{"id":36108,"date":"2017-04-28T06:52:37","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T12:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=36108"},"modified":"2017-04-28T06:52:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T12:52:37","slug":"what-if-the-nazis-won-this-is-what-american-pop-music-would-sound-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/what-if-the-nazis-won-this-is-what-american-pop-music-would-sound-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What if the Nazis won? This is what American pop music would sound like"},"content":{"rendered":"

By GABE FRIEDMAN<\/p>\n

NEW YORK (JTA) \u2014 Let’s imagine, for a moment, that the Nazis won World War II and occupied the United States. If that had happened, what would postwar American pop music have sounded like? Would music have even been created in the forms we know today?<\/p>\n

Those are just a few of the questions the indie rock veteran Sam Cohen contemplated while working with star producer Danger Mouse on \u201cResistance Radio: The Man in the High Castle Album\u201d \u2014 a soundtrack of sorts for the second season of the popular Amazon Studios show that imagines a postwar America in which the West is occupied by Japan and the East is controlled by Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the series, which itself was inspired by a Philip K. Dick novel, the album imagines the kind of music that would be aired from\u00a0a pirate radio station — briefly referenced in the series —\u00a0that broadcasts from a\u00a0neutral zone independent of German and Japanese control. An array of musicians, from Norah Jones to Beck to The Shins\u2019 James Mercer, perform covers of 1950s and ’60s pop songs.<\/p>\n

The project, which an Amazon executive pitched to Cohen and Danger Mouse (real name Brian Burton) around the week of President Donald Trump\u2019s election, has taken on some unexpected political heft. After all, hashtags such as #Resist and #TheResistance have become the mantra of anti-Trump protesters.<\/p>\n

Likely playing off this popularity, Amazon launched a promotional website for the series, set in the show’s universe, that plays \u201cResistance Radio\u201d songs between rants from three fictional pirate radio hosts. One is a Jewish comedian named Jake Rumiel, who hosts a show called “Firing Squad” \u2014 a name that nods to his precarious existence as a Jew in the “Man in the High Castle” universe.<\/p>\n

Cohen\u00a0said he didn’t set out to create a contemporary political statement with\u00a0“Resistance Radio.”<\/p>\n

“When I make music, regardless of the context, I think about music and that’s essentially joyful,”\u00a0Cohen, 37, told JTA. \u201cI never really saw this record as a truly political thing. That was sort of placed on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, while Cohen may not construe the album through a political lens, there is something inherently dark\u00a0about rethinking American pop tunes in a Nazi-occupied country. The resulting songs are at times slower, sadder \u2014 and definitely creepier \u2014 than the original versions.<\/p>\n

Take \u201cUnchained Melody,\u201d a 1955 song made famous 10 years later by the Righteous Brothers\u00a0and sung by Norah Jones on the album. Cohen said he toiled to make the instrument arrangements and sounds feel \u201ca little broken\u201d and \u201cinjured.\u201d A listener could imagine Jones singing with a frown on her face to a room full of Nazi officers.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThe sound is so soupy, it\u2019s hard to decipher who\u2019s doing what. And the whole thing seems to swing, but when you really dissect it, everyone\u2019s playing it as straight as can be,” Cohen said. Picking those things apart, that plays the part of wiping that smile off, taking off the dimples.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those ambiguities apply to the other songs on the album, including \u201cWho\u2019s Lovin\u2019 You,\u201d a Jackson 5 tune sung by Kelis (of \u201cMilkshake<\/a>\u201d fame); a haunting version of \u201cThe End of the World\u201d sung by indie darling Sharon van Etten, and \u201cWho\u2019s Sorry Now,\u201d a song first written in 1923 and sung here by folk rocker Angel Olsen. Cohen himself sings two songs on the record: a spare, acoustic rendition of \u201cThe House of the Rising Sun\u201d and an ironically languid version of \u201cGet Happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding to the authentic vibe: Cohen and Burton recorded the project quickly, under tight deadlines \u2014 a very 1960s mindset \u2014 and using only techniques that would have been available at the time.<\/p>\n

This kind of back-room manipulation takes years to perfect, and Cohen has put in his time. While growing up in a Jewish household in Houston (his family went to synagogue every week), he was drawn to blues guitar music and began playing shows at local bars at 16. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, he played for nearly a decade in the psychedelic rock band Apollo Sunshine before forming as Yellowbirds. His fans likely know him best for these albums, in addition to his solo debut, \u201cCool It,\u201d in 2015.<\/p>\n

An accomplished producer as well, Cohen has played guitar on tracks for a wide range of artists, from Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead to pop star Cee-Lo Green.<\/p>\n

Cohen noted he’s had a bit of experience with real-life Nazis as well. While playing in a bar in Houston in his teens, a group of neo-Nazis stormed the stage and attempted to sing racist songs. Luckily, Cohen said, he had an\u00a0“enormous” friend there who quickly restored order.<\/p>\n

While not religiously observant, Cohen calls his longtime friend and fellow musician Josh Kaufman, who played with him in Yellowbirds \u2014 and one of many Jewish indie rockers Cohen works with \u2014 “Rabbi Kaufman” (because \u201che has a beard and is wise,\u201d he said).<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Cohen is working on a new solo album, with Burton as a producer \u2014 that is, when he isn\u2019t worrying about Trump and the political atmosphere. If “Resistance Radio” wasn’t meant as a cautionary take on the current president, Cohen isn’t shy about sharing his views of\u00a0the white supremacists who\u00a0embraced Trump.<\/p>\n

“It’s so weird that these beer-bellied\u00a0Americans are Nazis. When did that happen? It’s all about stripping rights from immigrants and women and gay people, but it’s all free speech for Nazis,” he said.<\/p>\n

Asked to imagine a music business under a Nazi occupation in the 1960s, Cohen superimposes the past on the present — much like the “Castle” series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would probably be like Woody Guthrie-type characters playing live from pirate radio stations,\u201d he said. \u201cI imagine jazz music would have continued to evolve, and live music would have continued to evolve, but I think the recording industry would\u2019ve been dominated by Nazi songs or new Nazi Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike it is now,\u201d he adds with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\"Share