Selected Press for The Barmitzvah Brothers
“…one of Ontario’s most enchanting bands… Using a truck-load of junk-shop castoffs, vintage keyboards and fiddles and drums, [they] achieve an improbably full handmade sound…” – Carl Wilson, The Globe and Mail
“The Barmitzvah Brothers are an odd proposition and possessed of a warped, thoroughly deadpan sense of humour, but a novelty act they are not. There’s simply too much raw talent and fearless, convention-defying artistry at work in their music – a lilting, ramshackle mash-up of arcane nerd-pop, scratchy folk and country stylings, psychedelic whimsy, carnivalesque atmosphere and, yes, occasionally klezmer…” – Ben Rayner, Toronto Star
“The Barmitzvah Brothers’ music, a distinctive and initially intractable amalgam of klezmer, folk, art-noise and indie rock, earns them a spot in a group of artists whose creative path is more difficult than most. Jenny Mitchell’s vocals are as unpolished as ever, but the songs behind them are more structured, more succinct, more musical. If you’re tired of the standard guitar, bass, drums setup, Mr. Bones’ Walk-In Closet will be your new favorite record.” – George Zahora, Splendid E-zine
“Always keen to magnify the novelty of everyday life, the Barmitzvah Brothers set their sights upon underappreciated jobs and the people who complete them. With titles like “Projectionist” and “Sign Erector,” the songs pick one vocation or another and dedicate themselves to essential narratives about the task at hand. It’s an interesting exploration for principal songwriters Jenny Mitchell and Geordie Gordon, whose divergent styles of late make for a Barmitzvah Brothers album split in two. Aside from cool pop like “Piano Tuner” and “Show Promoter,” Mitchell’s songs aim to tug hard at the heartstrings, resulting in a horde of dour, banjo-plunked ruminations like “Dentitech” and “Book Binder.” Gordon on the other hand, keenly infuses soul into full-band arrangements like the road-to-nowhere spring of “Barmitzvah Brother” and infectious pop of “Traffic Technician.” The end result is a start-stop record that sacrifices flow to loosely tell the tales of completely unrelated subjects.” – Vish Khanna, Exclaim!
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Let's Express Our Motives: An Album Of Under-Appreciated Job Songs
(weewerk 014)2007