down in Monroe, NC (near Charlotte) mixing the first Girls in Trouble record with the amazing Scott Solter. i've never mixed on tape like this and it's quite an art. scott's mixing performance is equivalent to our music performance in complexity and skill. it's different than on protools and pretty addictive actually.

its the last day of mixing and we're working on the next to last song... a few last minute violin and vocal overdubs have saved the day (thank goodness im my own string section)... and aaron's ears have been invaluable as well. we've been eating the hell out of the groceries we bought at trader joe's (kosher chicken! japanese curry made with cubes we brought from nyc!) and mixing 11 or 12 hours a day and discovered an abandoned house down the street with nothing in it but a Steinway upright. the ceiling is literally caving in, but the piano still works.

cant wait to release the album though it wont be for another six months...

http://rogovoy.com/news1687.html

by SETH ROGOVOY

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., October 20, 2008) -- It's rare for an audience to get in on the ground floor of a new musical project, and it's even rarer when, as was the case last night with Alicia Jo Rabins's GIRLS IN TROUBLE ensemble at Club Helsinki, it's on an elevator that seems destined for a quick ride to the penthouse suite.

An outgrowth of her graduate studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, GIRLS IN TROUBLE is Rabins's unique fusion of musical and Biblical midrash. It's also the
first fully developed, entirely personal work of creativity sprung from Rabins's voracious and eclectic appetite for all things musical, intellectual, spiritual, and poetic, and, still in its infancy, a remarkable, jaw-dropping success that had listeners in the club mesmerized by the awesome implications of Rabins's talent and idiosyncratic creation.

Both the name of the band and the project, GIRLS IN TROUBLE is a song cycle revisiting the stories of mostly forgotten Biblical women, including Dinah, Miriam, Tamar, and Samson's first wife. In story and song, Rabins explores the
harrowing stories of these women, mining them for their oft-overlooked lessons of courage and heroism as well as their more ambivalent messages of weakness and surrender.

Rabins doesn't shy away from the uglier lessons inherent in some of these stories and the behavior of their heroes (or anti-heroes); neither is she didactic about any of this at all. Rather, she is pulled off the seemingly impossible: a song cycle as serious as anything in 19th century music that also functions entirely as entertainment: think Liz Phair crossed with Camille Paglia, or Regina Spektor channeling Susan Brownmiller.

In other words, Rabins rocks.

That, in itself, was one of the revelations (pardon my Judeo-Christianity) of the evening: those who have followed Rabins's career have enjoyed seeing her talents evolve as a founding member of the folk-roots group the Mammals, for which she played fiddle and sang a little, through various other string-band and Appalachian folk efforts, in concert and on record, and, most prominently, her role as the fiddler in the popular Yiddish-klezmer outfit Golem.

While there are hints of all this in GIRLS IN TROUBLE, the project introduces an entirely new side of Rabins, one that for the most part has never before been seen or heard. Here she is an electric guitar-wielding bandleader, front and center, singing and performing her own songs that defy categorization but are essentially indie-rock songs in sheep's clothing.

Backed by an ace ensemble including Golem bandmate Tim Monaghan on drums, organist Jascha Hoffman, and bassist Aaron Hartman, Rabins was a compelling frontwoman, her vocals veering from soft, tender balladry to soaring,
keening wails, borne by music that took daring, inventive, chromatic leaps that surprised listeners as they betrayed Rabins's compositional studies in conservatory. The musical and rhythmic arc of several of her tunes suggested a
firm grounding in the works of Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell, while the greater aspect of what she was accomplishing through her poetry -- which, while serving
the stories, stood entirely on its own through its riff-based imagery -- and music suggested a female version of Leonard Cohen.

A solo tune with looped violin parts was a clear homage to one of her musical heroes, Laurie Anderson, and suggested that in more than one way, as much as GIT functions simply as an indie-rock band, it's subsumed under an umbrella of
performance art. But this is just more of the beauty of what Rabins accomplishes here: she has created a musical form entirely suited to and based upon the content, yet a mutable one that can prosper as easily in synagogue as it can on the rock stage.

GIRLS IN TROUBLE is in its earliest stages, with less than a handful of public performances behind it. The group will head into the recording studio in late November to turn Rabins's creations into digital bytes that will see the light of day next spring on JDub Records. Those in attendance at Club Helsinki last night got an early taste of what is undoubtedly going to be an exciting musical
development, certainly in the Jewish music field, but more rightly in the indie-rock field at large, once it gets before larger and more diverse audiences that will flock to the group for its many faceted pleasures, including its grit, melodicism, wit, intelligence, groove -- and no shortage of sex appeal. After all, these are GIRLS IN TROUBLE.

Seth Rogovoy is an award-winning music critic and author of THE ESSENTIAL KLEZMER and the forthcoming TALMUD OF BOB DYLAN.

