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Steve Lieberman
Steve Lieberman
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Key Information

Steven Paul Lieberman (born June 21, 1958), also known as the Gangsta Rabbi and The King of Jewish Punk,[2] (Hebrew name ליב פרץ בין אליאזר ה־בדלן ה־נזדי or Lev Ava'ran bar-Eli'ezar ha-Bad'lan ha-Naz'ari) is a Jewish-American punk rock /metal singer, songwriter, multi-instrumental musician, composer, arranger, producer and former village comptroller residing in Freeport, New York. He is a Hebrew Nazarite, the founder of The Bad'lanim, a minority sect of Judaism and a vegetarian since 1995. He held the Guinness World Record for Longest Officially Released Song for The Noise Militia (#38/76) at 35 hours, 41 minutes and 9 seconds, from December 3, 2020, until October 2, 2021.[3][4] On June 1, 2022, Lieberman's sequel to "The Noise Militia" entitled The Post-Militia Pogo-Battalion(#39/77) was completed with a duration of 76 hours, 30 minutes and 27 seconds and was submitted to Guinness unsuccessfully to reclaim the record. During the sessions of The Noise Militia, Lieberman experimented with the fusion of genres where he developed "Militia Punk" a mixture of noise-punk, thrash- metal and military music.[5]

Lieberman is often considered an outsider musician,[6][7] This has been partially attributed to his lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder,[8] which first struck him in 1970 at the age of 11, as well as his decade-long fight with progressive leukemia in his later years, which ultimately was deemed terminal and has become a recurring theme in his lyrics. By the end of 2017, Lieberman refused all further cancer treatment. From this time, he was in and out of home hospice care.

In 2009, Lieberman signed a multi-album deal with Jewish indie label JDub Records,[9] taking the place of Matisyahu on their artist roster. As of the spring of 2011, Lieberman, a town comptroller by trade, was "the world's only Orthodox Jewish heavy metal musician with a record deal", according to Newsday.[10]


Over his career, he has commercially released 40 CDs and 38 cassette albums in the underground, using the Bop Bop Bigger Bab-èL moniker and reissued in 2016 for the 25th anniversary of his first cassette album, "Bang the Bass Bopmania" as "Bop Bop Bigger Bab-èL featuring Steve Lieberman".[11]

On all his releases, Lieberman sings and plays all instruments. On the early primitive-sounding cassette releases during the 1990s he played chords and leads on a distorted bass accompanied by a Yamaha DD-6 drum machine. By 2002 as he started releasing commercial CDs, he added and featured flutes as well as various brass instruments and a variety of Eastern instruments. In his later years, he has added 6-string guitars and arranged and played a full brass and woodwind choir in an effort to fuse punk rock with marching band music and jazz, and eventually opera and classical. He shared the stage with Weezer, Andrew WK, Glassjaw, Ryan Dunn and the Misfits before retiring from performing in December 2011 to battle accelerated phase myeloproliferative leukemia.[12] He briefly returned to the stage in the spring of 2016 to perform Gangsta Rabbi's Quadrophenia performed in its entirety on a three-stop farewell tour as a solo act, accompanying himself on his trademark distorted bass, a 3-string Fender Stratocaster and alto trombone. His 2010 song "No Festival of Lights (On This Hanukkah)" has received honorable mention placement in the Song of the Year Award[13]
Although Lieberman's music seemingly had little commercial success, unaudited download and stream sales of his first 40 records approached 20,000,000 in 21 years as of July 2023. In September 2018, Lieberman's single, "The Diarrhea Song" had briefly appeared on the Apple iTunes Top 100 UK Rock chart, peaking at No. 22 and "3 Little Puppies" peaked at No. 19 on the Apple iTunes Top 100 Other Territories Chart two years later .He received airplay on Rich Russo's free-form Anything Anything with Rich Russo radio show[14] on New York City WRXP 101.9 and WDHA-FM 105.5 commercial rock radio stations. Throughout the shows Lieberman's music was featured on, Russo described him as "Jethro Tull meets the Beastie Boys, a one-man Jethro Tull" as well as "an inspiration to all suffering from serious illness" Additionally, Lieberman enjoyed some success on college radio, where The Rabbi Is Dead peaked at No. 3 on KZSU Stanford University in 2012[15] and "Jewish Pirate" had a one-week appearance at No. 8 on WUSB (FM) Stony Brook University two years after release in 2008.

Life and career

[edit]

1958–1991 the early years

[edit]

Steven Paul Lieberman was born on June 21, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York[16] to a working-class Jewish family. He is the youngest son of Lester Lieberman (1928–2012), a quality control technician, and Ilene Lieberman (née Marcus) (1930–2014). At the time of his bar-mitzvah in 1971, Lieberman, already an observant Jew, acquired a bass guitar to fill a vacancy in his junior high school jazz band. He picked up the instrument and started playing it upside-down and backwards. After passing the jazz band audition, he had developed a crude system of chords for the bass; when properly distorted, they mimicked the major chords of the 6 string guitar.[17] Forgoing this method for more conventional bass playing, Lieberman became the bassist for hard rock as well as jazz-rock fusion bands throughout high school, where he developed a lead bass style influenced by John Entwistle . During this time, he suffered from major depressive disorder[18] and committed parasuicide at age 17. Amidst episodes of depression and mania, Lieberman graduated from college in 1980 with a BBA in accounting, where he worked his way up to become town comptroller[19] by 1998, a position he held until his retirement in September 2014.

He was on hiatus from music through much of the 1980s except for recording a vinyl single "Nuclear Blitz (Edits 96 and 85)" in 1984, playing all the chords and leads on the bass guitar. Lieberman was married four times and divorced three times by his 33rd birthday and widowed at age 60.[20]

1991–1994 the underground cassette trade

[edit]

He planned to return to music briefly in the spring of 1991, to commemorate his 20th year of playing the bass, this time accompanying himself with a used Yamaha DD-6 drum machine. By year's end he recorded a 13 track cassette called Bang The Bass Bopmania.[21] Overdubbing tracks by using two portable cassette players, Lieberman started writing and recording bass-only crude punk/hardcore music. There was a free paper in the New York area at the time called The Musician's Exchange that would review Lieberman's cassettes and those of like-minded musicians in a column called "Independents' Day." This resulted in trading tapes amongst the musicians and circulating them throughout the underground.

Lieberman recorded under the "Bop Bop Bigger Bab'el"[22] moniker from 1991 to 2001.

1994–2001 enter The Gangsta Rabbi-stage left

[edit]
Steve Lieberman with curve-headed flute October 21, 2007

In 1994, Steve Lieberman began to study the Bible continually, as he did in the years following his bar-mitzvah. This time, he realized discrepancies between the Word in the Bible and the way modern Judaism is practiced. An example of this is that the modern Jewish calendar, besides having its months named after Babylonian gods[23] violates a commandment given in Exodus 12:1,[24] where the new year must be celebrated on the new moon directly preceding Passover, so why do 10 million Jews disobey God by celebrating "Rosh Hashannah"[25] in the seventh month?

After confronting a rabbi with this question after he performed a grave unveiling ceremony, and the rabbi was unable to answer, Lieberman recorded his 20th tape entitled Gangsta Rabbi, the title track becoming his theme song and stage name – because "he likes to pick theological fights with actual rabbis".[26]

His biblical studies caused Lieberman to break off from existing Jewish sects to found the Badlan'im (Heb:"isolationists") sect in 1995[27] where precepts include fasting, continual prayer, vegetarianism,[28] and belief in only the Bible as the law, so that God's word is not superseded by that of the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. Additionally, he replaced the calendar from the current system, in the 58th century, to a more appropriate system, being in the 35th century,[29] commemorating the Exodus from Egypt.

Packaging a live cassette from a First Night festival on New Year's Eve 1994 as Mission of Tolerance 5755-Live, the Musician's Exchange's head writer Paul Incinitti said of Lieberman's show, "based on the sound of the screaming crowd, Lieberman should tour and call (the tour) "No Sleep To Gaza". He is every skinhead's nightmare".[30]

2001 ashes of Bad'lania

[edit]

After the release of his 36th cassette, Diaspora Blaster 36 in the spring of 2001, Steve Lieberman's house and studio were completely destroyed by an electrical fire.[31] Acquiring a used flute and a book on how to play it, he wanted to start a genre that would fuse the flute with punk rock, as Jethro Tull did for blues-rock three decades prior.

2002–2003

[edit]

By the spring of 2002, the studio and house were rebuilt and Lieberman purchased a Korg D1600 16 track digital recorder. Deciding that the user's manual was too thick and a bit boring, he just plugged in and winged it and three months later, out comes his first CD Bad'lania Rising, a "greatest hits" collection of the first 38 tapes. The title was the sequel of his last tape Ashes of Bad'lania where "Bad'lania" is the homeland of his Badlan'im sect.

