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 The band Teapacks (or as they are known in Israel Tipp-ex) is a band that exists now for 19 years. The band is known from the beginning until now for their unique sound, the unusual names given to each song and to each album. They are also known for their satiric, comic and for the social criticism in their lyrics. The lyrics of many of their songs are about social issues that involve the Israeli people; the most common and simple people and their daily life’s, the Israeli leaders and/or the media stars that influence the way Israelis live.
The band is also known for their unique sound that involves oriental music and western pop music. Beside that they became famous for sampling music from old cultural themes and songs and re-writing them.
The band itself was established in 1988 by Kobi Oz and Gal Pereman in the town of Sderot. Gal met Kobi at the show Mammy near Sderot and offered him to start a band to which Kobi agreed, and together they established a new band. Later they added Tamir Yemini who played the drums, Ainav Cohen who played the lead guitar and of course Gal Pereman played the bass guitar. Kobi Oz was responsible for the keyboards and leading vocals. Because some of the members joined the army at that time, the instrument players were changed and new ones were added from time to time.
In September 1990 the band recorded their first song, which was named The Injustice. At this time the band also finalized the group for the coming years, after Yoav Nagar had replaced Tamir on the drums and Ram Yosifov was added to play the guitar.
After recording their first song the musical producer Dani Recht heard them playing and liked a lot what he heard. He approached the band and with time became the adviser and consultant of the band, and later on even wrote a lyric with Kobi for Teapacks.
Their performances during this year and the following year had lots of success as they performed their first songs and cover versions with their own sound. After a while their performances were noticed by the record company Hed Artzi, who immediately signed them on a contract to take out an album with them.
The album was produced by some of the best musicians and music producers in Israel, like Yair Nitzani, who was in charge of arranging things, and Alon Olearchik, who was the musical producer of the album. Dani Recht helped with writing the texts which were mostly written by Kobi Oz.
The album was recorded during 1991 and came out in 1992. It was named A Trail Of Sunflower Seeds Shells. The first single from it was called The Rabbi Jo Capara, which was kind of a parody and a satire about the place of some Rabbis in the Israeli society and their followers that have helped turn the religion into a money making machine. The music of this song was so catchy that the political party Mafdal even used it as their theme for the following national elections. The song was of course a huge hit and toped the charts in Israel.
Another song from the album, called The Mail Is Coming Today, also got noticed as it was the bands first ever video clip. The song which was written by Kobi Oz and Yair Nitzani was a lovely duet of Kobi Oz and Alon Olearchik.
The band had also established their own unique sound which was a mixture of western pop music and eastern oriental music. They were one of the first bands in Israel who had done a very successful fusion of the 2 styles in a way that left everyone amazed. The band attracted lots of fans that loved one style or the other, in a short period.
The sound of the album was mostly light and was meant to be an entertaining album. After the album came out and Kobi Oz got recognized. He was compared to Danny Sanderson, the famous singer and musician who used to focus among his songs on the entertaining part of music and was also the same physical size as Kobi Oz.
In 1993 Teapacks started working on and released their 2nd album which was named The Last One In The Bottom Class. This album too was produced by some of Israel’s best musicians like Dani Recht, Shmulik Neufeld and Alon Olearchik. The sound of the album reminded of the previous one, but was much more stronger in contrast between the eastern and western style, and was more mature. Kobi Oz and his band also made this album with an entertaining and cheerful sound, but not as the previous one. This album had also serious tracks and tried to tackle some social issues and problems in the Israeli society. Songs like Rolled In A News Paper, Maybe We Should Make Love, Mother And Sister and Anana became huge hits and toped the charts in Israel. The songs Mother And Sister and Rolled In A News Paper also had video clips that were played non-stop on the TV. The media loved the album and gave it great critics, and with the on growing fan base the band had become one of the most successful bands in Israel.
After the album release, the band performed all over Israel and were interviewed on all the TV shows. After cooling down from all the success that had landed on them they started working on their 3rd studio album. The album came out in 1995 and was named Your Life In A Lafa. The album is considered by the critics as Teapacks best album or one of their best albums ever in musical and social messages terms. The album had the perfect blend of the eastern music with western pop music. The stages the band was going through during the previous albums was completed in this album and they had finally reached their own style and sound which had turned into their trade mark sound in the Israeli music.
