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http://www.viewmag.com/viewstory.php?storyid=5043

Jewish Legend in his own time

RICK EGLINTON/TORONTO STAR
Josh Reichmann is the face, and the man, behind Jewish Legend.
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Rich family lore, psychic abilities are powerful force behind solo effort
Feb 15, 2007 04:30 AM
Ben Rayner
Pop Music Critic
The late, great Tangiers was renowned as one of Toronto's most tightly wound guitar bands during its too-brief run to the upper echelons of the Canadian indie scene.

But the restrictions of its herky-jerky format must have seriously gnawed away at co-frontman Josh Reichmann.

That's the sense one gets, anyway, from the torrent of manic energies unleashed on Telepathy Now!, his recent solo stepping-out under the alias Jewish Legend.

A giddy rush of high concepts, personal catharses and loopy musical experiments, it's the sound of Reichmann – who began writing the record during a self-imposed stint in rehab a year ago, shortly after Tangiers co-founder James Sayce abandoned the band and rock 'n' roll in general for law school – letting off a lot of creative and psychological steam. But, fortunately, not losing complete sight of his previous band's well-honed pop smarts during the wild ride.

"I'm still trying to write pop songs in some way," says Reichmann over coffee with Legend bandmates Joseph Shabason and Jeremy Finkelstein. "I don't think I'd ever stray so far from pop songs that I'd just become really abstracted. I don't really like abstracted music that's hyper-indulgent so much – I still like the format of pop songwriting.

"But I knew I wanted to make something about how raw I felt with life changes and this renewed sense of purpose."

Jewish Legend opens tonight for No Dynamics and Demon Claws at the Silver Dollar on Spadina, then Sunday they join the Wavelength lineup at Sneaky Dee's.

And by Reichmann's own admission, his solo debut on Telepathy Now! is a bit of a jumble.

The songs began as "overly earnest" cris de coeur, written while he'd checked into an institution early last year. But a growing fascination with such topics as Jewish mysticism, magic, "the language of modern shamanism" and his own family heritage soon took over.

Upon release, Reichmann and pal Ian McGettigan (Thrush Hermit) set up in "a little practice-space cubicle" and tried to make sense of this brewing maelstrom of ideas whilst hammering Reichmann's rough song structures into shape, overdub by overdub. Reichmann wound up playing most of the instruments heard on the disc, with McGettigan and Nassau frontman Jon McCann contributing a smattering of bass and drums, respectively.

The results often recall the work of Marc Bolan or David Bowie in their most starry-eyed early years, but there's a lunatic unpredictability – blasts of brass, Middle Eastern flavours, lurching tempo changes, more than a hint of music-hall camp – running through all of Telepathy Now! that befits the jabbering conceptual tumult Reichmann is trying to articulate.

"I tried to be a little cryptic," he admits. "There's a different idea than just therapeutic purging. There's this idea of history and redemption and lying, all using a coded spiritual language.

"I just feel like there's all these stories in my family of coincidence and confluence of events, mixed with grandmothers having these hard-to-explain telepathic experiences that have kind of been lore in my family. I've had my own experiences with that stuff, too, so I was skeptically interested in this stuff – without getting overly into the silliness and New Age junk that comes along with the paranormal.

"I'm just interested in the precipice we might be on where humans will eventually tap into reserves of powers we haven't realized yet.

"That's where the title Telepathy Now! comes from. But it's also about connection with self and others. It's more realist than it is total, quack-y garbage."

Reichmann is pleased these days to have found in Shabason and Finkelstein (of No Dynamics renown) enthusiastic accomplices for all this weirdness. Indeed, the one-man-band thing seems to have been retired, as the firm guitar/saxophone/drums lineup is already collaborating on a second Jewish Legend album.

"It'll be more of a live record, more about the interplay and more detailed writing," he says. "I played everything on the last record. Now I don't have to do anything but talk ...

"I like this band. I think the only other thing we want is a girl who's covered in tambourines to do interpretive dancing, but we haven't found the right girl yet."

I thought she had it out for me...It seems love has arived!

