Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band's performance at the Nave Gallery in May, is available for free download.

Years ago my cousin gave me two CDs by the Israeli band Teapacks (usually spelled "Tipex" before they settled on "Teapacks" as their official transliteration) and they became one of my favorite bands even though I'd never seen them live. A sort of Middle Eastern Funk style with Israeli folk & rock elements, and clever lyrics sometimes reflective and often funny.

The music video to the right is hatachana hayeshana (The Old Station), their ode to the old central bus station in Tel Aviv, a place knew more from my summers in Israel in the 80s than from when I actually lived there. Tel Aviv's new bus station (the largest bus station in the world) opened in 1993, and when I spent a month in Israel in 1994 the transition was not yet complete. Everyone was complaining about the poor design of the new station, the confusion caused by having some bus routes at one and some at the other... and missing the character of the old station. It had a lot of "character" :)

That video is also notable for having one of the only sane, valuable comments ever seen on YouTube:

The chrous means:
I used to stop at the old station,
and it felt like a different country.
A country whose reality is on hold (or: is waiting)
as the rain falls and the sun burns.

The song is about the old central bus station in Tel-Aviv as a symbol of blue-collar, Mizrahi culture, including references to music and food, poverty, religiosity etc. All of this, in contrast with the rest of the country, supposedly Europeanized and modernized.

While I wasn't paying attention, Teapacks continued their rise to stardom in Israel, moving on to incorporate hip-hop, afrobeat, punk, and more into their songs, now in multiple languages. This year, they represented Israel in Eurovision 2007 with the song on the left, Push The Button. It apparently caused a bit of controversy when one of the Eurovision organizers wanted to ban the song because he thought it was a direct reference to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Band leader Kobi Oz says the song is about "living in the shadow of danger and laughing in the face of terror."

Here's an impromptu interview with Oz where he explains other reasons why Push The Button is too weird and chaotic for Eurovision. Some other songs:

• Od Shabat / another Saturday (Hebrew)


• 12 Points (live, Hebrew/English)


• Two songs with Sarit Hadad:
  Kshe ani itcha ani kmo dag (When I'm with you I'm like a fish)
  & Lama alacht mimeinu (Why did you leave us?)

Now Teapacks is touring in the US!

Unfortunately I missed telling you about the Bay Area shows, and Los Angeles is tonight.

Los Angeles: Oct 17, 8:30pm, Avalon Hollywood Theatre

Miami: Oct 20, 8:30pm, Dave& Mary Alper JCC

New York: Oct 21, 8:00pm, Highline Ballroom - Oyhoo Festival

Washington DC: Oct 23, 8:00pm, The State Theatre

Cambridge, MA: Oct 24, 8:00pm, Middle East (downstairs)

Ithaca, NY: Oct 25, 8:30pm, Cornell University

north Jersey: Oct 27, 8:30pm, Kaplen JCC, Tenafly NJ

Philadelphia: Oct 28, 8:00pm, The Trocadero Theatre

I'd probably go to several of these, except I'm going to Minneapolis October 24-30, so I'm going to go to New York for the Oyhoo festival.

It has come to my attention that some people who would love The Heads have not heard of them. Ten years ago, the former members of The Talking Heads except for David Byrne put together an album. Since they didn't have Byrne, they got a starry cast of guest singers. Here's Debbie Harry of Blondie singing the title track "No Talking, Just Head".

Some more clips:

• How Do I Undo the Damage I've Done? with Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde


• No More Lonely Nights with Maria McKee


• Papersnow with Andy Partridge of XTC

Other guests include Michael Hutchence of INXS and Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes. One track, "Punk Lolita", has Tina Weymouth of The Heads (and Talking Heads) singing along with both Debby Harry and Johnette Napolitano.

Early warning: the Dry Branch Fire Squad is coming back to the Firehouse Center in Newburyport, MA, on February 8th. I took dreams_of_wings to see them two years ago (at the same venue), and here's what she wrote about it.

They've released two live albums recorded at the Firehouse Center so far, so I can give you an idea of what it'll be like with some clips: a bit of straight-up bluegrass, some harmony singing, some instrumental picking ... and of course some of Ron Thomason's inspired between-songs banter, which is half the fun of seeing them:

Massachusetts epithets
Economical talk of West Virginia
some Appalachian history

I would go see this guy do a standup act or tell stories for hours without the band. I'd go out of my way to see this band play even if he didn't talk. Fortunately, the two go together.

In January 1995, Katy and I went to a dark music festival at the Middle East downstairs, to see Fracture, an industrial band Walter Stickle played lead guitar in (Rich Macchi was in Fracture at some, but I don't think he was for that show). Also on the bill were several bands we'd never heard or heard of, including Fade, Shawn Keve (who I have no memory of), and You Shriek. The entire show was quite good, but most of it has been overshadowed in my memory by the wow of my first experience seeing One of Us.

Compelling, melodic, harsh and mild in a seamless blend, they used industrial rock sounds to play melodies that alternated between simple beauty and emotional attack; all with slow, steady, careful timing, the way Carol Nooan and Groovasaurus have sometimes done. Their lyrics sometimes felt like stories told slowly, and their long instrumental bridges were often layered with tribal sounding percussion and guitar melodies that sounded almost Turkish to me. Occasionally they would strip all of that out and show that their melodic strength and compelling writing still worked without all of the texture.

Through it all, the front man, John Eye, had our eyes. Shaved head, painted, no shirt, he writhed on stage and off, climbing the poles and pipes, twisting and turning. Almost a decade later, I still have images of him hanging from the ceiling, or climbing the railing off stage, all mixed up with my memory of the music. I think his ego was glowing white in the darkness, and he knew where to project it.

At the time, they had only one album for sale, titled Sky Clad. I only wish I'd thought to buy more than one copy. While no mere audio recording can convey what it was like to see them live, this CD has remained one of my favorites ever since, and it has been sadly out of print for almost as long. I've used it on mix tapes and played it in my car, and more consisnently than for any other recording I have (not counting funny novelties), people ask about it.

What happened was that, not long after that show, the band imploded. Through unofficial channels, I hear that John Eye and the other band members couldn't figure out how to work together - whether or not it would be all about him. And it turned out that One of Us is all about him. Christian Gilbert (guitar), Alex Milne (bass), and Dave McFarland (drums & percussion) left, teamed up with singer Leah Chandra, and formed Reflecting Skin. That's where you can hear those Turkish sounding guitar solos now.

John Eye got a new band, and kept the name. I've seen them a couple of times since. Last night at Dark Sky, they played Song of Cannonicus, from Sky Clad. That sent me thinking about the old and new One of Us. John Eye's voice is still the same, and though he has hair now, and hasn't been as flamboyant in recent years as he had been at that show, he's still got ego to project into stage presence. The songwriting style is similar, and some of the old songs come back. They've got similar melodies, but the industrial rock aspect of dominant now, and there are fewer twists. I still enjoy their music, and their shows. I miss what they were, ten years ago.