Dave Grohl is the most wholesome of rock stars, honestly he’s a good egg, and during these unprecedented times, we can all take a page out of the book of Grohl and channel the track “Times Like These”; we can learn to live again…we can learn to love again. Or (And I can’t stress this enough) not, as this next review goes to show that it’s also times like these where, I in fact regret diving into my email submissions. Honestly, you know the original music video for that very song where they are throwing a pile of shit off that bridge? I’d sooner yeet MYSELF off the bridge than listen to this next record…but I will try and be fair.

I’m all for firsts here…I’ve listened to and reviewed plenty of different genres in the past, everything from blackened death metal to K-pop…but never have I ever come across an album classified as ‘Jewish folk-pop’…until now. YERACHMIEL who was originally based in New York, recently moved to Israel where he has fully immersed himself in the culture and traditions of his religion and heritage, and he uses these influences and inspirations to fuel quite the prolific musical career it would seem! “Off The Derech” is his 6th studio album; a collection of 21 original songs which he’s asked me to check out. Truth be told I’d rather bath with my nan, but out of respect and I guess curiosity…let’s give this a whirl.

The album opens up with “Great To Be Alive” and having been on lock-down for five weeks now, this sentiment is already testing my patience. The track itself is admittedly a pleasant little dose of melodic soft-rock; the loose guitar play and light piano combine well to give off a certain late 80’s / early 90’s feel…you could maybe bracket it alongside the likes of JIMI JAMISON for example, but the levels of positivity here are borderline sickly. This positive energy is also incredibly abundant in the track “Temple”. It’s starts off as if it’s the intro theme to some cheesy 1970’s family sitcom, but it oozes its loving message of faith and togetherness to point where you feel like you’re watching Songs Of Praise trying to be edgy. I have my fingers on MY temples…and I require co-codamol.

One thing I will say for Yerachmiel mind is that he isn’t afraid to dabble in crossover genres…I mean the last thing you’ expect to find in an Israeli recording studio is reggaeton or ska, but that’s exactly what you find on “7th Wonder” and “Your Name Be Praise”.  The former is as though BOB MARLEY got so fucking high one day he woke up in the middle east, with its brass-based low-fi instrumentation, while the latter houses more of a subtle, indie-based core sound akin to say, UB40. It’s honestly an interesting mash-up I’ll give it that. True highlights however are sadly minimal and frankly hard to point out…”Earth Is Trembling” does have a solid, up-tempo, oompah rhythm which is both fun and energetic, despite it's damning opinion of mankind. “Tears In A Falling Rain” combines a soulful, funk aesthetic with the more traditionalist middle eastern percussion, while the string instrumentation on “Stay True” borders on country bluegrass.

It’s a confused album quite frankly, and over the course of the twenty one tracks here it’s as though he’s thrown whatever he could at the wall just to see what stuck, and to be honest  I don’t think he cared if something stuck or not. There is a lot going on here and we can all really respectfully say that, this track listing can do with a bit of a cull. I’m not suggesting we go all Nazi and wipe the album out entirely, that would be in poor taste even for me…but the album doesn’t need to be THIS long, especially with so many of the tracks already suffering from repetition. Off The Derech? I must be off my rocker to have believed I might enjoy this one, this really isn’t my cup of Wissotzky. [2]

As you’re probably familiar by now, I’ve credited a lot of my musical taste to one Mr BAM MARGERA, having discovered several of my favourite bands thanks to his compilation albums and personal choices for soundtracks (The CKY series, “Haggard”, “Viva La Bam” etc.) and one such band are Germany’s favourite alternative melodic punks BEATSTEAKS…with a brand new record released earlier this year, I was lucky enough to catch up with drummer Thomas Götz for a quick chat about the record, touring and an insight into German punk…here’s how it went down.

“I’d like to start off by saying Congratulations! You’ve just recently released your brand new album; “Yours”, twenty years after your debut…did you ever see yourselves getting this far back in the mid-nineties?”

TG: “Never…I never have seen myself going anywhere and I am really glad for spending the last 18 years with the band. I had the chance to see really beautiful places and travel through Germany, Europe and even America with the band. And I am very proud that I was finally able to avoid real work and spend my time playing music for such a long time!”