Bad'lania Rising

[edit]

By its August 27, 2002, release songs from Bad'lania Rising were known through the use of on-line music distributors; the largest at the time was mp3.com. His song "Puppy" debuted at 719 in the Garage Chart and "Gangsta Rabbi" at 1229 on the Jewish/Israeli list on mp3.com on June 24, 2002, the first day after release. Looking for a genre that would best tolerate his new style, the progressive rock community showed least objection. In a review in their site progressiveworld.net which yielded Bad'lania 2 out of 5 stars said the record was "awful", but praised his newly learned flutework which was played over the racket of everything else and closed by saying "we are fascinated by the eccentric ... but... I just can't say I enjoy listening to it.".[32]

Jewish Lightning

[edit]

Re-recording many of the post-1996 heavily Jewish-themed tunes with the exception of the new Astroland Spring-Green '415, Lieberman's second CD Jewish Lightning was released on September 16, 2003. This record, as Bad'lania, received some poor grades for listenability because of Lieberman's overuse of ethnic instruments and non-conforming methods in the studio, but for the content, "identifying with Biblical ancestry and anger towards the Holocaust" he was dubbed "a proud Israelite poet" by Binyamin Bresky at Cleveland Jewish Radio.[33]

Additionally, in a tribute to Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal after his 2005 death, Jewish music journalist Baron Dave Romm said of Lieberman in a review of Lightning, "his energy and attitude are infectious. He has something to say and by damn he's going to say it ... he's as fearless as Simon Wiesenthal and just as smolderingly angry."[34]

Desert Fever Brigade

[edit]

The Desert Fever Brigade sessions during the spring and summer of 2003 yielded 35 songs of which 21 of the most "commercial" were included on the CD. The album was released on December 29, 2003. Reviewers showed the work little respect, as Adam Mico of the Daily Vault said in his review of DFB[35]—Mr Lieberman has no control center in the brain, hence this CD sounds the way it does. After Desert Fever Brigade's release, Steve Lieberman held the No. 1 artist spot on mp3.com.au, the largest on-line distributor in Australia, for 6 weeks spanning December 2003 – January 2004.[36]

2004–2005 skinheads in my yard oy vey

[edit]

Liquidatia-455

[edit]

For the release of his 4th album Liquidatia-455, he was invited to promote the album by Jill Morrison at WUSB (FM) on June 9, 2004.[37] "Liquidatia" charted on some college radio Top 30 charts at Harvard (#28), Montclair State (#6), Duke University (#30) and Stanford (#27).[38]

Jewish Riot Oy! Oy! Oy!

[edit]
Steve Lieberman plays bass solo-Cup-A-Cino's Detroit, MI September 18, 2004

In September 2004, Lieberman traveled to Detroit, where he played, recorded and filmed a show and released the results as what would be his 6th CD and first live record called Jewish Riot Oy! Oy! Oy!, released January 5, 2005, The small audience was evident by the limited applause on the recording. Journalist James McQuistion said that "Lieberman should seriously consider trying to create a more live-feeling studio experience, as this is the essence of eir music, free of all the unnecessary chaos that Lieberman likes to thread throughout eir music."[39] Bill Cuevas, music director at KZSU Stanford University summed up Lieberman's attitude as a live performer in his review of Jewish Riot which peaked at No. 41 on the station's chart:[40]"I just love how its obvious theres like 5 people in the audience while this guy gives the performance of his life."[41]

After returning home from Detroit, Buttons, his beloved lab mix who had been the subject of quite a few of Lieberman's songs, had passed at 14 1/2 on September 22, 2004. He played some shows in New York City including CBGB's and the Acme Underground. Author/promoter Steven Blush was promoting a Thanksgiving Eve jam on November 24, 2004, at Don Hills and was the first to book Lieberman as "Gangsta Rabbi".

Arbeiter at the Gate

[edit]

After his attempt in New York City, Lieberman hooked up with the now defunct Long Island Music Coalition (LIMC) headed up by WUSB DJ Rich Hughes, who provided him with some work in clubs. When interviewed about Lieberman by Newsday in the fall of 2004, he said he "first heard Lieberman on a local radio show in his car. 'I nearly drove into a tree,' he recalls. But something about the music stuck with him. I like the way he follows his own muse".[42]

Lieberman released his 5th album, Arbeiter at the Gate, on October 18, 2004. When the Allmusic guide received its copy, because Lieberman dedicated a song "The A.M.G." to them, critic Gregory McIntosh reviewed the CD, giving it a surprising 3 1/2 stars citing "Mostly, the appeal of Arbeiter at the Gate, and indeed all of Lieberman's work, is the sheer and impressive fearlessness of it".[43]

Arbeiter peaked at No. 42 on WXDU-Duke University and on May 22, 2005, hit No. 87 at KZSU,[44] and two weeks later, "Jewish Riot" re-entered at No. 360 one notch lower than "Arbeiter" holding No. 359.[45]

Jew in the Underground

[edit]

During the early part of 2005, Steve Lieberman frequented open mic night at a club called Munchaba in Levittown, NY. It was hosted by comedian/musician Evan Wecksell who referred to Lieberman as an "anti-musician". Lieberman and Wecksell did a few shows together called the "Jews Who Rock" tour.[46]

At the same time, Rafer Guzman, the local music reporter at Newsday, came to one of Lieberman's shows and interviewed him for the paper. The cover of the article, published on February 27, 2005, featured a full-page picture of Lieberman playing the bass and singing at the show.

In the article, subtitled "A Crowd of Seven" referring to the generally consistent poor attendance at the show, Guzman, in detail, describes the dynamics of Lieberman's stage show: "Then he laid down a barrage of thunderous bass notes and snarled unintelligibly in a gravelly, slurred voice. Each song also featured a wild, high-pitched flute solo, with Lieberman occasionally slapping the bass to sustain the rumbling feedback." Concluding, Guzman states that Lieberman's music is all about his emotions and his message, not his talent.[47]

Shortly after, on June 7, 2005, Lieberman released his 7th CD, Jew in the Underground.[48]

Punkifier

[edit]

On Tuesday August 2, 2005, the host signing in the artists for the open mic at The Downtown recognized Lieberman from the Newsday article six months prior. Opening with "Dogpark" from Liquidatia-455 and closing with "Punkifier 76-FX" from his forthcoming album, the emcee booked Lieberman to open for the Viva La Bam rock show featuring Ryan Dunn and Don Vito the next month.[49]

Viva the Gangsta Rabbi

[edit]
Steve Lieberman and his fans at the Downtown September 3, 2005

At the "Viva La Bam" show at the Downtown, Lieberman had stationed a portable cassette stationed at the end of the stage. He had the results mastered onto a CD which was released as Lieberman's 9th CD (2nd Live), called Viva the Gangsta Rabbi released January 6, 2006. A new local rock magazine was released by editor Tiffany Rizzano called Perpetual Toxins. She stated in the review that "Lieberman is a true rocker through and through ... borrowing a bit from experimental rockers Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, British punk rock, such as the Sex Pistols and even '80s hair metal ... He opened up the tune 'Bonkey on the Donkey' playing the flute, giving the song a bit of a Jethro Tull sound" and said his voice was more punk styled than Billie Joe when doing his songs in the "Green Day Medley".[50]

2006–2007 Melancholia Between the Pirates

[edit]

Within two weeks of the "Viva La Bam" show, The Downtown closed down, destroying Lieberman's hope to do another show there. The Munchaba, where he was a regular, closed down the week before. These events as well as the poor reception to his 8th CD Punkifer (released October 25, 2005) caused Lieberman to sink into depression. Punkifer has songs such as "4-Hour Stiffy", "Fall Out Boy Oy Oy Oy" and the title song, a tribute to the vintage DOD distortion petal Lieberman used to create the bass sound of the CD, "so poorly distorted that every single smack of a bass chord is heard."[51]

Jewish Pirate

[edit]

By the fall of 2005, Lieberman began to spiral downward to his worst major depressive episode in over a decade. From this, he then suffered from writer's block, being totally unable to come up with a new song. He decided to record a CD of cover tunes and donate the gross proceeds to the North Shore Animal League, where he adopted his dogs, Buttons (1989–2004) in 1991 and Midnite Buttons (2004–2010) in 2004. Recorded December 2005, Jewish Pirate included songs originally done by Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Jethro Tull, The Butthole Surfers, the Dead Milkmen, and the Grateful Dead amongst others, and was released on May 30, 2006, as his 10th CD. It became his first record to chart on WUSB FM where it hit No. 8 on October 27, 2006.[52]

James McQuiston at NeuFutur Magazine said of Pirate, "The results are strong for that of a cover CD, and hopes Lieberman's future recordings will continue in such a direction."[53]

In February 2006, Lieberman was featured on a 7-minute clip on Cablevision News 12.[54] However it was only played between 11 am and 4 pm on a Wednesday, to a sparse audience.

Melancholia Falling

[edit]

Coming out from a 5-month major depressive episode in the spring of 2006, Lieberman documents it in his first "concept" CD Melancholia Falling, his 11th CD released October 31, 2006. Syd Nathan of the Good Times Magazine said of Melancholia: "Perhaps the most bizarre recording ever to come across my desk... being an old fashioned concept album as it deals with the Rabbi's recent bout of depression and coming with an actual warning against suicide on the cd itself, as the main character takes his life, this is totally convoluted".[55]

Last of the Jewish Pirates

[edit]

The follow-up to 2006's Jewish Pirate, another covers CD for charity, his 12th, was released August 7, 2007.

