Easy like a dready morning

The Easy Star All-Stars reggae phenomenon will give two performances at Tel Aviv's Barby club.

By ARI MILLER, BEN JACOBSON
The Easy Star All-Stars are coming to Zion. The reggae phenomenon that produced those two innovative and wildly successful dub cover albums, Dub Side of the Moon and Radiodread, will give two performances at Tel Aviv's Barby club. Unlike other tribute albums, 2003's Dub Side is a track-by-track answer to the original, with Kingston-style grooves replacing the Abbey Road-recorded ones, with jams extended and the signature ubiquitous sound effects updated (the ringing alarm clocks introducing "Time," for example, have been supplemented with digital beeps). The Easy Star label has sold some 85,000 copies of Dub Side to date, keeping the disc ensconced in the Billboard Reggae sales charts for well over two years: The album is a favorite in bars around the world, and the label has even released a live concert Dub Side companion DVD. The All-Stars followed up the success of Dub Side with 2006's Radiodread, a comparable track-by-track answer to OK Computer, the definitive 1997 album by Oxfordshire's post-prog contemporary space-rock auteurs Radiohead, considered by many to be Pink Floyd's creative heirs. Easy Star producer/guitarist Michael Goldwasser, who has also overseen recording sessions for more than one Israeli reggae act, has even claimed in interviews that the disc - adding punky ska flavors, guest vocalist contributions and some subtle but creative lyrical reinterpretations to the mix - has received the blessings of Radiohead themselves. The Radiodread show, currently in the middle of a world tour that began in November in Philadelphia, comes to Israel this week for two appearances at the newly renovated Barby club in Tel Aviv. With its 9-piece band, the show has sold out mid-sized venues across England, appeared at France's huge Transmusicales Festival, toured extensively in Italy and is headed for two concerts in Turkey after this week's Tel Aviv stint. The show will draw upon songs from both albums, as well as their own original material and will feature the entire nine-member Easy Star All-Star ensemble. Wednesday and Thursday night at 10, Barby, Kibbutz Galuyot St. 52 , Tel Aviv. NIS 150 - (03) 518-8123