Ronen Kauffman
Ronen Kauffman (born July 27, 1976) is an American writer, teacher and musician. His writing typically attempts to connect every-day experiences to existential concepts including community, individualism, conformity and social identity. Kauffman is also a music journalist. His work in its varying incarnations has appeared in magazines including Alternative Press, AMP, Outburn, Hails & Horns, While You Were Sleeping, and Law of Inertia, on websites like Pastepunk.com and Punknews.org, and in radio format on Sirius Satellite Radio, PBS FM 106.7 in Melbourne, Australia, and on his podcast, Issue Oriented. He has also provided vocals for the bands try.fail.try and Zombie Apocalypse.
Writing
Kauffman's work is largely tied to the world of music. In addition to his own projects, Kauffman's byline has appeared in music magazines like Alternative Press, Outburn, AMP and Law of Inertia among others.
Kauffman is the author of one book - New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye - Bands, Dirty Basements and the Search for Self. This memoir was called, among other things, "compelling," (Playback St. Louis) "vivid," (Packet Publications) and "essential" (Hails & Horns) by various national and international outlets, in print and on the internet, including Punknews.org, Revolver magazine, Jersey Beat magazine, Blistering magazine, ScenePointBlank.com, DecoyMusic.com, Metal Maniacs magazine and many more.
Kauffman has also been tapped to help noted bands from the world of aggressive music. He conducted the interviews and wrote the liner notes for Hatebreed's 2008 DVD Live Dominance (Koch Records, 2008), which made its debut at position No. 1 on Billboard's Top Music Videos chart. Kauffman also produced four webisode shorts for Burnt By The Sun to promote Heart of Darkness (Relapse Records, 2009), included with the release as DVD bonus content. He wrote liner notes to Generica, an anthology release from New Jersey band The Degenerics.
Issue Oriented (the podcast)
Kauffman also produces and hosts a popular podcast called Issue Oriented, which is widely considered to be one of the best podcasts for fans of punk, indie, hardcore and metal. (The June 2008 issue of Revolver magazine called Issue Oriented "The preeminent podcast of its kind" DecoyMusic.com called the show "phenomenal" among other accolades received.) The show consists largely of interviews conducted by Kauffman with various personalities from across independent culture but based mostly in music. Notable individual who have appeared on Issue Oriented include Mick Jones (The Clash), Jesse Michaels (Operation Ivy), Ben Weinman (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Geoff Rickly (Thursday), Dallas Coyle (God Forbid), Greg Attonito (The Bouncing Souls), Dan Yemin (Lifetime/Paint It Black), Ben Weasel (Screeching Weasel), John Joseph (Cro-Mags), Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music) and many more.
In 2008, Issue Oriented was nominated for a Podcast Award in the Entertainment category. The show was also nominated for a 2008 Weblog Award in the Podcast category.
Music
In his capacity as lyricist and vocalist for the bands Zombie Apocalypse and try.fail.try., Kauffman's writing involves personal development as well as socio-political themes related to economic justice, sexism and human rights. The lyrics to try.fail.try songs are more overtly political than those written later for Zombie Apocalypse, dealing explicitly with questions about capitalism ("One World"), beauty culture ("Within"), community ("Brunswick Swingers") and more. Zombie Apocalypse lyrics are generally more abstract but still deal directly with questions about the human experience in the material world. In this band, Kauffman's lyrics are more tightly bound to specific metaphors of death, re-animation, and the end of the world as literary mechanisms which communicate notions of self-preservation ("Breaking Off Fingers"), the automation of modern society and its effect on the human experience ("The Dead In the Queue") and gender inequality.
In addition to try.fail.try and Zombie Apocalypse, Kauffman wrote and sang for a short-lived band called The Hostage, also including ex-members of Pencey Prep and The Banner.