“When people think of German music, initially, a lot of people make the connection with metal; bands like RAMMSTEIN, SCORPIONS and HELLOWEEN etc…very few people automatically associate Germany with punk rock in any capacity. What inspired you to go in that direction and what’s Germany’s punk scene like?”

TG: “I think that Germany has a very vital punk scene and always had. For me it started all when bands like EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, ABWÄRTS, DER PLAN, DIE TÖDLICHE DORIS entered the scene in the 80's and brought really innovative music to the table….back then people said it’s just noise - not even music. But these bands opened the doors for so much other bands - they were like pioneers….and nowadays bands like PISSE, KARIES, HUMAN ABFALL, GEWALT, TURBOSTAAT, DIE NERVEN, LEVIN GOES LIGHTLY, WOLF MOUNTAIN and others  reap what’s been sowed back then. We as a band are somewhere in between…too melodic for real punks….too punk for mainstream pop….too much guitar for young kids….we love DEPECHE MODE, Hip Hop, AC/DC and all kinds of music…so we are not considered as strict punks….we  just play some kind of pop music or at least something that we think of as pop music.”

“Coming back to “Yours”, it’s another batch of great songs in your ever reliable repertoire, tracks like “You In Your Memories” and “Fever” in particular stand out for me…what can you tell us about the album? What’s the inspiration and story behind it? Having recently listened to it, it’s worth noting that its 21 tracks long, which in most cases is a lot for any album, was that always going to be the case? The writing process was evidently very fruitful…”

TG: “We wanted to make an album as diverse as possible….not our usual 11 song album 32 minutes long that we normally make but an album with a wider variety….not everybody in the band has to love every song as much as another…as long as everyone enjoys contributing to the songs….that was somehow the bottom line of the album….and every time we felt clueless and didn’t know what to do….we just asked friends that we met along the way in our career to help us with the particular song…we asked JAMIE T for help with the song "HATE TO LOVE" and he wrote us a wonderful bridge and lyrics. We asked CHAD PRICE of the band ALL to help us out with the singing because we thought that’s the voice we want to hear on "YOU IN YOUR MEMORIES". FARIN URLAUB of the band DIE ÄRTZTE wrote lyrics for "ABBA DU"….the hip-hop band DEICHKIND wrote lyrics for "L AUF DER STIRN" and sang on it…FRANCOISE CACTUS wrote the lyrics for "VELOSOLEX"….so finally we had our first French song… BREZEL GÖRING of STEREO TOTAL produced two songs on our record…..then there was STEPHEN STREET who helped us with producing and mixing of the album and so on….every time we asked for help we got help and so it was a great experience to work on this album and besides the fun we learned a lot…we had a lot of songs in store and this time we didn’t strip down and made no selection of songs worth to work on….we just worked on every idea that was on the table and we succeeded almost every time but in three cases where we just couldn’t finish the ideas……”

“Another talking point would be those collaborations themselves…it’s not something you’ve done a lot of on past records but here there are several, with tracks featuring the wide variety you just mentioned…how did these come about during writing? Did you seek them out specifically?”

TG: “Jamie T. did a show in Berlin while we recorded so Arnim and me went to the show and Arnim went backstage to ask him if he could imagine to help us out which he said was no problem…..a few weeks later he sent us his ideas and we loved it…..I met BREZEL GÖRING and FRANCOISE CACTUS during a Radio session that I did with STEREO TOTAL for the Berlin based station RADIOEINS….a few months later I called them because we had this demo that cried for French lyrics and also would be perfect with her voice….and she didn’t hesitate - she listened to the song and asked for a theme to write about…BREZEL suggested something with motor scooters and Ii suggested something light and something anti right wing…she came up with the story of an ex lover trying to make up for his bad behaviour….trying to reach his ex girl living in Aix and on his way he meets Brigitte Bardot to tell BB that she’s a cunt….”

“Collaborations are everywhere in the charts these days, especially in pop, rap and R'n'B based genre's...are there any artists you'd love to work with that you've not had a chance to?”

