Fresh off their recent release of the new EP “Who’s The Enemy” and their new split with NOT ON TOUR, we sat down with KIDS INSANE‘s Corey Ben Yehuda to get his thoughts about the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict in the Middle East.
A lot of misinformation has flourished on social media about the violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and more and mroe artists have spoken out about the ongoing conflict as well as protests taking place all over the world. We encourage you to join the conversation and share your thoughts on this difficult issue through our pages.
“𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒-𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑤𝑒’𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒.”
– says Corey.
“I have to admit, after living in this country for 32 years I’m not surprised we’ve come to this.” – he continues. “There are too many people in control that are making sure Israelis and Palestinians are separated and hate each other, unfortunately they are doing their job too well. What I really can’t stand is when I see journalists say things like:
“𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠?” “𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔?” 𝑌𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔.”
“Stay safe and fucking love each other no matter who you believe in for fuck sakes.”
On the new EP from KIDS INSANE, you can find songs about politics, relationships, and the inner scene politics of a punk band from Tel Aviv. With the help of producer Yotam Ben Horin (from Useless ID) who has produced and worked on various Fat Wreck Chords releases (such as The Bombpops – Death In Venice Beach, NOFX, and many more). Yotam helped Kids Insane trim what was in the way to define a more accurate sound for this release.
After a decade of 4 releases (including reissues of the debut album “All Over” by Redfield Records and collaborations with Italian band “Slander”) and endless tours. The band now feels like they have reached a stage in defining aspects of the band in this release with a new drive.
The release opens with a statement, with the song “Won’t Stop Now” that declares that after all these years of the band, they are sure not compromising for anyone, if its world problems such as the economy and political structure crumbling or even having small problems like their van getting stuck on tour, this won’t stop Kids Insane from creating and the commitment to share that with the world.
“Who’s The Enemy” suggests that maybe instead of fighting each other in the small communities we need to remember to ask ourselves who is the real enemy, and what brought us to demand social and political justice in the first place?
Once it is safe to do so, Kids Insane is looking forward to going back on the road to play at festivals in Europe and the rest of the world like they did before. In the meantime, they are working on a new full length that will be out by next year.
Useless ID’s Most Useless Songs is out now on Fat Wreck Chords!
There’s something inherently futile about creating “best of” albums, which feels more futile the longer a band has been together. How do you accurately capture a band’s evolution, what makes them special? Maybe you don’t overthink it and just look at a setlist.
That’s kind of what Useless ID did. The Israeli punks have been together since 1994, releasing eight full-lengths and a slew of EPs, singles, and compilations. That’s a staggering number of songs to pare down into some kind of “definitive” portrait of the band.
“It was hard for us to narrow it down since we think there are a few more songs that could’ve been on the ‘best of,’” says songwriter, bassist, and vocalist Yotam Ben-Horin. “But we thought, ‘What if we released an album of the songs we play live and in the order we do them? How would that go?”
It would go like Most Useless Songs (Fat Wreck Chords, May 7). Ben-Horin describes the collection as “songs that work best live, songs that have stood the test of time, songs that carry an interesting story, and songs that have been regulars in our sets throughout the years.” (First track and fan-favorite “State of Fear” usually closes sets, not begins them, but you get the point.)
Most Useless Songs reaches as far back as the 1999 Fat Wreck Chords compilation Short Music For Short People (“Too Bad You Don’t Get It”), but otherwise draws from the band’s 2000s output, such as No Vacation from the World (2003), Redemption (2005), The Lost Broken Bones (2008), Symptoms (2012), and State is Burning (2016). The liner notes feature commentary about all 16 tracks from Useless ID, which also includes guitarist Ishay Berger, guitarist Guy Carmel, and drummer Corey Ben Yehuda.
“I think this compilation shows our growth throughout the years,” Ben-Horin says. “We never stuck to one sound in punk rock, and I think that’s what defines our band as well. We can do a simple pop-punk song like ‘Night Shift’ and still be able to play something like ‘Isolate Me,’ and it won’t be weird because it’s the same band with the same sound.”
That sound continues to evolve, as shown on two new tracks exclusive to Most Useless Songs: the soaring, hopeful “Same Old Revolution” and “Into the Exquisite,” a blistering track that’s classic Useless ID.
“When we recorded the new songs for the ‘best of,’ we were reminded how much fun we have making music together,” Ben-Horin says.
That means more new material in the near future, but in the meantime, Most Useless Songs captures the evolution of, and what’s so special about Useless ID.