Shake the Missile Base

[edit]

On Shake The Missile Base, his 13th CD released November 6, 2007, the opening track "Public Suicide" exhibits Lieberman's failing mental health. As described by the chief editor of Smother.net Magazine, "A heavily distorted album as is the usual Lieberman fare, he distances himself from sunshine-laden lyrics for angry words of rage, heartache, suicide and depression".[56] Jimmy Alvarado of razorcake.org – Punk Reviews said of Missile Base: "... some will undoubtedly see it as much ballyhooin’ and little talent, others will find a uniquely genius quality in the unpolished delivery of songs like 'Skinheads in My Yard Oy Vey,' 'Love @ Defcon 5,' and 'Rubbin’ One Out for My Baby.'"[57]

2008–2009

[edit]

In early 2008, complications from bipolar disorder got Steve Lieberman committed to the psychiatric ward in a local hospital.[58] Being released in less than a week, in two months' time after that, he had returned to the stage, playing Farmingdale, New York's Crazy Donkey, where he cut himself on stage with a broken fiddle bow.[59]

Psych Ward

[edit]

After the experience of his confinement, Lieberman recorded his second concept album, his 14th CD Psych Ward, released June 8, 2008. Senior editor C.W. Ross at Indie Music Stop said "The songs' lyrics are a little tough to hear with talk of self-mutilation, cutting, death and suicide, but to get the point across, it's all necessary...Lieberman seems to exist to break the rules of writing, production and instrumentalization, playing a Jethro Tull-style flute and lead and rhythm bass with a vengeance".[60]

Overthrow the Government

[edit]

When completing work on his 15th CD, Overthrow the Government, released October 15, 2008, a commercial rock radio station was having a contest for players of miscellaneous instruments; the prize was to appear on stage at Madison Square Garden with Weezer. Lieberman submitted the flute intro to I'm Jethro Tull and took 60.4 percent of the vote and got to play the Garden on September 24, 2008.

"Lieberman has really started to fall into a groove with these last few recordings ... The music that Lieberman creates may be a little hard to get into, but the honesty of this work here is something that should be lauded and commended", said NeuFutur Magazine when reviewing the album.[61]

[62] Three months after the Weezer show, Lieberman was asked to return to the Crazy Donkey, this time to open for Andrew WK.[63]

2009–2011 JDub Records' Gangsta Rabbi

[edit]

Diaspora-A Folk-Punk History of the Hebrew Nation

[edit]

Setting out in the fall of 2008 to do a second concept CD, Steve Lieberman took on the history of the Jewish people. Starting with the call of Abraham, going through the Old Testament to the Holocaust and finishing with "4th Diaspora-The End Time", the underlying message is that so much misfortune befell the people because of their disobedience to God's Law.[64]

Finishing the record in January 2009, at the same time the Israel-Gaza crisis erupted, Lieberman closed the album with the controversial "For the Children of the Gaza".[65]

In a June 2009 review in RadioIndy, Lieberman received another comparison to fellow outsider musician Wesley Willis but "relying on shock and awe bursts of scorching bass licks and howls of reverent fury to trace the tormented Judaic arc from pre-biblical times to the 21st century".[66]

Diaspora was Lieberman's 16th CD, released March 31, 2009.

DiKtatoR 17

[edit]

After numerous attempts to contact JDub Records, including sending a copy of Psych Ward in 2008 as well as inviting them to every big show he booked, in November 2009, Lieberman was contacted by the label, who invited him to sign a multi-album five-year deal. Lieberman always wanted to be on the label, as they had discovered Matisyahu and worked primarily with openly Jewish acts.

JDub hosted a Punk Purim party called "Hamanbashin" in February 2010, emceed by Sarah Lewitinn which Steve Lieberman opened for.[67] Seven weeks later on April 20, 2010, JDub Records released the digital version of DiKtatoR 17, being the 27th of only 35 albums released in the label's history.[68]

Lieberman visited the JDub offices in March 2011, when they planned to release Lieberman's CD's Jewish Engineer 18 and The Rabbi Is Dead during the summer of 2011[69] as well as a four-part documentary of his life called "A Punk Life: The Gangsta Rabbi Story".[70] The video was released in 4 weekly segments starting on Lieberman's 53rd birthday June 21, 2011.

On July 12, 2011, the night after the last installment, "The Gangsta Rabbi's Studio" was released. JDub artists received a personal email from the Chief Operating Officer stating that after the label's nine-year existence, JDub Records was forced to close down citing financial reasons alone. The news went public the next day.[71]

When interviewed by PunkTorah, Lieberman was asked about his plans following JDub's closing. Lieberman quipped, "I released the first sixteen [albums] on my own and will do the same for numbers nineteen through one hundred plus. As for a new label, I’ll be 104 when that happens..."[72]

Jewish Engineer 18

[edit]

Following the formula of DiKtatoR 17, Steve Lieberman produced and physically released his 18th CD Jewish Engineer 18 (a reference to the accounting profession) on July 6, 2010. When presenting the 20-song CD to JDub for digital release, he was told the release must wait because DiKtatoR was released less than three months before.

The song "I'm Not A White Boy" hit No. 1 on SoundClick.com alternative chart in July 2010, and received an International Association of Independent Recording Artists IAIRA International Top 10 Award.[73]

2011–2012 My Magic Last Days

[edit]

The Rabbi Is Dead

[edit]
Steve Lieberman plays his 2-headed 50 fret OktoBass

Presenting his most commercial effort to JDub Records in March 2011 and the first where Lieberman plays the 6-string guitar, he was advised to trim down the 22-song CD to 12 or 13 tracks which he did. He released the 13 track CD independently on July 19, 2011, because of the demise of JDub Records.

My Last Rock Show

[edit]

After the release of The Rabbi Is Dead, Lieberman was diagnosed with myeloproliferative bone marrow cancer and knew he would soon be unable to perform on stage or in the studio. He put together a final tour which was documented in his 20th CD My Last Rock Show, released February 7, 2012. Although poorly produced from cassette masters,My Last Rock Show included tracks of Lieberman as he was backed by a full punk band and a performance of The Dreidel Song at a government-sponsored Hanukkah show.

My Magic Last Days

[edit]

Production and release of the next album, his 21st, originally to be called My Magic Tragic Last Days, but later shortened to My Magic Last Days was delayed because Lieberman was unable to work on it due to the quick progression of the disease. It was finally released on July 17, 2012. Although most reviewers shied away from it, it was one of Lieberman's best received albums.[74]

[75] The album peaked at No. 33 after a lack-luster journey through the bottom of the chart on KZSU on April 21, 2013 [76]

2013–2014 They Got Me Confined to the Cancer Ward

[edit]
The Gangsta Rabbi plays the French Horn, spring 2018

Cancer Ward

[edit]

In May 2012, after the production of My Magic Last Days was completed, for the first time since 1985, Lieberman retired from making music altogether due to his progressing cancer. In October of that year, damage from Hurricane Sandy destroyed many of his instruments and equipment but spared his Korg D1600 recording board. In the spring of 2013, after a year of suspending cancer treatment, his case was taken on by Memorial Sloan-Kettering. A bone-marrow biopsy determined he suffered from myelofibrosis, a condition where a once prolific marrow turns to fiber and slowly stops producing blood cells. In September 2013, Lieberman began undergoing experimental chemotherapy with a drug known only as AUY-922 lasting six months in an effort to reverse progression and to bring back an earlier stage of the disease. Instead of having any sort of beneficial effect, the treatment actually progressed the disease, causing Lieberman to be hospitalized frequently, receiving forty-five transfusions between February and December 2014. However, in November 2013, Lieberman rose from his sick-bed to do a quick cover of "My Kingdom" by Echo and the Bunnymen, his first new output since the My Magic Last Days sessions in May 2012. The disease's progression eventually caused Lieberman's retirement from his 29-year stint as Comptroller for the Village of Freeport.

Return of the Jewish Pirate (3rd to 6th Pirate)

[edit]

At the end of his radio interview on December 30, 2014, Lieberman promised to try and release a follow-up to 2007's Last of the Jewish Pirates to be entitled Return of the Jewish Pirate. At project's end, he had released a 76-song, 4 volume set on May 19, 2015, the 70th birthday of one of his greatest heroes Pete Townshend. Due to the overall length of the last "Pirate" series, Lieberman was not able to get press on the collection after its release.

2015–2022 Symphonic Punk, Thrash-Opera and The Noise Militia

[edit]

By early 2018, Lieberman,began producing his most prolific, complex and sometimes most experimental music of his career. Drawing on his experience in symphonic, marching and jazz bands and orchestras decades earlier as well as a need to break the rules of mainstream music of instrumentation and production, Lieberman had arranged orchestral parts to blend with his punk/thrash style, fusing it to progressive rock, opera (recreating a fully orchestrated three-hour version of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore) and his classical punk/thrash fusion The Gangsta Rabbi's Thrash Opus Year 1812 Festival Overture in E♭ Major, lasting 38 minutes.[77][78] On March 12, 2019, he finished his first epic project, "La Symphonie-Thrashe du Professeur-Juif Rebele" (the thrash symphony for the Gangsta Rabbi), where he arranged, orchestrated and recorded playing 18 different instruments over forty opuses, based on his punk catalog running over five hours long.

