Steve Lieberman – Jew In The Underground / 19 / Tracks / http://www.gangstarabbi.com / [email protected] / Reviewed 05 July 2005

Every few months, like clockwork I get another of Steve Lieberman’s CDs. I’m amazed these packages haven’t contained bombs instead of CDs, with some of the rough reviews I’ve given in the past. Each album provides me with some other information; this time, I find myself wanting to know more about the Hebrew (Jewish, forgive my naming ignorance) calendar, and wanting to pull out my dad’s old Jethro Tull albums (Lieberman covers “One Brown Mouse” on “Jew In The Underground”.

The other cover that really makes this disc worth having is Lieberman’s time with Green Day’s “American Idiot”. The track is so riddled with distortion and nasal singing that any of the charm given the track by Billie Joe has been stripped away. The indomitable spirit of Green Day in this track can not be completely subjugated by Lieberman, and even the inclusion of the flute can’t keep this track from being a rocker. While I am not sure if it was intentional, the Bryan Adams-like “Summer of ‘449” deletes everything from the AOR track besides the hook, and drivers it into the listeners head ad nauseam. “Hey, I’m On The College Radio” uses some of the same punk rock that has been such a hallmark of Lieberman’s music, but also mixes in whe I hear as mid-nineties alternative rock (specifically The Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper). As is the case with many of Lieberman’s discs, there are points of tremendous skill that are strewn about the disc – this is evidenced during the swinging vocal beat of “All My Favorite Girls”, and some of the noisier punk riffs (“No Holocaust Under My Watch”, “Jew In The Underground”).

Some of the tracks actually break out of the framework of Lieberman; this is evidenced by the Devo-influenced track “I Lost My Girl On The Tilt-A-Whirl”, which looks towards psychedelic rock more than any other track on the disc. The vast majority of tracks on “Jew In The Underground” really seem to show a Lieberman that is expanding eir horizons, instead of assaulting listeners with the same style 16 or 19 times. Even if the cover of “American Idiot” is one of the disc’s largest “misses”, Lieberman’s ode to Jethro Tull is a strong mark for this disc. “Jew In The Underground” may just be the most accessible of Lieberman’s disc, and really shows a moderation of Lieberman’s very distinctive style. Give this disc a spin.

Top Tracks: One Brown Mouse, All My Favorite Girls

Rating: 5.4/10