It started as a thesis project for school and it turned into a song cycle.

Girls in Trouble: songs about crazy bible stories about women in bad situations.

Judith has to try to win the war since the army men have all given up. She's alone with Holofernes, the enemy general, in his tent.

Yiftach's daughter whose father vows to sacrifice the first creature he sees when he gets back from battle and...it's her.

etc.

We premiered it at the Jewish Museum in March, playing songs in the galleries, which was so cool because people sat down in the middle of the museum galleries and listened, and then stood up and followed us to the next room.

Then we played at Southpaw a couple weeks ago with the addition of the Air Organ which was magical.

Now it is time to add DRUMS and Tim "Trouble" Monaghan is joining us for a show at the Cake Shop on Tuesday July 22. (Aaron Hartman of Old Time Relijun plays upright bass; Jascha Hoffman plays air organ and glockenspiel and stuff; I sing and play guitar and ukelele and maybe some fiddle.)

The Girls would love to see you there.

Golem has traversed Alligator Alley twice in the last two months, which is a good thing.

The first occasion was the Langerado festival. A huge outdoor music festival, with tons of acts—everyone from us, to the Beastie Boys, to Vampire Weekend.

The only problem was that this huge outdoor festival happened to be taking place on an Indian reservation in the middle of the Everglades, and there was a twelve-mile two-lane road to get in, resulting in a twelve-mile traffic jam. Traffic was completely stopped, and didn't seem likely to move anytime soon.

But Golem had to play at 7:30 pm, and it was about 6:45. There was absolutely no way we could wait in that line and make it to our show. Also, cellphones didn't work out there.

What was there to do but put on the highbeams and hazards, and drive twelve miles on the wrong side of the double yellow line, going the wrong way, dodging water bottles thrown by angry hippies, and sometimes veering onto the swampy roadside to let an oncoming Mack Truck by?

"Hold on," Tim said, and crossed the double yellow lines, while Annette and I screamed encouragingly. By the time we got there it was raining, and no one working there seemed to know where we were supposed to be playing, but by some miracle we were whisked away to the stage in a kind of golf cart driven by a woman named Scarlet, who took good care of us, and was excellent at maneuvering through quicksand while we clutched our instruments.

I did enjoy the most delicious vegetarian corn-dog of my life.

We had planned to go back and see the other bands, but by the time we made it to the place we were staying – muddy and exhausted – we realized that what we needed was a good old-fashioned day at the beach, with tequilas, lime, pretzels, and melted chocolate bars.

We returned to Florida a month later, and played three shows. Tampa (at Skipper's Smoke Shack: "We Smoke Everything"; Sarasota (at the Sarasota Film Festival), and Miami Beach (in an art-deco outdoor bandshell on North Beach.) Very different shows but what they had in common was that they were all outdoor, being in the glorious state of Florida. So I had the rare and delightful opportunity of watching the moon overhead while performing – three nights in a row. Not to mention trying a bite of fried alligator tail.

Dear World,

Backstage in Eugene, Oregon. We are playing in a kind of warehouse venue and it’s freezing, but we just ate the best Ecuadorean food and I found some amazing vintage clothes. They dont make them like that in New York, or rather they don’t price them like that. I love Oregon thrift shopping.

We played in San Francisco and then flew here. A magical show in SF - I couldnt stop smiling watching the mosh pit from stage. And my first official "slow food" lunch (in Berkeley, of course). A magical park where I slept in the sun in mid-day. And a spontaneous pre-season Giants game, involving large quantities of cotton candy.

i’ve never been to Eugene before although I was born in Portland. But my family moved to Baltimore when I was 3 months old, so I am an east coast girl through and through (although Portland and I still have a special thing going.)

I forgot to bring my shabbat candles to the venue, so i guess we’ll light at the hotel tonight.

This is tonight’s love letter to the world.

Love,
AJR

here is a little handmade invitation to my next show. it's an unusual one. kind of a happening...


SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2008, 2 pm

Girls in Trouble at the Jewish Museum: A Travelling Concert
@ the Jewish Museum
1109 5th Avenue at 92nd Street, NYC

I will be playing selections from my song cycle "Girls in Trouble"
about some of the most dramatic moments for women and girls in the Bible.

A young widow goes to war; a teenage girl disobeys her father
and goes exploring; a heroine is exiled in the desert; a pious young
girl deals with her father's terrible mistake.

With Taylor Bergren-Chrisman (bass) and Jascha Hoffman (melodica,
glockenspiel).

We will perform each piece in front of related artifacts on display in
the museum, so the concert will double as a tour of the museum's
Permanent Collection.

