MosheSkier.com
Kabbalah, continued:
Despite garnering some critical acclaim, Kabbalah was not a financial success. Gershon Veroba had helped get the album distributed through Menorah Records, but we were still hard-pressed to find it on store shelves. On one occasion, I walked into Eichler's and asked for it specifically. The store clerk looked sheepishly from side to side, then pulled open a bottom drawer and produced one for me. When I asked why it wasn't on display, she looked at me and said, "Do you wanna buy it or not?"
I'm not sure why we encountered the problems we did getting the album marketed. I think it had something to do with the name, which some people thought had to do with a somewhat controversial type of Jewish Mysticism. They probably didn't realize that I just picked the name because it sounded cool. Or maybe Boro Park just wasn't ready for Jewish Rock yet.
Anyway, we continued to play for NCSY, and sold the album at shows or through YU. A good number of our tapes were lost when Menorah Records went out of business.
Following completion of the album, Moish left the band and we searched for a new keyboardist. I was in the Stern College lounge one night and heard a young fellow named Brian Gelfand playing the piano, and I remember all the girls were listening to him. I thought, "this is the guy for me!" And he soon joined the band. Izzy was off to Israel for a year, and we asked Jake Rosenthal to join on guitar.
Brian and Jake brought different styles and sensibilities to the band, both in their interpretations of our prior material, and with respect to the type of new songs we would write. At this point I was doing the brunt of the singing.
We played more NCSY shows, including one in South Bend where Brian got tied up and locked in a closet by the kids. But we won't talk about that.
We had agonized quite a bit about which songs would and wouldn't be on the first album. There were still quite a few left over, and we were continuing to write new ones. In particular, there were quite a few "cover" tunes that we did a pretty unique job on when we played our shows, and we wanted those recorded too. Hence, the concept for Kabbalah: Classic was born.
The idea was to play a "live" show in the studio, including
new songs and our interpretation of "classic" Jewish Rock tunes from the
Diaspora Yeshiva Band and others. We pretty much cut the basic tracks
live, then just overdubbed vocals and solos. We did it in an 8-track
studio run by Mick Cantarella, whom I knew from the Shlock Rock albums.
Recording time and tape reproduction in the Spring of 1987 was about $1300,
a record for cheap productions. Both Izzy and Jake did guitar solos,
and those of you with good ears can probably distinguish them. At this
point, you can probably tell that I was listening to a lot of Pretenders and
Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello.
As far as I know, this album contains the first Jewish Punk song (Yevorechecha).
The gigs continued after this, including performances at Columbia University, Lake Park Synagogue, various NCSY shabbatons, an all-expense paid trip to Chicago for the national USY convention, and a great concert where we played with Shlomo Carlebach at Einstein.
By 1989, we had again amassed a collection of new material, and in March we went back to Grampa Studios (now a 16-track studio) and recorded Ani Maamin. We put a lot of care and effort into this song, recording multiple guitar tracks and wall-of-sound backing vocals. Izzy did a guitar solo that could make you weep. We shopped the song out to several record producers, hoping to get funding for a full album, but no one bit.
In late 1990 I bought my first home recording equipment and we began to lay tracks on what was to be Kabbalah III. We eventually recorded 17 songs. I moved to Milwaukee, and the songs were finished in 1992.
With my move to the Midwest, Kabbalah essentially ceased to exist. Still there was the question of what to do with all these songs. I approached my old friend, Lenny Solomon, and gave him the finished recordings. He offered to print CDs and Tapes and distribute the recording, but he wanted me to change the title from Kabbalah III to Moshe Skier: Rock of Sages.
Rock of Sages was released in 1995. When Shlock Rock came to Milwaukee in 1995, Lenny asked me to put together an opening act, to play songs off of ROS to promote the album. Thus, the Moshe Skier Band was born. But that's a whole other story...