The album "Draw Yourself a Mustache" (Tzairi Lach Safam) is the second studio album by the band "Noar Shulaim". The album was released on June 7, 1990, and was released by Hed Artzi.
Let's start with the fact that this is one of the albums that shaped the soundtrack of our lives, but not just an ordinary album, every time our ears hear one of the songs on the album, like an electric switch, in a split of a second our body flooded with emotions, feelings, and thoughts that open a door to delightful nostalgia. We do not really mean a specific experience or event but a period. This album with its variety of songs has accompanied us for a long time and treasures within it magical moments of pure happiness.
(Photo: Noar Sholaim)
The album travels between rock, pop, and electro. It takes from everyone what fits as if everything is aimed at texts. The lyrics dictate the music and not the other way around. The electronic drums, effects, guitar distortion, and also the acoustic drums come together to serve Mikiyagi singing with his caressing voice. Even though most of the lyrics on the album were written by Hannah Goldberg, it feels like Mikiagi wrote them himself. Together with Ovad Efrat, Dudi Levy, and Mikiagi leading this album that takes the band in a more poppy direction of rock than the first album which was mostly influenced by the new wave.
The band did not have a deliberate statement to go in the direction of pop after the first record, but there was an inner understanding that it should be lighter. Dudi said that the first album was their trip, but then they peeled off all sorts of external things like the black dress and they became a pop-rock band as they knew from other places. They started working hard on a new sound direction and the song "Draw Yourself a Mustache" was one of the points that outlined the direction. They would write melodies on which they dressed texts in gibberish and the same sketches passed to Hannah Goldberg who wrote the lyrics.
The album was recorded in four parts, whenever Ronen Ben-Tal's studio was vacant, they used the night to record 2-3 songs. The band members say they were naïve at first, they did not think anything would come out of these recordings.
But suddenly it happened in a blast!!
The album comes out and from the first moment, it becomes a hysterical hit, it's a huge commercial success and sells over 70,000 copies. Dudi Levy, Mikiagi, Aran Amir, Kobi Pietro, and Roi Shaked burned the radio stations and the charts with the song: "Draw Yourself a Mustache" (Tzairi Lach Safam) which was chosen as "Song of the Year" in the annual Hebrew hymn chart of the Reshet Gimel, "Anog", "Sizifa", "Amsterdam" And "Night" which is the Hebrew version of the song "Young Girl". Four of the band's songs marched simultaneously in the top ten and Noar Shulaim was selected as "Band of the Year".
(Photo: Yossi Aloni)
But this album is also what led to the breakup of the band. Not everyone liked what success brought with it, the madness, the admiration, the attention, and the boundless love. The one who mostly suffered from the matter was Mikiagi. For him it was a very difficult period, with the success, Mikiagi said he felt like a product of a manufacturing plant shrouded in a lot of noise. He just wanted to make people happy with his art but felt like a wounded animal facing the wolves around it. He found himself moving away from music and art and engaging in intrigue, success, admiration, and harassment. Feeling that no one was protecting him and that he was alone in the battle, he looked for ways to defend himself and the only way he saw in front of his eyes was to disband the band a year later.
Dudi Levy shared his side, he said that at first, they enjoyed it, it was pleasant and fun, but at some point it became disturbing. When he came down from the stage, 30 girls were waiting for him with endless letters and telephones. At one point this became too intense and led to the point of friction between him and Mikiagi towards the recordings of the third album.
This is an album that is a gem, no matter what genre it belongs to, it is Israeli, it is nostalgic, it is exciting and it is a milestone in Israeli music. Now click play on: Spotify, Apple Music and start singing, do not be afraid of anyone just sing out loud !!!!
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