Commercial and College Radio reception

[edit]

Although Lieberman's music seemingly had little commercial success, unaudited download and stream sales of his first 40 records approached 20,000,000 in 22 years as of July 2023. In September 2018, Lieberman's single, "The Diarrhea Song" had briefly appeared on the Apple iTunes Top 100 UK Rock chart, peaking at No. 22 and "3 Little Puppies" peaked at No. 19 on the Apple iTunes Top 100 Other Territories Chart two years later. l.He received airplay on Rich Russo's free-form Anything Anything with Rich Russo radio show[14] on New York City WRXP 101.9 and WDHA-FM 105.5 commercial rock radio stations. Throughout the shows Lieberman's music was featured on, Russo described him as "Jethro Tull meets the Beastie Boys, a one-man Jethro Tull" as well as "an inspiration to all suffering from serious illness" Additionally, Lieberman enjoyed some success on college radio, where The Rabbi Is Dead peaked at No. 3 on KZSU Stanford University in 2012[15] and "Jewish Pirate" had a one-week appearance at No. 8 on WUSB (FM) Stony Brook University two years after release in 2008.

The Jethro Tull / Gangsta Rabbi Connection

[edit]
Steve Lieberman plays one-handed flute solo at a punk rock show April 24, 2010

Being a long-haired male rock flutist, playing in a style inspired by Ian Anderson,[79] the connection between Steve Lieberman and British rock band Jethro Tull was established as soon as the 2002 release of Bad'lania Rising. It has songs entitled "Ian Anderson" (1999), "Punk Rock Jethro Tull Song" (2001), "Jethro Tull FantasyKamp" (2004) and "I'm Jethro Tull" (2008), with the A.M.G. placing Jethro Tull as a similar artist on the page of Steve Lieberman the Gangsta Rabbi.[80] This connection brought reaction to both sides of the Jethro Tull community, those who hate Lieberman and those who love him.

The former is evident on one Jethro Tull covers site. A critic says this of Lieberman's covers of Tull's "War Child", "Up To Me" and "One Brown Mouse": "I have no idea what drives Lieberman to release this unapproachable stuff and why he chose Jethro Tull as a target."[81]

On a site called the Jethro Tull Board which is actually endorsed by Ian Anderson, there is a thread called "Gangsta Rabbinian" saying "I love your innovative and original Jethro Tull-related songs, and your non-Tull songs are great too" and posted the lyrics to two of Lieberman's lyrics which express hope to find a peaceful end to the Arab-Israeli conflict, "Unholy War In The Holy Land" (2004) and "For The Children of the Gaza" (2009).[82]

Discography

[edit]

Studio albums

[edit]
  • Bad'lania Rising (2002) (Reached No. 82 on iTunes Italy Rock Chart on September 19, 2021)[83]
  • Jewish Lightning (2003)
  • Desert Fever Brigade (2003)
  • Liquidatia-455 (2004)
  • Arbeiter at the Gate (2004)
  • Jew in the Underground (2005)
  • Punkifier (2005)
  • Jewish Pirate (2006)
  • Melancholia Falling (2006)
  • Last of the Jewish Pirates (2007)
  • Shake the Missile Base (2007)
  • Psych Ward (2008)
  • Overthrow the Government (2008)
  • Diaspora (2009)
  • Diktator 17 (2009, 2010)
  • Jewish Engineer 18 (2010)
  • The Rabbi Is Dead (2011)
  • My Magic Last Days (2012)
  • Cancer Ward (2014)
  • Return Of the Jewish Pirate (2015)
  • .....Volume 1–3rd Pirate-Obscurities And Near-Misses
  • ..... Volume 2–4th Pirate-Hits And Near-Hits
  • ..... Volume 3–5th Pirate-Epics And Not-So-Epics
  • ..... Volume 4–6th Pirate-Plunder And Miscellaneous Booty
  • Blast-O-Rama (2015)
  • Terminator V617-F (2016)
  • The Gangsta Rabbi's Quadrophenia (2016)
  • The Gangsta Rabbi's Tommy (2016)
  • The Gangsta Rabbi's Aqualung (2016)
  • Down with a Bang #29 (2016)
  • The King Of Jewish Punk (#30/68) (2017)
  • 2nd King Of Jewish Punk (#31/69)-The Last of the Great Punk Rock Bass Heroes (2017)
  • Bad'lania Is Still Rising: 3rd King Of Jewish Punk (#32/70) (2017)
  • Bad'lania Is Still Rising: A Protest Against My Own Rebellion (#33/71) (2017)
  • Psycho At The Hospice Gates (#34/72) (2017)
  • The Thrash Opera's (#35/73) (2018)
  • Mixtape For My Funeral (#36/74) (2018)
  • La Symphonie-Thrash du Professeur-Juif Rebele (37/75) (2019)
  • The Noise Militia (#38/76) (2020)
  • .....The Noise Militia (#38/76) Part 1
  • .....Part 2-The Never-Ending Punk Street Parade...
  • .....Part 3-The Civil Assault of the Bad'lanian/The Pogo-March Will Continue
  • .....Part 4-The Nazarite's Pillar of Noise/In Pure Distortion/The Everlasting Militia of Peace and Metal Street Cadence-The Longest Song Ever
  • .....Part 5-Now I Will Bless the L-rd As He Gave Me The Power To Do All This in the 11th Year of My Suffering
  • .....Part 6-Blessed Is The L-rd As He Raised Me From My Deathbed To Do History's Longest Song
  • The Post-Militia Pogo-Battalion (#39/77) (2021–2022)
  • .....The 1st Noise Cadence
  • .....The 2nd Noise Cadence-My Reclamation of My World Record Continues
  • .....The 3rd Noise Cadence-This Time, I Will Bless The L-rd
  • .....The 4th Noise Cadence-Leukemia Awareness
  • .....The 5th Noise Cadence-Play Some Music
  • .....The 6th Noise Cadence-In The 12th Year of My Suffering
  • .....The 7th Noise Cadence-Bad'lanian Public Works Project
  • .....The 8th Noise Cadence-Bombast In The Mosh-Pit
  • .....The 9th Noise Cadence-2nd World Record 3473
  • 4th King of Jewish Punk-With a Pillar of Sound I Praise the L-rd (#41/79) (Opus #138) (2023)
  • 5th King of Jewish Punk-The Duke of the Militia (#42/80) (Opus #139) (2023)


  • With a Pillar of Sound, I Praise the L-rd (2024)
  • Meet the Gangsta Rabbi (#44/82) (2024)
  • The Duke of the Militia (#45/83) (2025)
  • Riot In Your SpeakerBox (#46/84) (2025)
  • Wowwing Them With Distortion (#47/85) (2025)
  • Still Not Good Enough (#48/86) (2025)
  • Cheap Japanese Bass-1st Aria (1971-1975) (#49/87) (2025)
  • Suicide Shift (#50/88)
  • Noise Riot in the Diaspora (#51/89)
  • Cheap Japanese Bass-2nd Aria -1975 (#52/90) (2025)
  • Peace Over Babylon (#53/91) (2025)
  • Striking Down the Persecutor (#54/92) (2025)
  • Minority in the Hebrew Race (#55/92) (2026)

Live albums

[edit]
  • Jewish Riot Oy! Oy! Oy! (2005)
  • Viva the Gangsta Rabbi (2006)
  • My Last Rock Show (2012)

Studio cassettes

[edit]
  • Bang the Bass Bopmania (1991)
  • Bop The Referendum (1992)
  • Tails From The BopSide (1992)
  • BopZone Distributor (1992)
  • Resurgence In The FaKtory #5 (1993)
  • Labourer #6 (1993)
  • Velociraptor Factor #7 (1993)
  • Planet Bab-'eL #8 (1993)
  • Poverty #9 (1994)
  • Recession #10 (1994)
  • Liquidation #11 (1994)
  • Yom Ha-Sho'ah Bab-'eL #12 (1994)
  • Zionist #13 (1994)
  • Tolerance #14 (1994)
  • YeruBab-'eL/The Underground Resistance #15 (1995)
  • Desolation #16 (1995)
  • Mishneh ha-Redaktor #17 (1995)
  • Diaspora #18 (1995)
  • Tblisi #19 (1995)
  • Gangsta Rabbi #20 (1996)
  • Delivering The Reprimand #21 (1996)
  • 57-Bad'lan-7 #22 (1996)
  • Gomorrah 5750 #23 (1996)
  • Powderkeg M'Shar'et #24 (1996)
  • Slamming The Mercenary #25 (1997)
  • Terror Mis-ab'ib #26 (1997)
  • Bondsman #27 (1998)
  • Upper Desert Discourse #28 (1998)
  • Bad'lanian Public Works #29 (1998)
  • My Magic Last Days #30 (1999)
  • Y3.451K-No Problem #31 (1999)
  • Laboured All These Years #32 (1999)
  • Servitorship #33 (2000)
  • Bop Gun '451 #34 (2000)
  • The Noisy Minority #35 (2000)
  • Diaspora Blaster #36 (2001)
  • Fire Sale Box Set #37 (2001)
  • Ashes of Bad'lania #38 (2001)
  • Public Kennel Wagging #39 (CD-2002)

