The pre-2002 Charming Hostess (also known as Charming Hostes… Read Full Bio ↴Early Work:
The pre-2002 Charming Hostess (also known as Charming Hostess Big Band) was a rock band that embraced a genderfuck sensibility (the women often wore mustaches while the men wore dresses). Early Charming Hostess music drew on women's vocal traditions (primarily from Eastern Europe and North Africa), and integrated them with American folk forms both white and black. Charming Hostess was founded in the fertile anarchy of Barrington Co-op (aka Barrington Hall), and nurtured by the West Oakland arts community, along with other coeval bands such as Fibulator and Eskimo. Half of Charming Hostess was also in Idiot Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The final effect was of a hoedown where bodacious babes belted the blues in Bulgarian while a Punk-Klezmer band rocked out in accompaniment.
The genre of this incarnation of ChoHo is described by the band as "Klezmer-Punk/Balkan-Funk". Recordings of Charming Hostess Big Band include "Eat" (Vaccination, 1998) and the more recent "Punch" (ReR, 2005) Charming Hostess Big Band was: Jewlia Eisenberg (voice, direction), Carla Kihlstedt (voice, fiddle), Nina Rolle (voice, accordion), Wes Anderson (drums), Nils Frykdahl (guitar, flute, saxophone, percussion), and Dan Rathbun (bass)."
Jewlia Eisenberg, Marika Hughes, Cynthia Taylor,
Jason Ditzian, Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith.
- plus, often Ganda Suthivarakom and/or Pameliya Kursten (all vocals).
Honored guests on 2010 The Bowls Project album include:
Marc Ribot, Jenny Scheinman, Megan Gould, Jessica Troy, Nils Frykdahl, Dawn McCarthy, Ganda Suthivarakom, Boris Martzinovsky, Aaron Kierbel, and Nir Waxman.
Current Work:
The Bowls Project, an album and installation from Charming Hostess released Summer 2010.
The Bowls Project Album:
Based on inscriptions from ancient Babylonian Jewish amulets, The Bowls Project, Tzadik sings of mysticism and magic, angels and demons, and the trials and joys of love and sex. Especially audible are the voices of Talmudic-era women: their work, hopes and dreams. Weaving together Babylonian devotional songs, apocalyptic American folk music and a radical take on ritual power, The Bowls Project marks the deepest and most creative work by Charming Hostess yet.
The Bowls Project Installation & Sound Sculpture:
As a performance installation and interactive sound sculpture that takes place in a 40’ vaulted dome. Featuring new music composed and performed by Jewlia Eisenberg and Charming Hostess, The Bowls Project is based on texts from ancient Babylonian amulets. The culmination of five years of research, The Bowls Project will
run June through August 2010 at Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts. An estimated 15,000 people will visit and interact with
the installation.
The Bowls Project Background:
Bowl amulets were common 1500 years ago in the area
that is now Iraq. Simple bowls were inscribed with a
householder’s secrets and desires and then buried under
the doorway to protect the home. The bowl texts are
about “secrets of the home”: love and intimacy, angels and
demons, and the trials and joys of daily life. Audible in these
texts are the individual voices of women from this period
-their work, hopes, and dreams. These spiraled inscriptions
are among the few existing records of female voices during
the time and place of the Babylonian Talmud.
All Work:
The music primarily springs from three women with an emphasis in the body--voices and vocal percussion, hand claps and heartbeats, sex-breath and silence. The work grows from diaspora consciousness: both Jewish and African. Stylistically, Charming Hostess incorporates doo-wop, Pygmy counterpoint, Balkan harmony and Andalusian melody. Contemporary influences on the band include Meredith Monk and Reinette l'Oranaise. The music often explores existing text and overlays the composer's (Jewlia Eisenberg) own questions of authenticity, montage, and the effect of music on non-verbal languages.
The 2002 CD (Trilectic, Tzadik Records) explored the political/erotic nexus of Walter Benjamin and his Marxist muse, Asja Lacis. The 2004 CD (Sarajevo Blues, Tzadik) sets Bosnian poetry by Semezdin Mehmedinović as a form of love and resistance to the brutalization of war.
Dali Tzerni
Charming Hostess Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Isn't my face fair enough for you?
Your eyes are black, but you can't keep them.
Your face is fair, but it's flat as a plate.
I don't want it.
Keep it for yourself.
The lyrics to "Dali Tzerni" by Charming Hostess are striking and poignant. The singer starts by questioning if her physical attributes are enough for the person she is addressing. The lines "Aren't my eyes black enough for you? / Isn't my face fair enough for you?" express the singer's insecurity about her appearance and whether it meets the expectations of the other person. However, they are quickly dismissed as the singer turns the tables and criticizes the other person's own features, stating that their eyes are black but they cannot keep them, and their face is fair but flat as a plate. This change in tone suggests that the song is not just about physical appearance, but also about power dynamics and the rejection of societal beauty standards. The singer is asserting their own agency and refusing to conform to norms that they do not believe in.
In the final lines of the song, the singer declares "I don't want it. Keep it for yourself." This is a powerful statement of self-love and refusal to be defined by someone else's standards. The repetition of this line adds to the intensity of the message and leaves a lasting impression on the listener. Overall, "Dali Tzerni" is a song about taking ownership of one's body and rejecting societal expectations of beauty and desirability.
Line by Line Meaning
Aren't my eyes black enough for you?
Don't you find my black eyes enchanting? Are they not attractive to you?
Isn't my face fair enough for you?
Do you not find my beautiful face appealing enough? Is it not attractive to you?
Your eyes are black, but you can't keep them.
Your black eyes may seem beautiful to me, but I cannot hold onto them or possess them forever.
Your face is fair, but it's flat as a plate.
Even though your beautiful face seems perfect to some, it lacks depth and character like a flat plate.
I don't want it.
I am not interested in possessing your physical beauty or looks.
Keep it for yourself.
You can keep your own looks and appearance for your own pleasure or vanity, but they do not interest me personally.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
clemguitarechal
Hey Nejaka ! Thanks for the upload of this wonderful, powerful song !
It's clearly one of my favorite song in the world [amongst the other thousands :D] that has been in my life for a LOOOOOONG time.
But one thing i've never found - its lyrics !!!
If by any chance you have that somehow, somewhere ; please share ! I'm dying to sing it properly ; and eventually making a cover of it with a marching band i'm playing in.
Please please please ! If anyone got that message : share the lyrics !! <3
R Miloh
From charminghostess.com
Aren't my eyes black enough for you? Isn't my face fair enough for you?
Your eyes are black, but you can keep them.
Your face is fair, but it's flat as a plate.
I don't want it. Keep it for yourself.
—Words: Bulgarian.
—Music: Traditional Bulgarian song from Pirin-Macedonia.
—Arrangement: Jewlia Eisenberg & Charming Hostess
John LaSala
I can't find the Bulgarian lyrics, but here's the English translation:
Aren't my eyes black enough for you? Isn't my face fair enough for you?
Your eyes are black, but you can keep them.
Your face is fair, but it's flat as a plate.
I don't want it. Keep it for yourself.
Grrace Grracy
One of my favorites ❤ However, don't have the translation.
goitcore
Effing hell!!! How have I only just found this!? TUUUUUNNNNEEEEE!
B G
This energy makes Black Sabbath and the MC5 seem like pikers.
Bent Neck
A cool bit of noise
Graham Payne
Slits meets sleepy time