{"id":73838,"date":"2023-04-05T18:10:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T23:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=73838"},"modified":"2023-04-05T18:10:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T23:10:03","slug":"how-on-the-rise-jewish-indie-rocker-blondshell-takes-inspiration-from-larry-david-and-sarah-silverman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/how-on-the-rise-jewish-indie-rocker-blondshell-takes-inspiration-from-larry-david-and-sarah-silverman\/","title":{"rendered":"How on-the-rise Jewish indie rocker Blondshell takes inspiration from Larry David and Sarah Silverman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By GABE FRIEDMAN<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 When she sits down to write song lyrics, Sabrina Teitelbaum, who records music under the moniker Blondshell, doesn\u2019t plan to reference her Jewishness. It just spills out in subtle turns of phrase.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_73840\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-scaled.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73840\" class=\"wp-image-73840 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-2048x1364.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73840\" class=\"wp-image-73840 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-2-2048x1364.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-73840\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teitelbaum performs on &#8220;The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,&#8221; April 5, 2023. (Todd Owyoung\/NBC)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In her song \u201cSepsis,\u201d for instance, the quickly-rising 25-year-old rocker sings: \u201cI think I believe in getting saved\/Not by Jesus validation\/In some dude\u2019s gaze.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cSalad,\u201d her latest track, which she debuted on Jimmy Fallon\u2019s late-night show Tuesday night, she flirts with the idea of poisoning a friend\u2019s abuser. She sings: \u201cLook what you did\/You\u2019ll make a killer of a Jewish girl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was bat mitzvahed and the whole thing, but I don\u2019t know \u2014 I think, culturally, my Judaism finds its way into my music, even in ways that I haven\u2019t really been aware of until somebody brought it up,\u201d she said on Zoom last week from her home in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>Jewish-tinged dark humor is rarely seen in indie rock, especially in the woman-dominated subsets of the genre that Blondshell is being associated with, alongside the likes of Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy and Mitski. And she\u2019s not afraid of putting it out there \u2014 the press release for \u201cSalad\u201d notes the song\u2019s \u201cnod\u201d to her Jewishness and the fact that it came out on the first night of Passover.<\/p>\n<p>Teitelbaum\u2019s self-titled album, which is getting rave reviews in advance of its release on Friday, is full of the coming-of-age stories and feelings found in shows like \u201cGirls\u201d and \u201cBroad City.\u201d On \u201cKiss City,\u201d she sings, \u201cI think my kink is when you tell me that you think I\u2019m pretty.\u201d On \u201cJoiner\u201d: \u201cYou\u2019ve been running around LA with trash\/Sleeping in bars with a gun in your bag\/Asking can I be somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The constant undertone is one of personal trauma \u2014 from unhealthy relationships, bad sex and other dark things in her personal life that she didn\u2019t want to elaborate on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are just ways of talking about trauma that I think are kind of distinctly Jewish,\u201d she said, \u201cand that comes up in my music for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all accompanied by earworm pop melodies and the thick guitar sounds found in some of her biggest influences from the \u201990s, like Hole (Courtney Love\u2019s main outfit) and PJ Harvey.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blondshell - Joiner (Official Music Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hb3ZlYG1cKA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Teitelbaum was born in New York to a Jewish dad and a mom who converted to Judaism. She spent a lot of time watching \u201cCurb Your Enthusiasm\u201d and clips of Sarah Silverman standup on YouTube with her sister. The family attended a Reform synagogue and celebrated the major holidays.<\/p>\n<p>She spent two years in USC\u2019s music writing program before dropping out to fast-track her career. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she wrote electronic pop under the name BAUM. But during lockdown, she dug deep back into \u201990s rock and set out at first with just a goal of improving her guitar skills.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was like, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to get better. And I\u2019m going to sit down and practice for an hour a day,\u2019 or whatever it was. And I would procrastinate by writing,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause I was like, I don\u2019t want to do scales and get better at chord structure, those things. So yeah, it was me trying to get better at guitar that led to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After finishing a batch of songs as Blondshell, she signed to the buzzy Partisan Records \u2014 home to a slew of acclaimed rock groups, such as Fontaines, D.C., Idles and The Black Angels \u2014 and began releasing songs last summer. She was quickly grouped together with the vanguard of other female alt-rockers, who have been relentlessly talked about in music journalism for about a decade. The comparisons bring up mixed feelings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be flattening. People are like, \u2018You\u2019re the wave of songwriters, Phoebe Bridgers and Soccer Mommy,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cMy music doesn\u2019t sound anything like Phoebe Bridgers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But she added that she is prone to do some categorizing, too.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_73841\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73841\" class=\"wp-image-73841 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1.jpg 1920w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73841\" class=\"wp-image-73841 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/4-5-23-blondshell-1-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-73841\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sabrina Teitelbaum, AKA Blondshell, seen in a still from her music video for the song &#8220;Sepsis.&#8221; (Courtesy of Grandstand Media)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of women in rock. And so I also get it and I myself have done it when I\u2019m talking about who had been influenced by \u2014 I\u2019m like, you know, women in rock in the 90s, PJ Harvey and Courtney Love. I\u2019m also grouping them together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heading out to tour last year across the heart of the country in a van was a startling experience. It was the first time in a while \u2014 possible ever \u2014 where, as a Jew, she felt like a minority.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m always surrounded by other Jews \u2014 like everybody I work with is Jewish,\u201d she said, referencing her manager (Shira Knishkowy), her producer (Yves Rothman) and others she has met in the industry. She mentioned other Jewish rockers she has looked up to, too, including Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and the sisters of Haim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Now] this thing keeps happening where I\u2019m like the only Jew on a tour\u2026 It\u2019s a new experience that I\u2019m having,\u201d she said. \u201cIt kind of gives a different context to my upbringing, and to who ends up feeling familiar to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a recent conversation with her Jewish grandmother, Teitelbaum was asked a familiar question.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was like, \u2018What\u2019s your manager\u2019s name?\u2019 I said \u2018Shira.\u2019 She said, \u2018Oh, a nice Jewish girl. Does she know her name means song?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018she knows,\u2019\u201d Teitelbaum said with a laugh.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"How%20on-the-rise%20Jewish%20indie%20rocker%20Blondshell%20takes%20inspiration%20from%20Larry%20David%20and%20Sarah%20Silverman\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7137],"tags":[12995,8790,8795,757,8788,12996],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73842,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73838\/revisions\/73842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}