Jewish Legend Telepathy Now! (Baudelaire/Outside) A surprising solo LP by the pretty-boy from Tangiers, channeling early T-Rex with a potent brew of fine folk and garish kitsch. 8 (LC)

Josh Reichmann Dreams Up A Jewish Legend
Wednesday December 13, 2006 @ 04:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff


Jewish Legend

When Tangiers fizzled out after releasing 2005's The Family Myth, singer/guitarist Josh Reichmann found himself in need of an outlet for his increasingly grandiose musical visions.

Now, reborn as The Jewish Legend, the dreams of tubas, saxophones and gongs that Reichmann kept to himself during his Tangiers years have a home in his first solo outing, Telepathy Now.


"I think the name [The Jewish Legend] summed up some of the themes I was interested in, which were mysticism and cultural myths," Reichmann says in describing his latest venture. "The mysticism that comes with the root of spiritual endeavors."

Reichmann looked to unusual sources of inspiration for Telepathy Now, from the worlds of his dreams, to the ancient visionary practices of the Toltec Indians of central Mexico. He wanted to do something different with this disc, but didn't have to look any further than his own beliefs.

"It's impossible to encapsulate those ideas into music properly," Reichmann explains. "They're just things that I've been focusing on. I have a history of lucid dreaming. That's part of the shaman tradition of things that I got really interested in after I realized that lucid dreaming is really valued culturally by some people. So, that sort of became the energy I wanted to explore on this record instead of just regular themes of love.

"The final intention of the record is about honesty and even though it sounds surreal and kind of absurd and strange in parts, it's really about getting real with one's self and it's really an anti-posturing record."

Finding himself unable to play every one of the numerous instruments he wanted to include on his new disc, Reichmann enlisted the assistance of a few friends in order to make his dreams a reality. Jon McCann (Guided By Voices, Nassau) sits in on drums for Telepathy Now, and the album was co-produced by Ian McGettigan (Joel Plaskett, Camouflage Nights), who picked up the rest of the instrument slack.

Though McGettigan sometimes joins in on stage, The Jewish Legend live show is primarily a two-piece, with Jeremy Finkelstein (No Dynamics) backing up Reichmann behind the drum kit.

Reichmann started working on the music for Telepathy Now as soon as he found himself freed from the confines of a band dynamic. Though The Jewish Legend sound is quite distant from the music he was making with Tangiers, Reichmann says the shift was natural, rather than intentional.

"There were a lot of ideas and themes and music that I hadn't gotten on to when Tangiers was going on," he explains, "so I knew I wanted to make music that wasn't just part of that band's script. Basically, after the last Tangiers record I knew I wanted to make a new one of my own... I don't think it was conscious, but I no longer had the urge to be strictly working within the format that Tangiers was doing."

Though he has no solid touring plans for 2007, Reichmann promises The Jewish Legend will continue to pop up in bars in the Toronto area with, he hopes, the occasional visit to Montreal. He'll be appear Dec. 21 at Toronto's Silver Dollar.

—Scott Bryson

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Legend of Josh

Tangiers frontman makes music fun again

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You'd think that having the jerky sound your band had been developing for three or four years in obscurity suddenly become fashionable would be the best possible scenario.

But the unexpected blessing for Tangiers turned out to be a curse when people unfamiliar with their backstory started writing off the Toronto post-punk crew as bandwagon-jumpers.

It's hardly surprising, then, that when Tangiers bassist James Sayce decided to pursue a law degree, singer/guitarist Josh Reichmann wanted to start fresh with a new, more personal project that allowed him to call the shots and play any or all the instruments if he so desired.

The result, the enjoyably exuberant Jewish Legend's Telepathy Now (Baudelaire) debut, sounds very much like an album made by someone with a lot of pent-up energy indulging his musical fantasies with wit and whimsy.

Unusual ideas such as a bumpin' tuba bit that Reichmann might have kept to himself during a Tangiers session were aired out and fully explored with the encouragment of production conspirator Ian McGettigan, and for Reichmann that sort of open artistic experimentation was the whole point.

"Tangiers was conceived to work within the parameters of a rock band, and there's a whole script that goes with that that relates to the instrumentation, production, how your songs fit the pop format and how they depart from it," explains Reichmann.

"This new project was meant to be a reflection of where I was personally and how I wanted to express that with sounds. It is very self-indulgent, I agree, but with some editing.

