Running Out of Time
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"Running Out of Time" is the debut album and final album released by Northern Wisconsin’s The Klezmommies, famed for having their existence acknowledged exactly one time by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Ironically The Klezmommies' freshman album was recorded when most of The Klezmommies were seniors in college. The album was only to be released after most had graduated, diasporating across the United States from Boston to Chicago to Boulder and Portland.
Running Out of Time is the culmination of a two-year project of music, community, learning and friendship. None of the ‘mommies really knew how to play klezmer before convening. What started as a friendly, unserious open jam, by way of a circumstantial accident (our trumpet-player’s recital), turned into unserious regular rehearsals with a core group of members.
As we figured out how to klezmer, we got the honor to play locally in Appleton, WI. This included performances at Moses Montefiore Synagogue, with a community-oriented Music For All program, two times at Lawrence University’s annual LUaroo Music Festival, and a handful of deliciously informal performances in campus dorms and elsewhere.
This album is the outcome of two recording sessions. One was a live concert and the other a closed session, both carried out on the stage of Lawrence University’s Memorial Chapel. The live concert is where the majority of the tracks come from with the closed session used to record and splice together some vaguely more polished renditions of three songs: “If I were a rich trans,” “YIVO,” and “Du bist mayn likhtele.”
The first two of these are meticulous parodies of popular songs, with the last being a complete musical and lyrical reimagination of one. While the last one is unquestionably transformative work, Miri holds the first two parodies constitute fair use. According to her, the lyrics are transformative and have baked into them a meta-critique of kitsch in identity art as represented by the original works (she read an essay by Theodor Adorno one time, as we understand.)
We also like to point out that this version of the album contains two (count ‘em, two!) tracks not included in the freely accessible streaming versions of “Running Out of Time.” “Chosn kale mazel tov” and “Levine, with your flying machine” were included as exclusives on this Bandcamp release for their unimpressive mediocrity of performance, sheer lack of imagination and uniqueness, and due to the availability of better live performances (with video) of these tunes by The Klezmommies on YouTube.
Even our present rendition of Josef Rumshinsky's "Mazltov," while performed with mediocrity, offers an impressive and unique mediocrity. The band's preparation of the tune was incredibly lacking, making for an unparalleled performance recording. For that, we've found it to be of high value, worthy of benevolent inclusion in the free streamed version.
The ten of us who were in the band at different times have the privilege of, save for contingencies relating to aging and other forms of mnemonic degeneration, indelible memory of the band's tenure. You, dear listener, do not. You would not understand most Klezmommy jokes because, frankly, you were not there. We've decided to let you in on the joke, at least a little bit.
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