The album gave Teapacks the status of one Israel’s greatest bands of all time. Songs from it like The Old Central Bus Station, What Did You Do?, I Have A Girlfriend, Don’t Forget To Remember Me, Your Life In A Lafa, all became huge hits that were played non-stop on the radio and TV stations. It was really an exceptional album in terms of the number of hits it delivered. The song The Old Central Bus Station, was one of the most played songs that year, and the black and white video which came with it was one of the most played videos. The well known singer and musical producer Efraim Shamir and Yuval Zilberstrein and Yaniv Davidson were in charge of the production of this album. When making this album, the band also had to change its English name from Tipp-Ex (the white liquid eraser) to Teapacks because of copy right issues with the Tipp-Ex brand, but the Hebrew name had stayed the same as they originally intended too.
This album also marked a time off from the collaboration with Dani Recht and the band. After 5 years countless concerts and 2 successful albums they stopped working together.
In the following year, 1996, the band recorded their 4th album this was an unusual album as it was made as a sound track for the movie Dogs Don’t Bark In Green. The album which was named The Soundtrack For Dogs Don’t Bark In Green was also produced in an unusual way. First of all most of the songs were recorded in Kobi Oz’s house. Second, the album included also dialogs between the actors from the movie beside the songs. And third, the album included mixed versions to some of their past hits, and some of the songs were cover versions to songs the band members liked. The album itself was also a big one with 18 tracks in all.
Although it was an unusual album, some of the songs had success at the radio and TV stations, like A Romantic Man (also had a good video clip) and Dogs Don’t Bark In Green.
In 1997 Teapacks released their 5th album. The album was named Kiss The Uncle. Most of the songs from the album were written and composed by Kobi Oz and produced by him and all the band members together. The album continued with the famous Teapacks trade mark sound and their well known social stand for the under privileged people in Israel. The album turned out to be a huge chart hit.
The album had many hits that were played non-stop on the radio and TV channels. Songs like For No Reason, What A World, Why Did You Leave Him?, Another Saturday and I Love You To Much captured the audience and the charts in Israel. The song For No Reason had become a kind of an anthem, as it was one of the most played songs that year. The song was about the situation of the people in Israel in this region, the suffering and the stress people face in this troubled country.
A nice surprise on the album was in the song, Why Did You Leave Him?, as Sarit Hadad sang it with Kobi Oz. It was just before her breakthrough and her becoming a huge star. Inside the album there were pictures of 42 uncles and aunties of the band members, that was to refer to the name of the album.
In 1998 Teapacks were celebrating a decade of their existence as a band, and to celebrate the occasion they took out a mini album. The album was named Sadness Has Come To Live Here. The album included just 5 songs and was different from all previous albums of Teapacks, the sound was more serious and they wanted to try and experiment with new sounds.
The mini album again had Dani Recht back on after several years as a musical producer. The rock band The Mind Church participated in playing some instruments in few of the songs. The band with whom Teapacks had very good connections and also many of the songs of The Mind Church were written and composed by Teapacks members, and especially Kobi Oz. Also Haim Uliel the leader of the oriental band The Lips participated in this album, that had already a connection with the band before their succes. Kobi Oz was for a while the keyboards player for The Lips and since then they have participated on each others albums many times.
The band took out their next full album in 1999, it was their 6th studio album The album was a huge production, as it was named Disco Maniac. It included a huge number of tracks-26, among them many songs and several short jingles in between. The album was a tribute to the 70’s and the 80’s wonderful disco and pop music that all of the band members grew up with. Beside the regular band members this album included a huge number of musicians, singers and back ground vocalists, for example Sarit Hadad and Avital Abargel (Kobi Oz’s ex wife), the boys band Hi Five and The Big Fishy participated in the singing. Osnat Khacim sang background vocals, Tzipi Shavit was the narrator, and over 20 extra instrument players were used in the various songs. The album also included many samples of 70’s and 80’s popular disco and pop songs from Israel. Although it was intended to be a cool and light dance album, the album also had the usual songs that refer to social and human subjects. There were songs about love, foreign workers, crime and poverty beside the disco and pop happy and up beat blend.
