Re: klezmer band names

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

Hi, Lori.  That did, indeed, come up at the first KKamp, 1985.  I think we
were both in the room when that discussion took place.  Now after 13 years,
for some reason it comes percolating to the surface.  It's good to know that
the sort of wackiness that used to pervade the "klezmer revival" hasn't
entirely disappeared as we've grown older and more serious about what we're
doing.

We had some difficulty getting serious about a band name, ourselves.  We
considered "Room Full of Jews" and "Half a Minyan" (we were five at the
time).  Wendy Foxmyn, who was with us on violin, wanted to front the band as
"Goldie Lox and the Bagels."  Oy.  We played our first gig as the "Klezmer
Valley Mountain Boys," a last-minute improvisation.

We settled, finally, on Wholesale Klezmer Band, with the idea of large
quantities of klezmer at an attractive price.  Wendy didn't like it; she
felt that it perpetuated a negative stereotype.  But the name stuck and we
grew into it.  Nowadays, we call our merch table the "Wholesale Retail Outlet." 

Owen   

At 12:14 AM 1/7/98 EST, Lori wrote:
>Fun with names....
>
>I made up a few names in my youth which belong to a few bands such as The
>Shtetl Blasters and Heavy Shtetl (my synagogue band), though I've heard the
>same puns since.  I remember the Hava Nagila Monsters--I think that it was a
>group name that came up at Klez Kamp in 1982.  Ah, those days.
>
>I always thought it'd be great to have an all-female group called The
>Klezbians.  However, if anyone asks, I didn't say it!
>
>Lori Lippitz
>Maxwell St.K-Band, Chicago
>
_________________________________________________________________________
        Owen Davidson, Amherst, Mass.
        The Wholesale Klezmer Band

        The Angel that presided o'er my birth
        Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth,
        Go love without the help of any King on Earth. 

                                Wm. Blake