Live cassettes

[edit]
  • Mission of Tolerance 5755 (1995)
  • Ministering The Badlan'im (1996)
  • Berlin 3451 (2000)

Singles

[edit]
  • G-d Loves Me Tho' I'm Crazy (2008)
  • Crank That Kosher Boy (2009)
  • Jewish Boy in the Mosh-Pit (2010)
  • We're All Derek Jeter (2011)
  • Get Off The Bus! (2014)
  • My Last Chanukah (2014)
  • My Gallant Crew/ I Am The Captain of the Pinafore (2018)
  • The Diarrhea Song (2018)
  • Joy To the World (2018)
  • Eat Poop and Die/The Spirit of Rebellion(Symphonic Punk #1) (2018)
  • 1st Entr'acte (#38/76)-The Bombshelter, Now a Mosh-Pit and I'm A Frickin' Star (2020)
  • 2nd Entr'acte (#39/77)-The Silo Malfunctions-'14–'18 War Pogo-Battalion-No Quarantine (2021)
  • Opus #91–2nd Aria-Thorn of Crowns (2021)
  • Radar Love (2022)
  • Police Officer/Gimme No Producer (2022)
  • I'll Overthrow The Government For You (Bloodless Coup d'état 3472) (2022)
  • Entr'acte #116-Dimplicity (2022)
  • Bungle In The Jungle/Publicity Man (from Opus 120,Aria's 1–2 Post-Militia Pogo-Battalion(#39/77)(2022)
  • My Whiz Kaleefa (2022)
  • Me & Suzy-Suzy in the Woozatoria (2022)
  • Bank-Robber (2022)
  • Ana'mika (A Duchess in a Time of Peace) (2023)
  • Forgotten Years (2023)
  • ¿ What is Life? (2023)
  • No Holocaust Under My Watch/Oy!Oy!Oy!-Stop The Hate(Entr'acte #156) (2024)
  • Resistance Against the Hate (2024)
  • The Bass Player and The Quarterback (2024)
  • Ward 67 (2024)
  • Hey There Laura (2025)
  • I'm Going Home (Entr'acte #206)"(2025)

Videos

[edit]

Gear

[edit]

Live stage gear

[edit]
  • Custom 2-Headed Oktobass
  • 2006 Dean Nuclear Green Zone Bass
  • Marshall MG30 Guitar Amp y-connected with
  • Gallien-Kruger Backline 112 Bass amp
  • Armstrong Model 1042H Curve Headed Flute
  • Yamaha DD9 Drum Machine
  • Various Recorders and Whistles

Studio gear

[edit]

Rock And Metal Instruments

[edit]
  • 2022 Squier Precision Bass
  • 2024 Tascam 24 SD Multi-Track Recorder
  • 2023 Squier Right-handed VI Guitar
  • 2013 Fender Stratocaster Left-handed Guitar
  • 2024 Shure SM-58 Microphone
  • 2023 Suzuki melodion
  • 2024 Danelectro Baby Sitar
  • Yamaha DD20 dDD9 and DD6 Drum Machines

Brass Instruments

[edit]
  • Contra-bass trombone
  • Bass trombone
  • Tenor trombone
  • Alto trombone
  • Soprano trombone
  • Valve tenor trombone
  • Compensating euphoniuum
  • Trumpets
  • French horns (F and Bb)
  • Concert Mellophone

Woodwind Instruments

[edit]
  • Bass Clarinet
  • Sopranino clarinet (Eb)
  • clarinet(Bb)
  • Soprano Saxophone
  • Flutes
  • Basset Clarinet in G

Recorders

[edit]
  • bass
  • tenor
  • -alto
  • tenor
  • Soprano
  • sopranino

Exotic Instruments

[edit]
  • didgerioo
  • talabard (bombard)
  • Mangal Vadya
  • serpent
  • xylophone
  • shofar









s

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
Steven Paul Lieberman (born June 21, 1958), professionally known as the Gangsta Rabbi, is an American punk rock singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer recognized in underground music circles as the "King of Jewish Punk." Based in Freeport, New York, Lieberman has maintained a DIY career spanning decades, blending anarcho-punk, prog-rock, thrash opera, and noise elements with Jewish cultural themes in his self-produced albums and performances. Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2011, he underwent chemotherapy and later refused further treatment, yet persisted in recording and touring, including a farewell show series and releases chronicling his health battles. Notable for his versatility on instruments like bass guitar, flute, and French horn—often performing one-handed or with custom-built gear—Lieberman achieved a Guinness World Record in 2021 for an extended noise music project amid his ongoing illness. His "militia punk" style emphasizes raw, anti-conformist energy, with recent output including singles like "Cheap Japanese Bass Extreme" in 2024, underscoring a legacy of resilience in outsider music.

Early life

Childhood and family background

Steven Paul Lieberman was born on June 21, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents from a working-class Jewish family. The socioeconomic context of his upbringing reflected modest means typical of many urban Jewish households in mid-20th-century Brooklyn, where community ties and religious observance played central roles in daily life. Lieberman's early environment fostered a strong Jewish identity, evident in his status as an observant Jew by age 13 during his bar mitzvah in 1971. Prior to that, he engaged in typical childhood labor such as a paper route, accumulating approximately $100 from these earnings by early adolescence to supplement family-supported opportunities.

Initial musical training and influences

Lieberman received his first musical instrument, a clarinet, on September 18, 1968, at age 10. Despite initial difficulties noted by his instructor, who warned of confiscation by October 7 due to inadequate progress as of September 30, he continued practicing and, within roughly six months, advanced to performing harmonic minor scales. By the early 1970s, Lieberman broadened his instrumental repertoire, learning trombone circa 1970 and bass guitar in 1971. These acquisitions shifted focus toward stringed instruments suitable for rock ensembles, though details on formal instruction beyond the clarinet remain sparse, indicating possible self-taught components for later additions. Early training emphasized woodwind fundamentals under guided lessons, predating his immersion in punk and related genres during adolescence.

Career beginnings

Underground cassette trading (1991-1994)

In 1991, Steve Lieberman transitioned from non-musical pursuits to self-directed music production by assembling a portable recording studio in his Freeport, New York, bedroom, enabling him to capture original compositions on cassette tapes as his primary creative outlet. This setup facilitated acoustic recordings, such as "Bop Bop Bigger Rocket" on August 6, 1991, under the early moniker Bop Bop Bigger Bab-'eL, reflecting his initial foray into DIY punk and folk experimentation. From 1991 to 1994, Lieberman engaged in underground cassette trading, distributing his self-recorded tapes through informal networks in the DIY punk and folk scenes, where musicians exchanged analog media via mail to bypass commercial gatekeepers. These efforts produced sessions later digitized and released as The Underground Tapes Session 1991-1994 (Volume 2 subtitled The First of the Great Punk Bass Heroes), underscoring his reliance on bass-driven, outsider compositions amid the era's limited distribution options. Such trading established his reputation as an independent operator, with cassettes serving as the medium for sharing raw, unpolished tracks that highlighted logistical demands like manual duplication on consumer-grade equipment and postal exchanges without digital replication tools. Over his career, Lieberman produced 38 cassette albums in total, many originating from this formative period of analog self-reliance, which prioritized volume and accessibility over polished production in pre-internet underground circuits. This approach navigated the era's constraints—high costs for blank tapes, time-intensive copying processes, and vulnerability to degradation—while fostering connections in niche communities valuing authenticity over market viability.

Emergence as Gangsta Rabbi (1994-2001)

In 1994, Steve Lieberman adopted the stage persona of the Gangsta Rabbi, marking a pivotal shift toward integrating explicit Jewish thematic elements with aggressive punk rock aesthetics in his self-produced works. This emergence was influenced by personal encounters with Holocaust-related media, including viewing Schindler's List on April 17, 1994, which prompted the immediate recording of tracks like "Liquidation of the Ghetto" and shaped recurring motifs of Jewish resilience and defiance in his output. The persona fused Lieberman's Orthodox Jewish background with raw, confrontational punk energy, positioning him as a provocative outsider voice critiquing assimilation and cultural erasure through irreverent, high-speed compositions. Throughout the late 1990s, Lieberman sustained this persona via underground cassette releases—numbering in the dozens—characterized by lo-fi production, rapid-fire lyrics addressing biblical exegesis alongside anti-establishment rage, and a DIY ethos reliant on home recording equipment. These tapes, distributed through personal networks rather than commercial channels, emphasized thematic inception over polished execution, with the Gangsta Rabbi alter ego serving as a satirical rabbi-gangster archetype to amplify punk's rebellious core with Judaic specificity. Early experimentation included multi-instrumental layering on rudimentary setups, foreshadowing his later symphonic tendencies, though live performances remained sporadic and localized during this formative phase. By November 2001, the persona crystallized into structured recorded output, as Lieberman initiated sessions for Bad'lania Rising—his debut full-length album—using a $15 karaoke machine acquired from a discount retailer. This project, centered on the fictional "Bad'lanim" sect he founded as a Nazarite-inspired Jewish minority movement, represented the culmination of seven years of persona development, transitioning from ephemeral cassettes to more ambitious, narrative-driven punk opuses while retaining self-financed production independence. The album's inception in 2001 encapsulated the Gangsta Rabbi's core fusion: punk aggression refracted through unorthodox Jewish mysticism, with tracks exploring exile, redemption, and militant spirituality.