Songs from it like 3:00 AM, When I’m With You I’m Like A Fish and Sammy And Somo were played a lot on the radio and TV stations and did well in the charts.
In the following year the band started touring the country with concerts. They had added an entire new band to play with them on the stage, the band was Hadag Nahash, and by touring with Teapacks and through the guidance of Teapacks they gained more experience in the Israeli music scene.
At the beginning of 2001 Teapacks worked on one of Sarit Hadad’s best selling albums ever called Sweet Illusions. Kobi Oz wrote and composed for her 7 songs among them the hit, Come On! and Go Home Moti. During this time they also started working on their 7th studio album. Later that year, while approaching the summer of 2001, they released their first single from their upcoming album, the songs name was Just Like Before 20 Years, the song was accepted very well by the audience.
Later that year they released the album Sitting At A Café, which included 12 songs that were more mature but still with the famous Teapacks sound. The theme song from this album Sitting At A Café, became a huge hit and was played non-stop. It ended up to be one of the biggest hits of the year and one of the most played songs too.
In 2003 the band released, after 15 years of working together, their first compilation album. The album which was named All The Hits, was made out of 2 CD’s and in all included 33 songs. They also recorded several new songs for the album, the new song Amba Dancing (Mango Pickle Dancing) turned out to be a huge hit with their well known up beat happy party music. The song was played a lot also in clubs, at weddings, bar mitzvahs with special remix versions. In few weeks the album had reached a gold status.
After the album the band went on one of their biggest tours of Israel and performed over 30 of their hits in unique and special versions.
In the following years, Teapacks took a break from producing albums for themselves and helped with productions for other artists. Kobi Oz also took out his own album as a solo artist, and he wrote his second book.
In 2006 they were back again, gathered material and released a new album. The album, like all of Teapacks albums, had an unusual name Radio/Music/Hebrew. The most successful song from it was the song Give Me An Autograph, which was a traditional Teapacks song as it was a happy up beat song that was a parody and a satire about the people that go to their famous media stars, their idols, singers, actors and ask for an autograph and even more. Other songs from this album also focus on the usual social themes Teapacks are known for. This time the social issues focus on the craze of many Israelis with real estate, superstition, and the seek for fame.
Other song from this album that were played on the radio and TV stations were Golden Cage (with Miri Mesika), Flower Of The Neighborhoods (with Alma Zakh), They Ate My Drank My (with Pini Khadad) and more. The album got good reviews by the critics and had proved that Teapacks are still at their peak as one of Israel’s best bands ever.
In all Teapacks have released so far 10 albums (from which 1 is a compilation and 1 is a sound track) and also one mini album. From these 10 albums, 6 of Teapacks albums have reached Gold Status and 2 more albums have reached a Platinum Status. Teapacks was also chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest in Helsinki, Finland in May 2007.
Band Members:
Kobi Oz / Lead Vocals & Keyboard
Gal Pereman / Bass
Rami Yosifov / Guitar
Big M (a.k.a. Meir Amar)/ Drum Machines, Computer & Musical ProducerMotti Yossef / Drums & Percussion
Noam Yankelevich (a.k.a. 3KO) / Keys & Vocals
Albums:| | Title | Year |  | Radio/Music/Hebrew | 2006 | | | All The Hits | 2003 | | | Sitting At A Cafe | 2001 | | | Disco Maniac | 1999 | | | Sadness Has Come To Live Here | 1998 | | | Kiss The Uncle | 1997 | | | Soundtrack Dogs Don't Bark In Green | 1996 | | | Your Life In A Lafa | 1995 | | | The Last One On The Bottom Class | 1993 | | | A Trail Of Garinim Shells | 1992 |
Videos:Teapacks - Push The Button (Live at Eurovision 2007)
Teapacks - Just Like Before 20 Years
Teapacks - The Old Central Bus Station
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