I know what you're thinking: "Jewish hip-hop? Sounds tasty. But is it kosher?" You can hear David Krakauer's answer to that question in an exclusive Spin the Globe interview. The short answer is: Why not? Klezmer is a living thing, not a dusty museum relic. As such, it's being reinterpreted and reinvented. This album combines Socalled's fine turntable work and sampling with the musicianship Klezmer Madness - built beats and live instruments working as one, crumbling the boundaries of traditional klezmer. Krakauer admits that the title is deliberately provocative - many of the stories and tales told by grandmothers aren't really "lies," but myths ("superstitious devices" according to Socalled), though he sees plenty of lies in broader society. It was these lies, and the general mood of our divided, war-sick nation, that inspired the reinvention of the classic klezmer tune "Romania, Romania." In the hands of the Bubbemeises crew, the song's usual upbeat longing for a departed paradise is replaced by a howling stormy night, the Romania of dictatorship and repression, though not without glimmers of hope. The hope of a better world is given different voice by the poet 99 Hooker in "Bus No. 9999," a beat-poet rant by an urban bus rider who's had enough of slow buses and rude, uneducated people. Other songs go in different directions: "B Flat a la Socalled" becomes klezmer funk, while "Turntable Pounding" updates the tradition of singing niggunim (wordless melodies) to the beat of fists of tables. But the gem of the album is the title track, and Socalled's delightful rap on various bubbemeises: "Get off the kitchen table or you'll never get married / And never whistle walkin' past where people are buried / If you can kiss your elbows then you're probably gay / and yo if you cross your eyes you know they'll stay that way...." A unique and satisfying album for adventurous listeners.