J-ARTS

Blue Fringe’s wildly successful debut album, My Awakening, threw the Jewish music world for a loop, selling over 15,000 copies in two years. That’s no small achievement for any indie rock band, and in the Jewish music world, 5,000 copies is often considered a gold record. The popularity of the music shot the foursome into the role of “Hot New Thing”—and it wasn’t just hype. There was real talent on the power pop-soaked My Awakening, even if its John Mayer influence sometimes slipped into something akin to the Rembrandts in Hebrew.

Songwriter, guitarist and lead vocalist Dov Rosenblatt met his band mates in Israel the summer before starting Yeshiva University. The group quickly found a niche in Modern Orthodox circles with the tongue-in-cheek “Flippin’ Out,” describing the process by which Jewish high school graduates go to Israel for a year and undergo a dramatic religious transformation. “I’m getting frummer, yeah I’m on my way, learnin’ those catch phrases that you have to say, like Shkoyach and M’Stama too, cuz’ if you don’t say them then you’re not a frum Jew…I’m flippin’ out/my rebbe’s sheppin nachas/ I’m flippin’ out/My parent’s will kick my tuchas…”

An eager world of young observant Jews immediately identified with the song, and young seminary girls went nuts over the band’s good looks and Rosenblatt’s silky vocals. Tour dates brought the band to every major U.S. market, plus Australia, South Africa and a few dates in Europe. In Israel, their tour included a performance in Beit Shemesh for a festival audience of 10,000.

With their follow up, 70 Faces, Blue Fringe shows a maturation and willingness to experiment with new formats and arrangements. They avoid the trap of making their second album a facsimile of the first and draw on their musical influences and creativity for a distinct, yet familiar, sound. 70 Faces refers to the Talmudic concept of Shivim Panim laTorah, or the 70 ways to interpret the Torah. Its selection as the album’s title track is a sly hint that the band is no longer sticking to a singular pop-rock sound, but embracing funk, blues, jazz and an ever more diverse range of rock influences.

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