New York, NY Steve Lieberman, the Original Gangsta Rabbi, is back to take his amplifier to 11, turning out the exciting, high-stakes single “Cheap Japanese Bass.” It is a raw, high-voltage lament of a career that’s been anything but standard one crazy ride.
Lieberman does not age in genre or otherwise. “Cheap Japanese Bass” is a metaphor, a memoir, and a musical Molotov cocktail tossed into one. It’s also the fevered offering here by a joyously evocative punk band. Right off the bat, the song is ablaze with frenetic energy, shot through with his trademark lo-fi chaos and brilliance. Reuniting after nearly two decades apart, Renata, Allie, and Irian joined forces with bassist Jason Hollis, who played in an earlier version of the band. Lieberman reminisces on his experience as a singing bassist in his first band, and the song itself feels like a love letter scrawled in distortion and duct tape. To the outside world, the recording, with its filth on its sleeve, is loud, but underneath all the filth, a heartbeat remains, and it is a human one alive and pulsing.
In this track, amid all the glorious cacophony, you can feel each one gasping for air flutes shrieking against distorted guitars, beats pulverizing itself, and that cheap bass, humming and insolent as if it still has something to prove.