The “Indie” scene

June 5, 2008 - 7:28 PM by

Rockfour - Memories of the Never HappenedThere is certainly a lot more to Israeli music than the uber-popular depressing sound of Israel’s singer-songwriters, the country’s ever growing hip-hop scene, run-of-the-mill middle eastern singers and the disposable pop of the likes of the latest teen idol.

It’s indie, it’s good and it’s in English. Every Thursday I’ll be focusing on a different Israeli band or singer/songwriter who write and perform their music in English. Let’s get things started, shall we?

While The Churchills made waves back in the sixties and garnered an (albeit small) international cult following that continues to this very day there is a new scene that has emerged over the past several years. There is even a non-for-profit organization called Oleh Records whose goal is to promote these bands.

Rockfour was among bands to make the transition to English to Hebrew. They are psychedelic rockers that sound somewhere between The Byrds and ELO with a smidgen of Beach Boys (check out the 3:30 mark in the song of the video embedded below. Rockfour have achieved moderate success in the US on the college charts and have appeared at the popular SXSW and CMJ music showcases in Austin and NY. During the recording of their latest release, Memories of the Never Happened the band entered and won a contest sponsored by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and recieved the prize of a full day recording in Abbey Road Studios in London.

You can find Goes Around, my favorite track from their new album below.

Tags: • Category: Music, Pop Culture 

Comments

5 Comments on The “Indie” scene

  1. Harry T on Wed, Jun 11th 2008 5:21 PM

    2. Why push Israeli artists that sing in English? I’d rather give props to the musicians who still sing in Hebrew. This trend is bad for Israeli Culture. There’s something terrible about hearing Aviv Geffen and Ivri Lider singing in English. It does not have the same power as hearing them sing in Hebrew. I’m worried that in the future, more and more Israeli Musicians will sing in English because they see everyone else doing it and their dream is to be big in England and America. Things didn’t quite work out that way for Monica Sex. I am afraid for the day when every Heyehudim song will be in English. In the future, the only thing left in Hebrew will be those Mizrahi singers like Eyal Golan. I mean this in the nicest possible way. I really am scared for the future of Israeli Rock.

  2. Harry on Thu, Jun 12th 2008 7:42 AM

    3. Fear not fellow Harry. This trend is indeed growing (albeit slowly) but there will always be a strong Hebrew rock scene. While Aviv Gefen (Blackfield) and Ivri have done some work in English they have not even remotely abandoned their Hebrew music. Hebrew music will always been the hummus and pita of Israeli musicians so I see no problem with them dabbling a bit in English.

    I have more to say about this topic but must run to a meeting. I will address it later today in a blog posting.

  3. Harry T on Fri, Jun 13th 2008 7:21 PM

    4. Thank you for writing back. I am very curious and extremely interested in hearing what else you have to say about this.

  4. Israelity » Spreading Israel through song on Sun, Jun 22nd 2008 11:07 AM

    5. [...] A fellow Harry left a comment on a music post I wrote about Rockfour and the trend of some Israeli artists writing and performing in Hebrew. [...]

  5. Spreading Israel through song | Israelity on Tue, Dec 30th 2008 1:16 PM

    6. [...] can find my initial response here but I wanted to elaborate a bit as to why I see nothing wrong with Israeli music in English. First [...]

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