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Melting Pot Music
Israeli-born indie pop singer-songwriter
Yoav, 28, grew up in Capetown, South
Africa, and is currently based in London.
Now he has his sights set on the U.S.,
where a national tour brings him to Ann
Arbor's Blind Pig on Sunday, Feb. 17.
On his new CD, Charmed & Strange, a
collection of darkly uplifting songs, Yoav,
accompanying himself on acoustic gui-
tar and sounding a bit like John Mayer,
incorporates a fusion of genres and ethnic
influences — African music, electronica
and hip-hop, classical Indian drum 'n
bass — to create a rich and seductive
sound in a variety of moods, from the
pensive eulogy "One By One" and yearning
Photo by Derrick Santini
Israeli-born singer-songwriter Yoav
"Beautiful Lie" to the
songs at my neighbor's
groove-laden "Yeah,
house, I knew I'd be a
the End" to a slowed-
musician," he says on
down cover of the
his Web site, yoavmusic.
Pixies' "Where Is My
corn. "I can't describe
Gail Zimmerman
Mind?"
the
rush it gave me. The
Arts Editor
"I've been told it
fact that music was an
sounds like an acoustic Nine Inch Nails
illicit pleasure actually made it the most
or Beck meets Buckley meets Bjork:'Yoav
exciting thing in the world for me!'
says of the album. "I'm not sure [either] of
By the time Yoav finished high school
those is right. I guess I'd just say it's left-
at 18, he was regularly demoing his own
of-center pop music inspired by all the big songs in local studios. After a year at uni-
themes in my life and all the music I've
versity, he dropped out to head to London
been into. It's been a huge and often frus-
to shop around his music, but to no avail.
trating journey to get me here."
A development deal from a U.S. music
The journey started when, at age 9 and
exec brought him to New York for a while,
living in South Africa, Yoav began sneak-
but his self-described "pretty conventional
ing into his neighbor's house to hear pop
singer-songwriter stuff" wasn't reflecting
music. At home, such "light music" was
his love of clubbing, electronic music and
banned at the insistence of Yoav's father, a
hip-hop. It was when he started banging
Jewish architect who lived through World
out rhythms on his guitar that he found
War II in his native Romania before mov-
his new and ultimately successful direc-
ing to Israel (where Yoav was born) and
tion.
then relocating to South Africa with Yoav's
"As a songwriter, the guitar limits you to
opera-singer mother. Only classical and
strumming or picking. It's very different if
opera were allowed at home.
you can write something to a beat. I tried
That just made the pull of modern
to translate dance music to guitar. I start-
music stronger for Yoay. "From the
ed pounding it, learning what I could do
moment I started listening to those cheesy with it, using it as my decks. You can get
an assortment of kick drums and snare
drums by hitting it in different places or
a synthy sound by playing with feedback,"
says Yoav
After five years in New York, Yoav's
development deal had come to nothing,
so he returned to London, where his new
sound was immediately embraced. He
soon was signed to make Charmed and
Strange. Every note of it is played, teased,
tapped and pounded out of his guitar.
The Blind Pig is located at 208 S. First
St. Yoav performs 8:30-11:30; doors at 8.
$10 at the door. (734) 996-8555.
Pick Your Shorts
Here's your chance to pick the winners of
this year's Oscar nominees for best short
films — in both the animated and live-
action categories — before the results
are announced on the Feb. 24 Academy
Awards telecast.
Traditionally among the most creative
and surprising films of any kind, these
shorts are also hard to see in a theater. But
the Detroit Film Theatre in the Detroit
Institute of Arts is assembling them all for
viewing 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 7 p.m. Friday
FYI: For Arts related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number, to:
Gail Zimmerman, JN Out &
About, The Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110, Southfield, MI 48034; fax us at (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to gzimmerman@thejewishnews.com . Notice must be received at least three weeks before the scheduled event.
Photos are appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.
e ws
Omni
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
Film Notes
ia) Definitely, Maybe, opening Thursday,
Feb.14, is a romantic comedy-drama
11:10 that follows several characters over a
decade.
Ryan Reynolds
(1111)
plays an idealistic,
aspiring politician
who leaves his
Wisconsin col-
lege sweetheart
(Elizabeth Banks)
for two months in
1992 to work in
New York City on the Clinton cam-
paign. They're sure their love can
survive separation, but events prove
otherwise.
In New York, Reynolds meets and
has relationships with an apolitical
free spirit who is working for the
Clinton campaign for the cash (Aussie
actress Isla Fisher) and a hard-charg-
ing aspiring journalist (Oscar-winner
British actress Rachel Weisz).
Liane Balaban
B18
February 14 2008
The pretty Canadian actress Liane
Balaban, 27, whose father is Jewish,
has a large supporting role.
Weisz, 36, has seemingly been
engaged forever to film director
Darren Arnofsky, 38; they had a child
together in 2006. Likewise, Fisher,
32, has been engaged to comic actor
Sacha Baron Cohen, 36, for about
five years; they had a child together
in 2007. There have been numerous
reports that Fisher has been studying
to convert to Judaism, but there has
been nothing in the press saying she
has, in fact, actually done so.
Banks' story is refreshingly
straightforward: She converted to
Judaism in 2003 and married her
Jewish college sweetheart in a big
Jewish wedding. Give her the "Old-
Fashioned Girl of the Year" award.
Opening the same day is Jumper,
a sci-fi adventure flick. A genetic
anomaly allows a young man (Hayden
Christensen) to teleport himself any-
where, but he soon discovers there
are those who want to kill persons
like him. Rachel Bilson (The 0.C.),
26, co-stars as
Christensen's love
interest.
Jumper is direct-
ed by Doug Liman,
the son of the late
Arthur 1. Liman.
The elder Liman
Rachel Bilson
was a famous law-
yer who investigated the Iran-Contra
scandal. Doug's previous films include
The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs.
Smith. The film was co-written by
David S. Goyer, who grew up in Ann
Arbor. He specializes in writing fan-
tasy-action films like Blade.
Romania, Romania
The Sundance Channel will air the
acclaimed documentary Charging the
Rhino 9 p.m. Monday, Feb.18, with
repeat showings 10 p.m. Saturday,
Feb. 23, and 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 29.
Israeli-born Canadian filmmaker
Simcha Jacobovici and his sister
returned to Romania to investigate
his family's history, particularly the
mysterious death of his father's
cousin Sasha.
In 1941, Simcha's
father and Sasha
were among the
few survivors of
a massacre in
which the SS and
their Romanian
Simcha
fascist collabora-
Jacobovici
tors gunned down
thousands of Jews
in the town square of the city of Iasi.
Twenty years later, Sasha, a
Communist, was executed by the
Romanian Communist regime along
with a lot of other leading party
figures. The documentary shows
Jacobovici finding the film of his
cousin's "show trial" and also high-
lights the fact that anti-Semitism
is still rife in Romania, even though
there are only 10,000 Jews left in the
country and there is no monument,
anywhere, to Holocaust victims.
This 'N' That
The cute musical actress Paige
Davis, 38, hosted the TLC real-