User:Roy75

Zikney Tzfat (or “Old People Of Zefat” in Hebrew) were a grunge / punk group formed in Tel Aviv Israel around 1990 by Maor Cohen, Yoni Bentovim, Oren Lutenberg, and later joined by Rea Mochiach. They were known for their wild and chaotic concerts and their extreme lyrics which were full with absurdist humour. In the period of their first album (simply titled “Zikney Tzfat” ) their music was very noisy and influenced by American grunge bands like Killdozer and Butthole Surfers. Around 1994 the band members changed and the band released another album (Zikney Tzfat 2 ) which was more soft and melodic and was more successful commercially (it sold gold, but musically was less appreciated by critics and band fans). In 1995 they released two more  albums (“Ten Li Shlager” and “Ten Li Shlager 2”  which were more “Low Fi” in their nature and were musically more reminiscent of  the first album. The band  split in 1996.  Cohen  continues to make music as a solo artist, Lutenberg is playing guitar with some of the best musicians in Israel ( Bari Sacharof  amongst them), Mochiach was playing with Gogol Bordello and David Byrne amongst others and continues to make music and Bentovim is a film maker based in London.  Other musicians who played in the band in various periods are: Tom Mochiach and Yuval Kiner and aviv papo. Zikney Tzfat were a very influential band, especially at the beginning of the nineties mainly  because in their extremity they sounded like nothing else (not before or since…)  in the Israeli music scene, they brought an attitude of freedom and sloppiness of sound and performance to a music scene that is mostly very measured and controlled.

Discography (LP'S all released by NMC):

Zikney Tzfat -1992

Zikney Tzfat 2- 1994

Ten Li Shlager- 1995

Ten Li Shlager2-1996

Links:

http://mooma.keshet-tv.com/artist.asp?ArtistID=1553 (in Hebrew)

http://www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/product_e.asp?sku=00200482NMC&dept_id=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12gOY5XDxr0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X6sbCA[Q7ps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztUwPC7vBMc&feature=related