Mid-career developments

Post-Bad'lania era (2001-2005)

Following the release of Ashes of Bad'lania #38 on November 14, 2001, which captured recordings salvaged from a destructive fire impacting his Bad'lanim sect materials, Steve Lieberman transitioned into a phase of prolific output under the Gangsta Rabbi moniker. This period emphasized resilience through rapid album production, blending punk, industrial, and Jewish thematic elements to narrate personal and cultural revival. Lieberman's first full-length CD, Bad'lania Rising, emerged on September 19, 2002, comprising 21 tracks spanning 74 minutes and serving as a thematic sequel to Ashes of Bad'lania, symbolizing rebirth from devastation. The album featured songs like "Big Carburetor" and "Sever the Wire," recorded amid ongoing independent efforts via his Gangsta Rabbi Bad'lan USA Records label in Freeport, New York. In 2003, he followed with Jewish Lightning (19 tracks, 73 minutes), released around September 16, fusing punk-rock aggression with Biblical references in tracks such as "Flogged 50x" and "Punk-Rock Jethro Tull Song," alongside Desert Fever Brigade, which earned a listing in the All Music Guide by February 26, 2004. A surge in releases marked 2004–2005, reflecting intensified creative momentum. That year saw Liquidatia-455 (14 tracks, 48 minutes), Arbeiter at the Gate—an experimental noise-rock exploration of labor and outsider themes—and signing with Statue Records Group in Los Angeles on March 1. In 2005, Lieberman issued Jewish Riot Oy! Oy! Oy!, Jew in the Underground, and Punkifier, maintaining his DIY ethos with short-run physical media distribution. Live performances underscored this era's vitality, including a September 18, 2004, show in Detroit showcasing the "Gangsta Rabbi" track from Bad'lania Rising. These efforts highlighted Lieberman's commitment to unfiltered genre fusion amid logistical independence, prioritizing volume over mainstream polish.

Melancholia and pirate-themed works (2006-2007)

In 2006, Lieberman released Jewish Pirate, a 26-track album incorporating pirate motifs intertwined with his Jewish identity and outsider persona, produced independently as his tenth studio effort. The work marked a shift toward thematic rebellion and maritime imagery, reflecting self-released distribution via personal networks and limited physical copies. Melancholia Falling, issued the same year, comprised 21 songs exploring introspective themes of emotional descent and personal isolation, continuing Lieberman's solo multi-instrumental recording approach in home setups. This album emphasized raw, unpolished punk structures amid lyrical vulnerability, distributed underground without major label support. The 2007 follow-up Last of the Jewish Pirates, released on August 7, extended the pirate series with 24 cover songs selected for charity purposes, including tracks from Motörhead and Kiss, positioning Lieberman as a culminating figure in his self-conceived "Jewish pirate" narrative. These interpretations maintained DIY ethos, with proceeds aimed at supportive causes through direct fan sales. Shake the Missile Base, his thirteenth album that year, featured original compositions challenging conventional punk boundaries, self-produced and promoted via independent channels like online listings and personal outreach. The period's outputs, bracketed under "Melancholia Between the Pirates," highlighted Lieberman's pivot to alternating introspective turmoil and defiant piracy symbolism amid ongoing career marginalization.

Later career phases

Institutional and political themes (2008-2011)

Lieberman's 14th album, Psych Ward, released on June 3, 2008, centered on his firsthand accounts of confinement and mistreatment in psychiatric facilities, portraying institutional mental health care as a site of personal torment and systemic failure. The 23-track release drew directly from his bipolar disorder experiences, with songs like "(Losing My Mind) In The Psych Ward" emphasizing themes of isolation, medication-induced haze, and loss of autonomy within such environments. Later in 2008, his 15th album, Overthrow the Government, shifted to explicit political rebellion, featuring 22 tracks that lambasted state authority, corruption, and overreach through irreverent punk anthems calling for systemic upheaval. This work reflected Lieberman's anti-establishment worldview, framing government as an oppressive force warranting direct confrontation, consistent with his outsider punk ethos. In 2009, Lieberman affiliated with JDub Records, a label dedicated to avant-garde Jewish artists, which facilitated releases blending political critique with Jewish identity. His JDub debut, Diaspora: A Folk-Punk History of the Hebrew Nation (2009), a 18-song concept album, chronicled Jewish exile from ancient Egypt through the Holocaust to modern dispersions, underscoring political motifs of persecution, resistance, and national survival against imperial and institutional powers. DiKtatoR 17 (2009), initially self-released but aligned with his JDub period, amplified political satire across 22 tracks, targeting dictatorships, eroded civil liberties, and contemporary figures via songs such as "Obama Rama Yeah," "We Have No Rights," and "The DiKtatoR," which decried authoritarianism and loss of individual agency. This album extended institutional distrust to broader governance failures, portraying rulers as tyrannical regardless of ideology. Lieberman's 18th album, Jewish Engineer 18 (July 6, 2010), under JDub's digital distribution, incorporated professional and societal critiques, with tracks like "Poor Man's Matisyahu" juxtaposing economic marginalization against cultural institutions, while maintaining punk defiance toward elite structures. Culminating the period, The Rabbi Is Dead (July 19, 2011), his 19th release, explored the symbolic demise of his Gangsta Rabbi alter ego amid 13 tracks addressing personal reinvention and institutional exhaustion, including critiques of mosh-pit culture and societal rejection. This work signaled a thematic pivot from overt rebellion to introspective reckoning with political and institutional disillusionment.

Final independent releases and label involvement (2011-2014)

In 2011, Steve Lieberman, performing as the Gangsta Rabbi, released his album The Rabbi Is Dead, which marked his final significant involvement with a record label. The album, consisting of 13 tracks blending punk rock with Jewish-themed lyrics, was issued digitally on March 31, 2011, and physically on July 19, 2011, through the independent Jewish label JDub Records. Anticipating the onset of chemotherapy for a cancer diagnosis, Lieberman undertook the "My Last Rock Show—The Rabbi Is Dead" tour in late 2011, with performances including a December 11 show opening for the Misfits at Ollie's Point in Amityville, New York. This tour, intended as a potential capstone to his live career at the time, was captured in the independently released live album My Last Rock Show on February 7, 2012, featuring recordings from the tour's final dates and emphasizing raw punk energy with tracks like "MCTMT." Subsequent output shifted to fully independent self-releases amid health setbacks, with limited activity documented. By December 30, 2014, Lieberman issued Cancer Ward, a thematic reflection on his medical struggles, distributed via personal channels without label backing. No major label partnerships emerged in this period, aligning with Lieberman's return to DIY production and distribution through platforms like Bandcamp and direct sales.

Contemporary output and innovations

Symphonic punk and Militia Punk (2015-2022)

In 2015, following recovery from earlier health treatments, Lieberman began incorporating symphonic and orchestral elements into his punk and thrash compositions, marking a shift toward what he termed "symphonic punk." This genre fused aggressive noise-punk riffs and thrash metal distortion with multi-layered arrangements featuring brass, woodwinds, and percussion reminiscent of military bands. His album Blast-O-Rama (CD 24), released that year, exemplified this experimentation by blending punk-rock energy with jazz-inflected marching band sounds, including trombone sections and polyrhythmic structures played entirely by Lieberman on up to 25 instruments. By 2018, these innovations evolved into thrash-opera, a heavier variant emphasizing operatic vocal delivery over extended thrash sequences. The release The Thrash Opera's / Mixtape for My Funeral (Opus 35/73 and 36/74), comprising 13 tracks totaling over two hours, showcased dense, narrative-driven pieces addressing personal mortality and rebellion. A key track, "Eat Poop and Die / The Spirit of Rebellion (Symphonic Punk #1)," explicitly labeled as the inaugural symphonic punk entry, integrated symphonic swells with punk aggression to critique societal decay. This period's works pushed boundaries by layering distortion-heavy guitars with classical instrumentation, creating a "boundary-pushing symphonic thrash" sound that Lieberman described as therapeutic amid ongoing physical challenges. The introduction of "Militia Punk" came through the Noise Militia project, a noise-punk/thrash hybrid incorporating militant rhythmic motifs and extreme durations to evoke collective resistance. In 2020, The Noise Militia (#38/76) was released as a 9-track album effectively comprising the world's longest officially recorded song at approximately 36 hours, earning a Guinness World Record for its unbroken, looping structure of pogo-mosh beats and thematic "battalion" anthems. Performed solo with amplified orchestral elements, it represented peak experimentation, blending thrash ferocity with symphonic density to form Militia Punk's core—a genre Lieberman positioned as the "heaviest" in his catalog, prioritizing raw distortion and endurance over conventional song forms. These releases from 2015 to 2022 highlighted Lieberman's self-reliant production, with all instrumentation handled personally to achieve orchestral complexity without collaborators, reflecting a heightened focus on genre fusion as a response to isolation and resilience. Singles and extensions, such as extensions of the Noise Militia opus into pogo-mosh battalions, further emphasized thematic militancy, though commercial distribution remained limited to digital platforms and independent sales.

