Steve Lieberman, The Gangsta Rabbi, started his musical career in 1968. The instrument of choice was a clarinet. Less than two weeks later it was taken away from him for insufficient progress. That should give you a really big clue about his latest of nineteen albums. The Rabbi Is Dead is a scream fest with barely decipherable lyrics and a garage (garbage) sound that really should have stayed there. I can’t think of an album I have disliked more. Ever.
Lieberman is a multi-instrumentalist and in The Rabbi Is Dead, he uses more surf rock than in some of his previous work. His style of music is in the realm of progressive rock and proto punk.
“I’m Not Freddie Mercury” has a poor recording quality. The sound is crackly and there is a suspicion in the back of my mind that someone literally recorded it with an old microphone and stuck it on a CD without editing it at all. There is a steady drum beat, surf guitar and flute (the most pleasant part of the whole album, and it only lasted mere seconds). Some frantic guitar playing ensues that I perhaps could have accomplished myself if I had run my hairbrush over the strings after slamming it into the wall a few times. No, Freddie Mercury would weep if he heard this song.
“What Do I Get” is another bad piece of music gone very wrong. Poor sound quality and the vocals are like a scalded cat and guitar chords…like someone was being electrocuted. Loud, brash incomprehensible sound that grates on the ears is the name of this tune. Wait. Was that a flute? Hmm. Yes. The entrance of the flute with the garbage combination of almost death metal sludge guitar playing is beyond any musical composition I have ever encountered.
“The Rabbi Is Dead” is the title track to this album. It begins with a moderately interesting Jewish melody that was actually pleasant. That lasted only until Lieberman began to sing. What he was singing, I still have no idea. The sound quality has the same amateurish taint and the mucky guitar playing was balled up with the rest of whatever was going on to make a cacophony of noise that made my ears want to bleed.
The Rabbi Is Dead would make a fine hockey puck. The unprofessional sound quality of the album was painful to listen to. When one of the songs on the track list is called “I Got the Crabs” you know you’re in trouble. Why would anyone calling themselves a Rabbi, ever go there? The screechy scalded cat voice and garbled sound of the near death metal (but not even that good) guitar was enough to make my stomach roll. It is hard to believe this is album nineteen for this artist. Doesn’t the world have enough coasters by now?
Key Tracks- I’m No Freddie Mercury, What Do I Get?, The Rabbi Is Dead
Dana Wright-Muzikreviews.com Staff
September 14, 2011