The Shondes
Per their facebook page, the band’s interests are “justice, feminism, anti-racism, punk rock, rock n roll, klezmer, pop, coney island, matzoh ball soup, seitan, davening.”
In 2012, they hit Europe for a world tour and told SheWired in a full feature
After this you’ll be on your first European tour? Are you excited or nervous?
Solomon: Both in spades. Since we’re all Jewish and descend, in part, from Eastern Europe, it’s going to be really exciting to visit that part of the world for the first time. Always looking for maximum emotional intensity, even unintentionally. I seem to have booked us to be in Germany and Poland for the Jewish high holidays, which is going to be really interesting and painful, I think. We have the holidays off, of course, and are going to get to go to synagogue in Berlin and Warsaw. I’m sure there will be a lot of blogging about the experience.
Sounds:
“Giddy garage melodics with Sleater-Kinney twist.” -Entertainment Weekly
“A touch of Bruce Springsteen, a touch of Nashville, and plenty of gritty ’90s pop punk imparting the feel of an instant classic.”
-MTV Iggy
Schmekel
Schmekel is a prominent force in the Brooklyn, NY transcore scene. Mixing traditional klezmer scales with punk sensibilities, Schmekel (which means “little penis” in Yiddish), challenges listeners to think critically about Judaism, queerness, and the sounds that accompany both. Schmekel’s humor inspires audiences to laugh and dance wildly.
In their bios, they describe themselves as: “a fierce genderqueer Jew warrior,” and “assigned Jewish at birth and identifies as cis-religious.” They own operate their band website from the URL transjews.com.
You can also find them:
The Kinsey Sick’s
The Kinsey Sicks, so named for biologist Alfred Kinsey’s designation of level six (homosexual) on his famed Sexuality Rating Scale, is billed as “America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet.” The comedic acapella group was founded by Irwin Keller and Ben Schatz, two former lawyers who were actively involved in the gay rights movement and in fighting the AIDS crisis.
The Kinsey Sicks are made up of four members who perform in drag: Winnie (Keller), Rachel (Schatz), Trixie (Jeff Manabat), and Trampolina (Spencer Brown). Keller and Schatz play their roles with a comedic Jewish flair (Winnie is said to be releasing a Passover cookbook shortly, delightfully entitled “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Chometz!”). The Kinsey Sicks have performed internationally and been recognized by high-profile nominations with the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel awards, as well as their famed extended run at the Las Vegas Hilton.
You can find them on: