The Gangsta Rabbi, a.k.a. as The King of Jewish Punk, is the moniker of the multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, composer and producer Steve Lieberman. He was born in Brooklyn, New York to a working class Jewish family and now resides in Freeport. Perhaps more than most artists, his work needs to be understood in the full context of his life.
He has been considered an ‘outsider artist’, partly attributed to his lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder which began for him at the age of just eleven. He has been releasing studio albums since 2002 and has now released over thirty, along with live albums and countless cassettes. He has shared the stage with Weezer, Andrew WK, Glassjaw, Ryan Dunn and The Misfits, but had to retire from performing in 2011 owing to having to battle an advanced form of leukaemia, returning briefly to the stage in 2016.
In 2018, he was admitted into a hospice and remarkably has carried on creating, producing his most challenging works including completely covering Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick (a major influence) and thrash metal versions of the British Opera, The H.M.S. Pinafore and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
In 2019 he released the album, La Symphonie-Thrash Du Professeur Juif Rebelle, which clocked in at thirty one tracks with a duration of over three hours and also set a record for most instruments played in a symphony (eighteen!).
This album, The Noise Militia, is his most epic yet, clocking in at enormous seven and a half hours across fourteen tracks! The concept behind this album is the highly original idea of fusing military music with noise punk and involves a bewildering array of instruments all played by Steve, including all the guitars, baritone and bass guitar, trombones, four kinds of recorders and five types of clarinet as well as soprano saxophone, melodica, euphonium, flute and talabard. Oh, and the drum machines.
First track The Puppy Dogs Save Old Dog Trey bursts into life with a conventional beat and a recorder melody before it explodes into a dizzying kaleidoscope of sound. It’s music that borders on the chaotic but, as with Captain Beefheart’s more avant garde music there is method in the madness and melodies amongst the dissonance. There are always several interweaving melodic strands competing for your attention with the raging wall of distorted guitars and the resulting sonic melange is like nothing you’ve heard before.
Although the Rabbi is testing the boundaries through extreme durations, this album is actually less dissonant overall than some of his previous work and is actually a good place to start for the newcomer. This first track, at half an hour long, is lengthier some entire albums but is actually one of the shortest tracks here! The sheer relentless force of energy means it maintains its momentum to the end.
For the first half, it sounds like a continuation of the first opus but halfway through emerges with lead vocals from the Rabbi, delivered with the punk rock attitude as you’d expect. This is where his fusion of noise punk and military music really works, taking the simple punk template and combining it with huge instrumental colour and variety. The Ramones covering Captain Beefheart is the closest comparison I can come up with.
Third opus The Shvestahud/Gothica on A Mission, the latter kicking in around the thirteen minute mark. The title of Gothica on a Mission proves apposite as it does capture the Rabbi at his most extreme towards the end of the opus. Shoot, Shoot Down The Satellite At The Eastern Beach-Head is its own opus rather than a medley and is the musical equivalent of a thermonuclear weapon. To sustain the intensity across half an hour is quite a feat, but one he achieves repeatedly.
Opus #5 is definitely a medley, comprising of 5 Years Terminal, a reference to his battle with leukaemia, as is Still Here and Blesses Be G-d followed by The Park’s Supervisor and The Dormouse. The energy levels seem particularly intense on this one, as if possessed by the exuberance of still being alive.
Opus #6 begins with The Nazarite Takes A Stand, which takes no prisoners from the very start. It’s a veritable cyclone of noise propelled by fierce double kick drumming and a thick sonic texture containing too many instruments to mention. Amidst all this is actually quite a conventional vocal melody from the Rabbi that brought to mind Sonic Youth, who also like to blend melody and dissonance. Puppy in Ab’ib – Dark is built around a colossal riff played in tandem initially, then expands into a noise punk inferno.
Sir Ian’s 72nd Militia starts out with just a soothing flute/recorder but that’s just the calm before the storm. The kick drums sound like cannons being fired. There’s actually a strong melodic core underpinning this one, the various riffs keeping the ear interested. Towards the end the Rabbi starts singing the vocal melody to Help! by The Beatles, and the anguished, chaotic music underneath actually mirrors the troubled words perfectly.
The Refuse Collector and The Poet’s Daughter Vs. Pytr’s 200 Year Militia is an enjoyable riot of noise as well as a brilliant song title. Halfway through we hear some very cool sounding electric guitar before accelerating off into another fifteen minutes of controlled lunacy.
Hyping Up The Charts With The Same Disease is another killer title and it’s another marathon with a twist at the end. This one quotes the vocal melody to Bankrobber by The Clash, which somehow works well set against the mad hatter’s tea party going on underneath, incorporating the song’s main riff at certain points. It can surely lay claim to being the most unusual Clash cover in existence!
The inspired titles continue with Distortion, Pure Hot Metal Council Militia in Russian Rain which lasts nearly forty minutes. It features an echo-drenched vocal from the Rabbi which he sustains throughout, along with what sounds like a bagpipe solo but brought to mind Captain Beefheart’s notoriously unique sax playing on tracks like Hair Pie: Bake 1.
Once again, an unexpected cover emerges towards the end, this time a hardcore version of the 80’s synth pop classic, Just Can’t Get Enough by Depeche Mode. This morphs into Anarchy In The UK, more the kind of music I’d imagine the Rabbi to be a fan of.
10 Years Leukemia Still Here, Blessed Be G-d, Skyrockets, The Desert and Thickened contains one of the catchiest vocal melodies though the words remain mostly a mystery, sung against the familiar sonic barrage. Again, at nearly forty minutes, you can only marvel at the amount of stamina and energy this must have taken. The excellent Skinny Lad Bred For Humanity and Watergames is one of the album highlights, starting with a memorable swooping bass riff, and featuring some very fine riffage. It manages to maintain its madcap energy and inspiration until the final bars, once again.
Spare Us The Plastic Toys and Shaky Hands is a radical interpretation of The Cutter by Echo and The Bunnymen which is actually highly effective through the prism of the Rabbi’s musical lens. He truly manages to make the song his own, stretching it out to around fifteen minutes. Then it morphs into an equally radical version of Neil Young’s After The Goldrush which is about as far as you can get from the original, but I have a feeling that Neil would approve the Rabbi’s version.
Mourning Dove Alone On The River With Flawed Timing is another genius Beefheart-esque title and its a rather electrifying romp that made me think of the wildness of The Stooges’ Funhouse or Nick Cave’s first band The Birthday Party. This time, the song getting an overhaul is the Stones classic Ruby Tuesday. Towards the end it evolves into a hard-hitting version of Joy Division’s epochal Love Will Tear Us Apart.
The final opus is What Were You Thinking Of/My Love Reserved and it’s another Echo and The Bunnymen song re-imagined by the Rabbi, this one The Back of Love. Later on it becomes a mutated cover of She’s A Rainbow, one of the Stones’ lesser known songs (at least to the average Joe). It’s possibly because this was intended as the last opus but this one has a particularly fiery energy and urgent momentum, sending this remarkable album out in a blaze of chaotic glory.
Overall, this is another boundary stretching album from a truly unique artist. Clocking in at an enormous seven and a half hours, the amount of blood, sweat and tears that must have gone into this is staggering to think about. Its a testament to his tenacity and sheer human spirit, particularly amazing knowing that he’s been fighting a terminal disease for many years. This could be regarded as his magnum opus and may in time become highly regarded by lovers of the avant garde and outsider art.
The Faulkner Review 