LISTEN AND SHARE “NOT THE JEW I HAD IN MIND (WITH PERMISSION FROM THOMAS KING)” HERE
GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS DUE OUT NOVEMBER 1 VIA COAX RECORDS (CANADA) / COAX EUROPA (WORLDWIDE)
CANADIAN TOUR DATES CONTINUE NOVEMBER 1
Photo Credit : Mischa Scherrer // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
In a few short weeks, Geoff Berner returns with new left-wing Jewish music for our perilous times. Grand Hotel Cosmopolis is the first new klezmer-punk album from Berner since 2015’s We Are Going To Bremen To Be Musicians.
Today, the Vancouver singer/songwriter/accordionist/novelist/political activist shares another new track from the upcoming LP, "Not the Jew I Had In Mind (With Permission from Thomas King)”. “This song is for everyone who has ever been made to feel ‘not Jewish enough, or not the ‘right’ kind of Jew, or has had their Jewish credentials questioned, whether by Jews or non-Jews,” says Berner.
“The great writer Thomas King, who is self-identifies as being of Cherokee, German and Greek descent, gave a series of lectures that became a book called The Truth About Stories. One of the lectures is called ‘You’re Not the Indian I Had In Mind’. It’s about the way white people often reject ways of being Indigenous that don’t meet their stereotypical expectations.
I always loved that line, ‘Not the Indian I had in mind’. It really nailed something perfectly. I have experienced a similar phenomenon as a Jew. In my travels, people wanted to know if I was really Jewish, because they had notions in their minds of what was really authentically Jewish, and what was not. And anyone who was not, was maybe trying to trick them or something. They would decide if I was a real Jew.”
LISTEN AND SHARE “NOT THE JEW I HAD IN MIND (WITH PERMISSION FROM THOMAS KING)” HERE
Grand Hotel Cosmopolis is out November 1 on Coax Records in Canada and worldwide via Coax Europa (an imprint for Coax on artist run record label GiveUsYourGOLD in Berlin), a new label set up as a european bridgehead for Coax artists.
Since Whiskey Rabbi was released in 2005, Berner has been making klezmer music fused with the energy and rudeness of punk. The Globe and Mail called him “the avenging angel of klezmer,” and with songs like “Dalloy Polizei (Fuck the Police)”, Berner’s work is overtly political and controversial.
The new album and its title song are inspired by the Grandhotel Cosmopolis, located in Augsburg, Germany. The ‘Hotel’ was started ten years ago, when a group of activists took over an abandoned high school. Their vision was to turn it into an artsy, inexpensive hostel for travellers of all kinds, as well as safe and free housing for refugees and asylum seekers.
Half of the space in the Hotel is taken up by families of displaced people from Syria, Somalia, Myanmar, and many other places. These people stay for free or on a pay-what-you-can basis. They earn money and their first German work experience by helping run the hotel.
The word “cosmopolitan” is a slur that anti-Semites have historically thrown at Jews. Stalin and his henchmen preferred the term “rootless cosmopolitan” for Jews during the Soviet pogroms. The basic idea was that Jews, being town people – as Jews were historically forbidden to own land – were disconnected from the soil, and therefore decadent and corrupt.
WATCH AND SHARE “WHAT KIND OF BEAR AM I?” HERE
For Berner, the idea of a party at the Grand Hotel Cosmopolis, an oasis of welcome and relative safety for people on the run – in Germany of all places – is a perfect way to talk about Jewish solidarity with oppressed migrants, and about how good things are still possible.
That’s the goal of Grand Hotel Cosmopolis – to use the Jewish leftist cultural tradition to inspire people to defend the human values of decency and the right of every human being to a life of safety and freedom, while having a fun time doing it. You’re welcome to come stay awhile.
To support the actual Grandhotel Cosmopolis, go to https://grandhotel-cosmopolis.org/de/
GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS TRACKLIST
01 Not The Jew I Had In Mind (With Permission From Thomas King)
02 What Kind Of Bear Am I
03 Ven Kimsti
04 Would You Hide Me
05 Vilne
06 Grand Hotel Cosmopolis
07 The Drummer Requests
08 Oh You Survivalists
09 What Don’t We Just Take The Billionaire’s Money Away
10 Zog Nit Keyn Mol (Partisan Song)
TOUR DATES
Nov 1 - Vancouver, BC - Chutzpah! Festival - Wise Hall
Nov 2-3 - Cumberland, BC - Woodstove Festival
Nov 19 - Vienna, AT - Klezmore Festival - Sargfabrik
Nov 20 - Viechtach, DE - Altes Spital
Nov 21- Augsburg, DE - Grandhotel Cosmopolis
Nov 22 - Augsburg, DE - Grandhotel Cosmopolis
Nov 24 - Mainz, DE - Hafeneck
Nov 25 - Aachen, DE - Domkeller
Nov 26 - Köln, DE - Hängende Gärten von Ehrenfeld
Nov 27 - Speyer, DE - Eckpunkt
Nov 28 - Stuttgart, DE - Laboratorium
Nov 30 - München, DE - Bellevue di Monaco
Dec 2 - Mannheim, DE - Brandherd
Dec 3 - Erfurt, DE - Offene Arbeit
Dec 5 - Hannover, DE - Feinkost Lampe
Dec 10 - Dresden, DE - Societatstheater
Dec 11 - Bremerhaven, DE - Pferdestall
Dec 12 - Hamburg, DE - Betahouse
Dec 13 - Bremen, DE - Creative Hub (ehem. Bundeswehrhochhaus)
Dec 14 - Berlin, DE - Supamolli
Feb 14 - Toronto, ON - TRANZAC
Feb 15 - Wakefield, QC - The Black Sheep
Feb 16 - Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo
Feb 21 - Peterborough, ON - The Garnet
Feb 22 - Guelph, ON - The ANAF