This event is part of a two week festival of new work called "Off the
Wall: Artists at Work." The concert is free with museum admission
(which is good for the re-admission through the week).

yes, i do i do, c'est vrai.

i love the centre pompidou even though i am supposed to think it's ugly.

i love the people who came to our shows in paris and danced.

i love the pain au chocolat i got on the street in the marais which made me and annette stop talking for three whole blocks so we could concentrate on how delicious they were.

vin rouge, bien sur.

our new friends cyril and leo who brought us to the communist restaurant where we sang along with old french songs while a woman played accordion and passed out song sheets.

i even love the green neon crosses that tell you where the pharmacies are.

but i love brooklyn too.

and i hate planes but i am glad that one brought me back home safe.

Last week, Helsing Junction - the K Records sleepover at an organic farm in Washington State.

First we stopped by Olympia Washington, where people seem to be doing these amazing things designing and sewing clothes, and making music, records, and coffee, and sandwiches. I had to restrain myself at the used clothing store. I had already bought too much at the thrift store in Portland.

Then to the sleepover, which besides being a sleepover, was also music festival. There were blackberries everywhere. We slept underneath a tree that a blackberry vine grew up and the blackberries hung over us like stars, and it was very cold out for August.

That night I played in Karl Blau's horn section. I felt very at home with a trombone to my right. It was fun, very fun. The next day we watched them roast a pig in a pit. It was pretty amazing. Then I heard Cajun accordion and followed the sound to the back of the house where Jared, who lives there, was playing with a mandolin player. Of course Jared and I knew a bunch of people in common. We played together til it was time to drive back to Portland...

And now the tea lounge has called to say my ipod is there and i didnt really lose it after all. it's a good day.

Our first hint that SXSW was going to be different from anywhere we'd been was the way people on our plane were dressed. Usually when we fly, most people don't look like us. They carry babies instead of instruments, read Forbes instead of Spin, and actually look like they've washed their hair in the last week. The plane to Austin via Houston, however, was half full of people who looked, well, familiar.

As usual, the travel itself was a bit of an adventure, our plane diverted to San Antonio because of fog in Houston, so that when we finally landed in Houston at noon it was an airport full of frantic bands trying to get to Austin, not to mention trying to retrieve their instruments from the luggage. The next open flight wasn't for six hours and even that wasn't guaranteed. Austin was only 3 hours away by car—I called two car rental places, but they were already out of cars. Finally Annette called a Hertz, who had one car, and she, Aaron and I grabbed our luggage and walked out into the Texas sun.

Three hours later we pulled into Austin. We unloaded at the hotel and ran downtown to register—met our label at the Convention Center, got our orange wristbands, and were set loose into the cacophony of almost 2,000 bands playing one after the other in the space of about six blocks. 6th St was closed off to cars, and packed with musicians and industry people wearing badges, wristbands, and full hipster regalia.

You'd think living in New York City would inure me to noise and crowds, but I was overwhelmed almost immediately (I live in Park Slope after all), which made it hard for me to take advantage of being surrounded by free music. But I did get to see some amazing shows, most notably The Walkmen, and Old Time Relijun, both of whom I adore. Then I snuck off with a friend to the westernmost venue on 6th Street, past all the indie rock, to a second floor club with a wooden floor for dancing, where fiddler Elana James and the Continental Two were playing blistering Western Swing music. There I was in Austin, drinking a Tecate and swaying to fiddle waltzes. Not the usual SXSW experience, but sweet nonetheless.

After a day there, I couldn't hear any more noise without making some of my own, so I finally just took out my fiddle and started busking in the middle of it all, on 6th St. I've never been filmed and photographed so much in my life, although I doubt anyone could actually hear me. So when it finally came time for Golem to play (plugged in and turned way up), it was a relief. We had no idea to expect, being rather different from the other bands—few violins were in attendance, not to mention accordions. But the audiences were amazing and seemed to really get us. Almost everyone in the crowd did the School of Dance dance (if you've seen Golem you know what I mean). And my personal favorite comment, overheard by a friend of ours was waiting in line for the bathroom: "Man, you gotta check out that band over there. They DON'T HAVE ANY GUITARS!"

Never have I felt so normal, and so freakish, at the same time.

backstage in chicago. golem is done & balkan beat box is playing right now. one of my favorite things: clubs with free wireless. and this black cat that is climbing over my body as i type. apparently it used to belong to a gangster and now it lives at the club...it used to be really mean but now it is older and mellow. well, i love it. i am kind of sick, which doesn't really surprise me given the lack of sleep on this tour. but we are having a great time and playing some great music. today on the van i dreamed that i was making a mix cd for someone who didnt like opera and i was downloading non-typical opera arias for them. i woke up and remembered the one i had been listening to. it's great when that happens. i scramble for a pen and paper and write it down. some of my best tunes have come that way...it's like a free download from the unconscious. ok, back to sleep on this backstage couch with my new feline friend. gnight...