Friday, December 19.

If that's not enough, you can also enter to win a phone call from Matisyahu, an autographed tour poster, a T-shirt and more by signing up at matisyahuworld.com.

Here's a complete list of the New York Area Festival of Light Tour dates along with links to where you can by tickets now and get a $5 discount instantly by entering the password "Light" at checkout.

Good luck and happy Hanukkah!

Festival of Light New York Area Tour Dates:

• Sunday, December 21at Webser Hall

• Monday, December 22 at Webster Hall

• Tuesday, Decmber 23 at Webster Hall

• Thursday, December 25 at Webster Hall

• Saturday, December 27 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

• Sunday, December 28 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

• Monday, December 29 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

• Tuesday, December 30 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

Need a pre-holiday pick me up? Thankfully awesome music site Shemspeed.com and news resource JTA have partnered up for a Hanukkah ticket giveaway extravaganza. Enter to not only win tickets to reggae-hip hop virtuoso Matisyahu's Festival of Light Tour, but also the mega-cool Sephardic Music Festival, which features a diverse array of artists that range from rock and hip hop to world music and electro. If you are new to JTA, simply sign up for their free daily briefings to be instantly entered for both Matisyahu's December 21-23 dates at Webster Hall as well as one night of the Sephardic Music Fest's December 21-23 dates. Already a JTA subscriber? You are eligible to enter for Matisyahu's December 24-28 shows at the Music Hall of Williamburg and for one night of the same dates of the Sephardic Music Fest by sending an email to tickets@shemspeed.com using the subject line "Hanukkah." Don't forget to include your name and the show you wish to attend. Talk about a Hanukah hook up!

Put down the Matisyahu and pick up the Y-Love.

"This is Babylon," the new album from Hasidic emcee Y-Love (AKA Yitz Jordan), seamlessly blends rhymes in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, and even Aramaic, all the while mixing sounds and beats evocative of DJ Shadow, The Streets, Mos Def, Chuck D, and a host of others. Thought-provoking political verses reside naturally beside electronic dance tracks. Y-Love calls it "global hip hop," and considering that he's a convert to Judaism, he can spit some pretty fast Yiddish.

The album functions on a couple of levels: You can chill with it and meditate on his words, or let them seep in as you move. Fresh and inspired, Urb calls "This is Babylon" a "soundtrack to social progression" and describes it as "a head nodding, fist lifting, wake-up and do something kind of record."

Already available for download on iTunes and Amazon, the album will be in stores on Tuesday, April 29.

Previous: God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of Nature with the Adventure Rabbi 

WWJRD: What Would Joey Ramone Do?Does this scream “The Matisyahu Effect” to anyone else?

Underground music scene: check. Funky-ass beards: check. High degree of religiosity combined with secular audience street cred: check. Only a matter of time until these guys sign a deal with JDub, yo.

(Overlooking, please, for just a moment, the wrenchingly bassackward afternoons these brothers are described promoting “life” outside an abortion clinic...)

To pare it all down, nice and punk and universal: It don’t matter how hard the religious elders try to foist their musty relational tactics upon the young ‘uns. Spiritual reckoning and renewal cannot be packaged and sold. The revolution will not be broadcast via synagogue newsletter. Take your outmoded ideals and shove ‘em. The kids are all right. And so on. Amen.

Rav Shmuel is no Weird Al. There I said it.

So what to do when your husband is a major recording artist and on the road a lot? Bake bread, apparently.

Hasidic Reggae Rapper Matisyahu's wife Tali, an NYU Tisch alum and former film student, who met her husband while doing a documentary on men and women in the Orthodox community not touching, has since, most likely given up the camera in place of a Kitchen Aid, but is still actively pursuing alumni activities to keep her busy. This Thursday she will be hosting a Challah baking workshop in their Crown Heights apartment. All women (yes, it's a women only event) are encouraged to bring instruments, aprons, and tales of inspiration for this simcha.

And as a favor for me, can someone go and relay a message to Matisyahu via Tali: No more Sting covers. PLEASE!

Gawker says Jared Leto threatened someone at a Matisyahu show. Has there ever been a gossip item that more perfectly symbolizes the adolescence of anyone Bat Mitzvah’d during the grunge era?      

Billboard.Com released their top songs/albums of the year. Matisyahu picked up consecutive spots (2nd and 3rd) for "Live at Stubbs" and "Youth." Matisyahu's top single for the year, which can be heard and seen live below, was "King Without A Clown," sounds remarkably similar to Sean Paul, who had the #1 album.

Yehudit Brachah of Jewschool eloquently posts about Jewish cultural immersion at the Matisyahu concert in Boston last nite and her interactions with Pseudo Jew. Keep in mind, no acid was involved. Or none that we know of. 

Me: So you said you're in Jerusalem, huh? What street do you live on? [I am really asking in a nice tone, I promise. I am giving him a chance.
Pseudo-Jew: Uh… [cough] the fourth street. From the center.
Me: Really. What bus line are you on? What neighborhood do you live in? [I was really trying to give him a chance. A chance to back down? A chance to admit his ploy? I'm not sure. But I didn't expect him to keep going.]
Pseudo-Jew: Umm… well, actually, my neighborhood just got bombed. So I had to move.
Me: No, no it didn't.
Pseudo-Jew: No, really. It did. But I used to live in [cough at same time as saying:] Jachmnbadah.
Me: Huh.

Moving along to the subject of kippahs:

Me: Where did you get your kippah?
Pseudo-Jew: Huh? My what?
Me: [taking the kippah off his head… yes, I was being somewhat obnoxious at this point, but he was also touching my waist now and leaning in to answer me] Don't touch me. What's this on your head?
Pseudo-Jew: The yamakah?
Me: Where did you get it?
Pseudo-Jew: "Where did I get it? I bought it! In Peabody. Do you know Peabody, Mass? Where are you from?
Me: Yeah, I know Peabody. I'm from here. And Jerusalem. I lived there last year.
Pseudo-Jew: Oh really?
Me: Yeah. You should really learn the neighborhoods of Jerusalem before pretending to live there. [I promise I said it sweetly.]
Pseudo-Jew: Well, I've only been there for two months, so I don't really know.
Me: Well, good luck finding your way. Good night.

Dmitriy Salita, an undefeated welterweight boxer and Golden Gloves champion, is an Orthodox Jew. His personal website describes him as “a famous Jew boxer,” and he climbs into the ring to the thumping bass of Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae star. If Salita gets his way, he’ll be the next Jewish media icon. He’d better be careful what he wishes for. With his Hasidic music and exhibitionistic piety, Salita may awaken a dangerous and venerable beast: hagiographical journalism that sets messianic expectations for Jewish athletes, musicians, or anyone else who fits neatly into the timeworn narrative about the Jew who thrives in a goyish ...