TG: “BEASTIE BOYS, TY SEGALL, TOPPER HEADON, PAUL SIMENON, MICK JONES, TONY ALLEN, FRANK OCEAN, LIGHTENING BOLT…..all in all ….too much to mention…”

“Coming back to the new record, you’ve just completed a tour promoting the album, primarily within Germany but a couple of shows around Europe including a date in London, how was the tour for you? How has the reaction been to “Yours” in general?”

TG: “We had a great time including an amazing evening at the KOKO in London…we got along really good, the audiences were great and we’d love to come back to England as soon as possible to continue with our tour. The reaction to the new material was good and it’s getting better all the time! I guess we will have a lot of fun during the next year with this album.”

“What’s next for Beatsteaks in the new year? Is there going to be more extensive touring overseas or aiming to play any festivals? What does 2018 have in store…?”

TG: “Another tour in Germany in spring, a lot of festivals all over Europe during the summer hopefully coming back to England….maybe a few shows in France and definitely some shows in East Europe.”

“Nochmals vielen Dank und viel Glück mit dem Album.”

TG: “Thank YOU!”

When you mutter the words GOLDFINGER…the vast majority of people are going to suddenly turn into Sean Connery…shtart shpeaking really shtrong Shcottish, ordering by dry Martini’s, shhaken, not shtirred (Shhit, I’m doing it myshelf!) but in all fairness, it’s one of the most iconic James Bond movies of all time and you’d be forgiven for doing so…others may look upon the term with a mind full of filth; Goldfinger? Slip the Queen a cheeky one? Foreplay by Royal appointment…I literally can’t believe I just typed that but, I digress…the rest of you may remember it’s actually also the name of a punk band! Formed back in Los Angeles in 1994, they steadily found themselves garnering a loyal fan-base with their upbeat blend of ska and pop-punk, associated with artists like LESS THAN JAKE and REEL BIG FISH, but we haven’t really heard from them since 2008’s “Hello Destiny…”…well, luckily, 2017 sees them dust off the cobwebs and return recharged with a new line-up and a brand new album; “The Knife”. Are they still as sharp or is this a wild stab in the dark? Let’s find out…

I mentioned the new line-up and I’ll quickly touch on that before we begin, founding member John Feldman remains on vocals but here he’s joined not only by Mike Herrera of MXPX, but also Travis Barker of BLINK 182…so to some degree we’re now dealing with a punk supergroup…which is pretty cool, so we press play with plenty of anticipation and we’re greeted with opening track “A Million Miles”. To be fair you can’t really say anything overly negative about this; it’s got everything you’d want or expect really…it’s lively, typically up-tempo ska-infused melodic pop-punk. It’s got the gang vocals, it’s pretty much by numbers but, being the first track in nine years, it’s forgivable…ease in as such, so it’s a decent start. “Get What I Need” and “Don’t Let Me Go” especially ramp up the ska content, you’ve got the trumpets and occasional subtle steel drums contributing their own flavour, the latter having hints of THE POLICE layered within it and a genuinely enjoyable brass solo, so it’s all really easy listening.

Further highlights include “See You Around” which features Travis’ Blink buddy Mark Hoppus providing guest vocals, distinctive as he is, he never disappoints, it’s just a shame Matt Skiba isn’t here too, as it’s a genuinely pleasant track, nothing special, just, nice, while “Am I Deaf” offers us probably the albums grittiest track, more punk driven and aimed at the current music scene; the state in which Goldfinger have found it in coming back from their hiatus, joking that they feel old, everything’s changed, a tongue in cheek poke at the industry which is always fun. There is one track I’ll point out however…”Orthodontist Girl”…it’s a touch weird, I mean, cute love songs about having a crush are all well and good, but, this one’s just…weird. Getting turned on by her sterile rubber gloved fingers in your mouth while she does her dentistry is…an odd fetish let’s be honest. I mean, there is NOTHING remotely sexy about dentistry…drilling here, injecting there, tugging here, and filling there…actually OK yeah I can see that it’s really quite homoerotic…lovely. I’ve lost focus…anyway, to summarise, while there will be fans very happy to have Goldfinger back, especially in this new supergroup format, I guess musically there’s only so much you can do with ska-punk. It’s not bad, far from, but it’s not entirely memorable either. Now, if you’ll excuse me…I’m going to phone my dentist…[6]