Ongoing releases amid health challenges (2023-present)

In 2023 and continuing into 2025, Steve Lieberman, performing as the Gangsta Rabbi, sustained a steady stream of music releases through digital channels, including his official website gangstarabbi.com, which serves as a primary hub for announcements and direct distribution. This output encompassed singles, EPs, and albums, with over a dozen catalog entries documented on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music during this timeframe, reflecting uninterrupted production amid personal adversity. Key 2024 releases included the single "Cheap Japanese Bass Extreme" on September 30, a seven-minute track emphasizing raw instrumentation played solely by Lieberman. In 2025, activity accelerated with the five-track EP Meet the Gangsta Rabbi (44/82) Opus 166 in January, compiling remastered Militia Punk selections from prior decades. August brought the EP Suicide Shift 50/88 Opus 232 (Remaster 2025), featuring the remastered track "Oh, Crotch Rocket," alongside the five-track Noise - Riot in the Diaspora 51/89 Opus 237 later that month. Additional 2025 entries included Cheap Japanese Bass Opus 236 48/86, an 11-track album exceeding 80 minutes, and remastered singles like "Skinheads in My Yard Oy Vey" released by December 2024 but cataloged under 2025 versions. These works, distributed via streaming services and Lieberman's site, numbered at least eight major items by October 2025, with no recorded pauses in recording or upload activity despite his terminal condition. Lieberman's approach relied on self-orchestration using 20-25 instruments per track, enabling solo completion and rapid digital deployment without external dependencies. This phase underscored empirical persistence, as evidenced by consistent metadata updates on verified platforms, prioritizing volume and archival remastering over live performance.

Musical style and themes

Genre fusions and innovations

Lieberman developed the subgenre known as Militia Punk during the recording sessions for his 2009 album The Noise Militia, blending noise-punk's chaotic energy with thrash-metal's aggressive distortion and military marching band structures. This hybrid features heavily overloaded mixes achieved through layering distorted guitars with full ensembles of woodwind, brass, and exotic instruments, creating a dense, high-volume cacophony that simulates the intensity of a 200-piece marching band combined with a six-piece metal band. Central to these innovations are sonic integrations such as clarinet and multi-neck bass lines woven into punk rhythms, providing contrapuntal textures amid the distortion-heavy foreground; Lieberman performs all instruments himself, enabling precise causal control over the audio engineering to prioritize raw overload rather than polished separation. This approach extends to thrash-opera elements, where punk riffs are restructured into operatic arias and entr'actes with symphonic density, as heard in releases like The Thrash Opera's / Mixtape for My Funeral (2018). His style evolved from early DIY cassette-era punk recordings, characterized by lo-fi, self-recorded multi-tracking on basic setups, to later symphonic punk frameworks by the 2010s, where punk foundations are orchestrated into classical sonata forms fusing thrash-metal aggression with marching band precision and woodwind embellishments. These choices reflect a deliberate engineering emphasis on causal sound propagation—maximizing distortion and layering for immersive intensity—rather than conventional clarity, resulting in recordings that maintain underground punk ethos while expanding instrumental scope.

Jewish identity and lyrical content

Steve Lieberman's adoption of the "Gangsta Rabbi" moniker encapsulates a provocative fusion of Jewish religious heritage with punk rock defiance, positioning him as a self-proclaimed outsider within both cultural spheres. Born to Jewish parents in New York, Lieberman incorporates explicit references to Torah observance and prophetic lineage in his lyrics, such as declaring himself a "descendant from the prophets" who speaks of the "holy law" despite rejection by his own community. This persona rejects assimilationist norms, emphasizing an uncompromised Jewish identity marked by ritual purity and rebellion against institutional conformity. Lyrical content recurrently explores motifs of the Jewish diaspora through themes of alienation and exile, portraying Lieberman as a modern Nazarite figure adhering to ascetic vows amid personal adversity. In tracks evoking biblical narratives, he laments failed Levitical rites and the consequences of deviation, such as "I picked the grapes... performed my Levitical rite... I should have been a Nazarite," linking ritual observance to survival against hostility. Vegetarianism, practiced by Lieberman since 1995, aligns with these themes as an extension of kosher discipline and ethical separation from profane consumption, reinforcing his status as a principled dissenter. Songs like "Shout In Mizra'im," which topped Jewish music charts during Passover in 2003, invoke Egyptian bondage and redemption, framing contemporary struggles as continuations of historical Jewish endurance. Anti-establishment rebellion permeates his work, targeting both secular and religious authorities that marginalize nonconformists, with lyrics decrying communal exclusion: "They call me the Gangsta, my own people show me the door." This unfiltered critique avoids euphemisms, directly confronting bipolar disorder's toll and societal stigma without mainstream normalization, prioritizing raw causal accounts of mental fragmentation over therapeutic platitudes. Such expressions underscore an outsider ethos, where Jewish fidelity demands confrontation with assimilation's dilutions, evidenced in his persistent output despite health barriers.

Reception and impact

Commercial and radio performance

Lieberman's music achieved limited commercial distribution, primarily through self-released cassettes, CDs, and digital formats sold directly via his website, mail order, and live performances at underground punk venues. Early outputs, such as 38 cassette albums under the Bop Bop Bigger Bab-èL moniker, circulated mainly through trading networks in niche punk and outsider music communities, with no major label involvement until brief associations like JDub Records in 2009–2011. Self-reported figures indicate approximately 50,000 physical album sales and 2 million downloads across his catalog of over 70 releases, reflecting persistent underground appeal without broader market penetration. Digital availability expanded post-2010 via platforms like SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music, facilitating streams but yielding no verified mainstream chart entries beyond niche successes, such as "Shout In Mizra'im" topping a Jewish/Israeli Passover chart on April 13, 2003. Radio airplay remained confined to college and free-form stations, with exposure on outlets like KZSU's Zookeeper Online programming, which highlighted albums such as The Rabbi Is Dead for their outsider punk qualities. Mainstream commercial rock stations provided sporadic plays, but overall metrics underscored the absence of significant sales or airplay breakthroughs, aligning with his status as an indie veteran operating outside major industry channels.

Critical assessments and fan base

Steve Lieberman's recordings have garnered polarized responses from underground music reviewers, who praise his pioneering role in Jewish punk for boldly fusing ethnic identity with abrasive punk ethos, challenging stereotypes through chaotic anthems like "Jewish Lightning." His unapologetic style, rooted in hatred of corporate rock and melodic conformity, is hailed as daring and dense, packing maximal sonic power into tracks that demand high-volume playback to capture their anarchic intensity. Reviewers commend the raw lo-fi production for amplifying authenticity and rebellion, positioning Lieberman as an uncompromising outsider whose work serves as a stark reminder of punk's defiant origins. Critics, however, frequently highlight the overloaded mixes and clashing instrumentation as drawbacks, rendering vocals buried and sounds indistinguishable in a swirling cacophony that overwhelms newcomers and prioritizes noise over accessibility. The relentless dissonance and lack of melodic sweetness alienate broader audiences, with some tracks' excessive intensity leading to listener fatigue despite occasional clever breakdowns or defined bass lines. This niche extremism, while innovative in blending assonance with grindcore elements, confines appeal to those tolerant of its fringes, often dismissing it as an acquired taste rather than broadly palatable punk. Lieberman's fan base remains a dedicated cadre of underground loyalists, drawn to his resilience and unfiltered expression of Jewish themes amid sonic mayhem, sustaining interest through self-reported metrics like 50,000 album sales and millions of downloads in non-commercial circuits. These enthusiasts value his anti-conformist persistence as a truth-telling force in outsider music, forming tight-knit support for releases that defy mainstream sanitization, though the polarizing noise limits wider adoption.

Collaborations and notable connections

Lieberman affiliated with JDub Records, a Jewish indie label formerly home to Matisyahu, signing on December 9, 2009. The label issued his DiKtaToR 17 as its inaugural digital-only release on April 20, 2010. He shared concert bills with Weezer and the Misfits in the punk and alternative scenes. During a Weezer appearance at Madison Square Garden, Lieberman joined onstage, performing with flute in hand. Lieberman's style draws notable ties to Jethro Tull through flute-centric arrangements and thematic homages, as evidenced in tracks like "Ian Anderson" from 1999 and "Punk Rock Jethro Tull Song" from 2001. AllMusic categorizes Jethro Tull alongside his output, highlighting progressive rock parallels adapted into punk contexts.

Health challenges

Diagnosis and treatment history

Steven Lieberman was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2011, shortly before his 53rd birthday on June 21. On December 11, 2011, he performed a concert billed as his "My Last Rock Show" immediately preceding the initiation of his first chemotherapy regimen. A bone marrow biopsy in 2013 confirmed progression of the leukemia. Between 2011 and 2014, Lieberman experienced multiple relapses requiring repeated treatments and extended cancer ward stays. By late 2017, the leukemia had advanced to a terminal phase, prompting Lieberman to decline additional interventions. His AML condition persists as terminal in 2025.

