By David Segal
This American Life is re-airing the story of Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill this weekend, and if you’re looking for some background about that tale, you’ve come to the right place.
Where are you? Jewsrock.org launched just a couple weeks ago, and it’s a site dedicated, as you can see with a few clicks, to the contributions of the Judaic-Hebraic tribe to the world of pop. Look around and enjoy yourself. We’ve got a ton of excellent essays, a rather exhaustive list of Jews in rock and a damn fine merchandise operation, if I do say so myself.
I’m a co-founder of this site, a reporter at the Washington Post and the narrator of the tale of Chaim and Billy. If you don’t catch the story on the radio this weekend, head to thisamericanlife.org on Monday, or any day after that, and listen on your computer. The episode, as you’ll see on TAL’s website, is called "My Experimental Phase."
A lot has happened since the story first was broadcast, last June. For starters, a whole bunch of movie producers came calling. Hollywood went bananas for this tale. As a friend pointed out to me, the story has the classic three-segment structure of every great drama: boy has Torah, boy loses Torah, boy gets Torah back again. The whole process of turning this yarn into a film has, however, been pretty fraught, mostly because Chaim decided that he was done with fame. He is raising two kids in the Hasidic tradition, living in an Hasidic community and happily married and content with his life. A biopic was something that didn’t appeal. Especially a biopic about what he calls his "troubled past," his year and a half long flirtation with the rock and the modern world.
The status of the movie—whether it will be made, and if does get made, when—is something I don’t know about. I don’t own the rights to the lives of Chaim and Billy and the negotiations were out of my hands, as well as the hands of This American Life. What has been reported is that Tina Fey, of Saturday Night Live fame, heard the story on the radio and decided it would be her next film project. She and Paramount Studios made a very aggressive bid for the property. Billy is co-operating, and I believe will have some sort of production credit, if it all comes to fruition. He is also writing a book about the experience for Random House. Chaim made it clear to Paramount a few months ago that he is very much against the idea of a film, even one that changes names and relevant details.
I came across the tale of Curly Oxide because I was the rock critic at the Washington Post up until late last year, and Billy sent me the first Vic Thrill album. It was really rare for me to find an album I’d never heard of and really swoon for it, but that’s what happened when I put on "CE-5." I liked it so much that I just called Billy at home in Williamsburg and basically said, "Who the hell are you and how did you make such a great album?" I had a local radio show at the time, in D.C., and we’d have on performers now and again, so I invited Billy on for a phone interview.
During our initial conversation, he said something like, "Oh and for a year and a half I performed with a Hasidic Jew who went to Yeshiva by day and sang with us by night." I thought, "Damn, that sounds like a story." And though we didn’t talk about Curly Oxide during the subsequent on-air interview, I asked Billy enough questions to realize that this was an amazing episode. I tried to pitch the story to the Washington Post, but the Post has a hard and fast rule against profiling people whose last name you don’t use. Not allowed. (Oxide wouldn't cut it, since this, you won't be surprised to learn, is not actually Chaim's last name.) So I wrote This American Life and a producer there named Alex Blumberg liked the concept. We interviewed the two of them one day in the Vic Thrill salon. It was the first story I’d done on the radio.
Billy was really pleased with the results. Chaim was not. It took him by surprise, a little, that so many people in the Hasidic community listened to the story. And as he makes clear in the piece, singing in a rock band is not something any Hasid is supposed to do.
A lot of people think that the story ended on a sad note, with Chaim moving out of town and away from a life of freedom and fun. I don’t see it that way. Chaim lives in a world steeped in traditions, many of them restrictive, but those traditions and those restrictions are really a source of joy and the basis of a strong community that he really enjoys. He definitely gave up something, but the guy is happy, and not happy the way people in cults are happy. He really loves being a dad, being a husband and being part of this world. He’ll talk to me about the beauty of the Sabbath. He’ll talk about the bliss of giving his son a plastic lawn mower. His life is quieter and simpler, but it is full of many things that he cherishes. He gave up something, it’s true, but he gained a lot more than what he surrendered. I talk to him pretty regularly. He’s doing really well.
Billy, meanwhile, has just come out of the studio, where he’s been working on his second album. I’ve heard a few tracks and they’re might great. I’m in the tank for this guy, as should be obvious by now. Last week told me that he was heading to Europe for some shows with Iggy Pop.
I’ve typed enough, I think. If you’ve got some questions about all this, head to the Forum, and look for the Curly Oxide thread. I’ll answer the ones I can.
David Segal is a reporter for The New York Times and a co-founder of JewsRock.org.