Pushing Musical Boundaries ‘Til Death Do Us Part | “Terminator V617F” by The Gangsta Rabbi

Steve Lieberman, better known as The Gangsta Rabbi, has always pushed the boundaries of what music is and can be! It’s a passion that he’s married himself to, and he’s out to prove it with his newest piece, and possibly one his last, “Terminator V617F”.

At first listen, many of you will be blown back by “Terminator V617F” and what seems like a lot of chaos and noise, but if you give this song a chance and a few listens, you’ll find it has marked qualities of “true expression and art” that are hard to ignore!  

On “Terminator V617F”, The Gangsta Rabbi fuses distorted lo-fi punk vocals and straight, high-energy rhythms with manic sounding horns and woodwind instruments along with dirty, sludgy guitars to create an intense, high-energy piece that will leave you feeling on edge and mad at something.  You’re not quite sure what it is you’re mad about (until you know more about Lieberman) but it feels right. 

There’s a sense of real impending doom with every beat because this piece is tight and precise even with all its distortion.  Each note emphasizes strain and pain and overwhelming sensations of unclear thought with underlying notes of anger.  There is a clear sense of order and orchestration within the madness of emotion, and if you get it, you’ll understand something about The Gangsta Rabbi that can really only be conveyed through an art form like music!

The Gangsta Rabbi has heard things differently than everyone else since he was very young, and that’s something that’s never changed.  “Avant-garde” and “experimental” haven’t just been his business. They’ve been his “friend” and his way of life, and at every turn in his more than 40 years playing music, The Gangsta Rabbi has challenged the norms to express himself.   

Lieberman has had a life-long struggle with bi-polar disorder and has been dealt a terminal case of leukemia in recent years, with “Terminator V617F” possibly being one of his final musical creations.   Through it all, he has produced more than 25 CD’s and almost 40 cassettes and has opened for such acts as Weezer, Andrew WK, Glassjaw, Ryan Dunn and the Misfits before retiring from performing in December 2011 to battle accelerated phase bone marrow cancer.  Even through this deathly illness, he has continued to write, play, and record music.  Sometimes, he continues on even to the detriment of his health and his instruments, but he just can’t seem to help this desire to keep creating.  

You can follow The Gangsta Rabbi and his story at the links below!

 

 

 

* This fellow artist is supporting our local scene right here in and around Dayton! Go check out their music! If you would like to help support this page and our local scene, click HERE!