Impact on career and output

Following his diagnosis of terminal leukemia, Steve Lieberman sustained a high volume of musical releases without interruption, producing and issuing multiple albums and EPs each year from 2023 through 2025. In 2023, he released works including a metal album on July 17, demonstrating no cessation in creative activity during the advanced stages of his illness. This pattern persisted into 2024 and 2025, with outputs such as the EP Meet the Gangsta Rabbi (44/82) Opus166 and the full-length Cheap Japanese Bass, alongside further entries in his ongoing Opus series, evidencing a productivity rate that belied expectations of decline associated with terminal disease. The causal effect of his health condition manifested primarily in a consolidation of production processes to home-based, solo operations, where Lieberman handled all aspects of composition, performance, and recording independently. This adaptation, documented in accounts of his 2023 album creation, enabled sustained output by minimizing external dependencies like live touring logistics, which became increasingly impractical. Empirical evidence from release schedules refutes narratives of productivity erosion, as the frequency and numbering of Opus projects—reaching into the 80s by 2025—indicate accelerated rather than diminished activity, with at least three major releases in 2025 alone, including Noise-Riot In the Diaspora 51/89 Opus 237 on August 31. While themes of illness appeared in select works, such as those framed as his "most powerful" amid terminal progression, Lieberman's catalog shows no broader halt or dilution in volume, underscoring a causal resilience where health constraints redirected but did not impede creative momentum. This self-reliant model, sustained through advanced disease, aligns with prior feats like securing a Guinness World Record for the longest song in 2021 despite ongoing treatment, prioritizing studio innovation over live constraints.

Equipment and production

Live performance setup

Steve Lieberman's live performance setup centers on bass guitars amplified through distortion pedals into a compact, high-gain amplifier to deliver the raw, aggressive volume essential for punk rock shows in underground venues. He utilizes the Marshall DSL 40C combo amplifier, a 40-watt unit with a 1x12-inch speaker, which has powered his bass signals since 2008 and supports the overdriven tones required for intense, portable rigs suitable for spaces like CBGB. Distortion effects form a core component, with pedals such as the Flexdistortion routing signals from bass, guitar, or hybrid instruments directly into the Marshall for punk-style saturation and sustain, enabling solo or minimal-band formats without extensive backline. This setup allows for quick adaptations, including the use of an Ebow on bass for sustained, ethereal leads during live sets, as demonstrated in his 2004 Detroit performance. Lieberman employs a variety of bass models tailored to stage demands, including lightweight options like the Squier Bronco Affinity for endurance during tours and custom designs for distinctive visual and sonic impact in solo configurations. Multi-instrumental elements, such as routing trombone through a Shure SM58 microphone, integrate into the bass-centric rig, facilitating one-person punk symphonies with minimal additional gear for mobility across small clubs.

Studio recording gear

Lieberman maintained a home-based recording setup in a spare bedroom of his Freeport, New York residence, emphasizing cost-effective, DIY tools that facilitated overdubbing multiple instruments for his dense, layered compositions blending punk, noise, and operatic elements. Early efforts relied on analog cassette duplication and a Tascam 4-track recorder to build tracks incrementally, reflecting his outsider approach to production without reliance on professional studios. A 2001 electrical fire destroyed his initial equipment, prompting a shift to digital recording with the acquisition of a Korg D1600 16-track digital multi-track recorder in 2002, which he used for subsequent albums to layer bass lines, clarinet melodies, and noise effects into complex arrangements. This workstation enabled precise overdubs of up to 18 instruments played solo, as demonstrated in sessions for Guinness World Record attempts, including programmed beats from a Yamaha DD-20 drum machine augmented manually. Distortion and effects processing, such as the Modtone Flexdistortion pedal routed through a Marshall DSL 40C amplifier, added abrasive noise layers to bass and guitar tracks, enhancing the raw, thrash-opera aesthetic while keeping costs low through accessible hardware. A Shure SM58 microphone captured vocals and acoustic instruments like clarinet for integration into the multi-tracked mixes. This setup's simplicity and portability aligned with Lieberman's ethos, allowing prolific output despite health limitations, with all elements handled by him without external producers.

Discography

Studio albums

Steve Lieberman's debut studio album, Bad'lania Rising, was self-released on August 27, 2002, comprising 21 tracks that mix progressive rock elements with themes drawing from secular and religious influences.
YearTitleLabelNotes
2002Bad'lania RisingSelf-released21 tracks; first full-length CD, blending punk and eclectic instrumentation.
2003Jewish LightningSelf-releasedFocuses on high-energy punk tracks with multi-instrumental performances.
2004Arbeiter at the GateSelf-releasedExplores worker themes in a raw punk style.
2004LIQUIDATIA-455Self-releasedExperimental album emphasizing distortion and unconventional structures.
2009Diaspora (A Folk-Punk History of the Hebrew Nation)Self-released18-track concept album chronicling Jewish history from exile to modern eras; released March 31, 2009.
2009Diktator 17Self-releasedPolitical punk themes with aggressive sound.
2012My Magic Last DaysSelf-releasedReflective tracks produced amid personal challenges.
2014Cancer WardSelf-releasedThematic exploration tied to health experiences, featuring intense solo recordings.
2020The Noise Militia (#38/76)Self-released9 tracks forming part of an extended noise-punk and military music fusion project, totaling nearly 5 hours.
Subsequent entries in the Noise Militia series, such as updates in 2025, continue as self-produced extensions of the ongoing opus, emphasizing marathon-length compositions with multi-layered instrumentation played by Lieberman alone.

Live albums and cassettes

Lieberman produced 38 cassette albums in the underground punk scene primarily during the 1990s, often under the Bop Bop Bigger Bab-èL moniker, featuring raw analog recordings of rehearsals, improvised sessions, and post-show captures that emphasized unpolished live energy over studio refinement. These tapes, traded informally among enthusiasts from 1991 onward, captured bass-driven punk tracks amid the era's technological limits, such as basic cassette decks and minimal overdubs, with early examples like the December 30, 1993, rehearsal recording "ResistorSlam" marking his first designated live album. Limited editions reflected DIY constraints, prioritizing immediacy and causal directness from performance to tape without post-production gloss. Selections from these cassettes were digitally reissued in 2016 as The Underground Tape Sessions, Vol. 1 (1994-1998) and Vol. 2 (1991-1994: The First of the Great Punk Bass Heroes), preserving the original analog fidelity while highlighting proto-punk bass heroism in tracks like "Punk Rock Hannukah" and "Factory." Transitioning to commercial CDs, Lieberman's live albums distilled similar raw aesthetics: Jewish Riot Oy! Oy! Oy! (2005) compiles a 27-minute, five-track set from energetic stage performances, foregrounding chaotic crowd interplay and instrumental improvisation. Viva the Gangsta Rabbi (January 6, 2006) draws from local shows, mastered directly from performance tapes as his second live release, emphasizing punk-thrash propulsion in a limited-run format. My Last Rock Show (2012), sourced from cassette masters of his final pre-chemotherapy tour—including the December 11, 2011, Amityville stop—spans 29 tracks over 1 hour 54 minutes, retaining audible imperfections like distortion and audience noise to convey unfiltered terminal vitality.

Singles and EPs

Steve Lieberman's singles and EPs consist primarily of short-form digital releases emphasizing his raw, experimental "militia punk" style, often remixing or reissuing tracks with themes of personal rebellion, Jewish diaspora experiences, and high-energy instrumentation. These works are distributed via streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, allowing for rapid release cycles independent of traditional labels. In 2025, Lieberman released the EP Meet the Gangsta Rabbi (44/82) Opus 166, a five-track sampler compiling reissued classics from his two-decade catalog, highlighting tracks like "Skinheads in My Yard Oy! Vey" to showcase his unfiltered punk ethos. The EP Suicide Shift 50/88 Opus 232 (Remaster 2025) followed, featuring remastered cuts such as "Oh, Crotch Rocket," a high-octane track evoking midlife defiance through distorted guitars and driving rhythms, clocking in at over six minutes. Standalone singles from this period include "I'm Going Home (Entr'acte 206)," a 2025 digital release blending punk urgency with introspective lyrics on resilience. Additional 2025 EPs underscore Lieberman's prolific output amid health challenges, such as Noise-Riot In the Diaspora 51/89 Opus 237, which explores chaotic, identity-driven soundscapes across multiple tracks. These releases tie thematically to broader albums by excerpting motifs of survival and cultural friction but stand alone as accessible entry points to his oeuvre, often promoted via independent music blogs and direct artist channels.
TitleTypeRelease YearKey Tracks/Notes
Meet the Gangsta Rabbi (44/82) Opus 166EP20255-song sampler of reissued punk classics; emphasizes raw energy and defiance.
Suicide Shift 50/88 Opus 232 (Remaster 2025)EP2025Remastered tracks including "Oh, Crotch Rocket" (6:13); focuses on high-spirited, distorted rock.
Noise-Riot In the Diaspora 51/89 Opus 237EP2025Explores diaspora themes with riotous punk instrumentation.
I'm Going Home (Entr'acte 206)Single2025Standalone track on homecoming and endurance; digital-only.

Videography

References

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