"One of my goals was to put the fun back into the whole music-making process. I felt the best way to do that was by re-engaging with my own musical language and experimenting with different instruments and constructs. There was always a lot of thinking going on with Tangiers, and I wanted to get away from that for a while. "

Although it may not be obvious the first time through the jaunty jumble of tunes on Telepathy Now, which at times recalls some of Marc Bolan's loopy exchanges with Steve Took in the pre-glam Tyrranosaurus Rex years, there is actually a message that ties everything together... apparently.

"The album's lyrical themes have to do with my heritage as the grandson of Holocaust survivors. The whole notion of who I am and where I'm from wound up being the album's dominant theme which connects all the songs, although admittedly it's done in a cryptic way.

"There's a narrative that moves from Germany to North America in the 20th century with some vague references to the Middle East, but I'm not dealing literally with any of the issues involved."

Performing the music of Telepathy Now would have been a real challenge, since Reichmann played most of the parts in the studio himself, but he wisely decided to bring in Ian McGettigan to play bass along with hotshot No Dynamics beat boss Jeremy Finkelstein, NOW Magazine's drummer of the year.

"That NOW thing is a great leverage tool for Jeremy. Whenever I suggest how something should be played, he just holds up a copy of the paper and points to that 'best drummer' part. He doesn't have to say anything any more."  

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Jewish Legend
Telepathy Now!
(Baudelaire)
By Jasmyn Burke
December 06, 2006

"The blinding light you're facing in the middle of the judgment cloud," seems to perfectly inscribe the overall tone of Jewish Legend's, Telepathy Now! With Tangiers, Josh Reichmann at the forefront, it has remnants of his oh-so-catchy garage rock melodies, but shows a growth in the artist as his distinct, trembling voice, chants out lyrics about the disenchantment of life. Using brass instruments, gongs, the piano and whatever other sounds he thought he could twist and turn into something interesting, each song has its own little tale to tell. With the Dunkirk Orchestra and the Los Angeles Wyman's Shaman Choir backing Reichmann, this album is like that volcano-making science experiment you did in elementary school: all the right ingredients have to be put in order to make the lava, and all you can anticipate is its exciting eruption.

That was closer! she's a sweet person!

Sure, there are plenty of Jewish legends that surround us on a daily basis. Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond, Larry David, Michael Landon, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Stewart, Ron Jeremy, Sammy Davis Junior, Jesus's parents, Peaches, Phil Rabin, Don Rickles, yadda. Most are considered legends in their specific field... music, comedy, farming dramas, dating, iconic gay music, porn, fake news, the birth of Christianity, yadda. Few actually step out from their respected area of expertise and say hey, I'm not just a "legend", I am a JEWISH LEGEND!

The void has been filled. Please welcome to the synagaggle sexy Josh Reichmann, who for the last several years has fronted Toronto rock quartet Tangiers. To say that Josh wears his heart on his sleeve is almost true - he actually has it tattooed to his chest. Here Josh steps out and up from the two guitar bass and drums standard to deliver a sound much more urgent, unhinged and original.

then they played songs I guess!  (Grant?)

bit of chart review....

One half of Toronto's Tangiers has created the magical, mystical indie rock madness of The Jewish Legend. Josh Reichmann frantically belts out, "I've been really institutionalized," on "Second Attention." That line sticks throughout the rest of the record because, after listening, you realize you've just been tossed around the mosh pit of this mad musical scientist's brain. Eastern European influences and hilariously odd instruments run rampant on this giddy LP, while the lyrics challenge the listener with stories and personal demons. A handful of Reichmann's voices make appearances on the sitar call-and-answer party, "Cyclops (Have I Not Been)," and the cartoon romp, "Chest Weights."

He goes on to say that the record gets crazy.

HeY....Foggy Sea/Foggy Dew, is the name of a split single between Sebastien Grainger and my self. See his page for sample. It is the filling of a rather rich and perfectly textured canoli type treat as invisioned by two hunched and pensive elves. Better still it is coming soon. Hope you love it as much as I have in writing these last words while at my familys retreat not far from a central starbucks-as I reflect on what truly matters and attempt to purge pain from the human condition(mine, and all of ours) once and for all. Hmmmm.  Its good,.